Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/218

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vii. MAR. 15, 1913.

IRISH (ANGLO-IRISH) FAMILIES : TAYLOR OP BALLYHAISE (11 S. vi. 427 ; vii. 16, 138). MR. PIERPOINT'S suggestion is the fact. Col. Brockhill Newburgh, M.P., was second on of Thos. Newburgh and his wife Mary, daughter of Brockhill Taylor, M.P., by his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of Anthony Cope, Esq. (second son of Sir Anthony Cope, Bt., of. Hanwell, Oxon). Col. B. New- burgh, with his father and brother Thomas (on whose death, s.p., circa 1701, he suc- ceeded to Ballyhaise), was on the list of Protestants attainted by the Irish Roman Catholic Parliament of 1689 ; he married Maria, daughter of Oliver More, Esq., of Salestown, co. Kildare, and died 11 January, 1741/2, leaving four sons and two daughters. J3is sister Elizabeth married the Rev. Wm. Oreene of Dresternan, Fermanagh, also attainted in 1689, a son of Marmaduke Greene, Esq., of Druminiskiln, in the same county, by Jane, sister of Col. Abraham Crichton of Crom Castle.

CHARLES S. KING, Bt.

St. Leonards-on-Sea.

DIED IN HIS COFFIN (US. vi. 468; vii. 96, 134. 156). Some years ago John Clark of Milburn Place, North Shields, publican and whiting manufacturer, had his own and his wife's coffin in his public- house. They were made of mahogany, and between them was a tombstone containing the names of himself .and wife and a numerous family, the whole surrounded by an iron railing. One of the coffins had a slit in the lid, through which visitors were expected to put a penny. He had also a suit of grave-clothes, which, for & suitable reward, he would put on, and place himself in one of the coffins. He was three times married, and on the occasion of the first two wives departing, he procured another wife and coffin with as little delay as possible. I am unable to say if his wishes as to his burial were realized, for the narra- tive from which I have borrowed was pub- lished before his decease.

RICHD. WELFORD.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The subjoined extract from Cusack's ' Life of Daniel O'Connell,' referring to an occur- rence related by the Liberator himself, may be interesting as bearing on the above subject :

" Old Maurice O'Connell of Darrynane pitched upon an oak-tree to make his own coffin, and mentioned his purpose to a carpenter. In the evening the butler entered after dinner to say that the carpenter wanted to speak to him. your honour's coffin,' said the carpenter, putting
 * For what ? ' asked my uncle. ' To talk about

his head inside the door over the butler's shoulder. I wanted to get the fellow out, but my uncle said, ' Oh ! let him in, by all means. Well, friend, what do you want to say to me about my coffin ? ' ' Only, sir, that I sawed the oak-tree your honour was speaking of into seven-foot plank.' ' That would be wasteful,' said my uncle. ' I never was more than six feet and an inch in my vamps, the best day I ever saw.' ' But your honour will stretch after death,' said the carpenter. ' Not eleven inches, I am sure, you blockhead ! But I '11 stretch, no doubt, perhaps a couple of inches or so. Well, make my coffin six feet six, and I '11 warrant that will give me room enough.' "

W. S B.

I can add another Lincolnshire example to J. T. F.'s two (ante, p. 134). Between twenty and thirty years ago I was told of an old man, then dead, who had had his coffin made and used it as a cupboard, at Ashby, in the parish of Bottesford, North Lincolnshire. He was not buried in it, how- ever, for during a cold winter he chopped it up to serve as firewood so the story went, at least.

I have heard of other instances among people poor enough to dread being " putten awaay i' a parish coffin." M. P.

WlNE-FUNGUS SUPEKSTITION (11 S. vii.

109). The curious blackish growth in wine cellars is due to the fungus Zasmidium cellare, or mouseskin byssus, belonging to the order of capsule -bearing moulds (Physo- mycetes). The spawn, or mycelium, con- sists of long, branching threads without any apparent organic structure, which run over bottles and the walls of wine cellars, often forming large cobweb-like masses. Under certain conditions these form at intervals thin and brittle globular bodies containing many minute spores, which in their turn give rise to new masses of my- celium. IDA M. ROPEB. Bristol.

STUART PORTRAITS : EDGAR FAMILY (11 S. vii. 127). The representatives of this family are in Canada. Sir James Edgar, K.C.M.G., some years back, I think, resided in Montreal, and was in possession of numerous Stuart relics. Doubtless the Canadian authorities could supply the address.

ALFRED RODWAY.

Birmingham.

THE INQUISITION IN FICTION AND DRAMA (US. vii. 10, 57, 73, 116). The Inquisition is introduced in Rider Haggard's novel ' Montezuma's Daughter ' (Longmans, Green & Co., 1893). Early sixteenth century in Spain. G. H. WHITE.

St. Cross, Harleston, Norfolk.