Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/343

 us. in. APRIL 29, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

337

lovers of superior music. It consisted of five clarionets, two French horns, one bugle-horn, one trumpet, two bassoons, one bass drum, two triangles (the latter played by boys about nine years.old), two tlambourines (the performers mulattoe*), and the cash -pans by a real blackamoor, a very active man, who walked between the two mulattoes, which had a very grand appearance indeed.'"

The date of Mr. Mattham's letter was 2 July, 1793. See ' N. & Q.' of 18 August, 1855 (1 S. xii. 121). W. S.

At 7 S. viii. 97 it is stated that " the Guards' bands used to have black men who played the cymbals, but they were only introduced at the end of the last century [eighteenth] and the last was discharged from the Scots Fusilier Guards in 1841."

In 1805 the 4th Regiment, when at Hythe, I had a mulatto as big drummer ; e,nd later j (1815) the 95th Rifle Regiment had "a i m in of colour " as drummer.

R. J. FYNMORE. Sandgate.

Were not the kettledrummers of the cavalry regiments usually negroes a century ago ?

Black bandsmen, I believe, were not in- I Iconic epoch. One or two appear in the j series of drawings of military uniforms j executed by an artist named Bellange
 * frequent in the French army of the Napo-
 * sixty cr seventy years ago.

R. L. MORETON.

YEWS IN CHURCHYARDS : CLUBS FOR j KILLING OLD PEOPLE (US. iii. 166, 291). The yew tree was a valuable r,nd almost I a sacred tree from its use for making bows, when the Church encouraged the youth of England to practise archery. The super- stitions or awe-inspiring nature of the wood is suggested in ' Macbeth ' :

Slips of yew

Slivered in the moon's eclipse. Any one who has seen a yew tree cut down In a churchyard will remember the bright, bloody look of the fresh chips, startling as if a murder had been done among the graves.

GEORGE WHKRRY. Cambridge.

M. G. W. P. asks for a reference to a weapon used to kill aged people in the British Islands. John Aubrey writes : :

" The Holy-mawle, w ch (they fancy) hung behind the Church dore, w^ when the father was seaventie the sonne might fetch, to knock his father in the head, as effoete, and of ho more use."' Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme,' Folk-lore Society's Edition, 1881, p. 19 ; also on pp. 127, 217.

W. CROOKE.

PHEASANT PENNY (11 S. iii. 268). Doubtless a mistake for " fastening penny," called " fest " or " fasten " penny, or in 1573 " festynpenny." It fastened the bar- gain en hiring a servant ; see Peacock's
 * Glossary.' J. T. F.

Winterton, Doncaster.

This is nothing but a form of " fasting penny," money given to a servant at the hiring, to fasten the bargain. One of the spellings is " fe&sen " ; see ' E.D.D.,' ii. 306, 339. W. C. B.

DR. JOHNSON OF WARWICK (US. iii. 188). In the ballroom of the Court House at Warwick hang pictures of Dr. William Johnson of Warwick and Ann his wife. On the former is inscribed :

"Portrait of D r W m Johnson, the owner of this house, and of the two adjoining it. He bequeathed them to the poor of Warwick after the death of his wife."

On the latter :

" Portrait of Ann, the wife of D r W m Johnson who survived him, and bequeathed to the poor iii Warwick the Hogbrook Farm in Bishop's Tach- brooke."

Ann Johnson's will was dated 8 March, 1732, and the bequest is known by her name. Hogbrook Farm was not bequeathed as stated, but was bought some time later by the trustees.

" This house," referred to on the portrait of Dr. Johnson, was that in which he and his wife lived. It was afterwards rented from the trustees by the Landor family, nnd there, in 1775, was born Walter Savage Landor. It is now known as Landor House. F. LAMBARDE.

Warwick.

MARIE HUBER (US. ii. 249). A friendly reader has assured me that ' The World Unmask'd,' 1736, is p, translation of Marie Huber's ' Le Monde fou prefere au Monde Sage,' 1731. The English volume in ques- tion also comprises a translation of two other works by the same authoress, the three being these first named in the chronological list furnished by Watt (' Bibliotheca Bri- tannicp,,' 1824, vol. i. p. 522). The fact that Marie Huber's works have been often confidently attributed to other authors, and a suggestion that she was the " Huber, in Switzerland," named in a list of the corre- spondents of Emanuel Swedenborg, are, inter alia, discussed in a brief article entitled ' Cookworthy : Muralt : Mandeville : Huber,' appearing in The New Church Magazine for this month. CHARLES HIGHAM.