Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/50

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. v. JAN. 13, 1912.

The long or ' royal ' pendulum was introduced about 1676. Among French artists with wealthy patrons the formal long-case, so characteristic of English clocks, was never liked."

Illustrations are given of these clocks by French makers of the time of Louis XIV., and the author remarks, " In the Wallace Collection is a clock by Mynuel, with case and pedestal by Boulle of nearly the same period." From these observations it may be concluded that the French soldier in 1797 was unfamiliar with the long-case clock.

TOM JONES.

" AMERICA " AS A SCOTTISH PLACE-NAME (11 S. iv. 469). It is a mistake to consider this as purely Scottish : it occurs in Froding- ham, Lincoln. America Wood is, I believe, in Neville Holt, Leicester ; America Holt is in Lincolnshire ; in the same county is America Farm in Langton-by-Spilsby. There is another in Yarborough, and a third in Warmington, Hunts. Place-names of this description are comparatively modern, but the difficulty lies in finding out when and by whom and why the names were imposed. Of a similar character is New England, which is found in Westmill and Hitchin, Herts ; Eythorne, Kent ; Burrow and Hackensall, Lancashire ; Humby, Lincoln ; Portslade, Sussex ; Wennington and Hilton, Hunts. I have instances of New York in Leicestershire, Northumberland, and Fife- shire; and examples of Delaware, Florida, Old and New Boston, California, Georgia, Brooklyn, and Pennsylvania as place-names.

Scotland itself figures prominently: once in Scotland itself, in Portmoak ; in England at Bradfield, Berks ; twice in Long Bland- ford, Dorset ; at Colomb Major, Cornwall ; in Sandford and Ardley in Oxford ; and in Hereford. A. RHODES.

The name of the road near Dundee men- tioned in my query is Americanmuir, not " Americanium." W. B.

" PARKIN " (11 S. iv. 430). See 4 S. viii. 494 ; 7 S. vi. 448, 514 ; vii. 35. It was supplied at tea on 5 November to school- boys in York in 1860. ' N.E.D.' (s.v.) says : " Origin unknown : perh. from proper name Perkin or Parkin." I used to think the name an equivalent of " parti-," the cake being neither oat-cake nor ginger- bread, but half-and-half. W. C. B.

The custom of making " parkin " origi- nated in the West Riding of Yorkshire in commemoration of the disco very of the Gun- powder Plot on 5 November, 1605. " Parkin "

is usually made of oatmeal, treacle, butter, sugar, and ground ginger, and may be seen exposed for sale previous to Guy Fawkes Day in the shape of massive loaves, cakes, or bannocks.

" On the 5th of November parkin, a sort of pepper-cake, made from treacle and ginger, is found in every house in the West Riding. As, however, the cake is eaten several days before the 5th. I have no doubt it originally formed part of the A 11- Hallows' feast. The Sunday within the octave of All Saints' is called Parkin Sunday." ' Folk-lore of the Northern Counties,' by William Henderson, F.L.S. (1879).

T. SHEPHERD.

STOCKINGS, BLACK AND COLOURED (11 S. iv. 166, 214, 257, 297). The fashion in black silk stockings was set by an earlier queen than ST. SWITHIN supposes. John Stowe records that Queen Elizabeth's silkwoman presented Her Highness with a pair of her own knitting on New Year's Day, 1560, since which Her Highness wore no other. The passage is quoted by Isaac D'Israeli, ' Curiosities of Literature,' vol. i., ' Anecdotes of Fashion.*

A. T. M.

CITY LANDS: ANCIENT TENURE (11 S. iii. 269). The property referred to in the extract cited consists of plots of land situated respectively in Shropshire and on the north bank of the Thames.

WILLIAM MCMURRAY.

on

London North of the Thames. By Sir Walter Besant. (A. & C. Black.)

THIS is a sister book to ' London : the City ' noticed in our columns on 13 May last), and smbraces the huge area bounded on the east by 'ailway, and on the north by the Hampstead
 * he City gates, on the west by the Addison Road

highlands.

It is not quite clear to us how far the late Sir

Walter Besant was connected with the work, but

we gather from the introduction that the scheme

was his, and that many of the agents appointed >y him. The book, of course, suffers by bringing ts topography only up to the date of 1901 ; for nstance, we get no mention of the Kingsway or 41dwych, or the Queen Victoria Memorial, and
 * o collect the necessary information were selected
 * he consequent improvements made in the Mall

district.

The interest of the work is mainly historical

and biographical, as we learn from it where any famous Englishmen lived and died, with

anecdotes concerning them and their doings, nd of the periods in which they lived, and natur-

ally the richer parts of the area are more fertile n notes of this kind than the poorer. Among the

more interesting chapters are those on St. James's

Square and Berkeley Square.