Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/449

 12.8. III. OCT., 1917-]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

' POLYDORON.' While recently searching the early volumes of our inestimable treasure-house '2s!. & Q.' I came across a query which, apparently, has remained unanswered for over half a century. At 3 S. i. 266 (April 5, 1862) C. B. CAREW asked for the author of ' Polydoron.' The author was Dean John Donne, and the book appeared in 1631. Its Shakespearean in- terest is indicated on p. 81 of the ' Shake- .speare Bibliography,' 1911.

WM. JAGGARD, Lieut.

SPROTBOROXJGH CHURCH : QUAINT CARVING OK PTJLPIT. At 6 S. ii. 167 EBORACUM inquired whether any reader could suggest a reason why the nine of diamonds was " carved on a pulpit in Spofforth Church, Yorkshire." No answer, so far as I am aware, appeared to this at the time. Thanks, however, to the kindness of a friend, I am now able to supply the answer.

Mr. Fred. Mitchell, architect and sur- veyor of Leeds, has written to me as follows :

" I am inclined to the opinion that the mention of Spofforth is an error, and should have been Sprotborough, a village a few miles west of Doneaster. I have looked up my notes of this church and find : ' Pine late oak pulpit, apparently contemporary very curious carving on door, a pack of cards, a jug, and a dice-box, said to Tepresent gambling, drinking, and roguery.' "

Mr. Mitchell was also kind enough to -send me a drawing of the door-panel, showing the jug, dice-box, and a pack of cards, on the top of which is distinct ly shown the six of diamonds (not the nine of diamonds, i.e., the curse of Scotland, mentioned in the original query).

CHARLES MENMTJIR, M.A. (Edin.).

23 Garscube Lane, Glasgow.

MERCHANTS' MARKS IN LONDON. As con- tributors to ' N. & Q.' in the past have shown an interest in the subject of mer- chants' marks, it may be worth while to place on record the disappearance of what I believe to be the last merchant's mark displayed upon the business premises of a London merchant those of Messrs. Basil Woodd & Sons, wine merchants, formerly of 34 New Bond Street.

Another mark of the same type, and also belonging to a firm of wine merchants, may still be seen in the advertisement columns of the newspapers ; this question of the late survival of marks in this particular trade is in itself of interest. The Bond Street mark formed part of a well-designed iron grille ; four of these filled the upper panels of a pair of gates leading into a yard, ihe mark within a circle making a central

roundel, and thus forming the nucleus and an integral part of the whole design.

How long this mark had been in use by the firm of Woodd I do not know ; but as the owner's initials (B. W.) appeared in it, and the building seemed to date from about the early seventies of last century, the mark, in this form, can hardly have been very old.

Messrs. Woodd gave up the premises a few years since, and in the early spring of this year the building was " done up " for the new occupants (Messrs. Sotheby). Some one, strangely lacking in the antiquarian instinct, and puzzled no doubt by this unusual design of a reversed 4 in the middle of a serviceable piece of ironwork, has hacked off the essential parts of the mark, leaving the circle, now containing one or two meaningless vertical and horizontal lines. In doing so he has spoilt an in- teresting historical survival, and made us all that much the poorer.

DONALD GUNN.

40 Dover Street, W.I.

A SIXTEENTH - CENTURY RECIPE FOR JELLY. In view of the food-shortage ques- tion the following may be of interest. It is written on the last folio of a volume of Oxford wills, series i. vol. 1, in a contem- porary hand. The volume finishes in 1548.

" A speciall 'Jely for Lent & for all tymes of the yere. Take a quarte of barley made very clene & bete it in a morter, likewise as ye bete furmenty, then wessch it clene & sethe it in water w* annes sede licorasse brosid, then strevne half a pound almonds & bete them bothe to gidder & streyne them w* the licour that they were sodden in & new boyle them to gidder & duste suge' & tormesalle to Color it & sethe them to gedder & streyne them & put ut in disshes till it be cole and if ye woll have whit Jely putt thereto in ye stede of tormesalle isainglasse in like p'porcion."

J. HARVEY BLOOM.

THE GREAT IN GALLOWAY. I am indebted to Mr. R. M. McClew, Registrar of Portpatrick, Wigtownshire, who occupies the house here mentioned, for the following interesting note. On p. 29 of The Scottish Field for January, 1916, a writer using the signature C. H. D. says :

" There is some ground for the tradition that Peter the Great passed through Portpatrick on his way to Ireland. Peter came to England in 1698 to study naval construction, and spent most of his time working in the royal dockyards at Deptford. If he paid a visit to Ireland, his most convenient route would be by Portpatrick. The tradition is that he arrived in the evening, spent the night in the inn which was known later as the Blair's Arms Hotel, and sailed in the morning with the Irish packet boat. The room he slept in