Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/449

i2S.x.MAYi:M922.i NOTES AND QUERIES. 367 At the left corner, in a foliated circle, is an elephant with a creature below which seems to be an imaginative conception of a crocodile. At the right, in a similar circle, is an ostrich. Underneath Cutts has inscribed: 'An Early Representation of the Whale Fishery.' In the text he further comments:—

A very curious and interesting manuscript (Add. 27,695) recently acquired by the British Museum, which appears to be of Genoese Art, and of date about 1420  in the lower margin of folio 9 v., has an exceedingly interesting picture of a whaling scene, which we are very glad to introduce as a further illustration of the commerce and shipping of this early period. It will be seen that the whale has been killed, and the successful adventurers are "cutting out" the blubber very much after the modern fashion.

I cannot see that the whale has been killed, or that the hunters are cutting out the blubber after any fashion. It seems to me that this is an illustration of the whale as we find him discussed in the Bestiaries. His partially exposed back is taken by the mariners for an island. They hasten to it and build a fire, before which they warm themselves and take their ease. Then, as the whale feels the heat of the fire, he sinks to the bottom of the ocean and the mariners perish. The portion illustrated is the landing and the kindling of the fire.

—"It's just what I should call a tightish sort o' cob," said a witness in a horse case tried before a northern County Court judge the other day. Now of all trials the average judge likes horse cases the least. Each part of the country has its own equine vocabulary in addition to the recognized (but no less archaic and cryptic to the "unhorsey") terminology employed by Shakespeare and for generations by those connected with horses. The judge in question had to ask for a translation of the well-known northern expression "a tight (or tightish) horse." This was not readily forthcoming, insomuch as locally "a tight little horse" is nothing more or less than a tight little horse. Eventually another witness came to the rescue and put the colloquialism into other words, which, in a roundabout way, conveyed the same sense.

A classical description of a horse trial is to be found in Surtees's famous 'Handley Cross,' in which Mr. Jorrocks was sued and his famous Northumbrian huntsman, James Pigg, gave evidence. The judge remarked that an interpreter was necessary.

The term "tight" is not confined in its application to horses, for cows and fat beasts are frequently so described. One hears butchers and stock-feeders speaking of "tightish" bullocks. The word is invariably one of praise or commendation which may be qualified by a prefix—"just niceish, tight sort o' bullocks," and so on.

, on the accession of Queen Mary, became one of the tw r o Secre- taries of State, the other being Sir William Petre, who resigned in March, 1557, being succeeded by John Boxall. Sir John re- signed in April, 1558, but retained his membership of the Privy Council till Queen Mary's death (Dasent, ' Acts of the Privy Council,' vi., pp. 70, 300). He was knighted. Oct. 2, 1553 (Shaw, ' Knights of England,' ii., p. 66). Who were his parents ? Was he brother or uncle to Gilbert Bourne, Bishop of Bath and Wells ? He possessed property in Worcestershire, including the Manor of Battenhall, in the parish of St. Peter, Worcester, to which manor he retired on the accession of Queen Elizabeth. Soon after- wards, as High Steward of Worcester Cathedral, he embarked on a quarrel with his ancient enemy, Edwin Sandys, the new Protestant Bishop of Worcester, which landed him in the Marshalsea in 1563, from which he emerged at the cost of his principles and dignity. He died in 1570, leaving at least two sons, Anthony and Thomas, both of whom were recusants, the second being mentioned in the Concertatio Ecclesice. See Cal. S.P. Dom., 1547-80, 223 ; Strype, ' Annals,' I., ch. xxxv. ; ' Viet. Hist., Worcestershire,' ii. 47 sqq. ; Nash, ' Worces- tershire,' i. 593-4. Whom did he marry ? Bacon's 44th Apophthegm (Ellis and Spedd- ing) begins : Secretary Bourn's son kept a gentleman's wife in Shropshire, who lived from her husband with him. When he was weary of her, he caused her