Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/355

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S. I. APRIL 30, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

347

J. S. Holum ; Lars Johnson, L. J. Grinde ; Peter Oleson, P. O. Ulvestadt ; Nels Oleson, N". O. Dahl. This information comes from a clergyman, the Rev. ^seph De Forest, who, being brought up in Wisconsin, recommended the additional names.

RICHARD H, THORNTON.

Portland, Oregon.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

"DAWKUM." In some MS. additions to Grose's * Prov. Diet.,' 1790, made by Samuel Pegge, and purchased by F. Madden in 1832, the word dawkum is said to be used in Devon in the sense of " ignavus, piger." I should be glad to hear whether any of your readers know of the word dawkin or dawkum in the sense of a dull, stupid person, as in present use in the West Country. A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

PATCHES. When did "patching" finally cease out of the land ] It seems to have had an extraordinarily long lease of life for so trivial or frivolous a fashion. Dr. Brewer, in his 'Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,' twenty- third edition, s.v. 'Court Plaster,' gives a reference to Fletcher's 'Elder Brother,' Act III. sc. v., from which it would appear, although Dr. Brewer does not say so, that in Fletcher's time even gentlemen wore patches. See also ' The Fortunes of Nigel,' chap, xxvii. The barber says to Nigel :

" ' A bit of black taffeta patch, just big enough to be the saddle to a flea, sir. Yes, sir, rather improves than otherwise. The Prince had a patch the other day, and so had the Duke ; and if you will believe me, there are seventeen yards three-quarters of black taffeta already cut into patches for the

courtiers Another little patch that would make

a doublet for a flea, just under the left moustache ; it will become you when you smile, sir, as well as a dimple.' "

The patches mentioned in 'Henry V.' and 'All's Well that Ends Well' I do not under- stand to be merely ornamental patches like those in Fletcher's play. Fletcher died in 1625. Patching including political (i.e., Whig and Tory) patching was in full force in the reign 01 Queen Anne (see Addi- son's Spectator papers, Nos. 50 and 81, and Steele's paper, No. 87). Prof. Henry Morley, in a note to No. 50, gives a quotation from " natural easy Suckling," as Mrs. Millamant calls him, referring to ladies' patches. Suck-

ling died in 1641. Did the custom continue uninterruptedly through the seventeenth century down to early Georgian times 1 Did the Elizabethan beauties patch 1 ? [Did the custom ever obtain to any extent in the pro- vinces, except, I suppose, amongst the fashionables of "The Bath," Tunbridge Wells &c.? JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

Ropley, Hants.

VALUE OF MONEY. In Marlorate's ' Catho- like and Ecclesiasticall Exposition of the holy Gospell after S. John' (1575) is the fol- lowing note on the two hundred penny- worth of bread mentioned in chap. vi. 7, in connexion with the miracle of feeding the five thousand :

"Forasmuch as these two hundred pence are severally in vallue (according to the supputation of Budseus) foure of our English pence, and two third parts of a penny, the sayde two hundred pence amount to the vallue of five and thirtie Frankes : the which make of our English coyne the some of three poundes eyghteene shillings and nine pence, and this some of three pound eyghteene shillings and nine pence being distributed among five thousande men every hundred part shall have for his share eyghteen pence three farthinges, and three mites, and three fift partes of a mite. But nowe adde to the five thousande a thousande women and children mo, so shal you finde that Philip here alloweth to every perticuler person of the general number of sixe thousande, three mites worth of breade to eate."

I have not Budseus ('De Asse' presum- ably) at hand to check this elaborate calculation; but what "Frankes" are they of which 200 X 4| pence make only thirty -five ? Taking the rate of wages as in the parable of the labourers at a penny a day, three mites would by this scale be about one-twelfth of a day's wages. B. W. S.

HORNS ON HELMETS. In one of those periodicals known as " scissors and paste " I lately saw a paragraph to the effect that " the German warriors from the fifth to the tenth century wore horns on their helmets." Can any reader direct me to a work con- taining full information on the subject? In one of the " Kmg's Pamphlets " it is said :

" Yet the Spaniards make Hidalgospor el cuerno, or Gentlemen of the Horn, to be a high office in a City ; and Heraldry makes Horns a good bearing in our Armes ; the Germans have them much for their crests, some may imagine from their good drinking." ' The Horn Exalted,' p. 34.

See many instances of horn tenure in ' The Kentish Note-Book,' vol. ii. pp. 143-6.

AYEAHR.

PORTRAIT OF HENRIETTA, LADY WENT- WORTH. Can any one tell me whether a por- trait (oil painting or miniature) of Henrietta,