Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/316

 258 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.ix. SEPT. 24,1921. Huddleston, nee De Vere Beauclerk, d. of the ninth Duke of St. Albans. She died 1905. CONSTANCE RUSSELL. Swallowfield. These certainly were real people Lord Cantelupe (b. 18i5, d. 1873) only succeeded his father as sixth Earl De La Warr in 1869. Lady Diana Beauclerk is described by Lady Dorothy Neville as riding in the Row in a green velvet riding-habit in the sixties. MARY TERESA FOBTESCUE. Mr. G. W. E. Russell, in ' Fifteen Chapters of Autobiography,' chap, vii., quotes the verse from Locker's ' Lyrics/ and adds : Lord Cantelupe, of whom I always heard, that he was the handsomest man of his generation, died before I was born, and Lady Di Beauclerck had married Baron Huddleston and ceased to ride in Rotten Row before I came to London. H. F. M. Viscount Cantelupe was the eldest son and heir of the seventh Earl De La Warr. He was married in 1890 and drowned the same year. His widow w as living in 1919. Lady Diana Beauclerk, only daughter of the ninth Duke of St. Albans, married Sir John Huddleston (1815-1890), a judge of the Queen's Bench. W. A. B. C. MARQUESS OF DOWN, c. 1700 (12 S. ix. 210). There never has been a Marquess of Downe ; only an Irish viscounty created in 1680 (Dawnay) still in existence. W. A. B. C. Is not your correspondent R. H. THORNTON making a mistake ? There was a Viscount Downe, temp. Will. III., being Sir John Dawnay, Bart., of Cowick, Co. York, created Viscount Downe 1680-1 ; but, so far as I am aware, no Marquess of Down. Viscount Downe sat in Jas. II. 's Irish Parliament, 1689, died 1695, and was succeeded by his son Henry, second viscount. For further particulars see G. E. C., ' Complete Peerage.' s.v. Downe. ROBERT DUNLOP. AMERICAN ENGLISH (12 S. viii. 449; ix. 97, 136, 218). The phrase " United States are " was the original form, and persisted until after the war between the States. It would hardly have been possible to use the singular verb in the earlier days, for the several States were fully imbued with the idea that they were each.independent sove- reignties and that the union under the Con- stitution was merely a compact. The Peace Treaty of 1783 enumerated the 13 States as independent sovereignties, and it is only by a slow and almost insensible evolution that federalism has brought about a state of mind in which the singular form of the verb may be used. The first use of the title " United States," in an official document, was probably on June 17, 1776, when a report, written by Thomas Jefferson, relating to exchange of prisoners, was submitted to the Continental Congress, in which it was stated that this Congress was the only body authorized to act for the :i United States of America." The original MS., in Jefferson's hand, is in the Library of Congress, and shows that John Hancock, President of the Continental Con- gress, hesitated about the title, for he drew his pen through the words " States of Ameri- ca " and wrote above " Colonies." Article ix. of the Constitution speaks of "" one of the United States," and article xiii., adopted in 1868, says that slavery shall not exist in the '" United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction." In the United States, such nouns as ^Government," "Board," "Court." " Committee " are generally used with a verb in the singular. HENRY LEFFMAN. Philadelphia. HEARTH TAX (12 S. viii. 478, 518; ix. 78, 154, 216). The hearth tax, in 1661-2 (an un- welcome immigrant from France when Charles returned), was known as " smoke-money " (Fordwich Town Accounts, 1663). It had been a French tax from the fourteenth century, but the only " smoke-silver " or " hearth- penny " ever before paid in England was the ancient " Rome-scot," commonly known as " Peter's pence," the origin of which is lost in the mists of antiquity. A letter of King Cnut shows that it existed in 1031, and Matthew Paris says it was instituted by Ini, King of the West Saxons, in 727, for the upkeep of the English school and hostel at Rome which Offa (King of Mercia, 757-796), restored (Matthew Paris, i. 508, i. 331, 360 ; Rolls Series). Innocent III., temp. John, complained of its irregular payment, saying that the English bishops kept back 1,000 marks and only sent 300 marks to Rome. In 1306, Clement V. exacted one penny from every hearth instead of the lump sum of 201 9s. Od., at which it seems to have been fixed. This was more or less regularly paid until its abolition by Henry VIII. in 1534, and many churchwardens' accounts show