Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/399

 n s. ix. MAY 16, i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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that is, put into bags and this is, or was, done by means of the bushel measure. As the winnowed corn wheat lay in a heap on the threshing-floor, the bushel measure was put on or near the heap and heaped full up with a wooden malting shovel. Then a wooden straight -edged staff was used to push off all the corn which stood above the edges of the bushel, in this way making the quantity in the measure fair. Thus did the " bushel " get its second name " strike." The tool was known as the " strikle."

Sixty-five years ago I saw the bushel, half- bushel, and quarter-bushel in regular use on my father's place in Derbyshire, the smallest of the three measures being used each day at feeding times for horses and kine in measuring out " the feed," and the measure being " strikled " each time so as to ensure a fair allowance of the mixture of oats, crushed horse-beans, and "chop." The measure after strikling was tipped into a "weskit" = a round shallow " skep " made of " withies." or wood chip material, out of which the horses were fed. Usually a quarter -bushel was enough for a good eating horse, but for horses which were " tickle " or " nice " over their " feed " one " weskit- ful " was enough for two.

THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop, Southfield.

A bushel can be heaped or " striken," the former, of course, the larger quantity.

T. WILSON.

The "strike " is the stick with which the contents of the bushel measure are levelled. The term is in constant use at the present day by architects and engineers in specifica- tions for work requiring Portland cement, the requisite weight of the cement (an important factor) being always referred to as so many pounds per " striked " bushel. Where the bushel is not " striked " it is re- ferred to as heaped. WILLIAM GILBERT. 35, Broad Street Avenue, E.G.

In John Ogilvie's 'Dictionary' (1879) '' strike " is defined as

"an instrument with a straight edge for levelling a measure of grain, salt, and the like, for scraping off what is above the level of the top."

In Edward Phillips's ' New World of Words, or Universal English Dictionary,' 6th ed. (1706), revised by J. K. Philobibl., " strike " is defined as the same as " Strickle or Strickless, an instrument to strike off the Over-measure of corn, &c." In this work " a Strike of Flax is as much as is heckled at one handful." Both dictionaries also

define a " strike " = a bushel of four pecks. The signboard of the inn, if it had one,, would show which meaning of "strike " was; intended. THOS. F. MANSON.

North Shields.

It has been suggested by a correspondent in one of the evening papers I believe,. The Evening Standard that the name of this public-house took its rise from a certain measure of corn known amongst Essex farmers as a " strike." The bushel, of course, is a dry measure of eight gallons, used for corn and potatoes. On the other hand, a " strike J ' is a basket used exclusively by Hertfordshire and Essex nurserymen for packing tomatoes, and holds 12 Ib. of fruit. During the English tomato season, which starts in April and continues until about the middle of October, many hundreds of thou- sands of these " strikes " are sent to the Lon- don markets, principally Covent Garden. The Worthing growers iise a different package altogether, known as a " handle." It is. therefore not improbable that this public- house at Little Chesterford was named "The- Bushel and Strike " on account of the- majority of its patrons being connected with nursery-work. I might mention that the bushel, as far as the fruit trade is con* cerned, is a basket about four times as large as a " strike," and is used for potatoes and 1 also for English apples, but very few, if any,, apples are grown in Essex.

REGINALD JACOBS.

This public -house sign is common in localities having a market in which grain is sold. All grain and other dry com- modities which custom prescribed should not be heaped in the bushel measure were levelled by a wooden instrument having a flat edge, and called a " strike," which " struck '* off so much of the contents as was above the brim of the vessel.

H. D. ELLIS.

[C. C. B., MR. GUY EVANS, MR. TOM JONES,. A. H. S., and W. B. S. also thanked for replies.]

GOTHAVEN (11 S. ix. 328). Godhavn is- marked on the lower inset map on plate ii. of ' The Times Atlas.' In the ' Everyman Encyclopedia.' vol. vii. p. 38, it is stated, that

" for purposes of government Greenland is divided' into two inspectorates, Godthaab and Godhavn ,. ruled by two governors responsible to the board at Copenhagen."

The inspector of Godhavn would thus appear- to be a Danish official ; but that does not seem to fit the description of the " grey