Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/142

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. v. FEB. 10, 1912.

employed about the rail road become accustomed to the thing, and are aware of the precautions that are necessary to be observed. Had the same accident occurred when I went, I think my carriage would have had a good chance, from being so high, of being pitched off the waggon by the shock."

H. J. B. CLEMENTS. Killadoon, Celbridge.

Samuel Warren describes his impressions of his first journey by railway from Birming- ham to Liverpool in an article entitled ' My First Circuit,' contributed to BlackwoocTs Magazine in 1838. and included in a collec- tion of ' Miscellanies ' by him, published by Blackwood in 1855. His description is rather amusing. He tells his readers that for twelve miles of the distance the train went at the " astounding speed " of at least forty miles an hour ; that, though the day was a still one, his handkerchief which he held out of the window fluttered so strongly that he almost lost it ; and that " a good- sized " dog, which tried to race the train, was passed by carriage after carriage, and left behind in two minutes, though it was running at full speed. The whole account is worth reading in these days. It occupies about two pages of the book.

F.

Greville gives an account, well worth reading, of his impressions on his first rail- way journey, July, 1837, in his 'Memoirs,' Second Part, chap. i. vol. i. p. 11 (1885). This account appears to have been written either on the day of the j ourney, or within a week after it. See also his remarks under 28 Jan., 1834, in his 'Memoirs,' First Part, chap. xxii. vol. iii. p. 53 (1874). LASSO.

JAMES TOWNSEND (11 S. v. 2). MR. COURTNEY is in error in saying that there was a contest for the Lord Mayoralty in November, 1772 : the nomination took place as usual on Michaelmas Day, and was followed by a poll which necessarily extended into October, as in those days polls for civic offices were not restricted to one day.

I should not have noticed this slight slip of the pen had not a correspondent of The. City Press, taking MR. COURTNEY'S date as literally accurate, written to ask when the custom of electing (or at least nominating) the Lord Mayor on Michaelmas Day began. That date was fixed in 1546.

I have before me the polls at the livery contest in 1772, and the votes of the alder- men after Wilkes and Townsend had been

returned. Eight aldermen voted for Towns- end, of whom five had supported the Court candidates at the poll, and two (Sir W. Stephenson and Sawbridge) had supported Wilkes and Townsend : the remaining vote was that of Oliver, who had not voted at the poll.

Of the seven who voted for Wilkes in the Court of Aldermen, two (Crosby and Bull) had supported Wilkes and Townsend at the poll ; four had not recorded their votes then, and one (Alderman Turner) had supported the Court candidates.

In 1773 Sawbridge and Stephenson voted for Wilkes. ALFRED B. BEAVEN.

Leamington.

"RIDING THE HIGH HORSE" (11 S. iv. 490 ; v. 15, 54). I suppose " the high horse " \vas formerly called in English " the great horse." He was the strong creature who alone could carry a knight in full armour ; and his rider was, or should be, a man of rank and fame. In my ' Specimens of English from 1394 to 1579,' I quote from Sir T. Elyot (at p. 200) :

" But the moste honorable exercise in myne opinion. . . .is to ryde suerly and clene on a great horse and a rough, whiche vndoubtedly nat onely importeth a maieste and drede io inferiour per- sones," &c.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

DEAN SWIFT AND THE REV. J. GEREE (US. v. 8, 76). Mr. G. A. Aitken, in a foot-note on p. 439 of his edition of ' The Journal to Stella,' mentions that " young Parson Gery," whose name is spelt by Swift " Geree," was afterwards Rector of Letcombe, Berks, and that the names of two of his sisters, Mrs. Elwick and Mrs. Wigmore, are found in the ' Journal.' He suggests that Swift probably made the acquaintance of the family when he was living with the Temples at Moor Park. On p. 502, Letter LIX., Swift writes of Mrs. Wigmore " she still makes Mantuas at Farnham."

According to Joseph Foster's ' Alumni Oxonienses,' John Geree, Swift's friend, was born at Farnham on 22 Oct., 1672, a son of John Geree ; was a Scholar and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford ; Rector of Letcombe Bassett 1707, and Canon of Here- ford 1734, until his death in 1761. Can any connexion be traced between him and the Puritan divines of the first half of the seven- teenth century, John and Stephen Geree, both graduates of Magdalen Hall, the latter of whom was connected with Surrey ?

The Catalogue of the British Museum Library has the title of a sermon by John