Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/440

 434

.NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. ix. MAY 30, 1914.

in the district are Gaelic, though that speech has not been used in the county since the sixteenth century.

Gaelic names beginning with te or ti often appear in modern script as ch, and are so pro- nounced. Thus teallach, a hearth or forge, is written "challoch"; and tiobar, a well, appears sometimes as " tibber " or " tibbert," at other times as " chipper." In the neighbourhood of Loch Chesney are such names as Tibbertykite Well, i.e., tiobar -tighe-Cait, the well of Catherine's house (a chapel dedicated to St. Catherine) ; Auchentibbert, i.e., achadh an tiobair, the well field; CHipperheron, i e., tiobar Ciarain, St. Kieran'swell, &c. If, therefore, Chesney be a Gaelic name, it probably began with te or ti. Most of the seven lochs are named in Font's map (c. 1595) ; but Loch Chesney is not named thereon, so it may be a modern name. HERBERT MAXWELL.

Mourcith.

OCTOPUS, VENUS'S EAR, AND WHELK (11 S. ix. 128, 173, 216, 276). I think I remem- ber coming across some pages in Gesner's ' Historia Animalium,' lib. iv., describing the medicinal uses of these objects ; but as I read the book eighteen years ago, I can by no means be positive about it.

The Chinese opine the octopus to be a tonic (Li Shi-Chin, ' Pan-tsau-kang-muh,' 1578, torn. xliv. ). It is popularly believed in Japan to fatten and strengthen the cat when she is daily fed therewith, and to kill man should he eat it with the Japanese plum (Prunus mume). According to Ono Ranzan's ' Honzo Keimo,' written in the eighteenth century, it is cooked and eaten in the province of Ise to arrest the phlegmatic discharge from the chest ; and the shrub Deutzia scabra and Windsor beans are potent antidotes against the octopus of .a bad quality. A singularly small species with boiled -rice like grains in its body, and hence -called lidako (i.e., boiled - rice octopus, Octopus membranaceus of Suay), is some- times eaten alive by vulgarians, who still pin their faith to its invigorating their constitution when consumed thus.

Li Shi-Chin's work cited above, in its forty-sixth tome, amply shows how highly the Chinese esteem the Venus's ear shell =as a cure for various diseases of the eye, its powder being either locally applied or "taken internally; it is also reputed a remedy for certain fevers and gonorrhoea. Its flesh is aid to be as efficacious as its shell.

The whelk (Buccinum undatum), common on the coasts both of Europe and North

America, also occurs on the northern shore-i of Japan (Iwakawa, ' Preliminary Catalogue of Marine Shells in the Collection of the .... Tokyo Imperial Household Museum,' 1900, part i. p. 23). Numerous are the univalves allied to it that have received particular attention from the Japanese and Chinese druggists, yet I have never heard of any in- stance of the whelk having been used medi- cinally by them.

KUMAGXJSU MlNAKATA. Tanabc, Kii, Japan.

OLD ETONIANS (US. ix. 350, 395). Thos. Verrier Alkin was only son of Thomas Alkin of Canterbury. He was at St. John's Coll., Cambridge; B.A. 1769, M.A- 1772. He was Vicar of Lenham, 24 Oct., 1772, to death, and of Eynesford, Kent, 1783 to death. He died 28 Jan., 1784.

Sir Willoughby Aston, only son of Sir Willoughby Aston, fifth baronet, was born about 1748. He succeeded, as sixth baronet, 24 Aug., 1772, and died 22 March, 1815, when the baronetcy became extinct.

George Edward Ayscough was Lieu- tenant and Captain in 1st Foot Guards, 6 Feb., 1772, to 1776 or 1777. He was author of ' Semiramis, a Tragedy,' 1776. He was a brother-in-law of Lord Lytteltoii, and died 19 Oct., 1779.

FREDERIC BOASE.

SIR JOHN SACKFYLDE, KNIGHT (11 S. ix. 389). According to the ' D.X.B.,' Sir Richard Sackville (d. 1566), first cousin of Queen Anne Boleyn, and father of Thomas, first Earl of Dorset and Baron Buckhurst, was appointed on 24 Aug., 1548, Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations. In 1552 he was a Commissioner for the sale of chantry lands ; but Queen Mary renewed his patent as Chancellor at the Augmentations Court on 20 Jan., 1553/4, and made him a member of her Privy Council, despite his having wit- nessed Edward VI. 's will. Elizabeth re- tained him in her service.

WILLIAM QUIPP (US. ix. 389). A William Quipp of co. Lincoln, cler. fil., matriculated from St. Mary Hall, Oxon, on 8 Dec., 1615, aged 16 ; B.A. from Brasenose Coll., supd. 29 May, 1619 ; Rector of Rockington or Rockhampton, co. Gloucester, 1633.

GEORGE BRUCE (11 S. ix. 389).? George Bruce, s. Andrew of Montrose, Scotland, cler. Christ Church, matric. 1 June, 1742, aged 18 ; B.A., 29 Jan., 1745/6 ; M.A., 748. See 'Fasti et Ecclesias Scoticanae,' pt, vi. 757. 766. A. R. BAYLEY.