Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/497

 12 s. ix. NOV. ID, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 407 was not publicly known : hence it obtained, of course, the name of Stilton cheese. At length, however, the place of produce was discovered, and the art of producing it learnt, by other dairy women of the neighbourhood. Dalby first took the lead, but it is now made in almost every village in that quarter of Leicester- shire, as well as in the neighbouring villages of Rutlandshire. Many tons are made every year. Dalby is said to pay its rent with this produce only. The sale is no longer confined to Stilton ; every innkeeper, within fifteen or twenty miles of the district of manufacture, is a dealer in Stilton cheese. The price, at present, tenpence a pound to the maker and a shilling to the consumer, who takes it at the maker's weight. R. Me. Lacey Green. THE OWLING TBADE. This curious de- signation deserves some mention in the pages of ' N. & Q.' Mr. G. N. Clark, in an article upon trading with the enemy in the October issue of The English Historical Review, supplies an explanation of it. Owling, which had been a capital offence, even in peace time, since the days of Edward III., was rampant during the French wars in the reigns of William III. and of Anne. The actual " name, " owling," ap- pears to have come into use in or about 1698, and was referred to by a contemporary poet as follows : To gibbet and gallows your owlers advance. That that's the sure way to mortify France. " Owling " was a term denoting the illicit exporting of wool or of sheep. The great centre of this trade was in the vicinity of Romney Marsh, and special precautions were taken by the Kent justices to check or prevent it. The small hamlet of Lydd was garrisoned for the purpose, and Revenue cutters cruised off the coast. In 1696 a riot occurred at Rye in connexion with these seizures, and in the following year the clothiers of Wellington (in Somerset) petitioned Privy Council on the subject. R. B. PORSON ON ENGLISH. With reference to the recent report of the Departmental Committee of the Board of Education on may be worth while to recall the opinion of Porson on the relative merits of Greek and English in education. The authority is James Northcote, R.A., in the supplement (1815) to his 'Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds,' at pp. Ixxxv.-vi. : Porson, the well-known Greek scholar, was lamenting to a friend that so large a portion of his own youthful time had been spent in acquiring the Greek language. " If I had a son," said he, " to educate, I would make him study his native lan- guage, and I would grve him, as a task every morn- ing, a sufficient portion of the pages of Gibbon for him to translate into plain English." M. PHARAOH AS SURNAME. In the church - ! yard of Eskdale, Cumberland, near to Boot, j almost overshadowed by Hartley Craggs and I Harter Fell, and close by Scafell, is a tomb- I stone bearing the following inscription : In Memory of Crispin Pharoh who died March 9th 1851 aged 79 years. Sarah wife of Crispin Pharaoh of Boot, and daughter of Henry Hartley of Wha-House who departed this life on the 6th day of April 1802 aged 29 years. Also Mary their daughter, and wife of William Bigg of Boot, who died November 21st 1845 aged 47 years. The omission of the " a " in the first spelling seems to be a mason's error. The name appears to be pronounced " Farra " by the dale-folk, and members of the family are still living in the dale. RUSSELL MARKLAND. uerte*. We must request correspondents desiring in- to affix their names and addresses to their queries, LEGAL COSTUME IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. Will any reader " learned in the law " tell me what was the daily dress ! of lawyers (outside of the courts) during ! the latter half of the seventeenth century ? ! I presume a barrister constantly wore his i a bencher his bencher's gown, and a ser- sleeves " thick with lace." Was this gold lace, and was it laced in front too ?) But what did the Equity men wear, from the Chancellor down ? Surely robes were re- served for the courts and for ceremonial functions ; what was worn in private life, on the streets, on social occasions or at Whitehall ? Were swords carried when gowns were used ? I understand black was not general till after the death of Mary or (some say) Anne. Also, was the title of " lord " when given ex ojficio, as " my lord Coke," " lord Hale,"
 * The Teaching of English in England,' it
 * formation on family matters of only private interest
 * in order that answers may be sent to them direct.
 * Inn gown over " a sober-coloured suit,"
 * geant or common-law judge the sergeant's
 * coat. (Sergeant Pulling says that in 1635
 * this coat was faced with velvet and the