Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/125

 ii s. VIL F B .. s, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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4 The White Plumes of Navarre,' pub- lished by the Religious Tract Society. Literary craftsmanship admirable, and love - scenes well handled. Autos repre- sented as weekly and even bi-weekly, and the learned and excellent Mariana con- verted into the typical wily Jesuit of Protest- ant fiction. (4) Grace Aguilar's ' The Vale of Cedars ' Inquisition and Jew, anti- Catholic bias, late fifteenth century. (5) Geo. Griffith's ' John Brown, Buccaneer ' Inquisition in New Spain, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Paul Bertram's ' Shadow of Power,' ante, p. 57, is the supposed diary of a Catholic governor, who is gradually weaned from his Church by the horrors of the Inquisition under Alva. Of all the foregoing English works, ' The Spanish Brothers ' alone seems to show much familiarity with Inquisitorial procedure, but it is quite possible that the others have purposely departed from fact, so as to brighten the stories. ' Ximenes ' excepted, not the slightest sympathy with the aims of the Catholic Church in her struggle to spread her creed over the world, heroically exemplified in the lives of such men as Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, and Bartolomeo do Las Casas, is apparent in any of these frankly prejudiced, though none the less readable, attempts to convey in fiction some idea of the most extraordinary tribunal the world has ever seen.

Marryat's account in * The Phantom Ship,' named by MR. PIERPOINT at the last refer- ence, is based on the experiences of M. Dellon at Goa towards the end of the seventeenth century. ERIC R. WATSON.

" OF SORTS " (11 S. vii. 10, 56). Revert- ing to my reply under this head (p. 57), I have now been able to trace a letter from a correspondent, dated 4 March, 1899, written in reply to my inquiry in ' N. & Q.' :

" Pope has

For different stiles with different subjects sort, As several garbs with country, town and Court.

From this I take 'writer of sorts' to mean a writer on different subjects and of different styles. Had one been told he was writer ' of a sort,' then he, or any one else, might feel annoyed. But, as it is, he ought, I think, to feel proud."

This may assist the discussion.

CECIL CLARKE.

" To CARRY ONE'S LIFE IN ONE'S HANDS " {11 S. vi. 508; vii. 72). The Witch of Endor pleaded, " Posui animam meam in manibus meis," when she had consciously braved or undergone the peril of death.

which is the general meaning of a very common saying. Jephthah, David, and Job use the phrase, the last certainly not with any thought of weapons, or even fists. It must, therefore, have been metaphoric in very early days, and it is curious that it should not have passed into German, as it has into English use, from Biblical sources.

A. T. M.

Compare Ps. cxix. (cxviii. in the Vul- gate), 109: " Anima mea in manibus meis

semper.

K. S.

" PLUMPE " WATCH (11 S. vii. 29). The word " plumpe " occurs several times in the ancient records of Archbishop Whitgift's Hospital, Croydon. From my transcription of these records permit me to quote the following :

" The money which was made of the leade, at the takeing downe of the plumpe, that stoode in the Court," &c. (September, 1635).

ALFRED CHAS. JONAS, F. S.A.Scot.

This word will be found in Stratmann's ' Dictionary of the Old English Language,' second edition, Triibner, 1873. On referring to the ' Oxford Concise Dictionary ' I find " plump " is an archaic form for a company or troop of spearmen or soldiers who used weapons with sharp metal heads and long shafts of wood. This appears to meet the case in point. G. SYMES SAUNDERS, M.D. Eastbourne.

The answer will be found in Nares's ' Glossary,' 1888 ed., vol. ii. p. 668.

ROBERT P ASHLEY. Chateau de Carteret (Manche).

CURFEW BELL (US. vi. 466 ; vii. 17, 77). Collins, i:i his account of St. Mary's Church, Bridport, quotes the following from the vestry book as a part of the sexton's duty in 1851 :

" He shall ring the bell during the space of ten minutes at five o'clock on every morning from Lady Day to Michaelmas, and at six o'clock from Michaelmas to Lady Day, and at eight o'clock every evening during the year, Sundays excepted, on which day he is to toll the bell at the regular limes appointed previous to Divine service."

The 8 o'clock bell was the Curfew, and continued to be rung for years afterwards. During the incumbency of the Rev. E. J. L. B. Henslowe it was felt that the Curfew bell served no practical purpose. But instead of abolishing the ringing the time was altered to fit in for " Evensong," just before half -past six. This latter bell continues to be rung down to the present time. A. WEIGHT MATTHEWS.