Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/460

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NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. ix. JUNE 6, wu.

generally full of water, on account of the drizzling nature of the atmosphere ; but if it is meant by the ' caup ' mentioned, we must suppose that the whole is intended as a mockery of human strength ; for it is certainly impossible to lift the stone and drink off the contents of the hollow.''

In his charming paper entitled * Jeems the Door-Keeper,' Dr. John Brown of ' Rab and his Friends ' utilizes the verses, ingeniously investing them with allegorical significance. Discussing them line by line, he gradually unfolds from them a vivid and impressive homily, designed to emphasize the necessity and importance of steadily pursuing a lofty ideal. His interpretation of the " drap " is that it is the highest attainable truth, and he encourages his readers originally it was his hearers, for the essay was first an address to young people by reminding them that, as truth is perennial, the drop after each successive quaffing will inevitably be renewed.

THOMAS BAYNE.

OLD ETONIANS (11 S. ix. 389). John Barrington, b. Red Lion Street, London, 8 Dec., 1752 ; M.P. for Newtown, Isle of Wight, 1780-96 ; succeeded his father as ninth baronet, 24 Sept., 1792 ; and d. un- married, 5 Aug., 1818.

Anselm Yates Bayley was probably son of the Rev. Anselm Bayley, musician and Sub-Dean of Chapel Royal, London, 1764, who was born 1719, and d. 1792.

Sm RICHARD " BERNIE " (11 S. ix. 369). Sir Richard Birnie (not Bernie) was chief magistrate at Bow Street from 1821 till his death, 29 April, 1832.

JOSEPH BRANWELI. (US. ix. 389). This man is nearly certain to have been Joseph Branwell, many years manager of the Launce- ston branch of the East Cornwall Bank, who died at Penzance, 7 April, 1857, aged 62. FREDERIC BOASE.

PARISH REGISTERS (11 S. ix. 344, 415). If all our parish registers were in print, it may be conceded that we should be better off than we are at present, but the end would not have been reached. The modern school of genealogists has recognized that we do not want the addition of a huge mass of un- digested matter to our already overburdened bookshelves. What we do want is the scientific collection and arrangement of data. The ideal is the development, on national lines, of the Consolidated Index of the Society of Genealogists. Set to work to copy on to slips of paper of standard size the entries in all existing parish registers, arrange these slips in dictionary order, and

place them where they may be consulted with ease. If the slips are then printed, to prevent risk of loss by fire or otherwise, so much the better. Parish register entries by themselves do not, however, go far enough. They must be suppleJfts^ted by a collection of the evidence of relationships and ages which is to be found in the monumental inscriptions in our churchyards. Much has already been done to record these inscriptions on the slip system, but more voluntary workers are required. M.

"BUSHEL AND STRIKE" (11 S. ix. 330, 392). In reference to this question, it may be of interest to note that the same practice of " striking " a measure of corn was usual in antiquity. It is very common in Greek papyri from Egypt to find it specified that an artaba of grain was reckoned peTpy UO-T<O, i.e., that the grain was " shaved off " with a stick, corresponding to the English strike. In an unpublished metro- logical papyrus in the British Museum I find it stated that the artaba contained V<TTOI, but only 3 ftoSioi Ko (modii cumulati). The niodius is, of course, the Roman dry measure. H. I. B.

G. QTTENTON (11 S. ix. 389). Redgrave gives a note of " Quinton, George, engraver," as having been born in 1779 at Norwich. He also painted some portraits. This may be the man inquired about.

HAROLD MALET, Col.

The following is in Redgrave's ' Dictionary of Artists of the English School,' 1878 :

" Quinton, George, Engraver. He was born in Norwich in 1779, and was first known when keeping sheep in the adjoining county. Self- taught as an engraver, some works of his appear in The Gentleman's Magazine, 1796, and some portraits."

W. B. H.

CENTENARY OF THE CIGAR (11 S. ix. 89, 235). The " erroneous spelling " segar cer- tainly was in use in the fifties, for I saw it daily in the shop of a tobacconist on the left/ side of Holborn Hill on my way to St. Paul's School. It struck me then as being peculiar.

" TROD "(US. ix. 27, 116, 158)." Trod " is used in Yorkshire parlance as a noun meaning a path or way. A steeplejack wished an elderly clergyman of my acquaint- ance to ascend a series of ladders fixed against the tower and spire of his church, saving : " It 's a verv good trod.' r

E. I,. H. TEW.