Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/23

 12 s. in. JAN. e, 1917.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

17

"Wilks's ' History of Hampshire,' vol. ii. -p. 78, is the following :

" Sir Henry Mildrray was fortunate in escaping 'the ruin of such confiscation, through the estates of Twyford and Marwell having been purchased for, and settled upon, his wife Jane (or Anne ?) and her heirs, according to the will of her father Sir Leonard Holiday, in 1595 Sheriff, and in 1605 Lord Mayor, of London."

A communication re ' Lord Mayors,' by MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A., is given in
 * X. & Q.,' 1 S. xi. 271. He says :

" Sir Leonard Holliday, Lord Mayor 1605, when the Gunpowder Treason was discovered, was buried in the church of St. Michael, Basing- hall. His arms were Sable, three helmets argent, within a bordure of the second."

In reply to M. M.'s query (12 S. ii. 433), I will quote the following excerpts from a communication at 11 S. iii. 105:

" Dr. Peter Mew(s), Bishop of Bath and Wells 1673, and of Winchester 1684-1706, born at Caundle Purse 25 March, 1618/19, was the son of Ellis Mew(s) by his marriage with a daughter of John Winniffe of Sherborne, and sister of Dr. Thomas Winniffe, sometime Bishop of Lincoln. His ancestry has not hitherto been traced."

'TEMPLAR further says :

" Peter Mewe of Caundle Purse died before 6 March, 1597 /8, having had issue at least four sons ; [and later adds] One of the elder sons of Peter Mewe of Caundle Purse was probably father of Ellis Mew(s) and grandfather of the bishop."

JOHN L. WHITEHEAD.

Ventnor.

" SWANK " (12 S. ii. 408). The incident appears to be a variant of one related in an

evening newspaper about a year ago, the letters there used forming " Swakfowly " :

-a cryptogram not very difficult to read with the help of the hint which accompanied the query. W. B. H.

"ST. BUNYAN'S DAY" (12 S. ii. 129). This name may be due to a dim perception of a traditional designation. In ' The Abbot,' chap, xv., Scott makes Adam Wood- -cock, the jovial falconer of Castle Avenel, swear "by St. Martin of Bullions." To this he appends the foot-note : " The Saint S within, or weeping Saint of Scotland. If his festival (fourth July) prove wet, forty days of rain are expected."

In the course of centuries ' the saint's personal name iaa,y have gradually gone out of use, while that of his abode has retained -an imperfect hold and become what we see. This, of course, is only a suggestion, but it seems worth while to offer it as possibly explaining a distinctly curious appellation. THOMAS BAYNE.

MOTHER AND CHILD (12 S. ii. 190,316). While puzzling over how to present properly the readily demonstrable physiological im- possibility suggested in the query, I struck the trail leading to ' Foetal v. Maternal Im- pressions ' in the Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association, August, 1916, xiii. 391-6. In this Dr. Pohlman presents professorial, practitional, and personal views with such cogency that it is hard to stop quoting with the following only :

" The greatest difficulty in discussing the doc- trine of maternal impression has come from trying to show how impossible such a teaching is rather than in analysing the evidence which gives birth to the myth " (p. 393).

After going into such evidence at length, he concludes (p. 396) :

" Maternal influence, therefore, does not make out a case. The strongest arguments it can bring are its antiquity, its ubiquity, and its iniquity," for elaboration of which the reader must be referred to the magazine, accessible in London and elsewhere. The most interest- ing part is

"a pseudo-hypothesis of my own which is scien- tifically reasonably sound, although it may appeal to you as very absurd" (p. 393) ;

and at p. 396 :

"My proposition covers all the facts, whereas theirs does not. You cannot prove that a child is sensitized chemically to the mother, but you can prove that the mother is sensitized to the child." This theory seems strongly corroborated by the recent great advances in knowledge of the effects of the internal secretions (for instance, as set out in Dr. W. B. Bell's latest book), according to which the woman's mind is the sum-total of these. The effect of the temporary secretion, indirectly from the foetus, is to make her mind open to impres- sions which ordinarily would be slurred over.

A few references to recent matter are : 'Being Well-Born' (M. F. Guyer, 1916, pp. 159-62, ' Myth of Maternal Impressions'); ' Maternal Impressions. Belief in their ex- istence is due to unscientific method of thought. No evidence whatever that jus- tifies faith in them. How the superstition originated ' (the editor, Paul Popenoe, in The Journal of Heredity, November, 1915, vi. 512-18) ; and what is called a ground- work of the recent investigations on the ma- terial side of the subject : ' A Study of the Causes underlying the Origin of Human Monsters : Third Contribution to the Study of the Pathology of Human Embryos i (F. P. Mall, 1908).

More in our line, and apparently a real contribution to the folk-lore of the subject