Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/184

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. ii. A., me.

a>yluuis in Ireland, whether they are prisoners or not. became chargeable to the prison vote instead of to the rate. The mistakes in the drafting of Acts of Parliament are numerous, and have often produced ludicrous or mischievous consequences. To give a few illustrations. In the days of the old watchmen, a Bill for the better regulation of the metropolitan watch was brought into the House of Commons. Among other provisions was a clause that the watchmen should be compelled to sleep during the day. When this was read in Committee an old baronet stood up and expressed his wish that it could be made to extend to members of the House of Commons, as he should be glad to come under the operation of the enactment. Sometimes clauses have been struck out of Bills without due attention to the connexion of the remainder. Lord Stanhope, in the House of Lords in 1816, stated that it had been enacted that the punishment of fourteen years' transportation was to be the penalty for a particular offence, and that upon conviction one half thereof should go to the King and one half to the informer."

LEONARD J. HODSON. Kobertsbridge, Sussex.

MAJOR CAMPBELL'S DUEL (12 S. ii. 70, 118). To prevent mistakes it should be stated that the Army List for 1807 gives the following information in its list of Captains in the 21st Regiment of Foot (or Royal North British Fuzileers) : John Levington Camp- bell, Dec. 1, 1804 (rank in the army, March 9, 1800). Alexander Boyd, Nov. 28, 1805. Alexander Campbell, June 12, 1806 (brevet major, Jan. 1, 1805). The last was the junior in the list of Captains, his immediate senior being the unfortunate Boyd, who became second lieutenant in the same regiment, July 6, 1800, and afterwards first lieutenant, thus spending all his military career in the same regiment, whereas Major Campbell was a new-comer. Curiously enough, Major Campbell's name still appears as a captain in the regiment in the Monthly Army List dated April 1, 1808.

W. R. W.

CLEOPATRA AND THE PEARL (12 S. i. 128, 198, 238, 354, 455: ii. 37, 98). I am much indebted to MR. PENRY LEWIS for his interesting reply, though it should be pointed out that the action to which he refers was partly, or possibly even entirely, a mechanical one. The pearl would remain in the fowl's gizzard, and there be subjected to the grinding action of the pebbles normally there.

Some one learned in fowl physiology will be able to tell us whether the gizzard con- tains any acid gastric juice, or whether this occurs in, and is confined to, the crop (which the food enters before passing to the gizzard) or the intestine (connected to the gizzard). ALFRED S. E. ACKERMANN.

CALVERLEY : CHARADE IV. ( 12 S. ii. 128). It would interest others besides the inquirer if answers to all six charades could be noted here, for I, for one, have often vainly puzzled over Xos. I. to IV. The answer to Xo. V. is, I believe, " marrow-bones," the answer to No. VI. is " coal-scuttle "; but my dull head has never been able to decipher the other four. V. DE H. L.

The answer is Drugget. (See 6 S. xi. 17.)

WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

" HAT TRICK " : A CRICKET TERM (12 S. ii. 70, 136). My friend Mr. Sydney H. Pardon, long the editor of Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack, gives me the following infor- mation as from, a most accurate historian of cricket :

" 'Hat-trick' is so called because, when a bowler got three wickets in three balls, a collection was made for him, the money being dropped into a hat. Later, a hat, instead of the money,, was given to the successful bowler. It cannot be said when or where either custom originated."

The writer of this explanation adds : " At one time it was customary for passengers on a vessel to give ' hat money ' to the captain at the end of the voyage." This brings the term into relation with the slang use of "cap" in ' H.E.D.,' recent examples of which were given at 9 S. xi. 184, 297.

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

JAMES WILSON, M.P. (12 S. ii. 109). James Wilson, M.P. for York City 1826-30, who died at Brunswick Place, Regent's Park, on Sept. 7, 1830, had a residence in Cane Grove in the island of St. Vincent, in the West Indies, being a lieutenant-colonel and member of the Council in that island. Sneaton Castle, Yorkshire, was his English country seat. G. R. Park, in his work entitled ' Parliamentary Representation of York- shire ' (1886), gives the date of death as Sept. 2, 1833. WALTER HAYLER.

REMIREMONT HAILSTONES, MAY, 1907 (12 S. ii. 27). Some time after the account of these hailstones appeared in the news- papers, I came on the story in a book printed long before 1907. Unfortunately my memory does not tell me whether the book was in English, French, or German, but I remember that the place at which the hail- stones fell was far away from Remiremont, at a great distance towards the east. Prob- ably there are several versions of the folk- tale. Why was it suddenly revived ? That is the question.

Some few years ago during a drought a story became current in North Lincolnshire