Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/132

 126

NOTES AND QUEKIES. in s. iv. A. 12, 1911.

Survey in 1650 it seems to have passed from the Crown and become private property. Should any reader of ' N. & Q.' come across a grant of the place by James I. or Charles I., I should be glad to know of it.

My search into the history of the house brought to light an interesting fact concern- ing Doderidge which seems to have been unknown to Foss or the writer in the

time, the wife mentioned in his will being Anne Newman, whom he married at Stepney 16 January, 1617. Her relatives Gabriel and Jervis Newman succeeded to Doderidge' s copyholds at Egham.
 * D.N.B.' Doderidge was married a fourth

FREDERIC TURNER.

'"' PLUMP " IN VOTING. (See 10 S. vi. 148, 212, 276, 377; vii. 77; xii. 235.) Mr. Osmund Airy contributes to The Athenceum of 15 July, under the heading

most interesting extract from an unpublished diary. This has reference to the general election of 1679, and contains one passage which shows conclusively (as far as negative evidence ever can be conclusive) that the word plump as applied to voting was not then in use. We read :
 * A Seventeenth-Century Election in Kent,' a

"That which was very remarkable was that almost all who were for Sir W. T. gave but single voices, which was indeed much to his advantage, but looked upon by the countie as a very great imposition and a thing very rarely hearde of and hardly loyal, the writ commanding them to choose 2."

Any one acquainted with the word plump could not well have failed to use it in this connexion, and as in addition this kind of voting was " a thing very rarely hearde of," we may conclude that the word was unknown. It must have come into use at sometime between 1679 and 1761, the latter being the earliest date so far recorded (see 10 S. vii. 77), though, as I showed at the last reference, it is found in the original sense of giving " a direct, straight, unquali- fied, or absolute vote " in 1734.

F. W. READ.

" BED OF ROSES." In the ; N.E.D.' references for the poetical use of this phrase are given to Marlowe (1593), to Herrick (1648), and to Dryden (1665), whose words might be considered to have suggested the modern proverbial employment of the expression. It did not, however, become popular for many years, if we are to judge by the next example, which is dated 1806 and is taken from Cobbett's ' Parl. Deb.,
 * ' Think' st thou I lie on beds of roses here ? '"

ni. 1243 : "So that he does not imagine hat the directors lay on a ' bed of roses.' ' ! cannot say who was the speaker, as I have )een unable to refer to the volume mentioned ; it does not. matter, as I have informa- tion much more precise.

On recently turning over the pages of Foshua Wilson's 'Biographical Index to )he Present House of Commons, corrected published, I came across the following nteresting passage 011 p. 484 : : -
 * o February, 1808,' in which year it was

"Soori after this (April, 1806), during a debate on VIr. Windham's bill relative to the army, Lord 3astlereagh observed ' that the new ministers would ind the revenue productive, and everything in such a state, that they might be said comparatively to be on a bed of roses.' This position was denied by Mr. Fox, in respect to every department of the state, the admiralty only excepted,and soon after became a proverbial saying."

FRANK CURRY.

AVIGNON: OLD RAILWAY NOTICE. We are usually inclined to think that the general tendency of the age is too modern. Such an impression is, however, at times apt to modified, and rarely more so than by reading the following notice, which is posted up in a prominent place on the window Df the booking office at Avignon. It reads :

"Loi du 22 avril, 1790. Pour eviter toute dis- sussion dans les paiements, ledbiteur seratoujours oblige de t'aire rappoint, et par consequent de so procurer le numeraire d'argent necessaire pour solder exactement la somme dontil sera redevable."

Needless to say, the local humorist has scribbled in pencil his comment : " Avant J. C.?" M. W. BROCKWELL.

Avignon.

THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS. The ' D.N.B.' states that in 1798 he was in holy orders, and held a curacy at Albury, Surrey. ' The Ency. Brit.' t new ed -) sa y s that lie took holy orders in 1797. In fact, he was made a deacon in 1789, and I have his declaration of conformity, countersigned by Brownlow North, Bishop of Winchester :

" This declaration was made and subscribed before us, by the said Robert Malthus, Clerk, BA., being to be licenced to serve the Cure of Oakwood aha* Ockwoocl, in the County of Surry, in our diocese of Winchester, this eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord one Thousand seven Hundred and eighty nine, and in the ninth year of our Transla- tion."

The name Thomas is inserted in the declara- tion, though omitted in the certificate ; and Malthus' s signature is in full.

RICHARD H. THORNTON.

36, Upper Bedford Place, W.C.