Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/23

 12 s. vii. JULY 3, i92o.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 15 " FLOCKS " AND " HERDS " (12 S. vi. 295) I have always known a " flock " of sheep to number not less than a score and herd " of cattle not less than a dozen; am Jess than a dozen is " a drove," and less thai a score of sheep " a bevy." In this sense there is no plural. THOS. RATCLIFFE. 'Worksop. ROYAL OAK DAY (12 S. vi. 293, 316, 339) In my boyhood, sixty years ago, I was at a private school in Middlesex, where w patriotically kept May 29. But we always ^called it Oak Apple Day. I have no recollection of the term Royal. Were we peculiar ? or has the popular name of the day changed in course of time ? F. P. CURIOUS SURNAMES (12 S. vi. 68, 115, 196 238, 282, 302, 321). Dr. Bradley has pointed out to me that the first element in the name " Swete in bedde " is the adjective, The phrase has been used since c. 1300, with various implications. See 'N.E.D.' under WILLIAM WIGHT WICK (12 S. vi 314). 'The earliest extant Census Returns for England and Wales are for 1841 and 1851, and are deposited in the Public Record Office. If it is known where William Wight- wick was living in 1841 and in 1851, 1 would suggest .that these Census Returns for the locality where he was then residing be consulted, as those for 1851 give in many cases (inter alia) the exact place where each person was born. If this is found, and as the year of his birth appears to be known, it should be possible to ascertain his parentage irom the Register of Baptisms of the place where he was born. H. G. HARBISON. " CALKERS " : " CLOGS " (12 S. vi. 295). Calkers are calkins, originally the turned- down ends of a horse-shoe, secondarily the irons. on the heals and soles of strong clogs. .See the * O. E. D.,' where Scott ('Guy Man- mering') is quoted for a figuurative use of the term which may possibly throw some light on the Cumberland proverb : " They turn down the very caulkers of their animosities and prejudice, as smiths do with horses' shoes in a white frost." C. C. B. The usage to which A. R. alludes is com- mon in Teesdale. In ' A Glossary of Provincial Words used in Teesdale,' it is given as " cawker " " the iron on the heel of a shoe pp .clog." The primary meaning appears to be " the hind part of a horse's shoe, sharpened and pointed downwards." Reference is made to "cleet " " a piece of iron on the bottom of the soles or heels of clogs or shoes." The ' Glossary ' continues: " The word is used by old writers under the forms" calkyns," and " calkins," probably from Latin, calot, a heel. Teut., kautken, calcare. Cf. " calk," " caulk," Skeats's ' Concise Etymol.. Diet.' " C. P. HALE. One of the many meanings of " calked '* is " having the shoes furnished with sharp points of iron to prevent slipping on ice, &c." Hence " calking " in farriery. A calker is also a calculator, or in Scottish dialect, "a dram of spirits taken by a habitual drinker." Calking the seams of a ship needs no explanation. Bailey's ' Dictionary ' gives an old sense of " calked " as " cast up, or out." F. GORDON ROE. Arts Club, 40 Dover Street, W.I. INSCRIPTIONS IN CITY CHURCHES (12 S. vi. 294, 323, 338). MR. BROOKS should refer to : A Catalogue of most of the Tombs, Gravestones, Plates, Escutcheons or achievements in the Demolisht or yet Extant Churches of London, by P. Fisher, 1668. 2nd ed. 1670. Grodwin, (George) The Churches of London 2 vols. 1839. Wood (Alex.) Ecclesiastical Antiquities of London and its Suburbs.. 1874. Murray (T. B.) Chronicles of St. Dunstan in the East. 1859. Denham (J. F.) Views exhibiting, the Exterior and Interior and Principal Monuments of the Church of St. Dunstan-in- the- West. 1829. Corner (George B.) A Collection of Cuttings from Newspapers, &c., relating to the parish of St. Mary-at Hill. 1836. (In the Beading-room of the British Museum.) Daniell (A. E.) London City Churches. 1896. (Constable.) The indexes to ' N. & Q.' might be con- sulted under the names of the different hurches. REGINALD JACOBS. 38 Park Drive, North End, Hampstead. "THE OXFORD BLUES" (12 S. v. 97, 38 ; vi. 212, 236, 298). Although a work ublished in 1834 states that " the regiment as as yet hardly lost the appellation " of ' Oxford Blues " (ante, p. 236), " Oxford " lad been dropped, in common usage, at a nuch earlier date. In 1762 Lord Granby ent to Lord Ligonier, whom he had suc- eeded as colonel of the Royal Horse Guards, n account of the operations on July 1st t Homberg ; and in this ho refers o tji$
 * ' Sweet," p. 309, col. 2. J. T. F.