Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/501

 ii s. VIL JUNE 21, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

493

he either gave away or sold for a mere trifle a great many of the drawings notably the ' Inventions to the Book of Job,' which on 30 March, 1907, was sold by Lord Crewe at Sotheby's for 5,600Z.

ALAN STEWART.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION WANTED (11 S. vii. 429). 1. I think that James Barnett, who died 1 Oct., 1836, was the ex-M.P. for Rochester, and father of C. J. Barnett, M.P. for Maidstone 1832 to 1837, but I write this subject to correction.

2. Peter Barrow, Consul at Nantes 1862- 1866, Kertch 1866-70, died 6 Oct., 1899, aged 86.

3. Robert Dalrymple Horn was eldest son of Robert Dalrymple Horn, who was created a Baronet in 1828, having taken the additional name Elphinstone. He died in 1819, aged 17 ; his next brother died in 1841, vita patris, and the baronetcy de- scended, on Sir Robert's death in 1848, to his third son Sir James, well known as M.P. for Portsmouth and a Lord of the Treasury under Lord Beaconsfield.

4. The Hon. Robert Trevor was gazetted Receiver-General of the Post Office 10 July, 1762, and held that office till his death in 1785. ALFRED B. BEAVEN.

3. Robert Dalrymple Horn, who was admitted to Westminster School 23 March, 1814, is probably the Robert, eldest son of Sir Robert Dalrymple-Horn-Elphinstone, 1st Baronet, who in Burke's ' Peerage,' under ' Elphinstone-Dalrymple, Bart.,' is said to have " d. in 1819, aged 17."

G. S. C. S. [R. E. B. also thanked for reply.]

IRISH SUPERSTITION : BOYS IN PETTI- COATS AND FAIRIES (US. ii. 65, 137, 293). Possibly the practice of dressing boys as girls to deceive evil spirits or fairies existed in other parts of Ireland than those already cited. A man tells me that a few years ago he saw a boy of 9 or 10 in petticoats in co. Cork ; this might, perhaps, represent a survival of the superstition.

Another country which may be added to the list is Egypt. In Lane's ' Modern Egyptians,' after explaining that it was customary to dress children shabbily and take them out unwashed, from fear of the evil eye, the author writes : " Some mothers even dress their young sons as girls, because the latter are less obnoxious to envy." Does this practice still exist ? Lane's book is stated to have been written during 1833-5.

I have been told that in Marken Island, in the Zuyder Zee, it is customary to dress boys as girls. Perhaps some contributor in the Netherlands can say if this has any connexion with the superstition in question^ and to what age the boys are so dressed.

G. H. WHITE.

St. Cross, Harleston, Norfolk.

SCOTT'S * WOODSTOCK ' : THE ROTA CLUB (US. vii. 425). Referring to MR. PEET'S letter, we beg to say that in all our editions of ' Woodstock ' issued since 1892 the corrected name, "Harrington's Rota Club," has been printed in the passage referred to. A. & C. BLACK.

FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM (11 S. vii. 429). A proof of this was given in The English Mechanic for 10 May, 1912. It appear* attractive, but it may contain invalidities- discoverable by professional mathematicians,

The theorem has not yet been proved', for all integer values of n greater than 2. It has been proved for all integer values of n less than 6,857. The prize referred to> (100,000 marks) is offered by the Royal Society of Sciences of Gottingen. A history of the theorem is given in Rouse Ball's

pp. 40-43. G. N. WATSON,
 * Mathematical Recreations ' (5th ed., 1911) r

This has not yet been proved completely,, nor yet its accuracy disproved. See a short paper (65 pp.) by Benno Lind,

in the Abhandlungen zur Oeschichte der mathematischen Wissenschaften (1910), Heft 26, 2, with a bibliography extending ta 184 entries. L. L. K.
 * Ueber das letzte Fermat'sche Theorem,'

THE SANCTITY OF ROYALTY (11 S. vii, 249,335). The query of PEREGRINUS on this subject recalls a passage in Victor Hugo's ' Notre Dame de Paris ' (Livre Quatrieme y V., Suite de Claude Frollo). Towards the end of that chapter Hugo dwells upon- the excessive. severity of the archidiacre s austerity, his asceticism, and his aversion, to women. This last trait was developed to such a degree that

" lorsque la dame de Beaujeu, fille du roi, vint au mois de decembre, 1481, visitor le clottre de Notre-Dame, il s'opposa gravement a Son entree* rappellant a 1'eveque le statut du Livre Noiiy dat de la vigile Saint-Barthelemy, 1334, qui interdit 1'acces du cloltre a toute femme ' quel- conque, vieille ou jeune, inaitresse ou chambriere. Sur quoi 1'eveque avait et6 contraint de lui citer 1'ordonnance du legat Odo qui excepte certaines grandes dames, aliquce magnates mulieres, quo?