Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/490

 482

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2nds. N 24., JUNE 14. '56.

to the scholar that slept the while. Awaking, he heard them accurately; and Atropos might be persuaded to pity as soon as he to pardon, where he found just fault. The prayers of cockering mothers prevailed with him as much as the requests of indulgent fathers, rather increas- ing than mitigating his severity on their offending chil- dren ; but his sharpness was the better endured because impartial ; and many excellent scholars were bred under him." Fuller. _

AN OLD PAULINE.

Town and Corporation Seals (2 nd S. i. 312.) The Yarmouth Corporation Seals, fourteen in number, have been lately engraved in Manship's History of Great Yarmouth, edited by C. J. Pal- mer, Esq., 4to. Yarm., 1854, and a descriptive catalogue appended. For an elucidation of some of the legends I inserted a Query in " N. & Q.," l t S. viii. 269., while the work was in the press, but no satisfactory account can yet be given. Large collections on E. C.'s plan are making on mediaeval seals generally, by Mr. A. W. Morant, of Yarmouth, and Mr. T. G. Bayfield, Norwich, who possesses many hundred impressions, either of whom would, I believe, readily communicate with E. C. The plates of the Yarmouth seals can probably be still obtained of the publisher of Man- ship's History, Meall, Yarmouth.

E. S. TAYLOR.

Surnames ending in "-house" (I" S. xi. 187.) In a Minor Query of Ma. W. WOODHOUSE on this subject, he alludes to the name of Mirehouse, and says, " Which was actually possessed by the late Recorder of London." Allow me to state that the late John Mirehouse, Esq., for some years filled the judicial post of Common Serjeant, but he never was Recorder.

As to the nature and duties of the office of Common Serjeant, see Pulling's Treatise on the Laws, Customs, Usages, and Regulations of the City and Port of London, 2nd edit., 1844, p. 120., &c. Jos. G.

Inner Temple.

Guano (2 nd S. i. 374.) The precise date when Peruvian guano was first used as a manure cannot be discovered. The ancient Peruvians knew its fertilising qualities ages ago :

" Long before we knew any thing about it the Peru- vians had turned to account, and had laws to prevent the birds being disturbed in their annual resorts to the islands. They used it by dibbling in a little at the foot of each plant, and then watering it." *

Its properties have been known to chemists for the last half century : Davy, Liebig, and Hum- boldt all mention it. " In 1806 an analysis of a very elaborate description was published by MM. Fourcroy and Vauquelin," and in 1810 experi- ments were made in the islands of Saint Helena

Elwes, 1854, page 176.
 * A Sketcher's Tour Round the World, by Robert

by the late General Beatson. It was, however, in the year 1840 an entirely new manure in England. In that year about twenty casks were imported by Mr. Myers of Liverpool, and in the year fol- lowing one or two cargoes arrived from the Pacific. See Farmers' Magazine, vol. ii., 1841, pp. 198. 266. K. P. D. E.

Sir James Lowther 's Man-of- War (1 st S. xii. 428.) QU^ESITCS inquires whether the Earl of Lonsdale had volunteered to furnish a seventy-four gun- ship, fully equipped in every respect, and present her to the Admiralty for the service of the country. Looking in the Annual Register for 1802, I find, at pp. 507 509., a Memoir of his lordship, who died in May of that year, and which particularises this somewhat equivocal offer, which his lordship did not press very urgently upon the Admiralty :

" In 1782, when it was generally understood that the war could not be of much longer continuance, Sir James Lowther waited on Lord Sandwich, who was then at the head of the Admiralty ; and, after deploring the state of His Majesty's Navy, voluntarily offered to build and equip, at his own expense, a 74-gun-ship. If this pro- posal was sincerely made, too much praise cannot be given to such disinterested patriotism ; but if common suspicion be well-founded, it was merely a delusive at- tempt to acquire popularity, and ensure distinction, without the claim arising from actual merit. The peace of 1783 made the building of a ship at that time unneces- sary ; but although the country has since been engaged in a more extensive contest, and attended with greater exertions than those which gave rise to the proposal of such a donation, the offer was never repeated."

R.F.

" Odments'" (2 nd S. i. 433.) This is a word in use in the northern counties, and also in some other parts of England. Your correspondent will find the following explanation of the word in the Teesdale Glossary :

" Odments \ n. pi. Scraps, fragments. Jam., Car.,

Odds and Ends j W. & C."

The references are to Jamieson's Dictionary, Carr's Craven Glossary, and the Westmoreland and Cumberland Glossary.

I may also refer your correspondent to the Glossaries of Northamptonshire by Sternberg and Baker, of East Anglia by Forbes, and of Somersetshire by Jennings. D.

Leamington.

Horsley Family (2 nd S. i. p. 375.) There are seven townships of Horsley in England, each of which would probably give the name to one gentle and many unconnected simple families. Hence the commonness of the surname. Hereditary arms did not come into use before the Crusades ; crests much later. Armorial bearings derived from the sound of the name (as a horse's head from Horsley) are not considered very honour- able by heralds, though some of our oldest fa- milies bear them. If the bishop were a man of