Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/133

 ii s. iv. Am, 12, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

127

TURTON = GORDON. (See 10 S. xi. 289, 352.) The Laura Turton who married Nathaniel Gordon of Whitehill, parish of Troqueer, Kirkcudbright, " about 1760," is probably identical with the Miss Turton, Wolverhampton, who married " Mr. Gordon of Cateaton Street," 3 July, 1764 (Gent. Mag., vol. liv. pt. ii. p. 716). Nathaniel Gordon is believed to have been the son of John Gordon, West Indian merchant, Glasgow. He had an only son John, an -officer in the 30th Foot (1791-5), who married in 1796 Helen Maitland, and had three sons. One of these, Francis William Lock- hart, Madras Army, was the father of Miss C. Lockhart Gordon, writer of religious stories. John Gordon (30th Foot) named his daughter Laura Turton. She married the Rev. J. Stevenson in 1823.

J. M. BULLOCH.

118, Pall Mall, S.W.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

"THEATREGOER," We want quotations for this before 1885. Will readers kindly send the earliest they can find ? Address " Oxford." J. A. H. MURRAY.

HORSES' GHOSTS. Various stories are told in Japan of horses possessing a super- natural capacity of producing phantasms atter their death. Thus, according to Mr. b. Kasai, there prevail to this day several traditions of the Headless Horse in the pro- vince of Awa. The following is one of them :

,'Ja ?0e "R ?^ time> wh ! n au extre ie dearth was ravaging all the county of Mima, some villagers of

litani formed themselves into a band and broke into a Buddhist church called Ootakiji on the verv last night of the year. Just as they were preparing to depart with their booty, a horse in the stable began to utter loud cries repeatedly. For fear it !?V S ff*i ar ? 1 t l ie P e P le "i the neighborhood, they eut off its head and retreated to their own village Jfivery year thereafter, at midnight of December anr^ a r SPe ral > rse > Perfectly headless, makes its appearance in the church and proceeds to Mi tan i,

mowing exactly the same route which the burglars took in their retreat.. Until about ten years ago, the people, and especially children, residing along this road, used to be terror-stricken by the iindiDK se e hors f'!^ it n th, is ^casion. Further? in con ^sequence of this ghostly visit, should the descend- ants of those burglars prepare in their houses

rice-cakes for the New Year festival, they would invariably turn bloody. To avoid this prodigy even nowadays, they get them ready in other families and carry them home on New Year's Day." The Journal of the Anthropological Socitty of Tokyo, June, 1911, p. 175.

In Sozaors ' Chomon KishiV 1849, torn. ii. chap, viii., an account is given of a pack- horse in the province of Mino, which, since its untimely death caused by the ruthless treatment of its o\vner, unfailingly utters its characteristic neighs from underground whenever any other horse approaches the spot whereon it fell.

Do such stories of horses' ghosts exist elsewhere ? At 10 S. i. 417 MR. E. YARDLEY writes :

"Washington Irving mentions the Belludo, a supernatural horse of Spain, that gallops by night. But that is a ghost."

In which of his numerous writings does this

OCCUr ? KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA.

Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

" DE LA " IN ENGLISH SURNAMES : SUR- VIVAL OF THE PREFIX. An examination of the various volumes printed by the British Record Office shows that before the year 1300 there were many names that began with this prefix, as " de a Pole," " de la Mare," " de la Feld," " de la Bere," " de la Have," " de la Ware," " de la Welde," de la Wode," &c. About 1300 these names suddenly disappear and become " atte Feld," " atte Ware," " atte Welde," " atte Wode," &c. Finally, about the middle of the fifteenth century, the names reach their present form, dropping the prefix, and becoming simply " Feld " or " Field," " Ware," " Weld," and " Wood," or some- times contracting and becoming " Atfield," " Atwood," &c.

There were, however, certain individuals whose names survived the change which went on all about them, and the meaning of the words of which they were composed being forgotten, these names came to be spelt in one word with curious variations ; so Dalamare appears in 1383, Dalafeld in 1434, Dallaware, Dallapowle, Dalamer, Dalla- praye, and Dalaryver. Occasionally the whole range of changes occurred during one man's lifetime ; so in 1446 appears Richard de Lafeld, King's Serjeant ; in 1447 Richard de la Feld, King's Serjeant ; in 1460 Richard Dalafeld, Esq ; in 1462 Richard de la ffeld, King's Escheator ; in 1463 Richard Delafeld, King's Escheator ; and in 1494 Isabell Dalafeld, widow of Richard Dalafeld, King's Escheator.