Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/117

 us. vii. FEB. s, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

109

WINE-FUNGUS SUPERSTITION.

" They say that the man that gets by any accident piece of th will for sure and certain die by murder."

a piece of that dark growth right upon his breast

Thus the cellarman in Dickens's ' No Thoroughfare ' about the wine -fungus growth hanging from the roof in the wine vaults of Wilding & Co. Apart from the murder superstition, does wine in cask throw out fumes which deposit fungoid growths without the aid of spider's - web as a foundation ? I have seen such growths in wine vaults, and have always attributed their presence in the first place to spider- spinnings. The matter is certainly a curious one. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

REGIMENTS : " DELHI REBELS," " THREES ABOUT ! " 64TH. One of Mr. Kipling's ' Barrack - Room Ballads,' entitled 'Belts,' contains the line

They called us "Delhi Rebels," an' we answered, " Threes about !"

It is descriptive of a row Between an Irish regiment an' English cavalree. What were these regiments ? and what are the incidents referred to ?

" 64th, you have put to silence the jibes of your enemies throughout India " (Order of the day issued by Sir Henry Havelock after the Battle of Cawnpore, 16 July, 1857). What occasioned the " jibes " ?

P. A. McELWAINE.

AUTHOR WANTED. Can any reader of 'X. & Q.' help me to trace the saying : " Let us be grave, my boys ; here comes a fool " ? I father it on Dr. Samuel Parr.

J. H. A. HART.

EARLY RAILWAY TRAVELLING. It will be remembered that when Joey B. trans- ported Mr. Dombey, after Paul's death, for change of scene to Leamington, the two travelled by rail in Mr. Dombey's carriage to Birmingham, and thence with post- horses to their destination. How long did this method of railway travelling continue ? Was it, for example, practised in any part of England as late as 1870 ?

DIARIES. Can any one inform me when, and by whom, the first diaries books mapped out for daily use during the year were invented ? In what country did they first become popular ? Are the MSS. of any Journals of well-known persons, that have been published, contained in such volumes ? HYLLARA.

STONE FROM CARTHAGE. In St. Dunstan's I Church, Stepney, is a stone with the follow- ing inscription :

Of Carthage wall I was a stone,

Oh mortals, read with pity. Time consumes all, it spareth none,

Man, mountain, town, nor city. Therefore, oh mortals, now bethink

You where unto you must, Since now such stately buildings Lie buried in the dust.

Thomas Hughes, 1663.

Did the stone actually come from the site of Carthage ?

WILLIAM MACARTHUR. Dublin.

[See 5 S. vi. 208, 295.]

WHITE HORSES. I have heard that at the siege of Paris, in the Franco -Prussian War, when the population began to consume horseflesh, the flesh of white horses was found so unpalatable, or otherwise unsuitable, that few such animals were killed, whence the preponderance of a white strain in the horses of Paris to this day. Can any reader inform me whether this is a fact, and, if it is, furnish an explanation of the peculiar constitution of white horses ?

E. H.

BATTLE OF QUIBERON BAY. Can you inform me if any pictures or prints exist which represent the naval battle of Quiberon Bay, 1759, when Admiral Hawke destroyed the French fleet under Conflans ? As an ancestor of mine commanded the Revenge on that occasion, I should be very glad if I could get hold of a print, if such survive.

W. W.

WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED. In what church was the poet married in the year 1835, and what was the age of his wife Miss Helen Bogle at the time ? He is buried, I believe, in Kensal Green. Can any reader give me the inscription on his tomb there ? Did his daughters marry ? Where did his wife die ? In appearance was he dark or fair ?

HAYNES BAYLY. In what years were the following songs by Haynes Bayly first published with music : ' We met,' ' Oh, no, we never mention her,' ' She wore a Wreath of Roses ' ? What was the personal appear- ance of Bayly ? In what church or cemetery at Cheltenham was he buried ? What was the age of his wife at the time of her death ? Did she reside at Chelten- ham ? Was she buried there also ?

F. ROSE.