Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/127

 12 S. V. MAY, 1919. ]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

121

" FIRE OUT." (See 10 S. vii. 308 ; viii. 37, 454 ; 11 S. i. 405.) Add the following quotation, in which the meaning of the phrase appears to be not unlike the modern meaning :

" Enter Two Gentlemen.

1 Gent. I would fain go in, but I have spent all my money.

2 Gent. No matter, they shall not know so much till we get in, and then let me alone, I'll not out till I be fir'd out."

This occurs in Act III. (? sc. iii. : the scenes ^are not divided by numbers) of ' The Royal King and Loyal Subject,' by Thomas Heywood, printed 1637, " but it is to be observed, that it is spoken of in the Epilogue <is an old play, and fitted to some former season" See ' Old Plays ; being a Con- tinuation of Dodsley's Collection,' 1816, vol. vi. p. 276 (misprinted 267) and p. 221.

It may be that "fir'd out " in the above extract implies a meaning somewhat similar to that in " Get you from my door, you beggarly companions, or I'll wash you hence with hot scalding water " (p. 275). This threat, however, is not addressed to the " Two Gentlemen," although in the same scene. : . ROBERT PIERPOINT.

COINS OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS. In presenting to the Trustees of the British ^Museum the magnificent collection of ancient British and other coins made by his father, the late Sir John Evans, K.C.B. (which ai umbers some 1,700 pieces, and had long been famous as one of the most complete of its kind in any cabinet, public or private), 'Sir Arthur Evans, F.B.A., says :

" I have felt that our National Museum had the highest claim to the possession of what, in fact, is a Unique illustration of an interesting chapter of our ' island story ' the first satis- factory record of which, largely based on this collection, was indeed supplied by my father's work on ' The Coinage of the Ancient Britons.' How few realize that a century and a half before the Roman Conquest the early Belgic invaders had not only brought Britain within the range of classical influences, but had actually introduced a graduated coinage derived from that of Philip of Macedon. No one, certainly, who has not -studied the numismatic evidence can have any idea of the extent to which, with ' the felt approach ' of Imperial Rome, these influences had developed before the days of the Claudian Con- quest. I do not expect that many of those acquainted with Shakespeare's ' Cymbeline ' realize that such a prince actually existed in ancient Britain under not very different con- ditions of palace life and foreign relations, still 'less that he and his colleagues in the British pre- decessors of Colchester, St. Albans, and other towns were striking coins with finely executed Greece-Roman types and Latin inscriptions. At he present time, indeed, these first advertisements

of a British claim to enter the circle of civilized nations may have a certain interest even for those who are not archaeologists. In the early Belgic issues on British soil, too, they may find a season- able reminder of the permanence of the geo- graphical ties that bind us to our continental neighbours, which are still of such vital conse- quence to us after the lapse of over two millennia."

Me.

WESTMINSTER HALL ROOF. A curious superstition has clung to this building through the centuries, which I have not heard applied to any other, though presum- ably this is not the only structure in England employing Irish timber. The printed source apparently is to be found in a small quarto tract, pointing out the consequences of the p]ague 5 by Benjamin Spenser, entitled " Vox civitatis ; or, London's complaint against her children in the covntrey, 1625." It runs :

" Westminster Hall so full of cobwebs, though (as they say) it be built of Irish wood, where no spider will endure. It may be so, for all the spiders are below." ^

WM. JAGGARD, Capt.

Officers' Mess, Repatriation Camp, Winchester.

A WALTON RELIC. (See 9 S. vii. 188, 410, 495.)_The relic referred to at above refer- ences has been recently sold, and consider- able correspondence has taken place in The Times, with the result that the J. D. Ander- son of 1646 has been traced by Mr. Marston of The Fishing Gazette to the Rev. J. Dauncey Anderson, who was many years Vicar of Thornton Watlass, near Bedale, Yorks, and died May, 1900. The initials I. W. probably are those of the maker John Wade of about 1800; he was a famous maker of these leather creels.

It may be desirable to record this in the pages of ' N. & Q.' for the benefit of future collectors of relics of Walton.

R. J. FYNMORE.

INTERMENT IN GRAVES BELONGING TO OTHER FAMILIES. A question was asked at 10 S. i. 9 as to whether this practice is sometimes permitted, and no instances are given in reply. In transcribing the Deane Parish Registers for the Lancashire Parish Register Society, I came across the following under date 1660 :

" Jony Milles of Windyates in Westhaughton, widow, buried in that place in the Church where her husband Gyles Milles was by leave of their neighbour Barnaby Markland, but hereafter desireing no further in that kind, according to former agreement made at the tyme of the buriall of Jane Milles their daughter."

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.