Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/382

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

jg. NO 19., MAY 10. '56.

Are any of the readers of " N. & Q." sufficiently versed in diplomatic forms to explain by what process this act of parapJiing was performed by those same " undersigned ? "

As the King of France had his particular pa- raph, said to have been a grate, are we to presume that each state had its own ?

The Fr. parafe or paraphe, the Sp. and It. parafo, are explained to be " the flourish or knot added to one's signature." The good old lexico- grapher, Cotgrave, adds: " Also a subsignature or signing under." The word, uncorrupted, para- graph, was formerly in use.

Evelyn, in his Tract on the State of France, twice employs it :

" The Duke of Orleans, &c., &c. ( deliver them to the greffier or clerk, by whom they are to be allowed, that is, paragraphed in parchment."

" The king's secretaries must first allow, and paragraph them." (See in Richardson's Dictionary.'}

Is it not this same " flourish," above-named, that is referred to by Mr. Lockhart in his Life of Sir Walter Scott (vol. i. pp. 195, 196.), as one of " the little technical tricks " learnt by Sir Walter during his clerkship, and continued to be practised while the Great Unknown :

" I allude particular!}' to a sort of flourish at the bottom of the page, originally, I presume, adopted as a safeguard against the intrusion of a forged line between the legiti- mate text and the attesting signature."

Q.

Bloomsbury.

ifttnor

Calvary. Why is that holy site so constantly designated Mount Calvary? When was it first so spoken of? and what authority is there for believ- ing it to have been an elevated spot ? C. W. W.

H n.

Gypsum, Bones, Guano. Perhaps some of your agricultural readers can favour me with answers to the following Queries ?

At what period, and in what quarter, was gyp- sum first used as a manure to land ?

When were bones, whether in the form of inch- bones or bone-dust, first used as a manure ?

Can any one fix the precise date at which Pe- ruvian guano was first used as a manure ? When was the Ichaboe guano discovered, and in what manner ?

Who was the inventor of the broadcast sowing machine, for sowing grass seeds and corn, and where was it first used ? HENRY STEPHENS.

Mixed Marriages. May I ask you, or some of your correspondents, to inform me whether a clergyman of the Established Church can legally refuse to marry a Protestant and a Roman Ca- tholic, assigning the religion of the latter as the

reason for his refusal ? This is taking for granted that the names have been duly called in the church, or that a licence from the Consistorial Court has been presented to him.

Or (to view the matter in an earlier stage), can a clergyman of the Established Church legally refuse to call the names of a pair, one of them being a Roman Catholic ?

I have never refused in such cases, but still I wish for information. ABHBA.

Glassington and Birkhead Families. Where can I gather information of these families, who for a long while were connected with Trinity Chapel, Knightsbridge ? The former as governors of the Lazar House ; and the latter, I presume, were lessees nnder the Dean and Chapter of West- minster. Nicho. Birkhead, gouldsmith of London, as a tablet in front of the chapel describes him, rebuilt it in 1699; and some part of its com- munion plate was the gift of a Mrs. Mary Birk- head, as also its bell. Information regarding them will greatly oblige. H. G. D.

Knightsbridge.

Signal Whistle. A few years ago a signal whistle of great power was constructed : it con- sisted of three tubes uniting in one mouthpiece ; at first ihe tubes were all of equal length, and when sounded produced a perfect concord ; then two of them were cut unequally, so as with the third, which was left of the original length, to produce when sounded a perfect discord ; and it was to this that the great power of the instrument was due (it was said it could be heard at the dis- tance of three miles). Where can I procure one now, and at what price ? PFEIFER.

Capital Punishments. When and where was hanging first used as a capital punishment in England ? and what was the name of the first worthy who, in lieu of being indulged with " a chop or a stake," was treated with " a drop too much " as a reward for his misdeeds ?

At the same time, can you tell me if there exists any collected description of the capital punishments in use, or which have formerly been used, in other countries ? I have notes of a few, and should be glad to add to the number.

R. W. HACKWOOD.

Blood which will not wash out.

" Yet here's a spot." Macbeth, Act V. Sc. 1.

I know a lone house where there is a red stain in a paving stone of the floor, and this stain is said to have been caused by a drop of blood from a man who was murdered many years since in the locality (Gloucestershire, N.), and whose body had been removed to this house. No washinor will remove the spot, which I saw, and was told the above by the woman of the house.