Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/184

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

Henley, a direct descendant. They were a family of lawyers. Phocion (whose first cousin Sir Robert Henley, Lord Chan- cellor, was created Earl of Northington 19 May, 1764) had two brothers, Robert, barrister of the Middle Temple, who matri- culated at C.C.C., Oxford, 20 May, 1741, and Peter, also a barrister, who matriculated at the same college 3 December, 1741, aged 17. Phocion married a daughter of Dr. George of Eton and King's College, and left two daughters, Jane, wife of Sir Thomas Trigge, and Katherine, unmarried. He died of a fever contracted in his parochial visitation 29 August, 1764. There appears to be no relationship between him and "Orator Henley." R. G. BARTELOT. St. George's, Fordington.

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (11 S. iv. 21, 61, 101, 141). Macaulay could not have been present at Thackeray's funeral, as stated ante, p. 61, as he predeceased the novelist just four years. N". W. HILL.

New York.

FMaeaulay, Q.C., was meant.]

TOUCHING A CORPSE (11 S. iv. 48, 95). An admirable paper on ' Marriage Contracts in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,' by Mr. A. Percival Moore, B.C.L., published in Reports and Papers of Associated Architectural Societies, vol. xxx. pp. 261-98, refers readers to the " Advertisement " appended to the first edition of ' The Pirate,' where there is an instance of corpse-touching that bears on the correspondence now appearing in ' N. Q.' I quote from Scott, and not from Mr. Moore, as he does not give the whole passage which I desire to " convey." John Gow was tried for his iniquities, condemned, and executed :

"It is said that the lady whose affections Gow had engaged, went up to London to see him before his death, and that arriving too late, she had the courage to request a sight of his dead body ; and then, touching the hand of the corpse, she formally resumed the troth-plight which she had bestowed. Without going through this ceremony, she could not, according to the super- stition of the country, have escaped a visit from the ghost of her departed lover, in the event of her bestowing upon any living suitor the faith which she had plighted to the dead. This part of the legend may serve as a curious commentary on the fine Scottish ballad, which begins,

There came a ghost to Margaret's door, &c." A note in " The Centenary Edition " of the " Waverley Novels " says :

" This ballad of ' Willie's Ghost ' is printed in Herd's ' Collection,' vol. i. p. 76. It is not so well known as Mallet's version, .' Willie and Margaret,' which begins * 'Twas at the fearful midnight hour.' "

' The Diary of Abraham de la Pryme T (Surtees Society) has a bitterly humorous- reference to corpse-touching as a means of detecting a murderer. It was enacted in 1696 that clipped coin was no longer to be- accepted at its face value, but only by weight, and the diarist records :

j" There was a sad thing happened the other day at Ferriby-by-Humber. A careful honest pedlar woman, who had got a great deal of clip'di money by her through her trading, was almost madd for a week together when shee perceived that all her labour and pains to scrape up portiona for her children had been to no purpose, and that not a penny of her money would go. Shee took a knife and cut her own throat, and dy'd. Several people went to see her and amongst others there was one there^who sayd thus ' It may be ques- tioned (says he) whether this woman be guilty of her death or no ; I would have all the parla- ment come and touch her.' " P. 98.

ST. SWITHIN.

Fox AND KNOT STREET (11 S. iv. 130). This street evidently took its name from, the neighbouring tavern bearing this title. For the explanation of this tavern sign see Larwood and Hot ten's ' History of Sign- boards.' S. D. C.

OVERING SURNAME (11 S. iv. 89). This is" certainly scarce in the southern parts ofJ3ngland. Nicholas Overinge of Wynslo, Bucks, and Amy Edmondes of the sama place were married by licence 21 July, 1621 (Herts Genealogist, i. 98). This is the only instance I know. A. RHODES.

" CASTLES IN SPAIN " : " CASTLE IN THE AIR " (11 S. iv. 66, 113). The ' H.E.D.' gives examples of " castles in Spain " in English literature from c. 1400 ("Romaunt of the Rose') onwards; while "castle in the air" has been common since 1575. G. L. APPERSON.

STONEHENGE AND MERLIN (11 S. iv. 128). The late Dean Stanley in his ' Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey ' (edition by John Murray, London, 1869, chap. ii. p. 44), states, in regard to the scenes of English coronations, that " Arthur was crowned at Stonehenge, which had been transported by Merlin for the purpose to Salisbury Plain from Naas, in Leinster." The Dean gives the following authorities for this statement, viz. : " Rishanger Annals,, p. 425 ; Giraldus Cambrensis, Distv, ii. 18."

H. H.

In Geoffrey of Monmouth r s * Historia Regum Britanniac,' Aurelius Ambrosius,. having overwhelmed Vortigern, is desirous-