Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/116

 92 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. JULY 31, 1020. Gobi on. A cylindrical wicker basket, about 30 in. in diameter, open at both ends. Used in the construction of fortifications and field works, being then filled with earth. Gill- Master. Assistant to a Maioral (see below), over every 200 animals. Harbenger. An Official sent in advance of an army to arrange for billets, or to prepare an encamping ground. Ladles. Used for placing the charge of powder in cannon. They were made of copper, and in shape were similar to the metal scoop, as now used by grocers and corn-dealers. They were fixed to a long wooden stave or rod, and varied in size according to the diameter of the bore of a cannon. PTt^1 Linstock. A light wooden staff, about 3 feet long, having a pointed foot to stick in the ground, and a forked head to hold a lighted slow- match. Maioral. An Official in charge of a train of pack animals. Murthering, i.e., " murdering " peece. An ex- pression applied to cannon in contradistinc- tion from hand-guns. Pavillions. Tents. Priming-irons. Pieces of wire (not iron) about 6 to 9 in. long used for clearing out the vent, or touch-hole, of a cannon so as to keep the passage for the priming powder clear. Rasapina. The meaning of this has not been traced. Sal-gemma. Rock-salt. Sarcacolla. A kind of gum-resin. Serpentine powder. Gunpowder for use with serpentines, in fine meal, as distinguished from the corned or granulated kind. " Ser- pentine " was the name given to a certain class of cannon used in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and believed to have been so called because the muzzle end of it was made to resemble the head and mouth of a serpent. Taladres. Possibly some kind of elevating screw, or jack. Taladro (Spanish) means an auger Then. Line 14, paragraph 2 on page 254, i.e., than. Tutia. A powder made from a dried herb. Its properties are obscure. It was, presumably, used in compounding " fire-works." J. H. LESLIE Lieut. -Colonel R.A. (Retired List.) [We much regret to learn that this communica- tion, kindly promised at the end of the Reply on p. 253, as well as the further instalments of the 1740 Army List were delayed by our corres- pondent's illness.] ir TEGGS (THOMAS AKD WILLIAM) (12 S. vii. 48). I believe the business commenced asl.Tegg & Castleman, 122 St. John Street, West Smithfield, circa 1802. There is an illustration of the premises in Tegg and Castleman's 4 New Picture of London for 1803/4.' In 1870 Dr. Harvey (" Aleph ") contributed to The City Press (Aug. 6) r ' A Memoir of Thomas Tegg abridged frora his Autobiography by permission of his son William Tegg.' A few copies were reprinted for private circulation. Thomas Tegg was- a successful dealer in " remainders." but William Tegg was a publisher. ALECK ABRAHAMS. RICHARD SMITH, ESQ. (12 S. vii. 29). The account given by J. F. appears to have- been taken from an old Baronetcy pub- lished between the years 1838 and 1871. There is no reason to doubt its general accuracy, but " positive proof " of the* truth, or otherwise, of many of the details- could be obtained by examining the will at the Probate Registry, Somerset House, of Richard Smith, who died in 1776, and the parish registers, and monumental inscrip- tions at Islington. Richard Smith is said to have been a West India merchant, and a. Director of the East India Company. In early life he lived at Barbados ; his eldeir son Richard, born in 1739, matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford, Oct. 10, 1757, is. described in Foster's ' Alumni Oxonienses ' as " so*n of Richard Smith, of Isle of Bar- bados, armiger." This son Richard was- Vicar of Islington from 1768 until his death, in 1772. Robert Holden was the patron who presented him to the living, but his- father, Richard Smith, acquired the advow- son (estimated at 3,OOOZ. per annum), and! presented his successor on Dec. 28, 1772. (See Hennessy's ' Novum Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense/) Benjamin Smith, the younger son, born about 1744, was brought up to his father's^ business, and at the age of 21 married Charlotte, daughter of Nicholas Turner, of Stoke, co. Surrey, by his first wife Anna Towers ; Charlotte at the time being under sixteen years of age. Soon after this mar- riage Benjamin's mother died (probably the " Mrs. Smith of Islington," whose death is- recorded in The Gentleman's Magazine, under date July 7, 1766), and a little later- Benjamin's father married Charlotte's aunt. Lysons in his ' Environs of London ' (vol. iii. p. 141) mentions a monument in Islington church to Richard Smith, 1776, with the following arms : Argent on a bend Sable- between two unicorns' heads erased Azure, horned and crined Or, three lozenges argent, impaling, sable a castle Or. These are the- arms of Richard Smith impaled with those- of his second wife, whose maiden name was-