Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/15

 ".—I should be glad to know the date when Watch Houses in villages were first started and if there are any still existing and dated. Mr. Gordon Home, in his guide to Epsom and district, 1901, says:—

Some years ago (since Mr. Gordon Home's time), when the stucco was removed, carved in stone beneath was discovered "Watch House," which may now be seen.

Another specimen existed at Sutton, Surrey, till about eight years ago; and that at Epsom was pulled down in 1848. .

.—I am anxious to learn particulars of the parentage and career of Richard Swift, who was the first Catholic Sheriff of London (1851-2) since the Reformation, and especially to trace a portrait of him. He was also member of Parliament for Sligo about the same period. All likely sources of information at the Guildhall have been consulted without success. The Illustrated London News of the time gives a representation of his carriage, but not a portrait.

.—An allusion to this was made in an article of The Times recently—query=pain or suffering. The context infers that good literature is a solace to those who wear "Theager's girdle." What is the origin of the phrase?

.—In 1586 William Vaux, with two others, was indicted for the murder of Nicholas Ridley; all three were acquitted. Was this Nicholas Ridley the bishop who was burnt in 1555, thirty-one years before? Six years afterwards the charge was renewed, and William Vaux was executed at Newcastle-on-Tyne.

' It will be remembered that in 'Northanger Abbey' Isabella Thorpe gives Catherine Morland a list of novels of the Radcliffe school, all of which are recommended as being "horrid." Their names are as follows: 'Castle of Wolfenbach,' 'Clermont,' 'Mysterious Warning,' 'Necromancer of the Black Forest,' 'Midnight Bell,' 'Orphan of the Rhine,' 'Horrid Mysteries.' It might well be supposed, and is sometimes stated, that such titles are purely fictitious, but I have good reason to believe the contrary. Indeed, I recently saw 'Horrid Mysteries' in a bookseller's catalogue which was some dozen years old. If I remember right, the book was in four volumes and published circa 1795.

I should be very grateful if any reader could supply me with the names of, and particulars concerning, the authors of the above romances, or in any way help me to locate copies, as I am most desirous of reading them.

—What kind of peat is supposed to have healing properties when applied to wounds? I am aware that "rock moss" has healing properties when bound upon a crushed foot or hand, and I have seen it so applied by workmen, who took the moss from a patch growing upon a rock in a quarry. It was bound with the underside, i.e., the root part of the moss, in contact with the wound. I believe that several moss growths are so used in folk medicine, and I have also heard it said that moss taken from the skull of a dead man has special healing properties.

.— In Southey's 'Commonplace Book,' Second Series, at pp. 121-2 Bishop Hall is cited, without a reference, as follows:—

Mr. J. Harris Stone, in 'England's Riviera,' at pp. 211, 212, gives Bishop Hall's work as the 'Great Mystery of