Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/190

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vi. A. 24, 1912.

employed for signatures by certain officials of the law courts ; and if one discover a "signature" in law script, he may be perfectly satisfied that it is not a signature, but has been attached to the document by a law clerk.

The six names of W. Shakespeare appear upon four documents, and were written by four different law clerks, whose writing was different each from each. Of course, to people ignorant of law script all writings in it appear alike, and are generally sup- posed to be badly written. All the so- called signatures of Shakespeare are written in law script by skilful law clerks ; not one of them is badly written.

EDWIN DURNING LAWRENCE.

13, Carlton House Terrace, S.W.

' SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER ' : EXPLANA- TIONS WANTED (US. vi. 10). 2, 3. " Rabbit" was frequently used by eighteenth-century writers as a term of contempt (see Farmer and Henley's ' Slang and its Analogues,' suh voce). " Rabbit me " is a contraction of " Odrabbit me," i.e., God rot me. It is used by Fielding and Smollett. " Odso " may be a contraction of " God's wounds." These are among the " strange oaths " for which our ancestors seem to have had a predilection.

4. The Grotto Gardens were situated -at the north-east corner of Lower Rosoman Street, Clerkenwell, and were kept in 1769 by a man named Jackson, a successful constructor of grottoes and contrivances of water- works. "In the garden was a won- derful grotto, an enchanted fountain, and a water-mill, invented by the proprietor, which when set to work represented fireworks, and formed a beautiful rainbow." This place of amusement seems to have existed till nearly the end of the eighteenth century (see Wroth's ' London Pleasure Gardens,' pp. 37-9). W. F. PRIDEAUX.

ANDREW LANG (US. vi. 86). An instance of something more than courtesy on Mr. Lang's part to an unknown correspondent may not be out of place as a pendant to COL. PRIDEAUX'S note.

Many years ago Mr. Lang, writing "At the Sign of the Ship,' jocularly offered the current number of Longman's Magazine as a prize to any correspondent who could tell him why Pythagoras forbade his dis- ciples to eat beans. I sent him a note on the subject, and to my mingled surprise and pleasure received from him in the course of a post or two a charming letter of thanks,

and a signed copy, not of the magazine, but of his own recently published ' Marriage of Cupid and Psyche.' I fancy Mr. Lang must have contributed at least queries to ' N. & Q.,' for in reply to a suggestion of mine, made on this or some subsequent occasion (I think the latter), that by doing so he might, perhaps, gain some information he was in search of, he humorously lamented that his work was too desultory and occa- sional to be much helped by ' N. & Q.' : he had usually forgotten what his need had been before a query was answered. That, or something like it, was his reply.

C. C. B.

PILFOLD OF EFFINGHAM (11 S. vi. 29). Capt. John Pilfold, C.B., who commanded the Ajax (74) at Trafalgar, was my great- uncle. He was the second son of Charles Pilfold of Effingham, by Bathia, daughter of William White of Effingham. His pedigree, with a canton of augmentation (gold medal suspended from a naval crown) to the arms, is reprinted, from the docu- ments in the College of Arms, in Misc. Gen. et Heraldica, New Series, iv. 85. Capt. Pilfold's life is in Marshall's ' Naval Bio- graphy,' as well as in the ' D.N.B.' Vol. xxx. of the Sussex Arch. Collections relates to the family, as does vol. xxxiv., which has a full White pedigree ; and see vols. xxxviii. and xxxix. for the Pellatt family. Berry's ' Sussex ' also shows connexions with some dozen local families. The captain's three sisters were Elizabeth, m. Sir Timothy Shelley, Bart., the mother of the poet ; Char- lotte, m. Thos. Grove of Fern; and Bathia (my grandmother), m. the Rev. Gilbert Jackson, D.D., Rector of Donhead St Mary's, Wilts. Capt. Pilfold saw much active service, and was at the battle of the glorious 1st of June. He married a Miss South, but left no male issue, and died at Stonehouse, 12 July, 1834. W. H. M. JACKSON, Lieut. -Col.

Naval and Military Club.

LYNDON EVELYN (US. vi. 10). In The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xcvi. pt. ii. p. 284, among the obituary notices under date 1826, 6 Sept., is :

" In York-place, Portman-square, Elizabeth wife of Lyndon Evelyn, esq."

In the August number, 1837, N.S., vol. viii. pt. ii. p. 211, among the obituary notices, is :

"Lately Lieut. Col. Frederick Evelyn, late of 2nd Life Guards, son of L. Evelyn, esq. of Keynsham Court, Herefordshire.'