Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/522

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. 11. DEC. 23, ioi&

the tiny particles of colouring matter which give the hair its colour. All infants at birth have blue . In some babies immediately after birth pigment granules begin to develop in the iris. Thus they become brown- or black-eyed. In others, however, no such pigment formation takes place and the eyes remain blue or grey through- out life.

" ' If this, at present blue-eyed former convict, is really the missing brown-ejed banker, a rea- sonable explanation of the discrepancy in the eye- colouring would be that under the stress of phy- sical and mental shock the colouring matter, which had in early life developed in such iris, had atrophied or disappeared, leaving the eyes the original blue colouring present at birth.' "

ROCKINGHAM. Boston, Mass.

JOHN PRINE, 1568 (12 S. ii. 390). There is a lithographic engraving of the inscription in ' Inscriptions and Devices, in the Beau- champ Tower, Tower of London,' by William Robertson Dick (preface dated 1853), Plate XXX. The letterpress, p. 28, says :

" This person is said to have been a Romish priest, confined during the reign of Elizabeth, for adhering to the Romish plots against her govern- ment."

In the inscription, according to the lithograph, the date 1568 does not exhibit the same care as that given to " Verbum," &c., and the name. Before 1568 is what may be " 6 Fb."

As the T at the end of " manet " is un- finished, apparently formed by shallow incisions only, it may be that " 6 Fb " was hurriedly scratched by Prine. Possibly he was put to death on Feb. 6, if what appears to be "6 Fb " means that date.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

J. T. STATON (12 S. ii. 391). James Taylor Staton was born Jan. 16, 1817, in Bradshawgate, Bolton, and was early left an orphan. He was sent to Chetham's College, Manchester, to be educated, and there acted as servant to the Governor. On leaving that institution he was bound apprentice to Mr. Holden, letterpress printer, Bolton, and eventually started in business for him- self, occupying two or three different ad- dresses in the town until 1863, when he removed to Manchester, and entered the employ of John Heywood. He returned to his native town in 1867 as a journalist to his former fellow apprentice, John Tillotson, acting as sub-editor and overseer of The Bolton Evening News until 1871. After a short engagement as editor of The Farn- worth Observer (1872-3), he again went to Manchester, and continued in the service of Heywood as reader until his death on

May 26, 1875. He was twice married, and' had ten children by his first wife. He was one of the most prolific dialect writers Lan- cashire has produced, and my Bibliography of him (which may not be complete) has forty titles. He put into the Lancashire- dialect, as spoken in Bolton, the Song of Solomon at the request of Prince Lucian Buonaparte, and he edited The Bowton Luminary, un Turn Foiut Telegraph, which ran into 14 volumes (1852-62), and which was continued as The Lankishire loominary, un wicldy lookin-glass, when he went to Manchester in 1863. It ceased publication with the second volume in 1865. Several of his sketches went into a second edition,, and most of them were " comic " or " hu- morous," and enjoyed considerable popu- larity in a day when dialect literature had a " vogue," and especially so at the famous " penny readings " of the time.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

[Particulars will also be found in our corre- spondent's work ' Bibliographia Boltonensis' (Manchester University Press, 1914-)].

CHRISTOPHER URSWICK (12 S. ii. 108, 197,. 259). At the first reference mention was made of a statement by Alfred von Reumcnt that Christopher Urswicfc of Bambridge was Henry VIII. 's ambassador to Hungary. Is there not some confusion here between Christopher Urswick (1448-1522), who went on several embassies for Henry VTL, and Christopher Bainbridge (1464 7-1514), who was Henry VIII. 's ambassador to Pope- Julius II. ? Cooper, ' Athense Cantabri- gienses,' vol. i. ' Additions and Corrections,' p. 526, says that the two individuals are confounded in Giustinian's Despatches, and the ' D.N.B.' gives a warning in its life of Christopher Bainbridge.

At p. 259 ante, the occurrence was noted of Christopher Urswick among the dramatis personce of ' Richard III.' He is a much more prominent character in Ford's ' Perkin Warbeck.' EDWARD BENSLY.

TILLER Bo WE, BRANDRETH, &c. (12 S. ii. . 430). All these terms are fully explained and illustrated in ' N.E.D. ' ; for " Bran- dreth," see also ' Glossary to Durham Acct. Rolls ' (Surtees Society). " Maubre " is an obsolete form of marble, which sometimes denotes a marble vessel or slab. J*. T. F.

Durham.

' DictionariumBritannicum,' by X.-Bailev>- London, 1730, has :

" Brandrith,, rail or fence about a well." " Gavelock, a Pick or Bar of Iron to entcc

Stakes into the Ground."

. B. H.