Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/315

 n s. iv. OCT. H, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

309

and a copy of any inscription recorded there- on. He is buried in "a vault in the north aisle of Dromose Cathedral. It will be re- called that the late Rev. John Pickford, for over 50 years a valued contributor to 'N. & Q.,' published a 'Life of Thomas Percy ' in 1867. JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

NORMAN COURT, HAMPSHIRE : WHITE- HEAD FAMILY. I shall be glad to know if anything further has been discovered as to the nameless pictures at Norman Court, discussed at 10 S. viii. 345, 415, 474 ; ix. 71, and whether they are Whitehead por- traits.

I should also like to point out that MR. EVERITT'S surmise (in his interesting account of the Whitehead family at the last refer- ence) that 1612 is the earliest mention of the name of " Norman Court " is not correct. I have a note of the use of the name in 1589, and it was probably used much earlier possibly from the time of the ownership by the Norman family in the fourteenth century, from which MR. EVERITT himself derives the name. I think John Whitehead was Sheriff in 1470, not 1479.

It should be mentioned that Francis Thistlethwayte took the Whitehead name and arms on succeeding to the Norman Court property, so that it is correct to say that the manor of West Titherley was in the possession of Whiteheads down to 1751, the date of his death, that is, for well over 300 years.

I shall be much obliged for further infor- mation as to this family or any of its collateral branches. B. WHITEHEAD, B.A.

2, Brick Court, Temple.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. Ishall be glad to learn the name of the author of the following lines :

If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains, If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remains.

A. MYNOTT.

Behold the fate of sublunary things :

She exports coal that once imported kings.

Who wrote these lines ? I know to what they refer, but not who wrote them or where they are to be found. W. SENIOR.

Royal Societies Club, St. James's Street, S.W.


 * NlBELUNCENLIED ' : ITS LOCALITIES.

Can any of the localities mentioned in the ' Nibelungenlied ' (I have Simrock's version) be identified ? For example, Tronje, Hagen's home. Metz, Ortewein's home. Alzeie (? Alsace). Santen am Rheine. J. D.

Camoys Court, Barcombe.

BAKED PEARS=" WARDENS " : BEDFORD FAIR. From an old magazine (Odd-Fellows Magazine, January, 1846) I gather that tat Bedford Fair, held for two days at Michael- mas, a special feature was the sale of baked pears, served directly from a large earthen pan into saucers. The baked pears^are known as " wardens," and are sold with this street cry :

Smoking hot,

Piping hot,

Who knows what ?

I am got

In my pot : Hot baked wardens. All hot ! all hot ! all hot !

The magazine suggests two origins for this

curious name. The first is

" that baked or stewed pears were invented and

used as a great luxury by the prior and monks

of Warden, an ancient monastery, a few miles

distant " ;

the other is

" that a man named Warden, residing in an adjacent

village, grew great quantities of these pears, and for

many years regularly attended Bedford fair and

market to dispose of them."

It would be interesting to know if Bedford Fair is still held at Michaelmas, and if baked pears are still sold thereat as " wardens," and with the " cry " given above ; also if the name is peculiar to Bedford, as indicated by the explanations cited.

J. HARRIS STONE.

PEARS : " BON-CHRETIEN " AND " DOY- ENNE DU COMICE." In * The Later Years of Catherine de Medici ' Miss Sichel suggests that " les poires de bon Chretien " may have got their name because persons fasting could obtain a dispensation for eating them in Lent. Williams's bon-chretien pears certainly do not keep even till Christmas, much less till Lent. Why were they so named ?

Can any one explain the name of another p ear " Doyenne du Cornice " ? J. D.

Camoys Court, Barcombe.

ROBERT PARR, CENTENARIAN. This per- son died at Kinver, a small village near Bridgenorth, Shropshire, in August, 1757, aged 124 years. Was any tombstone erected to his memory ? If so, could any reader oblige me with the full inscription ?

It is a remarkable fact that his father lived to the age of 109, and his grandfather to 113 ; while his great-grandfather, Thomas Parr of Alberbury, Shropshire, died at the amazing age of 152. L. H. CHAMBERS.

Amersham.