Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/396

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. MAY 14, '9S.

of Draycott, Staffs. Also, I want the name of the wife of John Pennefather, of Compsey, co. Tipperary, who was a younger brother of the above-mentioned Mathew.

HARFLETE.

PERSONATED RESOUND. On p. 147 of 'A Logicall Resolution of the i. Chap, of the Epistle of the Apostle Pavle vnto the Romanes,' by Gabriel Powel (Oxford, 1602), it is said of Martin Luther :

"As soone as heewas arived at Rome, he was so farre from finding any rest, that there hee felt the force of these wordes personating in his mind, with greater vehemency, then ever he did before."

Do any other authors use personate in this sense ? PALAMEDES.

MAJOR LONGBOW. Where does this cha- racter occur ? S.

" To SOBER." Charles Wesley wrote in one of his hymns ("Thou Judge of quick and dead"):-

To damp our earthly joys, To increase our gracious fears, For ever let the Archangel's voice Be sounding in our ears.

In 'Hymns Ancient and Modern' this is altered to

To sober earthly joys, To quicken holy fears, &c.

Was the verb " to sober " in use in Wesley's time 1 ? C. C. B.

" KITTY- WITCHES." These were, I assume, simply loose women. The 'East Anglian Glossary ' (Nail) gives derivation from kiddy ', wanton, and witch. Nearly every work deal- ing with Great Yarmouth gives a similar account of these. I quote from Forby, who says :

" It was customary many years ago at Yarmouth for women of the lowest order to go in troops from house to house to levy contributions, at some season of the year and on some pretence which nobody now seems to recollect, having men's shirts over their own apparel, and their faces smeared with blood."

Is anything known of a similar custom which prevailed in other seaport towns 1 This species of saturnalia might not be confined to Yar- mouth. The ceremony doubtless had, at some remote period, an especial significance. Can it be that it alludes to some mediaeval or older attack on the town, wherein the women, in the absence of the men at sea, fought with and beat off the invaders 1 The wearing of men's shirts might simply be symbolical, or actually intended to deceive the enemy. The account of any such invasion is, unfortunately, not forthcoming, I fear. The only semblance of such which I have been able to trace was

the disorderly attack by the followers of Kett in 1549 : but the story is probably very much older than this. W. B. GERISH.

Hoddesdon, Herts.

SKIRMISH AT NORTHFLEET. Can any one tell me the name and the author of a novel dealing, inter alia, with the defeat of Major Child by Col. Husbands at Northfleet, in Kent, in the Royalist rising in 1648 ?

AYEAHR.

LENGTH OF FOOT MEASURE. Was the English foot in the reign of Elizabeth of the same length as our foot of twelve inches if not, what was the difference 1 X. Y.

[The English foot measure has been slightly lengthened since the time of Henry VII. Consult, under 'Foot,' the 'H. E. D.' and the 'Century Dictionary.']

Poco MAS. 'Scenes and Adventures in Spain from 1835 to 1840,' by Poco Mas, in 2 vols., London, Richard Bentley, 1845, 8vo. Who was Poco Mas ? H. S. A.

PROCESSIONS. Is there, or has there been, any established usage as to the direction in which processions, ecclesiastical or otherwise, should move in making the circuit of a build- ing? Is there any rule, e.g., as to the pro- cessioners keeping the centre of the building on their right nand or on their left 1

A. SMYTHE PALMER.

S. Woodford.

" CO-OPT " AND " CO-OPTION." These words have been much to the fore of late in refer- ence to certain municipal affairs. Is there any authority for the use of the substantive in place of co-optation ? CECIL CLARKE.

Authors' Club, S. W.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. In what book or MS. can I find the names of musical instru- ments played at the coronation or in the household of Edward III. ? R. S.

PYE FAMILY. I should be glad to get any information which would enable me to dis- cover the parentage of Samuel Pye, surgeon, of Bristol, who lived there about 1755, and who is supposed to be descended from Hamp- den Pye, of Faringdon, Berks, the Hamilton Tighe of the * Ingoldsby Legends.'

CHAVASSE.

PAYEN DE MONTMORE. M. Nicolas Payen de Montmore was the cousin of M. de Lionne, the ambassador sent by Louis XIV. to nego- tiate and carry through the treaty of the Spanish marriage and alliance. Montmore subsequently became one of the most tra- velled men of his time. He published a book