Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/463

 12 S. II. DEC. 2, 1910.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

457

"FELON" (12 S. ii. 350). The masculine of the Welsh adjective for yellow is melyn. According to the dictionary the feminine is melen, but jden (pronounced velen) is what I have always heard in the speech of South Wales. I had concluded that there could be no connexion between this word and " felon " before consulting the ' N.E.D.' There it is expressly stated that " the Celtic words often cited " as rocts of " felon " " are out of the question.'

DAVID SALMON.

EYES CHANGED IN COLOUR BY FRIGHT '12 S. ii. 350). Change in the colour of the iris, though rare, is not unknown. Cases of it will be found scattered through medical literature. (Consult Xeale's ' Medical Digest ' and the standard works on ophthalmology.) The change is probably produced in the same way as the bleaching of the hair through shock, namely, by the action of the sympathetic nerve upon the pigment cells. F.R C.S.

VILLAGE POUNDS (12 S. i. 29, 79, 117, 193, 275, 416, 474 ; ii. 14, 77, 197, 319). Around here (Talybont) there used to be a pound in every parish, and the little roofless walled enclosures, the size of a small room, still stand, disused, by the side of the highway in the adjacent parishes of Llanfigan, Llan- thetty, Llansaintffraed, Llanhamlach, and Llanfihangel-Talyllyn, and, doubtless, in many more. They might be compared to the sheep-pens erected on hill-farms, rather than to the more ambitious village pound in which Charles Dickens placed Mr. Pickwick. They seem to have fallen into disuse after the establishment of County Courts in 1847 <see ' Old Wales,' vol. iii. p. 217).

W. R. W.

Talybont, Brecon.

REV. RICHARD RATHBONE (12 S. ii. 289). Foster's ' Alum. Oxon.' gives : Thomas Rathbone, son of Richard, of Conway, co. Carnarvon, cler., matriculated from Jesus College, Oxford, March 26, 1779, aged 19; B.A., 1783 (?died Vicar of Llandebrog, Anglesea, December, 1812). W. R. W.

HARE AND LEFEVRE FAMILIES (12 S. ii. 128, 195, 397). I certainly do not think that Charles Lefevre, who was M.P. for Wareham, 1784-6, was the son of John Lefevre of Old Ford and of Heckfield Place. John left an only daughter and heiress, who married Charles Shaw, Lord of the Manor of Burley, near Ringwood. He took the name and arms of Lefevre by royal licence in 1789

and was for many years M.P. for Reading. This Charles Shaw- Lefevre was the father of the late Viscount Eversley, G.C.B., and the grandfather of the present Lord Eversley.

John Lefevre died in 1790 at Old Ford, and was buried at West Ham. His will, a lengthy one, is at P.C.C. This might throw some light on the question. But I think that I am right. There is no mention in a pedigree I have of any son of John's.

, MASTER OF ARTS.

BOMBAY GRAB : TAVERN SIGN (12 S. ii. 349). There is a story to the effect that the old Bow Brewery obtained the first Govern- ment contract for the export of beer to India. The vessel which conveyed the precious cargo bore the name of The Bombay Grab, and this name was adopted for the name of the tavern eventually opened adjacent to the brewery. Concerning the word " grab " the late Col. W. F. Prideaux has written as follows :

" Ives in his ' Voyage from England to India,' in the year 1754, p, 43, says : ' Our E. I. Company had nere (Bombay) one ship of 40 guns, one of 20. one grab of 18 guns, and several other vessels.' This may have been the identical grab after which the tavern was named. Orme, the historian of India, described the grab as having ' rarely more than two masts, though some have three ; those of three are about 300 tons burthen ; but the others are not more than 150 ; they are built to draw very little water, being very broad in proportion to their length, narrowing, however, from the middle to the end, while instead of bows they have a prow, pro- jecting like that of a Mediterranean galley.' It appears to have been modelled from an Arab vessel, which was known as a ' ghurab,' or raven, a name analogous to our own ' corvette.' The name constantly occurs in the naval annals of India, from the arrival of the Portuguese down to the near end of the eighteenth century."

JOHN T. PAGE.

The query of P. M. (10 S. iv. 107) was well replied to at ibid., 177. As an instance of the uses these boats were put to by the Indian Government I can tell how my grandfather Sir Charles Malet, when in 1785 he was sent from Calcutta by the Government as their minister to the Maharatta Court at Poona, via Bombay, travelled on the Nancy grab, taking two and a half months on the journey. HAROLD MALET.

INFLUENZA (12 S. ii. 328). I have a copy of ' Medical Vulgar Errors,' bv John Jones, M.B., London, 1797. At p. 80 we read :

"That the influenza is a very dangerous dis- temper, and a new one ; never known in this country till a few years ago ; at which the College, by their circular letters, cried out for help from all quarters ; were themselves greatly alarmed ; and spread a general terror."