Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/219

 12 s. ix. AUG. 27, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 177 building of the (still unfinished) tower which his father had helped to begin, being granted arms : these appear at the top. Thomas the younger also built the S. chapel, where the Spring arms again appear. UVEDALE LAMBERT. " BURNT HIS BOATS " (12 S. viii. 210). According to the ' Chun-tsiu-tso-shi-chuen,' usually attributed to Tso Kiu-Ming, a con- temporary of Confucius : [In the year 624 B.C.] Miu-Kung, the Earl of Tsin, invaded the marquisate of Tsin : after cross- ing the river he burnt his boats, took the castle ; of Wang-Kwan, and even approached its capital. . . . Thus he made himself the overlord of all the western territories. Here " burnt his boats " is explained i by Tu Yii (A.D. 222-284) as thus to have shown his determination never to return without a victory, whence the phrase is often used in that sense to this day. KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA. Tauabe, Kii, Japan. RICE (12 S. viii. 391, 437). In China the; Kang-mi, or common non-glutinous rice, ' is believed to make one's complexion fresh (Li Shi-Chin, ' System of Materia ' Medica,' 1578, torn. xxii.). In this part of j Japan it is popularly held that there occur i not infrequently the pregnant women be- 1 coming habituated to eat raw rice, which' never fails to endow their children with ' fair skin. KUMAGUSU MINAKATA. Tanabe, Kii, Japan. p PROVERBIAL SAYINGS (12 S. ix. 90). 1. That must refer to a story told by David Hume. A princess of France had been married by proxy to a king of Spain, and i as she was being conducted to her husband ' through the country the people in the ]. towns and villages presented to her speci- j mens of their manufactures. At one j place articles of hosiery were offered, but J the high Spanish official in charge frowned, shook his head, and declined the gifts, saying, " The queen of Spain has no legs." Philip II. of Spain never laughed so much as when he heard that story told. W. DOUGLAS. 31, Sandwich Street/W.C.l. 2. This is a common phrase, but I cannot trace it in any bock. Only the other day a clergyman friend of mine used it during conversation with me, saying that ! Manchester was a big, dismal place, full of warehouses, and dreary when it is raining, which is often and " drink is the shortest way out of Manchester." I do not know who first used the phrase, or whether the foregoing is any explanation. ARCHIBALD SPARKE. LEIF ERICSON (12 S. ix. 50). A book on this subject is reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement of July 14, 1921, where the question of the spot on which the Icelandic explorers landed is discussed. M. H. DODDS. ' SWEET LAVENDER" (12 S. ix. 126.)- MR. CLARKE asks whether the production of lavender is on the wane. In the Hit chin neighbourhood the acreage now devoted to this crop is much less, I am told, than it used to be, and I believe there has been a similar diminution at Mitcham. At all events, it was reported in a trade journal on July 16 that the acreage left for distilling when the usual " bunching " was over would be " very small." The " bunching ?} was then about to begin, but nothing was said as to the amount to be thus disposed of. I have only once heard the cry " Sweet lavender " in London this year. C. C. B. OAK SNUFF-BOX FROM FOUNDATION PILE OF OLD LONDON BRIDGE (12 S. ix. 31, 76, 98). These boxes are not, I think, mir common. I possess one : it has a small silver plate engraved with the arms of the City. It belonged to a former alderman ; it is labelled to the same effect as that described at the reference. 1 always under- stood these boxes were presentations to prominent members of the Corporation. W. H. QUARRELL. It may interest your correspondents to know that I have a piece of oak made into the shape of a book and lettered on the back " Oak of Old London Bridge." This was formerly in the collection of antiquities of the late " Mr. Lucas of Fenny Bentley Hall, Derbyshire. CHARLES DRURY. RUNNYMBDE (12 S. ix. 150). The barons who witnessed the signature of Magna Charta numbered 25. A living descen- dant of one of them is Lord Saye and Sele (18th Baron) who is 22nd in descent from Geoffrey de Saye, Lord Saye, one of the signatories. The House of Lords being the most ancient and historic legislative assem- bly in the world, probably other peers also descend from these barons. M. H. D.