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NOTES AND QUERIES. rn s. iv. SEPT. 9, 1911,

HENRY WATKINS, M.P. (US. iv. 170). H. Watkins, who was M.P. for Brackley for a few months in 1714 (obtaining the seat on petition after being defeated at the general election of 1713), died 25 March, 1727, aged 61. ALFRED B. BEAVEN.

Leamington.

STOCKINGS, BLACK AND COLOURED ( 1 1 S. iv. 166). In one of Hawthorne's ' Twice-Told Tales ' (' Sunday at Home,' I believe, the date of which is 1837) there is an allusion to ladies' white stockings. The essayist is sitting at his window on a rainy Sunday morning, watching the churchgoers as they pass. The ladies hold up their skirts out of the wet, and display a good deal of stock- ing. Hawthorne notices that white stockings are more effective than dark ones ; and he adds quaintly: "It is curious that this should strike me, but it does " or words to that effect. Are we to conclude that white stockings were then coming into vogue ? Certainly they were not going out, in the old country at any rate, for I remember them as being almost universally worn quite twenty years later. C. C. B.

Miss Miggs displayed " more black cotton stocking than is commonly seen in public " ('Barnaby Rudge,' chap. Ixxx.). I cannot recollect that my mother, who was born in 1824, ever wore any but white stockings.

W. C. B.

About 1850 children and women for the most part wore stockings of white material, which was made on rotary machines, then cut into pieces of certain lengths, and further cut to form the foot portion. Ser- vants as a rule wore black stockings, knitted, until a new kind were made known, as "Bra- ganza," and most of them were "ribbed" on the machines. The hand framework knitters were up to this at their best, but the rapid rate of production on the rotary machines soon displaced them.

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

I remember reading in a newspaper (name and date forgotten) that the present fashion of black stockings was brought in by Yvette Guilbert, J. P. STILWELL.

^ Despite the fact that Hone compares " women's blacks" with "white cottons," I am persuaded the former designation is an error for "women's slacks," which answer to the description in every particular. Thirty years ago a few were always kept in stock at the country shop where I then

was, and I daresay they may yet be met with in out-of-the-way country districts, although townspeople know them not, nor their name. E. G. B.

GYP'S ' PETIT BOB ' : " ROBE EN TOILE 1 VOILE" (11 S. iv. 170). Toile a voile is what we English call canvas, and that ' The Concise Oxford Dictionary ' defines as " strong unbleached cloth of hemp or flax for sails, tents, painting on." Its very name denotes its " cannabaceous " nature, but manufacturers have included under the same term a kind of loosely woven stuff, which I cannot attempt to describe, that is capable of consisting of cotton, wool, silk, and other materials. It is sur- prising that the ' C.O.D.' makes no mention of the holey fabric known as canvas, used by workers of tent- and cross-stitch in Berlin wools.

I. agree with MR. G. H. WHITE that English boys of eight did not wear frocks in 1882, unless the name were applied to smocks or overalls to protect their better garments when they were at play. These are still donned, and contribute to the peace of mind of all concerned. ' The Drapers' Dic- tionary ' has a helpful notice of canvas :

" It was once used for outer clothing. ' Striped canvas for doublets ' (Dekker). Look you, Francis, your white doublet will sully. ' King Henry IV.,' Pt. I."

I should suppose that little Bob's upper garment was of some kind of strong linen. Perhaps it was what I have heard referred to as a " tunic." ST. SWITHIN.

CAPT. DRAYSON'S ' THIRD MOTION OF THE EARTH' (11 S. iv. 168). The following notice appearing under Science in the List of New Books in The Athenceum of 29 August may perhaps be of interest to MAJOR LESLIE :

" Draysonia : being an Attempt to Explain and Popularise the System of the Second Rotation of the Earth, as Discovered by the late Major- General A. W. Drayson. Also giving the Probable Date and Duration of the Last Glacial Period, and furnishing General Drayson's Data, from which any Person of ordinary Mathematical Ability is enabled to Calculate the Obliquity of the Ecliptic, the Precession of the Equinoxes, and the Bight Ascension and Declination of the Fixed Stars for any Year, Past, Present, or Future, by Admiral Sir Algernon F. R. de Horsey, 3/6 net."

MAJOR LESLIE has presumably consulted the catalogues of the libraries at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich ; Royal Artil- lery Institution ; Royal Engineers' Institute, Chatham ; and Royal United Service Insti- tution. T. T. V.