Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/336

 274 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2s.vm.AP R iL 2 ,i92i. Fhe Rev. James Street, in his ' Mynster of bhe Isle ' (Ilminster), says : " The pancake bell is rung on the afternoon pf Shrove Tuesday ; anciently it was not the joy of pancake eating, but the call to confession Jae shriving, hence ' Shrove Tuesday.' Of old Jhe bell rang at six each morning, and as ten shillings a year was allowed therefor by the Grammar School, the waking up of its school- Doys was doubtless in mind." W. G. WILLIS WATSON. Single's Lodge, Pinhoe, Exeter. At St. Mary's, Whittlesey, Cambs. "the Shriving Bell, vulgarly called 'Pancake Bell ' still rang at 1 1 A.M. on Shrove Tues- lay" ('Life in the Cambridgeshire Fens Eighty Years Ago,' by late Rev. J. R. little, in the last number of The Eagle, a nagazine supported by members of St. John's Jollege, vol. xlii. p. 24). The "Pancake 3ake" was known at Whittlesey long after G. C. MOOBE SMITH. In ' The Customs, Superstitions and Legends of the county of Stafford' [1875],
 * hat, probably to this day.
 * >y Charles Henry Poole is the following

lote, under the heading of ' Shrove Tues- lay, or Goodish Tuesday ' : Out, hark, I hear the Pan-cake bell, And fritters make a gallant smell. ' Poor Robin.' " Shrove Tuesday derives its name from the sustom of our ancestors in Catholic times going -o confession. Its Latin and continental names lave all a reference to the last eating of flesh : ^arnivale, farewell to flesh. That none might )lead forgetfulness of confessing and being n every parish, and in after times this ringing ras still kept up in some places, though the cause >f it ceased with the introduction of Protestantism. Eventually it got the name of the Pancake-bell, ind in the parish in which I once resided [Dr. 5 oole informs me that this was Monks Kirby, Warwickshire] about eleven o'clock this bell iounds over hill and dale, proclaiming to the good lousewives that it is a gentle reminder to make reparations for the pancakes, the delight of the uveniles." RUSSELL MABKLAND. THE O'FLAHEBTY FAMILY: KINGS OF 30NNAUGHT (12 S. viii. 188, 259.) The D'Flaherty family mistakenly described it the above reference as " Kings of Con- laught" were a clan or collection of amilies under a chief. The O'Fflahertie ras of old Hereditary Admiral, not King. Dhe descendants of the head and of his lumerous tribesmen, like those of other ?lans, must now number many thousands G. W. D. F. CLARK. St. George's Terrace, Plymouth. DB. JOHNSON : POBTBAIT IN HILL'S EDI- TION OF BOSWELL (12 S. viii. 229). A careful comparison of the mouth and nose alone with the corresponding features in Sir Joshua's portrait of Goldsmith is enough to shew beyond any possible doubt that the picture in question does not represent " Dr. Minor." That at first sight, at least, it strikes us as very unlike Dr. Johnson's portraits with which we are more familiar is quite true, but that is probably due in great part to the absence of the wig. It can be seen from Algernon Graves and William Vine Cronin's monumental 'History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds,' vol. ii. (1899), p. 519, that Reynolds twice painted Johnson without his wig. In one of these portraits Johnson is described as " shewing both his hands held up in front ; profile to left ; books in background ; without his wig." This is said to have been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1770 and to belong to the Duke of Sutherland. In the other, painted in 1769-70, Johnson is said to be " standing arguing, with his hands half clutched, in one of his most characteristic attitudes ; shews the head with no wig ; a profile to left ; bookcase behind." This portrait is said. by Graves and Cronin to be in the Sackville collection at Knole Park. According to the ' D.N.B.' it was painted for Johnson's step -daughter, Lucy Porter, and the Knole Park picture is a replica. Another account represents the first of the two portraits as painted for her. The portrait in Birkbeck Hill's third volume seems to correspond to the description of the first ("books in background"). That it represents Johnson is, of course, absolutely certain. EDWARD BENSLY. IMPALED ON A THOBN (12 S. viii. 210). This popular belief attracted the attention of Sir Thomas Browne. In the last chapter of Book III in his ' Vulgar Errors ' he writes " Many more there are whose serious enquiries we must request of others, and shall only awake considerations, Whether. ..." and one of the problems which he propounds is : " Whether the Nightingals setting with her breast against a thorn, be any more then that she placeth some prickels on the outside of her nest, or roosteth in thorny and prickly places, where Serpents may least approach her ? " But one would rather have heard Sir Thomas on the question " Whether the brains of Cats be attended with such destructive malignities, as Dioscorides and others put upon them ? " EDWARD BENSLY. Much Hadham, Herts.
 * hriven, the great bell was rung at an early hour