Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/601

 12 s. ix. DEC. IT, i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 495 Simon met a pie-man," he was victimized in a gambling transaction, does not appear. ' J. T. F. Wintertou, Lines. THE HOUSE OF HARCOURT (12 S. ix. 409, 453). I am obliged to your correspondent H., but unfortunately his replies afford me ! no data concerning the sources whence his ' information was obtained. 1. I am particularly interested in clearing up the mystery concerning the nationality and origin of Bernard le Danois, the pro- gemtor of this House, as some authorities say that he was a Saxon, others that he was a Dane. I want no opinions, but data. The same mystery as to the origin of Hollo I should like to have cleared up. He is likewise reputed by some to be a Dane, while others assert that he was an outlaw from the west coast of Norway. It is new to me that Bernard was a kinsman of Rollo. What is the evidence in support of this ? (I have access to very little literature on the Normans here.) 2. Will H. or anyone else please inform me who was the father of the great-grand- daughter of Bernard, who married the Comte d'Eu, second son of Richard I., Duke of Normandy, and also if there were any other matrimonial connexions between the House of Harcourt and the House of Hollo down to 1066. 3. Where can I find any published informa- tion concerning Arnold de Harcourt, who was slain, according to your correspondent, in 1068 (should it not be 1069 ?), in resisting the j Danish Allies of the rebellious Northum- berlanders in Yorkshire most probably. 4. Since sending my inquiry respecting j the Plantagenet descent of the late Sir W. V. V. Harcourt, I have discovered it in ! RuvignyandRainevall's works on the Blood Royal. It is also mentioned in the eleventh j edition of the ' Encyclopaedia Britannic a ' j and Stephen and Lee's ' Dictionary of National Biography,' so that it is not a mere " newspaper invention " as suggested by your correspondent H. W. HARCOURT-BATH. Plymouth. KlMMERIDGE COAL MONEY (12 S. ix. 450). An article on this subject by J. C. Mansell- Pleydell, with illustrations, will be found in one of the early volumes of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, c. 1890. W. HARCOURT-BATH. DISAPPEARING CHURCH CUSTOMS (12 S. ix. 449). I cannot speak as to any recent observance of the custom of the congrega- tion rising when the Lord's Prayer was read as part of the morning's lesson, but I well remember, more than fifty years ago, that at St. Thomas's Parish Church, Newport, Isle of Wight, when the lesson included the Lord's Prayer, a good many of the congrega- tion knelt down while it was being read. I have a faint recollection that others of the congregation stood up. I am, however,, sure of the kneeling down, because that was what my own elder relatives did. What makes it more likely that I am correct in thinking some of the congregation stood, is that at the end of the sermon, when the clergyman said " Now to God the Father," &c., part of the congregation knelt down while the remainder rose. As far as I can recollect, standing up was considered to savour of High Church principles. My parents were among those that knelt down. With regard to collecting at the church door fifty years ago collections at every service were unknown at the above church. On a Sacrament Sunday the regular offer- tory was taken from those who stayed to the Communion, after the non-com- municants had left, by the churchwardens, who went round with crimson velvet bags. On these Sundays the clergyman, after the Nicene Creed, gave out " Those who do not remain to the second service are requested to remember the poor." When the general congregation left the church after the close of the sermon the verger stood at the west door, and a paid pew-opener (male) at the south and north doors, each with a wooden seventeenth -century collecting box, to re- ceive whatever anyone might be disposed to give. My recollection is that while no one would have cared to let the collecting - bag pass without contributing on those occasions when there was a general collec- tion for some special object from pew to pew, there was no compunction in not contributing to the boxes held at the church doors on Sacrament Sundays. One of the before -mentioned seventeen th- century collecting-boxes is figured in Stone's ' Architectural Antiquities of the Isle of Wight.' WM SELF-WEEKS. West wood, Clitheroe. During the last 50 years, at least, it has been the custom, from my personal