Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/42

 30 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vm. JAN. s, 1921. EARLY ASCENTS OF MONT BLANC BY ENGLISH TRAVELLERS. The fourth ascent of Mont Blanc was made in 1788 by a young Englishman named Woodley accompanied by the celebrated guides Jacques Balmat and Cachat le Geant, and two others. He is described by the Genevese Alpine traveller, Marc-Theodore Bourrit, who accompanied him during part of the ascent, as " fils du gouverneur de 1'Amerique Anglo ise." Can any reader of 'N. & Q. ' throw any light on his identity ? I should also be particularly glad to know something about the following Englishmen the dates of whose ascents. of Mont Blanc I give in parenthesis : 1. Capt. John Undrell (1819). According to the ' Royal Kalendar ' for 1818 he was promoted to the rank of commander in the R.N. in 1815. 2. Frederick Clissold (1822). 3. H. H. Jackson (1823). 4. Capt. Markham Sherwill (1825). 6. Dr. Edmund Clark (1825). 7. Alfred Waddington (1836). 8. Mr. Nicholson, a London barrister (1843). 9. W. Bosworth (1843). 10. Dr. Archibald Vincent Smith (1847). 11. J. D. Gardner (1850). All of the foregoing except numbers 7, 9, and 10 published narratives of their expedi- tions, but as far as I am aware nothing else is known about their lives. HENRY F. MONTAGNIER, Member of the Alpine Club. Champe>y. KENSINGTON GRAVEL AT VERSAILLES. An old issue of The Quarterly Review is an authority for the statement that the garden walks at the Palace of Versailles were laid out with gravel from Kensington, which was of European repute. When and by whom was this transaction carried out ? By what method was the transportation of the gravel from Kensington to Versailles effected, and what was the total quantity of material so transferred ? Where were the Kensington gravel pits situated ? J. LANDFEAR LUCAS. WEST COUNTRY PLACE-NAMES IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. I have just been examining Ricraft's 'Survey of England's Champions,' the date of which on the first title-page is 1647 and on the second 1649. I am puzzled at the forms taken by some Devon and Cornwall names of places and should be glad of information about them. Budex, Beaudeux and Beaudeaux are, I suppose, forms of the modern St. Budeaux. The first evidently recalls the local nine- teenth-century pronunciation of "Buddix." What however is the place referred to as Pouldram House and what is the mociern name of "Tadcaster in Cornwall," taken along with "Foy " ? W. S. B. H. COATS OF ARMS : IDENTIFICATION SOUGHT. Can any reader of *N. & Q.' help me to identify the bearers of two coats of arms painted on the portraits of a man and his wife, dated 1558 ? His coat is Sable, on a chevron between three butterflies argent, an escutcheon of the field, charged with a fieur-de-lys. His wife's escutcheon shows two coats impaled : the first as above ; the second Gules, a fesse wavy arg. between an escallop- shell of the last in chief, and a crown or in base. Some member of the Papillon family would seem to be indicated, but I have been quite unable to trace the lady's family, which was evidently foreign. R. T. GUNTHER. Magdalen College, Oxford. ' MELIORA. ' When a boy I often used to see copies of a magazine with this title. When did it originate and when did it die ? Who were its editors and contributors. 1. F. [In The Times 'Handlist of English and Welsh Newspapers' Meliora is referred to the year J858 and described as " A quarterly review of social science in its ethical, economical, political and ameliorative repects." Apparently it came to an end in L869.] STEVENSON AND Miss YONGE. Which of Miss Yonge's novels is alluded to by R. L. Stevenson in his essay, ' A Gossip on a Novel of Dumas 's ' ? In it he writes that he made the acquaintance of Dumas 's 'Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ' in 1863, and that he saluted the name of d'Artagnan like an old friend, having " met it the year before in a work of Miss Yonge's." The question is which ? EDWARD LATHAM. 61 Friends Road, Croydon. "PRINCIPAL." In the official list of 'His Majesty's Ministers and Heads of Public Departments, Revised October, 1920,' this word appears to be used in a novel sense : it would be a convenience to have that sense defined. The members of the "Cabinet Secretariat " have the titles : Secretary, Principal, Assistant Secretary, Assistant Secretaries (three names), Principals (two