Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/324

 318

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 8. V. DEC., 1919,

them. They were, however, Walt on -le Dale and Childwall and Bury, all places in Lancashire. Residents north of the river Tees consider Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland and Westmorland, as forming the North of England and look on Lancashire and Yorkshire as North Midlands.

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

wanted about this ballad, of which the following is the first verse :
 * BERTRAM DE BOURNE.' Information is

Why do the Island banners gleam.

The Island knighfcs advance, 'Midst strains of war-like minstrelsy,

Across the plains of France?

I hear it was a popular item for recitation about half a century ago. I should like to see the complete ballad if any one happens to know where it is to be found.

GEORGE MAXWELL, Sub -Librarian. Linen Hall Library, Belfast.

MRS. SIDDONS. Can any of your readers inform me whether there are any descendents of Mrs. Siddons the great actress still living and where ? (Miss) MARY NORTH.

25 East Parade, He worth, York.

COUNTLESS STONES AT AYLESFORD. Is there any reliable bibliography concerning the ancient remains known as the Countless Stones, at Aylesford on the Medway, near Maidstone ? J. LANDFEAR LUCAS.

Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey.

WALTER HAMILTON, F.R.G.S. Inserted in an album of press cuttings I noticed a series of articles headed ' Leaves from ' a Library,' and such jottings as ' Bookworm on Book-Plates ' from Mr. Hamilton's pen. In which serial did they appear ? Were they ever gathered together into an author's issued volume ? ANEURIN WILLIAMS.

Menai View, North Road, Carnarvon.

TAIR MILE.' In The Times of Aug. 13 last, in an article entitled 'Fair Mile: a Prehistoric Road,' there is mention of the " King's standing wood " and of an ancient custom called "lay the king's table cloth." Can any one give more information on the subject ? J. S.

THE REV. JOHN THEOPHILUS DESAGULIERS. D.C.L., F.R.S. Can any correspondent tell me the date of his marriage and the name of his wife ? The ' Diet. Nat. Biog.' xiv. 400 says that he left three sons : John Theo- philus (1718-52) and Thomas (1725 ?-80), but does not give the name of the other son. Can any one supply it ? G. F. R, B,

LAWRENCE WODECOCKE, J. who entered Winchester College from St. Dunstan's in, the East, London, aged 13, in 1505, pro- ceeded in due course of New College, Oxford,, where he was Fellow from 1510 to 1520 and! took the degrees of B.C.L. in 1516-17 and! B.Can.L. in 1532. He held the Wykehami- cal prebends in Chichester Cathedral of Exceit from 1521 to 1522 and of Wyndham from 1529 to 1560. He was Vicar of Hartfieldl 1523-4 to 1525, and of Eastbourne 1524-5 to> 1527, of Wartling 1529 to 1545, and of West Dean, near Chichester, from 1554-5 to 1560. He was also Rector of All Saints', Lewes, and of Rodmell in 1527, and of Patching from 1545, being succeeded in the last rectory in 1567. He is also said to have been Vicar of Boxgrove. Is anything further known about him ? JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

" BONFIRE NIGHT." Are^ these, doggerel lines known ? I am told that^ they are repeated by children at. Birmington, near Chesterfield, on Nov. 5.

Bonfire night ! The moon shines bright. Forty little angels dressed in white*

Can you eat a biscuit ? . '

Can you smoke a pipe * Can you go a-courting

At ten o'clock at night?

G. C. MOORE SMITH. Sheffield.

"IF I SHOULD DIE TO-NIGHT." Sir

Edward Cook, in his ' More Literary Re- creations,' has a discussion on the much- xercised question of the authorship of the- poem, beginning " If I should die to-night." He writes as follows :

"These verses have made a wide appeal to curiously different minds. Sir H. Rider Haggard, in * Jess,' made his heroine write them out before she set forth to kill Frank Muller. The author of ' Jess ' had received them from a lady friend in South Africa, whose work he supposed them to be. They had, however, been already printed in a very different connection, having appeared under the title 'The Chamber of Peace* in an American anthology of religious verse called ' My Com- forter,' whilst my copy of them was cut out of the English Public Opinion of July 22, 1876. A claim, has been put in lor Australia as the place of origin, as the verses were printed in a book called 'Ade- laide de la Thoreza,' by a Dr. Cameron of - Rich- mond (in Victoria). Prof. James Stewart ascribed the verses to Theodore Parker (in a letter of 188& to Mrs. Drew, 'Some Hawarden Letters,' p. 130. The question was the subject of a long correspon- dence in the Pall Mall Gazttte of March, 1887, and following months) ; but an equally definite claim has been made for Philadelphia. In the Press of that city they were said to be the work of a local resident, Mr. R. C. Vivian Myers, who, it wa& added, 'has written much that is excellent, but noth pg ie approach these famous verses, which,