Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/449

 ii s. vi. NOV. 9, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

369

" GULLIVERS." Formerly at Minehead on May Day the hobby-horse was accom- panied by one man, or sometimes two, dressed in skirts and peaked headgear, and carrying clubs. Their duty was to collect the donations of the crowd, for which pur- pose they claimed to enter all houses and stay all passengers. Their roughness in the execution of their task led to their abolition some half - century ago. They were known as " Gullivers." What is the meaning of this word ? Has it any con- nexion with the Scots gilravage, to commit depredation ? YGBEC.

FRANCIS WILKINSON OF LINCOLN'S INN* An account of his death occurs in ' Family Notices,' Newcastle Weekly Courant, 25 May, 1728. Information concerning him desired. Was he Recorder of Newcastle, or in any way connected with the city or district ?

M. S. T.

SIR ROBERT HARTLEY, K.C.B. (See ante, vi. 89, 156.) Can any reader say where there is a monument to Sir R. Bartley ? One is known to have been in existence some years ago. M. ELLEN POOLE.

Alsager, Cheshire.

NOVALIS AND JOHN STUART MILL ON SUICIDE. I hope some one will kindly give us an abstract if the passage is too long for quotation in ' N. & Q.' of what John Stuart Mill is referring to in ' Utilitarianism ' (Routledge), p. 23, where he says :

" So long as mankind think fit to live and do not take refuge in the simultaneous act of suicide recommended under certain conditions by Novalis."

Suicide is strictly contrary to all Jewish philosophy and teaching ; and I should be grateful if some one would send the exact words of Novalis direct to me at Percy House, South Hackney. M. L. R. B.

BURIAL AT MIDNIGHT. What was the idea in having funerals solemnized at mid- night, and when did the custom commence and when terminate ? One often finds in old wills that testators desire to be buried at midnight by torchlight, of course. I have found it in a will as late as 1724.

G. B. M.

[Burial at night, and by torchlight, has been discussed at 5 S. vii. 246, 392, 438 ; viii. 258 ; xi. 349, 474 ; xii. 37, 215 ; and at 8 S. iii. 226, 338, 455 ; iv. 97, 273 ; v. 254, 436 ; vi. 97, 275 ; ix. 312 ; but our correspondents rather adduced instances of the practice some of them quite modern than accounted for its origin.]

JEFFREY HUDSON AND CROFTS DUEL. Who was Crofts, whom the dwarf Jeffrey Hudson killed in a duel in France about 1649 ? Horace Walpole in his ' Anecdotes of Painting,' s.v. ' Daniel Mytens,' speaks of him as " Mr. Crofts, a young gentleman of family."

Edward Wedlake Brayley in his ' Londini- ana,' 1829, iii. 334, describes him as " brother to the Lord Crofts."

William Crofts of Saxham, Suffolk, was created Baron Crofts of Saxham by King Charles II. by patent dated at Brussels, 18 May, 1658. He died 11 Sept., 1677, when the title became extinct. See G. E. C.'s ' Complete Peerage,' &c.

In ' The History and Antiquities of Suf- folk : Thingoe Hundred,' by John Gage. 1838, p. 134, is a pedigree of the family, there called " Croftes of Saxham Parva.'- According to this, Sir Henry Croftes, father of William (afterwards Lord Croftes or Crofts), had four other sons : John ; Edmund, baptized Saxham Parva, 4 Aug., 1618 ; Charles ; Henry, buried Saxham Parva, 13 Feb., 1641 ; all without issue. No further particulars of these four are given.

If Brayley is correct in saying that he who was killed by Hudson was a brother to the (afterwards) Lord Crofts, which was he ? and what else, if anything, is known about him ? ROBERT PIERPOINT.

' THE ECCENTRIC BIOGRAPHY.' Who was the author or compiler of a book with this title ? It was made up of sketches and portraits of notable people. Had it a comic side in the nature of its pictures ? The work was published about the year 1800, and I believe the pictures were in colours. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

GREAT GLEMHAM, co. SUFFOLK. With reference to the sale, recently announced, of the above-named estate, belonging to the Marchioness of Graham, I should be glad to know whether the house on that property, if of ancient date, is the one which was formerly the home of the Glemham family (now extinct), and, among others, of Sir Henry Glemham (tempore Charles I.), who married Anne, eldest daughter of the first Earl of Dorset, and was the father of the distinguished general Sir Richard Glemham, Any information about these Glemhams and their property would be very welcome.

A similar inquiry was made by me ante, p. 29, but without eliciting a reply, LAC.