Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/335

 ii s. ix. APRIL 25, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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EMMELTNE LOTT (Miss OB MBS.). Can any reader give me information respecting a lady of the above name, who in the sixties was a governess in the family of the Viceroy of Egypt (Ismail Pacha), and wrote various books on the position and life of Moham- medan women, as, for instance, ' The English Governess in Egypt : Harem Life in Egypt and Constantinople,' 2 vols., London, 1866, fourth edition in 1867 ; ' The Mohaddetyn in the Palace : Nights in the Harem,' &c., 2 vols., London, 1867; and 'The Grand Pacha's Cruise on the Nile,' 2 vols., London, 1869 ? The name Lott is German, but, judging by the British Museum Catalogue, there are, or have been, English and American families of the name. I cannot find the name of Emmeline Lott, however, in any English, German, or American biographical dictionary known to me. Any information respecting this lady, apart from what she says in her own prefaces (dated from London), and in particular the date of her death, if she is no longer alive, would be. useful. Her books were widely read at the time of their publication. EBNEST A. VIZETELLY.

124, Church Road, Canonbury, N.

MANOB - COTJBT POWEBS. In Mrs Whet- ham's book reviewed in your columns, ante, p. 299, occurs this passage on p. 28 :

" But the decisions of the manor court could be challenged, and, as communications improved and means of transport increased, the issue was carried more frequently to the higher Crown courts, where better protection could be found, since the king was not loth to ally himself with the people against the lords and the nobles sitting in their manorial courts."

Was, then, the Manor of Ottery St. Mary different from the average manor ? I have studied its history down to the middle of the eighteenth century, and I cannot find that an appeal from its manor court's decision was ever allowed. There is a case on the Assize Rolls of 1309, when the mere state- ment that the manor was Ancient Demesne seems to have settled the matter ; the assize, accepting that fact, recorded the decision. In the seventeenth century numerous appeals were made to the Court of Exchequer against manor-court decisions relating to descent by custom, which differed from descent by common law, but in each case examined it was referred back to the homage for decision. The most that determined efforts of dis- contented tenants, backed by powerful influences, could obtain was that the jurors should be in future empanelled before two justices. Both parties to a suit were to bring lists of twenty-four homagers, and

these were to be challenged or passed until a jury of twenty-four was selected, and their decision was final.

Far from the lords ruling tyrannously in the manor court, here the reverse is the case. The verdicts given by the homagers very independent and outspoken individuals were frequently adverse to the lords' inter- ests, and were not reversed even under threats of personal violence. Our manor court was undoubtedly governed by the voice of the people : " They would pass their verdict as their fathers had done, say the lawyers what they would," as one of them said.

When the lords endeavoured to upset certain customs by appeal to the King the cases dragged on for years, but ended, as far as I can discover, always in a compromise whereby the homagers won the lion's share of points ; in return for some unimportant concession of a doubtful question, they had their treasured customs endorsed by the authorities. The conception of a court ruled by a domineering lord, and the people i.e., homagers supported against him by the King, does not appear to apply here.

I should like to know whether other manor rolls and documents support the statements of Mrs. Whetham. The history of Ottery St. Mary would have an added interest if it were unique in these respects.

F. ROSE-TBOUP.

AN ENCHANTED LONDON WELL. Can any reader tell me whether there is any well or spring in London to the waters of which a superstition or legend attaches that the drinking of them takes away f rotn those who do so the desire to leave London ?

C. S. CAMPBELL. Montreal,

GOETHE: ST. PHILIP NEBI. Joly in his ' Psychology of the Saints ' mentions an allusion to St. Philip Neri in Goethe's ' Journey in Italy.' He gives a reference to Porchat's French translation of Goethe, ix. 364. I have not access to that edition. Can any reader give me the date of Goethe's letter ?" C. W. SUTTON.

DODD FAMILY. I shall be glad of informa- tion concerning :

(1) The children and descendants of John Dodd, the famous Puritan divine. He was born 1545 at Shocklach, Cheshire, and married Anne, daughter of William Bownde of Hanwell.

(2) The connexion, if any, between Ralph Dodd of Acton, near Nantwich, living circa