Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/102

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. JAN. 29, me.

Charles Patrick Plunkett, of Dillonstown, co. Louth, M.P. for Banagher, and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Stratford of Belan, co. Kildare. This William Lethieu- lier died on May 10, 1743. Assuming that he was identical with the William Lethieulier who was admitted to Westminster School in 1721/2, and who was then 10 years of age, he would have been about 32 years of age at the time of his death.

EDWARD HOUSTON. 26 Sandymount Avenue, Ballsbridge, co. Dublin.

P R S V R Y, &c. = PERSEVERE YE, &c. (11 S. xi. 318, 435, 477, sub ' Hangleton '). In one cf my commonplace books is an extract from some unnamed paper or book :

" In tlie parish church of Beeston Regis, near Cromer, the folloAving jeu d'esprit occupies a prominent position on the remains of a very elaborate screen separating the chancel. Four of the openings are filled with panels, on which are inscribed the Commandments and the Lord's Prayer and Creed. Under the two tables of the former is the following, in capital letters, which we leave to the ingenuity of our readers :

PRSVBY PRFCTMN

V R K P T H S P R C P T S T N

The vowel E explains the key."

Perhaps this last line is not, or was not on the panels. The extract is not dated, but some of those near it are of 1855-60. Perhaps some Norfolk correspondent can confirm or deny the above.

At the third reference J. T. F. remarks that he remembers seeing these initials somewhere, perhaps in ' The Boy's Own Book ' (c. 1845). It may be that he was reminded of one of the ' Paradoxes and Puzzles ' which appear in the edition of 1852, p. 568 :

" Eighteen words in twenty- three letters. What do the following letters signify in the French language, pronounced in the order in which they stand ?

Inneopyliavqliattliedcd Answer* Helene est nee au pays grec, elle y a ve"cu, elle y a tSte, elle y est decedee."

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

MOIRA COALS (US. xii. 482 ; 12 S. i. 38). The (to quote from a publication of a few months ago) " well-known colliery centre in North-West Leicestershire" owes its origin and name to the enterprise of the Earl of Moira, afterwards first Marquis of Hastings, who very soon after the year 1800, being entitled as Lord of the Manor to the minerals, began to sink for coal, and ultimately succeeded in reaching at a depth of upwards of 1,000 ft. a seam of coal about 11 ft. thick, and of superior quality The mine has since been worked continuously, and is

now in the hands of a limited company.. In 1834 was published in quarto ' Geo- logical Facts relating to the Ashby Coak Field,' by Edward Mammatt, F.G.S., with many coloured illustrations of strata and fossils ; and in later times Prof. Edward Hull has written on the subject.

W. B. H.

LORD MILNER' s PEDIGREE (12 S. i. 48). I was introduced to Lord Milner, when he was a freshman at Balliol, by the Rev. H. R. Bramley, for many years Fellow of Magdalen, and afterwards Canon of Lincoln. Milner- was a cousin of Bramley 's, and I alwaj^s heard that Bramley was a Yorkshireman.

Will this help MR. BULLOCK ? OXON.

NELSON MEMORIAL RINGS (US. xii. 233^ 361, 402, 469 ; 12 S. i. 34). It may interest MR. FOLEY to know that the " locket " in. my ring does contain hair.

GEO. W. G. BARNARD.

Norwich.

GUNFIRE AND RAIN (12 S. i. 10, 56). The idea that heavy gunfire produces rain is by no means confined to Galloway. Until recently there was a practice battery at Montrose, in the north-east of Scotland,,, and the neighbouring farmers would declare- that the firing always " broke the clouds" ; and to-day, among the farmers about twenty miles from a practice fort now in use, the supposition still survives, although scientists have discounted it, that the firing there produces rain. A farmer at Potters Bar in Hertfordshire told me that firing so far- away as Woolwich caused heavy rain to come. CUTHBERT REID.

34 Great James Street, Bedford Row, W.C.

DUCHESSES WHO HAVE MARRIED COM- MONERS (US. xii. 501 ; 12 S. i. 36, 57). 1. Isabella Bennet, only child of Henry,. Earl of Arlington, and widow of Heiuy FitzRoy, Duke of Grafton, natural son of King Charles II., married secondly, in. 1698, Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart., Speaker of the House of Commons. She died in 1722/3.

2. Sydney, widow of the sixth Duke of Manchester, married Sir Arthur Blackwood, K.C.B. They were the parents of the well- known author Algernon Blackwood, bom. 1869. G. G. M. G. C;

Mary, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Michel!,, Principal of Hertford College, Oxford, and widow of the Duke of Sutherland, married 1896 Sir Albert Kaye Rollit, M.P.

ANEURIN WILLIAMS..