Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/182

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. iv. AUG. 26, 1911.

porkers are scalded (' South E. Worcester- shire Glossary of Words and Places,' Salis- bury, 1893). In the bacon districts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire "swaling" is also used.

Swaling on Dartmoor is resorted to in early springtime to burn the gorse and heather in order to promote the undergrowth for the keep of the thousands of cattle and sheep that are turned adrift in the summer months. I have often tramped across the wilds of Dartmoor when swaling has been at its height. G. SYMES SAUNDERS, M.D.

5, Burlington Place, Eastbourne.

Here we say a candle " s weals."

R. B R.

South Shields.

BELGIAN COIN WITH FLEMISH INSCRIP- TION (US. iv. 88). The reason of the issue of these coins is simple enough to any one who has followed recent Belgian politics. An active party exists which wishes to make Flemish the national language of Belgium, and to practically ignore the more cos- mopolitan French tongue : and this was one of its many partial victories. I well remember handling my first coin of this kind, and wondering for a moment if I had not by accident accepted a German piece.

F. A. W.

Paris.

" KIDKOK " (11 S. iv. 150). This is probably a mistake for " kidcoat " or " kidcote," a well-known Yorkshire name for a police lock-up in connexion with some public building. Wakefield Constables' Accounts show : 17-58. Mar. By a lock for kidcoat, a tub and

straw 2s. Od-

1764. Jan .5. Mending the kidcoat ... 0-9. 6d- 1787- June 25. Leading rubbish for kidcoat 5s. Od- in 1800 a new "prison" was erected (see Banks's ' Walks about Wakefield '), pp. 80, 82, 85, 100.

MATTHEW H. PEACOCK. [Sr. SWITHIN also thanked for reply.]

THE ROYAL EXCHANGE (11 S. iii. 385 ; iv. 138). With respect to the extract at the latter reference, it is pleasant to record that the Gresham Committee has now caused to be removed, with just a whisk or so of the brush, all those superfluous in- verted commas whicji have hitherto dis- figured the inscriptions beneath several of the paintings in the Royal Exchange Gallery. Let us hope the same body will soon find it possible to supply the public

with a cheap, concise catalogue to the mural treasures of the ambulatory. If a- key to the identity of the many notable personages depicted v upon the canvases were added this would be an additional boon to visitors. CECIL CLARKE.

Junior Athenseum Club.

"BED OF ROSES" (11 S. iv. 126). Being away from home I cannot verify my refer- ences, but " bed of roses " has always seemed to me to be a variant of " bed of roes," or where the deer lie down. If I am correct in this then the phrase is of very old date, and appears in Ossian (I think,. Fingall) as

On the starry Lumon,

On the bed of roes.

In my recollection, say some thirty years ago,, an M.P. misquoted this expression in the House of Commons as " bed of roses," and brought down on himself the laughter of the House. JAS. CURTIS, F.S.A.

Whitby.

HORSES' GHOSTS (US. iv. 127). If the ghosts of mounted horses count their number is legion, e.g., the "Wild Huntsman," spectral armies, departed heroes of all nations, celebrated jockeys, &c.

The headless steed is matched by some of the spectral hounds in English rural districts. There is a hint of the ghost of a dapple in Ingoldsby's creepy ' Smuggler's Leap.' The same writer is apprehensive lest the ghost of poor dog Tray should be chased round the churchyard by the ghost of a disagreeable old maid armed with the ghost of a stick.

FRANCIS P. MARCHANT. Streatham Common.

FIVES COURT, ST. MARTIN'S LANE ; TENNIS COURT, HAYMARKET (US. iv. 110, 155). Hazlitt, in his ' Table Talks ' (Essay ix., ' The Indian Jugglers '), gives an account of Cavanagh, the celebrated hand fives player, which he states is taken from The Examiner of 7 Feb., 1819, though from the style one may surmise that it was written by himself. In this reference is made to a match played by Cavanagh in " the Fives Court, St. Martin Street." Further on it says, "Mr. Powell, when he [Cavanagh] played matches in the court in St. Martin Street, used to fill his gallery at 2s. Gd. a head with amateurs, &c."

From this it would appear that there was certainly a Fives Court about that time in St. Martin's Street, as well as a tennis court in the Haymarket. T. F. D.