Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/85

 12 S. VI. MARCH, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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will," Richard " living in 1659 and 1667," and " Ezebias."

Pollards from one family or another went out to Barbados in the mid-seventeenth century, and their names occur in records there from that time till recently. I do not know if there are any now left. Among their wills recorded in that colony occur : 1682, Richard Pollard; 1687, John; and 1688, George Pollard.

Can any reader kindly tell me whether there is a real connection or are these names only a curious coincidence ?

E. BINDOW.

W. CECIL (LOBD BUKGHLEY) : REFERENCE TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. " Here is a great resort of wooers and controversy among lovers. Would to God the Queen had one and the rest honourably satisfied." The words were spoken in the Queen's gallery when she had around her the Imperial Ambassador, the Duke of Finland, and Lord Dudley. The only reference I can find to the quotation is in Bishop Creighton's ' Life of Queen Elizabeth,' and he gives no clue as to who originally put the words on record.

COLENSO.

PEWTER SNUFFERS. Under date Jan. 23, 1667/8, Samuel Pepys writes :

" She (Mrs. Turner) is either a very prodigal woman, or richer than she would be thought, by her buying of the best things, and laying out much money in new-fashioned pewter ; and, among other things, a new-fashioned case for a pair of snuffers which is very pretty ; but I could never have guessed what it \vas for, had I not seen the snuffers in it."

As far as I can trace pewter snuffers are not referred to in any of the standard books on old pewter, neither is there any reference to pewter cases for holding snuffers, and I have therefore wondered whether Pepys meant that the " case " was made of pewter or whether it was of totally different metal,

If the case Pepys saw was of pewter, possibly there are similar ones still in existence, but they are not recognised as receptacles for snuffers. Can any one shed any light on the matter ?

ERNEST HUNTEH. 20 Mount Avenue, Orrell, Bootle, Liverpool.

THE HAWKHURST GANG. Local tradition has it that a mansion called Seacock's Heath, near Robertsbridge, in Sussex, was built by Arthur Gray, out of his ill-gotten gains as a member of the Hawkhurst gang. What was this gang, and when and where did it operate ? J. LANDFEAR LUCAS.

Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey.

WILLIAM ALABASTER. In the late Mr. Robertson's sonnet-anthology entitled ' The Golden Book of English Sonnets,' which was published by Harrap & Co. in 1913, price 3s. Gd., I find at page 32 a sonnet by the so-called " Latin poet," William Alabaster (1565-1640) of which the title is ' Incarnatio est Maximum Dei Donum.' Can any reader inform me whether Alabaster was favourably regarded as a poet of distinction by his contemporaries, and also whether he wrote many sonnets besides the one above referred to ? He is not mentioned in Mr. Austin Dobson's ' Handbook of English Literature ' (2nd edition, 1880).

OXFORD GRADUATE.

JOHN PEARCE, AUTHOR AND EDITOR. Biographical particulars wanted of John Pearce who was editor of House and Home (a paper issued in support of better houses for the people) in 1879. Author of a series of ' Popular Biographies,' &c. Was born about 1843 and died at Sydenham in the early years of the twentieth century.

T. W. HAYLER. Croydon.

POEMS FOR CHILDREN : TITLES WANTED Can any of your readers tell me the title and name of compiler of a collection of poems for children, called, I think, ' Poems and Hymns for Children,' published probably in the fifties or sixties. Among its contents were ' Little Dick Snappy,' ' The Pakenham (or Fakenham) Ghost ' and ' Little Drops of Water.' I had it in 1869, when it had no cover. It had little woodcuts, and was a small square book. C. S. FRY.

Upton, Didcot, Berks.

SLATES AND SLATE PENCILS. I wonder if any of your correspondents happen to know when slates and slate pencils were introduced Papyrus, I am informed, was not used in Europe after 700 A.D., and presumably something, and that decidedly inexpensive, took the place in schools of this, and the wax tablets used in the days of the Roman Empire. H. G. W. HERRON.

CROSS-BEARER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. In Cooper's ' Ath. Cantabri- giensies ' Hugh Latimer was such. Is there such an officer now, and what is his office ?

M.A.

THORINGTON. Has any pedigree been published of the family of Thorington or is anything known of a family of that -name ? E. J. HARRISON.

Denna Hall, Burton Point, Birkenhead.