Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/259

 ii s. viz. MAR. 29, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

255

there were three Walter Carys : one (doubt- ful) of Herbal fame, one who wrote 'The Hammer for the Stone,' &c.,and yet another who wrote ' The Present State of England. Perhaps some other reader can throw further light on the subject.

A. L. HUMPHREYS. 187, Piccadilly, W.

LONG " S," DATE OF DISAPPEARANCE (11 S. vi. 386; vii. 14). The following ex- cerpts from ' Typographia ; or, The Printer's Instructor.' by J. Johnson, London, 1824, give some information regarding this :

Vol. ii. p. 24." Of the double letters formerly used few now remain, and those permitted only through necessity. The introduction of the round s, instead of the long, is an improvement i' 1 the art of printing equal, if not superior, to any which has taken place of late years, and for which we are indebted to the ingenious Mr. Bell, who introduced them in his edition of the British Classics. They are now generally adopted, and the founders scarcely ever cast a long s ( f) to their founts, unless particularly ordered."

Vol. ii. p. 85. " The proportions which one letter bears to another, as they stood in Smith's time ; which may, in fact, be considered as some- thing like a standard : they remained nearly in that state, with little variation, till 1800, when the double letters were generally abolished, (Mr. John Bell first made this improvement about 1795-6) from which period, nothing but confusion ensued ; because the founders, when they commenced cutting new founts with the round s, in order to secure the printers who purchased type from them, varied the letter both in height and depth."

The Smith mentioned above was, no doubt, John Smith, author of ' The Printer's Grammar, wherein is exhibited, examined, and explained what is requisite for attaining a more perfect knowledge both in the theory and practice of the art of printing,' London, 1754. WHITE LINE.

" To CARRY ONE'S LIFE IN ONE'S HANDS " (11 S. vi. 508; vii. 72, 117). Doubting the explanation offered ante, p. 72, 1 submit that the quotation in ' N.E.D.,' vi. 260 (Life, 3, end), gives the proper meaning. I last used the phrase thus :

"Often I have taken my life in my hands, but I never so felt that I was throwing it into the air as tvhen I steered the heavy-laden sled down the long iill at two miles a minute."

Ihe belief in the soul (or life) as a material thing Was widespread, and frequently ap- pears, in the " External Soul," " Soul-Birds," fee., down to recent times : one is conceived, therefore, as taking this material thing in ane's material hands when one is ready to Dffer it as an offering of lands to the Church was symbolized by a model of land

and trees (see Burlington Magazine for 15 Oct., 1912, at p. 31 for illustration). In like manner the attribute of martyred saints, by universal usage, was carried in the hand of each as symbol of the life each had offered, such as the head in the hand of a beheaded saint. See the very interesting article in Archiv fiir Religionswissenschaft, 1910, xiii. 341. ROCKINGHAM.

Boston, Mass.

CURIOUS STONE VESSELS (11 S. vii. 208). No doubt mortars in which wheat, after long soaking, was bruised with a Wooden pestle in order to make frumenty. They are quite common in the North ; in some places there is scarcely an old house without one. At Houghton-le-Spring they were known as " trow-stones " (c. 1861).

J, T. F. Durham.

There are many of these in the North of England, where they are known as " cree ing- troughs." They were used in farmhouses for pounding barley, &c. At the top of the staircase to the Castle of Newcastle is a fine collection of them. A day or two ago I sketched one in this town having on its sides a hare, a dog, and two other animals, with the initials " D C " and date 1737. There is nothing ecclesiastical about them.

R. B R. South Shields.

[MR. HARRY HEMS also thanked for reply.]

FROG'S HALL, ROYSTON (11 S. vii. 209). Surely this simply means that the cottages are on the site of (or may form part of) an old cat tie -shelter : frog or frogga=A.-S. ' animal," and hall or hell, a " shelter." The name is identical with " Frognal," Hampstead. J. Y. W. MAC ALISTER.

I have very little doubt that Frog's Hall, Royston, comes from the family name Frohock, which is still common enough in Cambridge and Cambridgeshire. In the Histon Registers the name occurs as Fro- hocke (1616), Frogg (1736), Frog (1738, 1761), Frohog (1772). There is also in Histon an entry : " John Huckel of Frog-Hall md. ?ath. Sumpter of Histon Sept. 17, 1751."

The name occurs as Frogg (1646), in the St. Peter's Registers, Cambridge, as Frog- hawke (1798) at Boxworth, and as Frohoak (1773) of Milton, Cambs, at Impington.*

As far as I know, the Royston Registers have not yet been published.

T. JESSON.

Registers, vols. iii. and v., 1909-12.
 * All the ab9\;e are from the Cambs Parish