Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/357

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s. i. APRIL so, '98.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

349

id is stated in Hone's ' Year-Book ' (pub- ] ished 1832) to have been then " a handsome

Ecture, but fast verging to decay " (p. 546). JAMES TALBOT. lelaide, South Australia.

WINDWARD AND LEEWARD ISLANDS. Where is the geographical line which divides the West India islands into the Windward and Leeward groups 1 How far back can this ]ine be traced 1 With whom did it originate 1 According to Morse ('Geography,' 1805, p. 824), "Sailors distinguished those islands with regard to the usual courses of ships [bound] from Old Spain or the Canaries to Cartha- gena or New Spain and Porto Bello." But the present inquirer, though he has circum- navigated the globe, came home a landlubber still. At least I cannot understand how the words in question were applied.

JAMES D. BUTLER.

Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.

SHEEPSKINS. I have recently come across a little note-book containing, among other items, a list of sheepskins sold by a farmer and butcher of Laleham, Middlesex, in the years 1788-9. The entries for May and June, 1788, include "grass lambs skins" and "shor- ling skins." In 1789 "murrian skins" and

woolfelt " or " woolfelts " are mentioned. I am told by an old man living in the neigh- bourhood that " murrian skins " are the skins of animals that have died of disease ; but I am at a loss to know what " woolfelt " can mean in this connexion. Can any reader of

N. & Q.' explain it ? W. P. M.

SIDESMAN. I think you may be able to inform me as to the status of sidesmen in the Church of England. Are they merely ap- pointed to collect alms with the churchwardens, or are they to assist churchwardens in this and in other duties, seating the congregation, <fcc. ; and in the absence of both wardens could a sidesman eject a brawler from the church ? AN OLD SIDESMAN.

[See ' N. & Q.,' 5 fch S. v. 367, 452 ; xi. 504 ; xii. 31, 78, 156 ; 7 th S. viii. 45, 133.]

JEANNE DE FRANCE. Can any one supply information as to portraits or painted studies of Jeanne de France, the youngest child of Louis XI. and divorced wife of Louis XII., founder of the order of Les Annonciades, and canonized in 1738? FRANK H. BAER.

Cleveland, Ohio.

"ANOTHER STORY." This phrase will have become familiar to many readers of ' N. & Q.' from its frequent repetition in the newspapers and magazines of the day. It has achieved

by this time quite a familiar ring. By whom was it originated 1 Until recently I was under the impression that honour belonged to Mr. Rudyard Kipling, who, I believe, makes use of the phrase somewhere in the form, " But that 's another story " ; and in most cases where I have seen it used it has been attributed to him. But in the Echo of 26 March, in some notes on ' Service Griev- ances,' I find a writer who advances another as the author of the phrase. To quote his words : "But that, as Laurence Sterne said,
 * is another story.' " C. P. HALE.

CHRIST'S HALF DOLE. (9 th S. i. 129.)

I QUOTE the following from * The Herring and the Herring Fishery,' by J. W. de Caux (London, Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1891), pp. 98-100 :

"The corporation of Great Yarmouth divided equally between itself and the Church one dole or share of the earnings of every boat which made use of that port. But, lor centuries, the Church claimed and received for itself alone, all along the coast, a half dole, which, from the sacred uses to which it was supposed to be put, was called ' Christ's half dole.' The origin of this half dole may be traced to those dark ages in which men were more super- stitious than pious ; and when serf and lord were equally ignorant, and equally at the mercy of the priest. The half dole was, no doubt, in the first instance a free-will offering, given in the hope of thereby securing a good voyage, much in the same spirit as heathen make presents to their idols in order to propitiate them. The making of this freewill offering soon became a custom a custom which in time came to be considered as a right ; and this right was tenaciously claimed and rigorously enforced by Catholic priest and Protestant clergyman until the middle of the present century. And well it might be from a worldly point of view, because it formed no inconsiderable item in the value of a living. From time to time efforts were made to shake off this incubus ; and, as late as 1845, the Rev. F. Cunningham, vicar of Lowestoft, summoned before the Rev. E. M. Love and Edward Leathes, Esq., two of the magistrates for Suffolk, a fisherman named John Roberts ' for having refused or neg- lected to pay tithes for his fish.' The case was argued for the defendant by Mr. J. H. Tillett, of Norwich, who contended that the 'tithe did not arise,' as was stated in the information, ' in the parish of Lowestoft, but in the sea,' and that, therefore, as it was neither legal nor just, it could not be enforced. The magistrates, however, found for the complainR-nt, and made an order for IQs. 3d. tithe and 10s. costs. Whether this order was obeyed or not I cannot say, but since then, as far as I have been able to learn, this custom has been honoured more in the breach than in the observance. I have been told that the custom was enforced at Great Yarmouth until a fisherman, happening to have a tenth child born to him, took it to the