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NOTES AND QUERIES. to* s. i. MAR. 12, <*>.

1748, he was interred in Westminster Abbey. His nephew Capt. William Webb was master of the ceremonies at Bath, for which town his uncle was member of Parliament for many years. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

HOUSES WITHOUT STAIRCASES (9 th S. i. 166). An allusion is made at the above reference to the Lyceum, and the architect named as Mr. Charles Beazley. I beg to state that the Lyceum was built by my father, the late Mr. Samuel Beazley, not by either of the Messrs. Charles Beazley who have practised in the same profession. EMILY A. TRIBE.

I have lived a good deal at Oban, and knew Altnacraig, but I never heard that it was designed or built without a staircase; it certainly has one now. Apropos, it was a tradition not, I fancy, without foundation of my youth in Wigtonshire that the fine mansion of Lochnaw, the seat of Sir Andrew Agnew, had been planned by the then baronet himself, and that it was not until the actual erection of it had commenced that the total absence of staircase was discovered.

OSWALD HUNTER BLAIR, O.S.B.

Fort Augustus, N.B.

I have always associated this story with Balzac, of whom I first read it. Balzac designed his own house in the country, and when it was built according to his plans it was found that the staircase was omitted, and consequently it had to be added, outside, afterwards. I cannot place my hand on my authority for the moment. S. J. A. F.

Though I doubt of the existence of this blunder anywhere, Sir C. Barry committee one quite as great in designing the clock- tower of the Palace of Parliament with no entrance for the bell, which had to remain outside the foot of the tower till a new arch was pulled down and opened for it.

E. L. GARBETT.

" THROUGH-STONE " (8 th S. xii. 487 ; 9 th S. i. 9) In what are called "brick graves" it i usual to place a flagstone sufficiently large tc completely cover the space above the buriec coffin, and upon this the walls of the grave are again built up, so leaving a stone bottom upon which is laid the next interment. Thi slab is technically known here in the West and doubtless elsewhere, as the "through stone," or, as it is called, the " drue-stone." I may, and probably does, mean the coffir stone, though the idea now is that througl means complete, i. e., the stone which reache through the grave. In my notes I fine

Through-stone, the slab in a brick grave etween two interments."

F. T. ELWORTHY. Wellington, Somerset,

Your correspondents have supplied ample vidence proving the true meaning and origin f this word, meaning a grave-stone ; but in his part of Scotland, if you were to ask any ountryman to show you a "through-stone," le would point to a long stone projecting on ach side of a wall (called "dyke" with us), o as to form a step. In this sense "through" nust represent the preposition. This did not escape Jamieson (very little did) ; for in addition to explaining " thruch - stane " as [uoted by your correspondents, he explains ' through - stone " as "a stone which goes hrough a wall." HERBERT MAXWELL.

Monreith, Whauphill.

The two distinct meanings of this term are rery clearly exemplified in the glossary to the

Fabric Rolls of York Minster' (Surt. Soc. vol. xxxv.). First, the " thruff-stone," or binding- stone for a wall, by a quotation from Drake's

Eboracum,' wherein a monument is described as rescued from " brutish workmen who had Droke it in the midst, and were going to make use of it for two throuahs, as they call them, to oind a wall." Secondly, as a grave cover, by quotations from wills in the registries of York and Durham :

(1) Sir John Rocliffe of Cowthorpe, in 1531, desiring to be buried in the church of the Grey Friars, York, instructs his executors to " cause a thorughe-stone to be laide upon me, and one ymage of the Trinitie sette and fixed in the said throughe-stone, and one ymage of myself maide kneling undre the said ymage, w* one scripture for me in perpetuall remembrance."

(2) John Bullock, of Newcastle, in 1548-9, directs that his body be buried in the "pariche churche of All Saincts nye the throughe stone besides the weddyng churche dore."

(3) In 1562 Thomas Ellis, of Doncaster, orders his body to be interred in St. George's Church there, "in that place wheare Sir Robert Smyth was buried, and I will that that stone that lyeth upon that place be laid there agayne and four stones sett upon ends of the same, and thereupon laid one throughe, beyng now of the bakeside of my house."

RICHD. WELFORD.

In a 'Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases' (1855) I find "A Trough or Through (pron. truff), a table tomb, generally square^ and occupying the entire surface of the grave."

C. P. HALE.