Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/284

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. m. APRIL s, mi.

Such things were related in Derbyshire, Notts, and Lincolnshire more than sixty years ago, and in all cases the incidents were much the same as told by MB. GERISH. The tale, as I have heard it told times over years ago, and once quite recently, is to the effect that, a farmer showing a friend round his fields, the friend remarked upon a particularly fine stretch of corn. The farmer said : " Heigh ! if God '11 only let it aloon ! " The farmer had " a stroke " instantly, was carried home, and lay in bed senseless for some weeks. From that day the field of corn stood still, remained green all through the summer, and as the crops from other fields were being gathered the stricken field faded " down to the ground." T-HOS. RATCLIFFE.

MACAULAY'S ALLUSIONS (11 S. iii. 207). As indicated in the editorial note, the whole paragraph from which the quotation is taken applies almost exclusively to the Irvingites. The allusion to some one " coming down with messages from God to the House of Commons " is to Henry Drummond, M.P. for West Surrey, one of the founders of the Irvingites, now known as the Catholic Apostolic Church. Prince Hohenlohe's miracles are referred to in a previous part of the essay. SCOTTJS.

LAST MAIL COACH (US. iii. 186, 237). Without doubt, the mail coach in which COL. FISHWICK travelled from Plymouth to Truro in 1859 was one of the four " Quick- silver " coaches. They were sclidly built vehicles, designed for strength and speed ; each could accommodate nine. passengers, the comfort of whom was not seriously con- sidered. The bodies of the coaches were rather wide and squat, with small doors and windows ; they were painted scarlet, and the hind boot sloped down to the rear, carrying the guard's perch, where he sat guarding the mails.

The " Quicksilver " left Falmouth at 11 A.M., reaching Plymouth at 6 P.M. ; and, vice versa, leaving Plymouth at 6 A.M., reached Falmouth at 1 P.M., the distance being 70 miles. Thus the average rate at which they travelled was 10 miles per hour, including stoppages, changing horses, &c. The quickest run between Plymouth and Falmouth was down the Glynn valley, from Draw Bridge (Halfway House) to Glynn Bridge, 3 miles in 10 minutes. The '* galloping stage" on the up journey was the 4 miles from Limekiln to Sheviock in 20 minutes. The stages were Plymouth,

! Sheviock, Treskilly, Limekiln, Liskeard,. Halfway House, Bodmin, Bugle, St. Austeli Grampound, Truro, and Falmouth. The average length of a stage was 6 miles. The Government paid the company Is. Qd. per mile each way for carrying the mail bags. Sam. Brewer, a noted local whip, drove on the last day the coach ran, i.e., Sunday, 14 May, 1859. On the following day the newly opened Cornwall Railway ran the- first mail train. P. JENNINGS.

St. Day, Cornwall.

BENJAMIN D'ISRAELI OF DUBLIN (11 S. iii. 28, 134). I think I must have taken the spelling of this name from a copy of a deed instead of looking at the original. The- ' Dublin, Directory ' for 1799 gives the name of the notary public as Benjamin D' Israel (without the i or the second Z).

J. T.

GOVERNORS OF THE ROYAL HOSPITAL, CHELSEA (US. iii. 127, 235). W. H. W.'s names at the former reference are perfectly correct. When Gleig's list differs, it is the latter that is at fault. Thus the true date of Stanwix's appointment is, as W. H. W_ stated, 13 January, 1714/15 (not 1714).

ALFRED B. BEAVEN.

Leamington.

0n ?800ks,

The House of Lord* during the Civil War. By~ Charles Harding Firth. (Longmans & Co.)

PROF. FIRTH'S books are always, as becomes his office, accurate and full statements of their main subjects, but they have the additional merit of stimulating inquiry into, and of throwing light upon a whole group of questions altogether outside their direct scope. The House of Lords, from its origin to the present day, has been intimately con- cerned in the discussion of almost every constitu- tional question that has arisen in our history, and. Prof. Firth, though he has refrained from indicat- ing points of similarity between the controversies of the seventeenth century and those of the twentieth, has given us the opportunity of satis- fying ourselves that the difference between the popular oratory of that time and our own is small. We have no intention of entering at. length on a discussion of the main features of the book, which have, indeed, received adequate attention and well-morited praise elsewhere ; but a few notes on some minor points will be of interest; to readers of ' N. tSr Q.'

Prof. Firth's introductory remarks on the

Position of the peerage under Elizabeth and ame.s I. are of great value, but he hardly empha- sizes the commanding position the peers held at the accession of James, which is illustrated by the action of the Howards at the Council on the deathu