Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/341

 12 S. IV. DEC., 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

335

slain Lord Audley at the battle of Blore- heath in 14.59 (ef. Burke's ' General Ar mory,' 1878, p. 575).

Sir John Clerke again was granted the arms of the Due de Longueville, whom he took prisoner at the battle of Spurs in 1513, as an augmentation to his own coat ; and those arms are still borne by his descendant on a sinister canton (ib., p. 199, and Foster'; 4 Baronetage,' 1881, p. 126). E. O. W.

"SLOUCH" (12 S. iv. 156). I suspect this of being a doublet of "slush," which finds place in the 'E.D.D.' as denoting "a flow of water, a large body of water," and many another sort or source of sloppiness. But indeed, though MB. J. J. FREEMAN has overlooked it, the same invaluable record has slouch = a douche, a form of which is the leather conduit-pipe that fills an engine boiler. ST. S WITHIN.

In the county of Durham the word " slouch " for " drench " is still occasionally used, chiefly by the oldest generation. When a person throws water by the bucket- ful on a yard or stones to clean them, or on a vehicle for the same purpose, he (or she) is said to be " slouching " it or them.

J. W. FAWCETT. Consett, co. Durham.

Did not the witnesses call that leather hose a " sloush " ? Quotations for " sloush" used as a verb (equivalent to " slush ") are to be found in the ' N.E.D.' L. L. K.

'LovE, CARE, AND STRENGTH' (12 S. iv. 300). The title of the poem in which occurs the line

If any little word of mine

is ' Pleasant Words,' and a collection con- taining it is entitled ' The Year-Book of Beautiful Thoughts for Boys and Girls,' edited by J. A. Greenough, and published in America by G. W. Jacobs & Co. at 5s. It may be that the origin of the poem is American, and although no date is given to the above book, it appeared before ' The Treasury of Consolation ' mentioned by your correspondent.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

" SON OF A DT;KE, BROTHER OF A KING " (12 S. iv. 219). Would this be Anthony Woodville, second Earl Rivers (1442-83) ? If so, it should read " earl," not " duke." His father, the first earl, when captured at Sandwich by the Yorkists (Christmas, 1459), was, with Anthony, haled before the Duke

of York, his son March (Edward IV.), and" Warwick the Kingmaker, and by them " rated " in turn, in that he was the son of a "mere esquire" and had made himself by his marriage. This " esquire " was Richard Woodville of the Mote, near Maidstone, and afterwards of Graf ton, Northants, " esquire of the body " to Henry V. Who his father was is doubtful ; and the cause and date of the " esquire's " death are uncertain. An- thony, at any rate, was son of an earl and brother of a king (in this case Richard III.),, and all three died by violence.

GEORGE MARSHALL. 21 Parkfield Road, Liverpool.

BISHOP HALL ON DOING NOTHING (12 S~ iv. 300). "There is nothing more trouble- some to a good minde, then to doe nothing. For, besides the furtherance of our estate,, the mind doth both delight, and better it self with exercise," are the first words of section 81 in the Second Century of Bishop Joseph Hall's 'Meditations and Vowes,. Divine and Morall.' EDWARD BENSLY.

ROMAN ROADS IN BRITAIN : THEIR ALIGN- MENT (12 S. iv. 216, 246). According to Ward's ' Roman Era in Britain,' the line of the Fosse Way was not so undeviating as MR. MOORE seems to think. Ward says- (p. 29) :

" The popular belief that undeviating straight- ness is the distinguishing mark of a Roman road is not borne out by facts. The Foss Way nearest approaches this condition. Throughout its ^ miles between Lincoln and Axminster it never deviates more than six miles from a straight line joining these places. Its gentle sinuosities swing it from time to time across this line, but no- where do road and line coincide. It provide^ a remarkably direct route, but not a straight one. See also chaps, v. and vi. of Forbes and Burmester's ' Our Roman Highways,' a very interesting and brightly written work.

The Northumberland portion of Watling Street was most elaborately surveyed by Henry McLauchlan in 1850. Through the generosity of the then Duke of Northumber- land, the results of the survey were published in ' A Survey of the Watling Street from the, Tees to the Scotch Border.'

W. E. WILSON.

Hawick.

In ' The Annals of England,' vol. L pp. xi, xii, I find these words :

" Our early historians mention four great roads by which South Britain was traversed, and these have usually been considered the work of its conquerors ; but recent research has led to the conclusion that the Romans only kept