Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/496

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. DEC. ie, wn,

I should be very grateful for any further evidence of the family of Reeve being related to that of Day or Pyke.

EUGENE F. McPiKE.

135, Park Row, Chicago.

" RIDING THE HIGH HORSE." I have often queried, mentally, the origin of this saying without arriving at any satisfactory solution. The nearest approach thereto occurs in a phrase I read in 'Lord Herbert of Cherbury ' (Routledge) : " The exercises I recommended to my posterity were riding ' the great horse.' ' Sir Sidney Lee's foot-note is very helpful : " ' Great horses ' = the Roman dextrarii, French destrier, from dextra, meaning those requiring considerable art in management as opposed to palfreys and nags." " Great horses," big, bony horses of the Clydesdale type, were needed in the seventeenth century to carry the heavily armoured men. Bat what is the ' '(high horse ' ' of the proverb ?

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

CURLY " N." In old charters many words ending in n have the mark *" above this letter. What is its meaning ? It is sometimes said that it is a contraction mark indicating that a letter following n has been omitted ; in some names it seems to indicate that the letter is n, and not u.

JOHN MILNE.

Aberdeen.

WELSH QUOTATION. Will any of your Welsh readers tell me whether they have met with the quotation in old Welsh, " Y ddioddeuoedd y oruy," in Biblical or other Welsh literature ? The date is 1627.

G. B. M.

MONEY VALUE. What is the value meant by such statements in old documents as the following : " 200 pounds of silver," " 25 pounds of gold " ? F. R. F.

AARON HUGH, PIRATE. I should be much obliged if some reader could give me infor- mation about this person, who circa 1770 was a pirate, and afterwards resided, and died, in or near London between 1821 and April, 1824. LEWIS HUGHES.

49, Emerald Street, Roath, Cardiff.

" GUILD OR FRATERNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY " in Dublin at the end of the eighteenth century. What was this ?

W. ROBERTS CROW.

" POLILLA." What is the etymology of this Spanish word, which means moth ?

J. M.

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE:

GIFFARD OF HALSBURY.

(11 S. iv. 347, 414.)

THAT Sir Francis Drake was " specially ad- mitted" a member of the Inner Temple in January, 1582/3, is indisputable. The original entry is to be found in the " Ad- mission Books" 1506-89, fol. 203. The fine at the discretion of the treasurer was Drobably quite nominal. In any case, there would be no record of payment, as in special admissions there are no fees " to the House." Your correspondent MEDIO-TEMPLARIUS asks the pertinent ques- tion, ' ' Is there a known instance of any one as early as the reign of Elizabeth being a member of both Inns ? " I know of none. It should be noted that the names of Frobisher, Vere, and Norris were entered in the Middle Temple books on the same day. They were admitted en bloc and causa honoris. Hawkins was admitted a year later. The name of Drake does not appear, the obvious explanation being that, ten years previously, he had been admitted a member of the Inner Temple, and was thus precluded from joining another Inn. As Mr. Inderwick points out, Drake had many friends in the Inn to which he was admitted. His great patron Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was also "the Palaphilos [sic] and great patron of the Inn."

It may be noted that Sir Thomas Risdon, who was present at the Parliament at which Drake was admitted, was a Devonian whose biography is set out in Prince's ' Worthies ' (p. 545). Here, for preservation in ' N. & Q.,' may be recorded the fact that Sir Thomas Risdon died at a great age. Admitted to his Inn in 1553, he was made a Bencher in 1568, and he lived until October, 1641. His mother was a Giffard of Halsbury. At this present time Lord Halsbury is senior Bencher of the same Inn. He was born in 1825, called to the Bar in 1850, and made a Bencher in 1865. A full and accurate pedigree of the Giffards is given in Burke's 'Peerage.' It was compiled, I understand, by John Walter de Longueville Giffard, sometime a judge of County Courts, and eldest brother of Lord Halsbury.

It would be interesting to know if longevity was a marked characteristic of the family. J. E. LATTON PICKERING.

Inner Temple Library.