Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/162

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. v. JUNE, 1919.

Clerk of the Parliaments, or some one for him, had written " le Reyne," and that the error had been corrected on examination before printing.

The forms of Royal Assent to-day are the same as those of the time of Queen Anne, allowing for differences in spelling and pro- bably in pronunciation, and "Roy" for "Reyne." The Assent most frequently heard is that given to public Bills, " Le Roy le veult." ROBERT PIERPOINT.

' The Laws of England ' has the follow- ing note (vol. xxi. p. 275, s.v. Parliament) on this point :

" The royal assent has not been withheld since 1707, when Queen Anne refused her assent to a Bill for settling the militia in that part of Great Britain called Scotland ; see Journals of the House of Lords, 1707-8, vol. xviii. p. 606."

LEONARD J. HODSON.

Robertsbridge, Sussex.

The Bill to which Queen Anne refused her assent was, according to May ('The Law and Usage of Parliament '), one for settling the militia in Scotland, 1707. He further says :

" The necessity of refusing the royal assent is removed by the strict observance of the con- stitutional principle, that the Crown has no will but that of its ministers, who only continue to serve in that capacity so long as they retain the confidence of Parliament."

JOHN PATCHING.

Lewes.

[W. A. B. C. and MB. ARCHIBALD SPARKE also thanked for replies.]

LILLIPUT AND GULLIVER.

(12 S. iv. 73, 140, 199.)

WHEN I propounded my query as to the origin of the former name as that of a portion of Parkstone in Dorsetshire, I had not noticed that I had been forestalled in every particular by your correspondent A. R. at 11 S. xii. 120. This is the less excusable on my part as another query from myself appears on the same page as his respecting Lilliput. Since I wrote I have made some inquiries on the subject, and I am not now prepared to maintain the opinion that Swift owed the name Lilliput to the place in Parkstone. I have an open mind on the question.

The following are results of my inquiries. I have traced the name here back to 1805, which seems to be the oldest date on which it appears in any document. In that year, as I am informed by Mr. Herbert Kendall, M.S. A., architect and surveyor of Poole,

" a Perambulation was made from CanforcF to Sandbanks, and one piece of land is mentioned as being ' near Lilliput.' ' An. old resident of Lilliput village told me that when he was a boy, " about 55 years ago," there were in existence, on the site now occupied by the garden of a modern house called Minterne Grange at Lilliput, the ruins of a building called " Lilliput Castle," and that he used to play in its cellars. He further told me that five or six years ago it was proposed to change the name of the post office from Lilliput to Salterns, which is the name of another portion of the parish ; but there was opposition and a controversy over it, and the proposal was abandoned. The late vicar, Canon Dugmore, did not fancy the name Lilliput (so it was said), and there- fore the chapel-of -ease which was built here in 1874 is known ecclesiastically as the " Chapel of the Holy Angels, Salterns," Salterns, half a mile or more distant, being the place of residence of the donor of the site, whereas the chapel itself is in the middle of the village of Lilliput. However this may be, I think the village and post office are to be congratulated on retaining the name Lilliput.

The same old resident told me that he had pome recollection that Lilliput House or Castle had at one time belonged to a family named De Lisle, of which nothing is now known locally.

I referred in my query to a smuggler named Gulliver. Here are some particulars about him. He was

" the most famous of all the chiefs of smugglers upon the East, Dorset, and West Hampshire coasts.

His smuggling operations were carried out on

such an extensive scale that he not only had a small fleet of vessels, but also teams of pack-horses and a number of men in his employment, who were stated at that time to be scarcely less than^ fifty in number. His favourite spots for landing cargoes were in the inlets of Poole Harbour and* at the mouths of the chines in particular, Brank- some Chine, on the borders of Hants and Dorset. But this famous Gulliver, who lived to a great age, leaving a large fortune, was not only a smuggler,, but appears at times to have acted in the capacity of a secret-service agent for the Government. A writer of the period states that no movements of the French took place during the great war with France but that Gulliver was cognisant of them, and his knowledge was found to be so valuable that the Government often overlooked his smug- gling operations for the sake of the information that he was able to afford regarding the plans of the French." 'Wessex, painted by Walter Tyn- dale, described by Clive Holland,' p. 60.

I suggest another possible explanation of

the occurrence of the name of Lilliput in

I Gulliver's neighbourhood. This Gulliver