Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/334

 272 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.ix. OCT. 1,1921. OMAR KHAYYAM. To what edition, of Omar Khayyam do the following verses belong ? True I drink Wine like every man of sense, For I know Allah will not take offence. Before Time was He knew that I should drink, And who am I to thwart His prescience ? If Grace be Grace and Allah Gracious be, Allah from Paradise why banished he ? Grace to poor sinners shewn is Grace indeed But in Grace hard-earned by works no Grace I see. "Us Prayer that Church-bells chime into the air, Yea, Church and Ka-aba, Rosary and Cross, Are all but divers tongues of World- wide prayer. We are but Chessmen, destined, it is plain, That great Chess-player Heaven to entertain ; It moves us on life's Chess-board to and fro, And then in death's box locks us up again. I searched at least a dozen editions at Hugh Rees, 5, Regent Street, the other day and could not find them. ARTHUR ROGERS. RATE OF TRAVEL FROM SCOTLAND IN 1740-50. -When William Muiray, after- wards Lord Mansfield, rode from Perth to London in 1718, it took his pony two months to complete the journey. What would have been the average time taken to travel on horseback from Edinburgh or Glasgow to London in 1740-50 ? Were stage-coaches running between these cities and London at that time ? How long did it take for a letter to traverse the distance ? PERSICUS. STAVERTON, Co. DEVON. -About 1748 a Society of Navy Surgeons published an 8vo volume of Transactions containing an account of a body which, after being buried for 80 years at Staverton, was found whole and imputrid ; also an account of two similar bodies found at St. Martin's, Westminster. Can anyone oblige me with a sight of a copy ? The usual sources of search and inquiry have been exhausted. GEORGE C. PEACHEY. 10, Randolph Crescent, W.9. TRIAL FOR HERESY : A BARRISTER'S " BON MOT." -In a certain ecclesiastical trial in which a clergyman was charged with holding heretical opinions, it was decided by the court that disbelief in the doctrine of eternal punishment did not constitute heresy. On this it was remarked by a member of the Bar that the learned judge had "dis- missed hell -with costs." What was the c.ise, and who was the author of the caustic bon mot ? H. J. AYLIFFE. 17, Wyndham Street, Brighton. GENTLEMAN OF THE POULTRY. In the old Parish Church of Kingsbury, near Neas- den, Middlesex, beneath the altar, there is a memorial slab to the memory of John Bull, Gent. : A religiously disposed man Servant unto Queen Elizabeth And King James in the office of Gentleman of the Poultry. Died 1621. Can anyone tell me anything about him or his office ? WILLIAM BURY. 474, Uxbridge Road, W.12. ASHBURNHAM HOUSE, 30, DOVER STREET. Before me are several water-colour sketches of decorations at this house and one of a small yard or garden between two high walls. The inscription, ' Lord Ashbumham's Gar- den as seen from his room,' and the whole series are obviously of the eighteenth century. The mansion, demolished in 1897, was that erected by James Brudenell in 1729 : al- though purchased by the second Earl about 1759, it remained the town house of the Earls of Ashburnham till its destruction. Evidently these drawings represent altera- tions made by Robert Adam in 1773, when he provided the gateway and lodge entrance. Is anything known of this garden or yard ? I learn from ' The Private Palaces of London ' (p. 107) that there is a plan of the house in the Grace Collection, and to this volume I am also indebted for some of the data provided. ALECK ABRAHAMS. " SKELDER " AND " SKELDERCATK " : DE- RIVATION SOUGHT. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' give the correct derivation of the place-names " Skelder" and " Skeldergate " ? Skelder, three miles from Whitby, York- shire, is the name given to a place where there is a solitary house, formerly an inn, at the edge of the moors, close to the site of a beacon known as Penny-Howe. Fromt he high ground at Skelder a fine view of Whitby with its Abbey can be obtained. Skeldergate, in the City of York, is a narrow street now chiefly occupied by ware- houses close to the River Ouse. In old days merchants lived in mansions close to the warehouses and the wharves. The Fairfax family had a house there which was last occupied by the Duke of Buckingham. Drake, in his ' Eboracum,' states that Skeldergate, York, derives its name from a Dutch word keller, keldar, meaning a cellar or a place where many merchants had their ce'lars. But this is not a satisfactory de- finition. Davies, in his ' Walks through the