Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/193

 12 S. IV. JULY, 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

187

WILLIAM BERBY OF GUERNSEY. Can any one kindly inform me if William Berry, who kept a " Classical and Mathematical and Commercial Academy" in Guernsey, 1813, was the same " William Berry, late of the Royal College of Arms, London," who wrote ' The History of the Island of Guernsey, Dec. 1814,' published by Long- man, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Pater- noster Row, in 1815 ? If not, who was he, and where did he come from ? The Berry (or de Berry) family previously came from South Molton or Barnstaple (where they were freemen) and other parts of North Devonshire. OSCAR COHTJ BERRY.

Monument House, Monument Street, E.C.3.

MERYON OR MEBIGNAN FAMILY. Can any of your readers give me information regard- ing the family of Meryon or Merignan, Huguenots living at Rye in Sussex at the end of the seventeenth century ? I should be interested to know whether Charles Meryon, the celebrated French etcher, was descended from this family, and if so, how. There is a tombstone at Rye to a Lewis Meryon who died in 1824, but I cannot dis- cover his relationship to the etcher.

E. W. H. F.

" BIAJER " IN 1832. On p. 39 of ' The Pocket Album, and Literary Scrap Book ' (London, 1832), dedicated to Edward Lytton Bulwer, Esq., there is the ' Evening Song of the Biajers, or Sea-Gypsies,' by Miss M. L. Beevor. The Oxford Dictionary omits " Biajer." What other books contain it as an English word ? Is it from Castilian viajero, meaning "voyager," "traveller"? EDWARD S. DODGSON.

Albert House, Bath.

KENT FAMILY AND HEADBOURNE WORTHY. In the church of Headbourne Worthy, Hampshire, there is a brass to the memory of John Kent, son of Simon Kent of Reading, and scholar of Winchester College. He died in I think 1434, presumably from the Black Death. Is anything known of the circumstances which led to the brass being placed in the chancel ? Were the Kents connected with Headbourne Worthy in any way ?

The name Kent is, I suppose, Celtic. I should be much obliged if any one could give me any information regarding this family whence they originally sprang, &c. There are many of the name to be found in Ireland at the present time. Would these be immigrants there originally ?

M. WHEREAT.

CHILDREN'S STORY OF THE WARS OF THE ROSES. In or about the year 1848 a story for children was published, of which the following is the merest outline. A little child, heir to a great Lancastrian nobleman (slain in battle or beheaded in the Wars of the Roses), is saved from death by the devotion of a nurse and a faithful forester. The boy is concealed in a forest, where he grows up, and, after many hairbreadth escapes, is restored to his name and honours after the battle of Bos worth.

I shall be most grateful if the title of this book, with the publisher's name and date of publication, may be recalled to me.

G. C.

Tickencote.

" GADGET." I expected to find this word in the ' Sailor's Word-Book,' as I had an indistinct recollection of hearing it at sea, but I cannot find it in Smyth's compendium of nautical terms ; neither is it in the ' N. E. D.' or the ' E. D. D.,' or Farmer and Henley's ' Slang and its Analogues.' Can any one say in what connexion it is used ? ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

" SMELL A RAT." Is the German equiva- lent of this phrase, " Unrat wittern," derived from the English ? The similarity in sound seems too close to be altogether accidental.

The English expression appears to occur for the first time in Skelton's ' Image of Hypocrisy ' (published in 1550). It is also used more than once by authors in the seventeenth century, so it is of fairly ancient

origin.

N. E. TOKE.

DESSEIN'S HOTEL, CALAIS. When was this hotel, where Sterne stayed during his " Sentimental Journey," pulled down ? Any information concerning the house during the latter years of its career as a hostelry will be welcome. Is it the case that it was originally a chateau ? T. F. D.

BODIMANT FAMILY. In the ' Visitation of Somersetshire in 1623,' edited by Dr. Colby, and published by the Harleian Society in 1876, one of the quartering assigned to the Harvy family (p. 47) is. Argent, a fesse sable between three bulls heads cabossed gules (Bodimant). These arms are not to be found in Papworth or Burke, nor do I find any trace of the family of Bodimant in any of the numerous works I have consulted. I shall be glad if any of your readers can throw light on the matter.

CURIOUS.