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 ii s. iv. AUG. 26, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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also chastely encased in white. Perhaps it was not until the present Queen -Mother blessed our shores that black hose came into general favour ; at this time all kinds of hues are exhibited, and I do not know whether the fair sex, or the other, makes the more brilliant show of footgear. As regards " golden lads " I am tempted to parody Suckling :

Their feet beyond the trousers' verge

Upturned like butterflies emerge, All eager for the light ;

And oh, they are so crudely gay !

No harlequin on Boxing Day Is half so strange a sight.

And yet I learn from The Daily Sketch (31 July) that King George V. is contenting himself with black socks, which the para- graph-writer assures me are of good quality.

ST. "

" WARE AND WADESMILL : WORTH HALF LONDON." This expression, of unknown age, always seems to be inaccurate in its allusion to the second place Wadesmill. Should it not run " Ware and Westmill : worth half London " ? Wadesmill can never have been a place of any size or importance, besides being in the adjoining parish of Thun- dridge, whereas Westmill was the hamlet of Ware, and would naturally fall into the saying.

As I have stated, the date of its origin is unknown, but I scarcely think it is of any high antiquity. The popular opinion is that it is derived from the story told of Saher de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, who lived in the reign of John. He is stated to have resided at Ware Park, and taking an in- terest in the town as a landowner, he observed that a massive padlocked iron chain was placed across the bridge over the Lea, in order that traffic might be diverted through Hertford, the Bailiff of which town held the keys, and received the tolls, valued at 10?. 13^. 4d. per annum. Saher freed tra- vellers from this exaction by the simple process of breaking the chain, and thus made Ware a great thoroughfare and brought much trade to the town.

Even in the troublous reign of John, when might frequently passed for right, such a flagrant violation of the privilege of the adjoining borough, and loss to its revenue, can scarcely have passed unchallenged.

rather doubt whether the story will bear investigation; but, if its truth is assumed, the point of interest is : Did this action make Ware so prosperous as to give rise to the saying ? I think not. I find that during the Tudor and Stuart periods

many travellers spent the night at Ware on their journeys to London, but this, while a source of considerable profit, would scarcely so enrich the town as to make it remarkable for its wealth. I think that what made Ware a town of prosperous merchants was the malting industry, which seems to have attained to the zenith of its prosperity about a century ago. But for some three centuries the maltsters did well. No other town possessed such a number of extensive meltings, and the profits in olden times were very large. It is reasonable, therefore, to assume that the saying arose some time in the seventeenth century, probably in the first half of that period.

W. B. GERISH. Bishop's Stortford.

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.

THIRTEENTH. Under this word as sb. the (American) ' Century Dictionary ' has "1. One of thirteen equal parts into which anything is divided. 2. In early Eng. law, a thirteenth part of the rents of the year or of movables, or both, granted or levied by way of tax." No examples of this sense 2 have come under our notice. Were thirteenths ever actually levied ? Where are they mentioned ?

J. A. H. MURRAY. Oxford.

BARRY O'MEARA, NAPOLEON'S SURGEON AT ST. HELENA. I should be very much obliged if any of your readers could give me some particulars of the father of Barry O'Meara, who was surgeon to Napoleon at St. Helena. ST. PATRICK.

Peking.

F. W. NEWMAN'S ' PAUL OF TARSUS.' Writing, towards the end of his life, to Anna Swanwick, Francis William Newman ex- presses himself thus : " If I live through this year, I hope to effect, by aid of a friend's eyes, a third .... edition of my ' Paul of Tarsus.' ' This sentence is quoted as "from Miss Bruce's 'Memoir of Recollec- tions of Anna Swanwick'" on p. 343 of ' Memoir and Letters of Francis W. New- man,' by I. Gib erne Sieveking (London, 1909), Did the fore - shadowed " Third