Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/342

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NOTES AND QUERIES. ti2s.iv. DEC., ms.

in repair, and perhaps improved, the roads which they found in use on their settlement in the island."

Flaherty published his book in 1855. Has anybody since that date argued for the pre- Roman origin of the four great Roman roads ? If so, references would be of value in this discussion.

JOHN B. WAINEWBIGHT.

' Britannia.' in Murray's series of " Handy Classical Maps," gives the Roman roads in Britain in convenient form. B.

The S.P.C.K. are publishing a third and revised edition of Codrington's ' Roman Roads in Britain,' which might be of service to the querist. J. R. THOBNE.

THE EGLINTON TOURNAMENT, 1839 (12 S. iii. 211, 285, 367).' Saint John's Wood, its History, its Houses,' &c., by Alan Mont- gomery Eyre, 1913, contains (pp. 113-21) descriptions of (1) the rehearsals held in London, at the Eyre Arms, Finchley Road, on Tuesdays and Saturdays for some time before the actual event ; (2) the tournament ^ itself at Eglinton Castle in August, 1839, and incidents thereat ; (3) the production, a few weeks later, at the London Opera- House, of a burlesque, ' Fun among the Knights of Chivalry,' intended to ridicule the tournament, but proving a dead failure.

W. B. H.

HUSSAR'S SWORD (12 S. iv. 130, 258). Runkel is the name of certain sword - smiths who worked in Solingen in the late

eighteenth century and the early nineteenth. In the armoury of the Tower there is a sword. No. 255, catalogued as " early XIX. century," bearing on the back " T. T. Runkel Sohlingen " ; and in the armoury at Windsor Castle are some half-dozen swords whose blades bear the name of one or other of the Runkels. One of these weapons, No. 633, said to have belonged to George III., bears on the back of the blade " T. T. Runkel Solingen " ; and another, said to have " been made for George IIL in 1821," has " J. J. Runkel." There is possibly a misprint in the catalogue here, as George III. died in 1820 ; probably George IV. is meant. Another example at Windsor has the name " F. F. Runkel." The custom of these workmen seems to have been to put their names on the back of the blade, only one at Windsor being marked on the side.

J. R. H.'s weapon probably dates from the early years of the nineteenth century ; I

-can offer no translation of the inscription,

but it often happen thdt inscriptions on sword-blades are misspelt or are otherwise erroneous. The standard of book-learning amongst the sword-cutlers of former years was apparently not high, so the explanation of their mottoes, &c., is often conjectural.

E. R.

[MR. E. ALFRED JONES also thanked for reply.]

WESTCAR FAMILY (12 S. iv. 160). Burke' s ' Landed Gentry,' 4th ed., 1863, contains the following :

" Henry Westcar, Esq., of Burwood Cottage^- co. Surrey, and Mascalls, Brenchley, co. Kent, J.P., b. 26 June, 1798, m. 26 June, 1827, Emma, 2nd dau. of William Leaf, Esq., of Peckham Rye, and had issue one son, Henry Emerson, b. 6 Feb., 1839, heir to the estates of the late John Westcar, Esq., of Curlow and Cublington, Bucks, and one dau. Elizabeth Mary. Mr. Westcar is only son of Henry Westcar, Esq., by Elizabeth Weatherstone his wife, grandson of Thomas Westcar of Woler- stone, co. Oxford, by Johanna Watts his wife, aunt of the late Lord Sidmouth, and great- grandson of Mr. Westcar of Hill House, Oxford- shire, by Elizabeth Forster his wife, of Olney, Notts, the descendant and sole heiress of a Northamptonshire family."

R. J. FYNMORE.

A pedigree of the Westcar family it given in Burke's ' Landed Gentry,' ed. 1875.

LEONARD C. PRICE.

CUMULATIVE STORIES (12 S. iv. 183). The earliest known specimen of this form of tale appears to be a hymn in an old Hebrew manuscript called the ' Sepher Haggadah,' supposed to refer to the vicissitudes of the children of Israel. There is an English translation of it in J. O. Halliwell's ' Nursery Rhyme* of England,' published by the Percy Society in 1842. From the interpretation which is there given it seems to have been written after the Turkish conquest of Palestine, and in, its last verse to refer to the expected overthrow of Mohammedan rule and the return of the Jews to their own land. H. J. B. CLEMENTS.

Killadoon, Celbridge.

[See also the Jewish parallel to ' An Old Woman went to Market ' printed at 10 S. ii. 602.]

CAPT. MARRYAT : ' DIARY OF A BLASE ' (11 S. iv. 409, 497 ; v. 15). Perhaps I may add the following to the replies to my query of seven years ago. It is taken from the preface, signed F. M., to Marry at' s ' Olla Podrida,' Paris, Baudry's European Library, 1841 :

" The major part of this volume consists of a Diary written when I was on the Continent. It first appeared in the Periodicals, tinder the; title of the ' Diary of a Blast ' : the title was a bad one,