Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/154

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [is s. n. AUG. 19, me.

BURTON AND SPEKE: AFRICAN TRAVEL. I shall be very much obliged for any help in find- ing out the date of an article contributed by Capts. Burton and Speke on their travels in seeking the source of the Nile to one of the Scottish quarterlies or monthlies, in which, inter alia, I read a most interesting descrip- tion of the rearing up of court favourites at the courts of the numerous small poten- tates. The women were fed, or rather drenched, with pure milk from birth up- wards, a certain number of wooden measures being allotted to each in proportion to age, and poured down their throats, just as fowls are crammed in England. At maturity great masses of adipose tissue hung down from their jaws, elbows, and knees ; and they got so fat that they could not stand upright, and their only means of locomotion was by means of either go-carts or rollers affixed under then* knees and elbows. I most distinctly remember reading this article in a Scotch magazine in the Gateshead Mechanics' Institute Library when house surgeon in the Gateshead Dispensary in the years 1870- 71-72. Is any record of Burton and Speke's writings kept in the British Museum ?

C. STENNETT REDMOND, M.D.

81 High Street South, East Ham.

REFERENCES WANTED. 1. Where occurs for the first time the expression " brilliant second " as applied to Austria, and what is the German for it ?

2. What is the exact wording of the phrase credited to Frederick II. about taking what he wanted and letting the diplomats fix it up for him afterwards ? What is the reference, and in what language, French or German, was the phrase spoken ?

3. Matthew Arnold speaks in his 'Essays' of " 1'homme sensuel moyen." In Granville Barker's ' Madras House ' the expression occurs several times.

I notice that some of my French scholarly friends never heard of the phrase. Where does it come from ? O. G.

THE CUSTODY OF CORPORATE SEALS. Is it customary for seals of corporate bodies to be secured by duplicate or triplicate keys, one or two of which are held by members ? A biographical notice of an active public man in the provinces says that at one and the same time he held one of the keys of a County Council seal, as a member, and also of a borough seal, as an alderman, being selected in each capacity for the purpose. One i familiar with the resolution : " That the common [or corporate] seal be affixed,'

&c. ; and my impression was that the usual course is simply to entrust the metal seal itself to whoever' fills the office of clerk,, to be used when authorized and required.

W. B. H.

FRANCIS WHITTLE, M.P. Who was Francis Whittle, M.P. Westbury, January* L809, till he resigned his seat the next year ?

W. R. W.

JOHN WILLIAMS, M.P. Who was John, Williams, M.P. Saltash, May to June, 1772 r when unseated on petition ? He was de- 'eated at Fowey, 1768, and Poole, 1774. Would he be the grandson of John Williams of Looe, M.P. Fowey, November, 1701, to 1702, when defeated ? A John Williams of Budleigh Salterton, Devon, died Dec. 6, 1789. W. R. W.

" WINDOSE." In Harl. MS. 847, folio 53, is given a list of artillery stores, &c., required in the field, amongst which occurs the following item : " Windoses for the defence of ordinnance." What was a " windose " 2 The date of the MS. is 1578.

J. H. LESLIE.

BOY-ED AS SURNAME. To what European or other language does this singular personal name belong ? Had it not been borne by a German emissary, albeit of tarnished reputa- tion, I should have reckoned it a Yankee combination of Boy and Edward. Can it be Slavonic, or Hungarian ?

N. W. HILL.

RAYNES PARK, WIMBLEDON, SURREY. Can any reader tell me the origin of the name of Raynes Park, Wimbledon, Surrey ? Was it named after the Rayne family, who owned the property of West Barnes Park, Surrey ? LEONARD C. PRICE.

Essex Lodge, Ewell.

THOMAS CHACE. The mansion on Bromley Common, Kent, now belonging to Mr. A. C. Norman, who resides there, and the eighteenth-century house called Elm field > which is on the same side of the road, about 200 yards nearer to Bromley, were onee the property of Mr. Thomas Chace, who died in 1788, and whose monument is in Bromley Church. \Ve are there told that he was in the house in which he was born at Lisbon during the earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755 ; and in The Cornhill Magazine for May, 1910, the Rev. P. H. Ditchfield gives extracts from his manuscript account of " his sufferings and escape " on that occasion.