Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/39

 ii 8. vii. JAN. 11, i9i3.j NOTES AND QUEHI ES.

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man can meet with. He is so far from having any dealings with truth or honesty, that his solemn word, which he calls as good as his bond, is a studied falsehood, and he scandalizes truth and honesty, in pretending to write for it." Dunton's ' Life and Errors.'

However, when, in calmer mood, Dunton drew the characters of the most eminent men of his profession, he wrote upon Harris the paragraph given in by MB. ROLAND AUSTIN at p. 515.

This is no place for panegyric, but one would like to invite a tender thought for Mrs. B. Harris, the " kind Rib " who stood by her husband when he was in the pillory to defend him against the mob. MR. AUSTIN'S quotation is not, I think, quite accurate. In line 1 " was " should be has been. In line 15 "invention" should be plural. In line 16 " allay " should be alloy ; and in line 20 "ingenuous" should be ingenious. A. T. W.

JONATHAN KING AND HIS COLLECTIONS (US. vi. 483). I believe that it was in a note by myself that mention was first made in ' N. & Q.' of King's collection of Christmas cards. He called upon me in the way of business in the early seventies, and in the course of the chat between seller and buyer I asked him if he had any very early valen- tines in his old stock, for I was at that time seeking some. His reply was in the nega- tive, but lie said he had specimens of nearly all that had appeared ; and he was greatly interested when I told him that a relative of mine living in Southport had kept all the Christmas cards she had received since the sending of them had become general. I showed him several old valentines that [ had collected, with which he was pleased. He was a very genial man, and in one thing and another I had business dealings with him, and was sorry when he left " the road " in favour of, I believe, one of his

sons. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Work sop.

FIRE-RITUAL (US. vi. 489). I do not think it either needful or desirable to inter- pret as a survival of fire-worship the practice, once universal in districts where sea-coal came not, of keeping fire constantly aglow on the hearth. Where peat or wood is the staple fuel, burnt on a hearth, not in a grate, no effort is required to ensure the red embers lying overnight, to be fed with fresh fuel in the morning. I have recorded elsewhere a picturesque instance of this occurring on my own property. I took an English friend to fish for trout on a moorland

lake. Rain came on ; we rowed ashore, and took shelter in the house of the worthy peasant who looked after my boat. As it was past midday, I asked his wife (whose name, curiously enough, was Hester Stan- hope) to bake us some scones for luncheon. She complied \villingly, went down on her knees, and began blowing away the top of the heap of white ashes on the hearth, thereby disclosing the live red peat below. My English friend was surprised. " I thought," said he to the gudewife, " that fire was out. How long has it been alight ? " He told me afterwards that he supposed it had been fresh laid that morning. The gudewife looked up at him from her knees, and said : " It 's just see ven- and -twenty year come Marti'mas since Rab an' me cam to the hoose, and the fire 's never been oot sin' syne."

Five -and -twenty years have gone by since those words were spoken. Rab and Hester are both "in the mools," the cottage has been improved out of all recognition, and a patent cooking-range has replaced the primitive hearth. HERBERT MAXWELL. Monreith.

CONSECRATION CROSSES (11 S. vi. 390, 451). At Tideswell Church, Derbyshire, often designated " The Cathedral of the Peak," are two excellent examples of consecration crosses cut on the moulded shafts in the jambs of the doorway (on either side) at the south entrance of the church. They are about 5 ft. above the pavement, and are 4 in. in length with forked ends. Consequently they are some- what similar in shape to a cross moline* Their perfect condition is doubtless due to the severity of the Peak winters, which necessitated the addition of an external porch shortly after the erection and con- secration of the church, the consequence of which was that these crosses, instead of being, as when first incised, on the outside of the church and exposed to the weather, became protected. An illustration of one of them will be found on p. 45 of the fifth edition of my ' Tideswell and its Church ' (Tideswell, Chapman).

JAS. M. J. FLETCHER. Wimborne Minster.

HUGH PETERS (11 S. vi. 463). In the second paragraph of MR. J. B. WILLIAMS'S note on the early career of H. Peters there is a surmise concerning the origin of the family and the family name, including a suggestion that both may have had a Continental source. May I point out that in the early