Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/23

 12 s. ii. JULY 1,1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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"How NOT TO DO IT" (12 S. i. 508). I have a little book, " What to do, and How to do it ; or, Morals and Manners taught by examples. By Peter Parley," London, no date A writing inside shows that it was given to me in 1851.

In a list of his books made by Samuel Griswold Goodrich ("Peter Parley") him- self, quoted in Allibone's Dictionary, the date of first publication is 1844, presumably in the United States.

Dickens began to write ' Little Dorrit ' in September, 1855. It may be worth noting that in chap. x. of Book the First of ' Little Dorrit,' " How to do it " occurs once, viz., p. 76 of the original edition, line 14 from foot, while " How not to do it " appears again and again.

It is at least possible that the above-named little book, with its title in plain letters on the cover, was on the Dickens nursery book- shelves in 1855 and earlier.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

FACT OB FANCY? (12 S. i. 509.)

1. "That an Englishman's house is his <;astle." See'N.E.D.,' s.v. 'Castle,' e, phrase:

" [1567, Staunforde, 'Plees del Corou.'Hb, Ma nieason est a moy come mon castel hors de quel le ley ne moy arta a fuer.] 1588, Lambard, ' Eiren.' II. vii. 257, Our law calleth a man's house, his castle, meaning that he may defend himselfe therein. 1600-16, Coke, 5 ' Rep.' 9t b, The house of every man is to him as his Castle and Fortresse, as well for his defence against injury and violence, as for his repose. 1856, Emerson. ' Eng. Traits, Wealth,' Wks. (Bohn) ii. 73, The house is a castle which the King cannot enter."

Stephen's ' Blackstone,' vol. iv. p. 108, ed. 1880, says :

" No outward doors of a man's house can in general be broken open to execute any civil pro- cess ; though in criminal cases the public safety supersedes the private."

In Scotland, according to Brewer's ' Phrase and Fable,' the law is different.

2. Gravel v. clay.

"For warmth, for dryness, for absence of fogs, and for facility of walking after rain, just when the air is purest and at its best, there is nothing like gravel ; but when gravel has been rendered foul by infiltration with organic matters, it may easily become a very hotbed of disease." ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' eleventh ed., 'Soil.'

ALFRED GWYTHER.

Windham Club.

With regard to MR. ACKERMANN'S query Xo. 2, the supposed superiority of gravel to clay, I wish to assure him that, so far as London is concerned, facts will prove this to be a fancy. If he will examine the Registrar- General's Returns and the geological map of

London, he will find that the highest and the healthiest parts of London are on the i. northern and southern, of the clay basin of the Thames, such as Highgote, Hampstead, and Harrow on the north, and Richmond Hill, Sydenham Hill, and Forest Hill on the south. Gravel is always the soil found next or near the water course. I went very fully into this question in a paper which I had the honour of reading before the British Balneological and Climatological Society, entitled ' The Clay and Gravel Soils of London and the Relative Advantages of dwelling upon Them,' published in the Society's Journal for January, 1902.

S. D. CLIPPINGDALE, M.D.

2. Gravel r. clay. Before population became so thick, gravel was estimated a more healthy soil to live on than clay, because gravel assisted drainage. You dug a hole, and the loose nature of the soil did the rest for the drainage, whereas clay did not so help, and care had to be taken to lead the drainage away or to empty out cesspits or pools in a clay soil frequently. But now population is more dense, on a gravelly soil, unless care be taken, you may get your neighbour's drainage.

Another reason in favour of gravel is that ' it is not so cold to live on as clay.

Hie ET UBIQUE.

ENGLISH CARVINGS OF ST. PATRICK (12 S. i. 429, 478). The following letter serves to explain why I thought the figure on the vaulting of Milton Abbey was St. Patrick, but does not tell us who he is :

St. Peter's Vicarage, Portland, 14th June, 1916.

DEAK SIR. Sir Everard Hambro has sent me your letter of the 9th instant, and asked me to reply to it, as for some years I lived at Milton, and studied, and wrote on, every feature of the Abbey, including the bosses. I am afraid that the young man who took you round the church unin- tentionally misinformed you. There is no boss of St. Patrick in the vaulting. The only representa- tion of the saint in Milton Abbey is on the monu- ment which Sir Everard erected to the memory of his father, Baron Hambro. Yours faithfully,

HKRBEKT PKXTIN,

Hon. Secretary of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club.

The statement surprised me so much that I thought it deserved the query to which CANON FOWLER replied. If the foliage in question is not shamrock, Medicago lup it is at least a trefoil of some kind ; and there seems to be no doubt that it is work of the fourteenth century. Mr. Pent in. in his interesting article about those medalli"i^ in The Antiquary of 1908, pp. 10-14, admits