Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/282

 276

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 8. V. OCT., 1919.

been used on occasion as a mounting-block, but there are no steps and it is not high ^enough to suggest that such was the object for which it was originally placed just out- side the gates. Will s-ome local geologist and antiquary kindly explain the character of the stone and if not an erratic block, whence was it obtained ? I cannot find that it was noticed in the Transactions of .the Archaeological Institute in 1845, when the meeting was held at Winchester. The old Cheyney Court just inside the gateway was from very early times the court-house of the episcopal jurisdiction of the Soke of Winchester, and it seems quite possible that, as on the stones at London, Totnes, St. Austell, Darlington, and possibly Kingston- on-Thames, it was customary to read pro- clamations and judicial declarations from the stone outside the Bishop's gate and in the immediate vicinity of the so-called King's gate. Can some Winchester anti- quary explain. HUGH R. WATKIN. Chelston, Devon.

JOHN DURSTON : JOHN DALE (10 S. ii. 45, 116). At the last reference H. C. makes William Longford succeed Durst on in the Wykehamical prebend of Bursalis in, Chiches- ter Cathedral, but according to the Rev. George Hennessy's researches published in his ' Chichester Diocesan Clergy Lists,' Durston was succeeded by John Dale, M.A., in 1556, John Dale by William Haward, M.A., in 1558, and William Haward by William Longford in 1560. William Haward was Vicar of Cowfold in 1559-60 and was succeeded in 1575. John Dale is mentioned in the list at the end of the ' Concertatis Ecclesise.' He is probably the Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, who took the degree of M.A. in 1545, and was Rector of St. Margaret's, Fish Street, London, of which living he was deprived early in Queen Elizabeth's reign. His name occurs also in S.P. Dom. Add. Elz., xi. 45, and in Sander's list in the ' De Visit ili Monarchia.'

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

"BUFFALOES" (12 S. v. 237). A few years ago I was a brother in the R.A.O.B. and was advanced to the degree of Primo (i.e., Master of the Lodge), and ultimately I became a founder of a lodge, viz., the Richard Brinsley Sheridan, under the banner of the Grand Lodge of England. There is nothing really mysterious about the R.A.O.B. beyond the signs and passwords. The order was founded by R. B. Sheridan and other of the Drury Lane actors at the Harp Tavern,

facing the theatre, in 17. They met for the purposes of conviviality and charity in the guise of a mimic freemasonry. They claimed among the founders Noah, hence the antediluvian, and Nimrod, " a great and mighty hunter before the Lord," in memory of whom a pair of buffalo horns ornamented the lodge room. For the moment I forget the original name of the order, but after a time it was dropped, and the name of their emblem was adopted. The order is now split into different sections, each called a banner.

CHRISTIAN E. P. GROTH, M.A.(Camb.). Research Laboratories,

1 Richmond Buildings, Dean Street, Wl.

LOUISA SPELT LEWEEZER (12 S. v. 237). Another example of a quaint spelling of the name Louisa can be seen in the churchyard of Selsley (Stroud, Glos.), where a lady is buried who died Oct. 7, 1870, aged 70 years, named Lueazer.

JOHN WATSON-TAYLOR. Wellington Club, Grosvenor Place, S.W.I.

I have never seen Leweezer, but the abbreviation " Weezer " may be found in ' Concerning Teddy,' by Mrs. Murray Hick- son (Mrs. S. A. P. Kitcat, wife of the Gloucestershire cricketer) one of the best books about a boy that I know published by James Bowden, 1897. But this Louisa or Weezer was only a doll. G. H. WHITE.

23 Weighton Road, Anerley.

ST. JOHN BAPTIST HEADS (12 S. v. 209). As St. Catherine was the patron saint of maidens and St. Dorothy of brides they are not unfitly paired. Again, St. Catherine and St. Margaret were both regarded as specially helpful in time of trouble, St. Margaret particularly so in the period of childbirth. The third couple is more puzzling, but I would venture to suggest that as St. Dorothy is the patron saint of brides and St. Mary Magdalene stands for the contemplative life, to which nuns vow themselves as " brides of Christ," it may be intended to signify marriage in a terrestrial and in a spiritual sense.

As for their connexion with the Baptist all these women are said to have been im- prisoned and beheaded. An additional reason for inserting St. Mary Magdalene may have been that she is often depicted in mediaeval art as a penitent in the wilderness. There are also traditions to the effect that St. James the Great, St. Christopher and St. Antony the Hermit suffered death by decapitation. T. PERCY ARMSTRONG.