Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/165

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S. I. FEB. 19, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

157

iat found close to the body 1 ?" "Sartin mre." O'Connell proceeded to inspect the 3foibeen. " Was the prisoner's name, Pa1 Elogan" (he spelled each letter slowly), "in it at the time you found it?" '"Twas, of 3oorse." "You could not be mistaken?' is that?" "Quite." "Then get off the table this minute ! " cried O'Connell triumphantly Addressing the judge, he said : " My lord there can be no conviction here. There is no name in the hat ! " Vide ' The Irish Bar,' by J. R. O'Flanagan, Barrister-at-Law, pp. 238, 239 (London, Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1879). The italics are mine.
 * 'No, sir." "And all you swore is as true

HENRY GERALD HOPE.

It may be of interest to note that when James Carey first told the true history of the Phoenix Park murders in Kilmainham Court House he was seated in a chair on a table, facing the magistrates, and with his back half turned to the dock in which were his twenty- one accomplices. I had the fortune to be present, and am never likely to forget the scene or the coolness with which the informer told everything he knew. He had a great eye for dramatic effect, and when he was asked from whom in their opinion the large funds with which the Invincibles were backed came, he waited, in a silence in which a pin could have been heard to drop, and looked all round the court before he answered, "The Land League." GEORGE S. C. SWINTON. 36, Pont b ? treet.

In an Irish assize court there is a large table immediately below the bench. Round this table sit the counsel engaged in the different cases, and the witness-box is placed on the corner of the table next the bench. H. J. B. CLEMENTS.

Killadoon, Celbridge.

In many of the county assize courts in Ireland witnesses give their evidence when sitting on a chair placed on top of a table which is fixed in front of the bench. Some of these tables are covered with green baize. In the assize court in the town of Wicklow . have frequently heard a witness, after he has been called, ordered to "come on the table " by an official of the court.

BELLINGHAM A. SOMERVILLE. Clermont, co. Wicklow.

I was subpoenaed to the west of Ireland several years ago on a Government prosecu- tion, and had to take my turn as witness on a deal table seated on a rickety chair. Not being endowed with Irish assurance, I broke down, and endured a bad quarter of an hour. The Treasury supplied a very liberal cheque

for expenses, which, under the circumstances, I considered dearly earned. A. H.

ENIGMA (8 th S. xii. 487; 9 th S. i. 11). I remember an incident of thirty years ago which may throw some light on this. The enigma had often been discussed in our circle of acquaintances without any approach to success, so at last one of us secretly wrote to the author, who, at that time, was generally supposed to be the famous Wilberforce (S. Oxon.).

No reply came, but about six months after, when all was forgotten, a mysterious letter was handed round one morning for inspec- tion, the purport of which no one could explain. It contained one word only, arid was about to be treated as all anonymous letters deserve, when some one spied the impress of the Athenseum Club on the paper. " It is the bishop," said the recipient. The word was " Income-Tax."

NE QUID NIMIS.

East Hyde.

SUTTON ARMS (8 th S. xii. 388, 495). May I ask LORD ALDENHAM if he will kindly com- municate with me ? J. FERNIE.

Burton by Lincoln.

T. G. (8 th S. xi. 487 ; xii. 32). On p. 340 of the first volume of 'A Dictionary of the Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature of Great Britain' (Edinburgh, 1882), by S. Halkett and J. Laing, it is stated that t. G. was Thomas Godden or Godwin. That work was not within my reach when I sent in my query. PALAMEDES.

MASONIC SIGNS (8 th S. xii. 408, 476 ; 9 th S. i. 53). My thanks are due to Miss LEGA-WEEKES for her courteous and satisfactory reply to my query. The courtesy of the two previous replies was slightly dashed with humour, which rather spoilt it, while the answers were anything but satisfying. My suspicions are now confirmed that the signs are not in any sense Freemasonic. J. B. S.

Manchester.

GEORGE JULIAN HARNEY (8 th S. xii. 486 ; 9 th S. i. 94). Your correspondent J. G. C. will find exhaustive biographical notices on this aged Chartist, who died on 9 December iast, in the Newcastle Daily Chronicle of the following day. Oddly enough, no reference is made therein to the fact that the deceased was a noted authority upon, and student of, Lord Byron, taking until quite recently a teen interest in all matters relating to his memory. In particular, he desired to know that the site of Lord Byron's birthplace,