Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/450

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NOTES AND Q UERIES. [ii s. v. MAY 11, 191-2.

" THRUMS " : " HUSH, YE PRETTY WARBLING CHOIR." I should be extremely obliged if you would explain to me the following passage in George Eliot's ' The Mill on the Floss,' book i. chap, viii., at the end : an "egg boiled hard. .. .and coloured with thrums." I do not understand the exact meaning of the latter words.

In the following (ninth) chapter of the same book a musical-box plays the tune " Hush, ye pretty warbling choir." Where is this song taken from, and how does its first stanza run ? (Dr.) LEYKAUFF.

Nuremberg, Menschelstrasse 54.

[" Thrums " are waste ends of thread from the warp in weaving then waste bits of stuff : boiled in the water with the egg, the dye comes out and colours the egg.]

BRANDING OF HOUNDS. It appears that Augustus III., King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, who died 1763, had his stag- hounds branded on their ribs with the mark of the crossed swords. Did this branding of hounds and sporting dogs obtain in England to any extent, and if so, in what districts, and when ?

J. LANDFEAR LUCAS.

PILLAR STONES NEXT CROMLECHS. At the back of the cromlech at Kilmashogue in the Dublin district stands a pillar stone. Borlase mentions that he found a pillar stone similarly placed behind a small dolmen buried in a tumulus at Tregiffan in the parish of Buryan, Cornwall. Are there other instances recorded of this conjunction ? WILLIAM MACARTHUR.

ROBERT BALL. (See 11 S. iv. 389.) Pigot's ' Directory,' 1823, gives a Robert Ball, " shipowner," King Street, Brixham. Robert Ball, b. 1782, " shipowner " (pro- bably son of above), his wife Rebecca and child lost their lives in the wreck of the ship Griffin of Poole, off the coast of Liverpool, 8 March, 1810. I shall be glad if any reader could say where the former and latter Robert Ball were married. F. PAUL.

LORD JAGGARD. In the State Papers of Charles I., Dom. Ser., cccxxix. 45, is the following curious remark, and I shall be glad if any one can throw light upon it. It may refer to the Jaggard who built the famous haunted " Jaggard's House " at Corsham, Wilts :

" 1636, July 26th. George Garrard to Edward Viscount Conway. At Hatneld came Lord Cotting- ton [with ?] his sword better put on than mv Lord Jaggard s."

WM. JAGGARD.

UNDERTAKER'S " BLACK LADDER." The following words occur in chap. x. of ' Hard Times ' in describing Stephen Blackpool's place of abode :

" It was in one of the many small streets for which the favourite undertaker .... kept a black ladder in order that those who had done their daily groping up and down the narrow stairs might slide out of this working world by the windows."

Was there or is there any general custom among undertakers c f keeping a " black ladder " for this gruesome purpose, or was it peculiar to Coketown ?

B. A. P.

THE DISASTER AT RHE, 1627. Some time ago I copied a letter from the Duchess of Rutland about Rhe, dated 10 Oct., 1627. Can any reader give the reference ?

J. M. BULLOCH.

123, Pall Mall, S.W.

OSMUNDERLEY.

(US. v. 270.)

OTHERWISE Osmotherley, in Alvertonshire, now part of Yorkshire, described in Bacon's ' Liber Regis,' 1786, as of exempt juris- diction. A vicarage. Patron, " Portionar. sive Preb. sive Rectoria de Osmotherley, Propr. Bishop of Durham." Dr. Will, de Feriby was appointed master of the hospital of St. Mary Magdalene at Bawtry in 1354, having exchanged for it " the second prebend or portion of the church of Osmotherly or Osmunderly " (' Mem. Ripon,' Surtees Society, ii. 236). J. T. F.

Durham.

The art of discovery depends upon know- ing what books to employ. I tried the vise of three books, in order to solve this pro- blem, and believe that I have the answer. I venture, for once, to show how it is done.

1. ' The Clergy List.' This has a fairly complete list of parishes. The only name resembling the above is that of Osmotherley ; the index says that (in 1908) the vicar was the Rev. A. A. Williams. A reference to that name gives the post-town as being Northallerton, Yorks.

2. The ' Inquisitiones post Mortem ' gives a large number of place-names in the thir- teenth century. The only name resembling Osmotherley is Osmunderleye, said to be in Yorkshire. But where ?