Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/15

 ii s.i. JULY i,i9ii.]- NOTES AND QUERIES.

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SON AND MOTHER. Where is the original of this story to be found ? A young man was being led bound to the scaffold (or prison ?) His mother, seeing him, re- quested to speak with him, and obtained permission. He bent over to her and bit off her ear, saying (in effect), " If you had done your duty to me, I should never have been here." GOBCOCK.

BELLY AND THE BODY. Where can I find the story beginning thus ? " There was a time when all the body's members rebelled against the belly, and then accused it that only like a gulf it did appear."

GOBCOCK.

JOHN OWEN OF HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, SCHOOLMASTEB. In 1720 John Owen of Hemel Hempstead, schoolmaster, was in- dicted for keeping a private school for boys without being licensed by the archbishop, bishop, or spiritual guardian of the diocese. There was a similar indictment in the follow- ing year. The document, which is preserved among the Hertford County Records, is marked " Tried at the Midsummer Sessions, and found not guilty."

Mr. Owen was a member of the Society of Friends, and on 5 July, 1720, he and other members of that sect petitioned that the malthouse and dwelling-house of John Halsey of Hemel Hempstead might be certified as a meeting-house for Quakers.

The Rev. Thomas Birch, F.S.A., a learned antiquary whose manuscripts and printed works occupy considerable space in the British Museum, is stated to have been sent to the school of John Owen, who is described as a " rigid Quaker ; for whom Mr. Birch afterwards officiated some little while as an usher." Mr. Birch, however, made little progress, and was eventually removed to the school of one Welby of Clerkenwell. (Clutter- buck's ' Herts,' i. 429 ; ' Hertford County Records, Sessions Rolls,' ii. 55-6 ; Pinks's ' History of Clerkenwell,' 2nd ed., 270 ; Nichols's 'Literary Anecdotes,' v. 282.)

Is anything further known of John Owen ? E. E. SQTJIBES.

Hertford.

FBENCH THUNDERSTOBM. About mid- summer, 1908, several of the English news- papers contained an account of what I understand to have been called the miracu- lous hailstones of Remiremont. It seems that one day towards the end of May a storm swept over the Vosges ; hailstones fell in great numbers, and many were dis- covered to be split across. On the inner

side of the halves, as it was stated, an image of the Madonna was portrayed, which the Catholics of the district regarded as miracu- lous. Inquiries relating to this wonder are said to have been made by many persons. I believe that several people endeavoured to explain what occurred as the result of natural causes, while others who had an equal power of judging as to what had taken place adhered to a miraculous inter- pretation. Can any of your readers tell me if the matter has been explained so as to satisfy thoughtful people ? I have been informed that the whole story is an old legend, but it came at the time on good authority. F. T. F.

" FRANKLIN DAYS." Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' tell me the origin of the phrase " Franklin days " ? A friend was recently in conversation with an old market-gardener. They were discussing the warm weather. "That's all right," said the old man, "but wait until the Franklin days are passed perhaps we shall have frosts yet." He was asked for an explanation of the term, but knew no more than that the Franklin days extended from the 18th to the 21st of May, that they were invariably very cold, and that vegetation often suffered considerably. Strangely enough, in this district we had extremely cold winds from the 18th to the 21st of May, and some frost at nights.

W. G. WILLIS WATSON.

19, Park Roacl, Exeter.

[For other meanings of "Franklin" see 11 S. iii. 486.]

FIBE OF LONDON : FBENCH CHUBCH IN THBEADNEEDLE STBEET. ' La Liturgie ou la Maniere de Celebrer de Service Divin dans 1'^glise Fran9aise de Londres, fondee par ^douard VI. d'an MDL.,' 1809, contains in a foot-note to the * Avertissement ' this remarkable statement :

" Elle est situee en Threadneedle Street. Brfilee dans le feu de Londres, en 1666, elle fut la premiere eglise rebatie."

Is this claim justified ? There is no reference to it in Roll's ' London Resur- rection,' 1668, although it would have made an excellent subject for his 51st discourse. ALECK ABBAHAMS.

RIPON FOBGEB. Henry Swinburne (died 1623) in his ' Treatise on Spousals,' speaking of counterfeit proposals of marriage, says :

"Though the famous forger of Ripon, in York- shire, be dead, whom I marvel Mr. Green hath not numbered among his coney catchers, yet I fear there be a great many whelps of the old dog left alive."