Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/231

 2 nd S. N 11., MAE. 15. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

223

Canterbury, died in February, 1413, and was suc- ceeded by Henry Cbicheley, who died in April, 1443. See Dugdale's Monasticon (181730), vol. i. p. 86. The nephew of Pope Martin V. could not therefore have been Archbishop of Can- terbury during his uncle's pontificate ; nor is it probable that he held any benefices in England by the Pope's appointment, as the statute of Pras- munire was then in existence, and enforced ; for Andrews states in his History of Great Britain, that Pope Martin V. denounced, by his legate, curses of the most fatal kind against the English king, parliament, and people, for not repealing this statute, which deprived him of the power to dispose of livings in England. " His high words" were however " disregarded." W. H. W. T.

Somerset House.

Hillier Family (2 nd S. i. 53.) In looking over the old churchwarden's book of this parish, I find the name of lloger Hiller (Hiliier ?) mentioned as churchwarden in 1621, and again in 1675. I am sorry I cannot give C. II. P. any further in- formation respecting this family : I should not have thought the above worth sending, had C. H. P. not mentioned " Johan Hillier " as steward of the manor of Cirencester in 1685 ; and as Cirencester is only ten miles from Tetbury, and the dates also correspond, it is not unlikely they were of the same family. ALFKED T. LEE.

Tetbury, Gloucestershire.

Tom Thumb (2 nd S. i. 154.) MR. WILSON has eniame a very interesting subject in this Query. Tom Thumb takes a higher rank tlian a mere his- torical personage can ever be entitled to assume. His narrative belongs to that far extended family of tales of enchantment and wonder, which has its rools in the primeval mythology of the Scandi- navian and Teutonic peoples. It is almost unne- cessary to observe that mythology forms no insig- nificant portion of the evidence of ethnology, or the family history of tribes and nations. Tom Thumb is a prominent actor in the Kinder und huuswarehen of the Brothers Grimm, and the Contes du Temps passe of Perrault. But the learned editor of the " N. & Q." has given a re- ference to an English metrical history of our worthy published in 1630, i. e. nearly seventy years before Perrault's tales appeared. This fact, whilst it shows that we did not import Tom Thumb into England in modern time?, affords a reasonable presumption that lie came into Britain with the Anglo-Saxons, as part of their circu- lating library. Tom Thumb, however, is not the only nursery favourite which can claim an ancient position in England. Air. B. Thorpe's observa- tion at p. 125. of his Yule Tide Stories, shows that Cinderella should rank in the same category, and that we do not owe her to M. Perrault. The same

remark appears to apply to " Jack in the Bean Stalk," " Puss in Boots," " Jack the Giant Killer," and " Beauty and the Beast," which not only all bear the impress of northern fiction, but are actu- ally still found in the nursery tales of Scan- dinavia. But what are the earliest forms (now existing) of these myths in England ? And where are they to be found in print or in MS. ? Hickathrift, too, deserves a Note. T. T. C.

Curious Right to appoint a Coroner (2 nd S. i. 115.) The last presentation of a coroner for the hundred of High Peak, co. Derby, was made by the late Rev. Francis Foxlowe. The Horn after- wards became the property of his widow, who affected to devise the estates which were left to her by her husband to his grand-nephew, Francis Edward Greaves, the second son of H. M. Greaves, Esq., of Banner Cross (see Burke's Landed Gentry, ed. of 1853, p. 416. of the Supplement) ; but the Horn not being s-pecifically mentioned, and there being no general devise of real estate in Mrs. Foxlowe's will, the right in the Horn became vested in her cousin and heir-at-law, the late Alexander Slater, Esq., of London, who died on the 27th January last, but by arrangement be- tween Mr. H. M. Greaves and Mr. Slater, the Horn, and the presentation to the office of co- roner, became vested in the former gentleman, who thereupon exercised his right in favour of Mr. F. G. Bennett, as stated in the current vo- lume of " N. & Q." In the documents which ac- company this ancient symbol, the right is styled " prima pars agard." W. ST.

Sheffield.

Armorial Queries (1 st S. xii. 449.) As a very imperfect reply to these Queries I beg to say that the arms to No. 5. are those of Nash; No. 13. probably Mitchell ; and No. 32. those of Nichols. Several others might have been discovered had DB C. fully blnzoned each coat ; and before he charges the Heralds' College with defective Or- dinaries, he should have blazoned each coat pro- perly, for not one in his whole scries is complete in blazon. For instance, No. 23., Or, a lion de- ! bruised by a baton gobony, might have been dis- \ covered had the colours of the baton been given ; I as there are several such coats in the ordinaries \ at the Heralds' College, having the baton, but of
 * different tinctures : the same of others.

FECIALIS.

Dog-whippers (1 st S. x. 188.) The office is not extinct, though the necessity for its exercise may no longer exist. " Dog-whipping, 2.9. 6(/." still forms a regular item in the annual accounts of the sexton of the Collegiate Church of Middle- ham, and is no less regularly paid. Me texte, T. II. KERSM;Y, B.A. Canon and Sub-Dean.