Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/61

 9 th S. I. JAN. 15, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

53

Also Beaumarchais makes his Figaro cor trast wine so named, perhaps of Bordeaux with wine of Burgundy.

As for Vm-de-Grave, if this should eve catch the eye of the correspondent of th Morning Post, he may be interested to lear; that, though Littre sometimes nods, he wake up again, and in his supplement adds :

" II n'y a pas de localite du nom de Grave dans 1 Gironde; et le nom de vin de grave au sens d gravier, de terrain caillouteux, etc., d^signe les vin de la bainlieue, en quelque sorte, de Bordeaux, e principalement du cote du sud, par exemple le cr fameux de Haut-Brion."

But see 'Bordeaux et ses Vins,' p. 179 " Le vin de Chateau-Haut-Brion, premier cru de cette excellente commune de Grave."

In English usage, however, the designation vin-de-grave or de graves is restricted to white wines, wine merchants cataloguing it undei White Bordeaux or White Claret, and waiter* ranking it among the 'ocks. KILLIGREW.

DURHAM TOPOGRAPHY (8 th S. xii. 509). The chapelry of Hadry or Heathery Cleugh near the source of the river Wear, is boundec west by Alston parish, co. Cumberland, south by Middleton-in-Teesdale, east by St. John's Chapel, both in co. Durham, and north by the co. of Northumberland. The county histories merely describe the chapel-of-ease belonging to it. The longest account appears in For- dyce's ' History of the County of Durham' no date, but published about forty years ago. There is a reference to the place in ' Weardale Men and Manners,' by J. R. Featherston, Durham, 1840, and a detailed account of it will no doubt appear in the third part of a 'History of Stanhope,' two parts of which have been published by the author, Mr. W. M. Egglestone, of Stanhope, to whom S. should apply direct. KICHD. WELFORD.

MASONIC SIGNS (8 th S. xii. 408, 476). I should think that the figures described by J. B. S. as cut on the columns of St. Giles's, Edinburgh, and of Koslyn Chapel, were pro- bably masons' marks the signatures, so to speak, of the men who wrought them. In vol. xxx. of Archceologia there is a paper on the subject, showing various simple geometric figures employed for this distinctive purpose by the builders of many English cathedrals, churches, &c. As your correspondent writes his letter from Manchester, it might be con- venient for him to make a comparative examination of the marks in Cheetham College, which include arrow-heads, interlaced acute angles, variously crossed straight lines, &c. So far as I understand, the masonic brotherhoods of the Middle Ages were among

the more important of the crafts and guilds into which all trades were organized, the term " Free" being applied to them on account of their exemption, by several Papal bulls, from the laws which regulated common labourers; and as their members were con- stantly travelling from one place or country to another, they found it convenient to adopt a system of secret symbols by ways of cre- dentials. But modern "speculative" Free- masonry, though employing geometric sym- bols, is unconnected with building or archi- tecture, and is of British origin, dating only from the seventeenth century.

ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.

ENDORSEMENT OP BILLS (8 th S. xii. 267, 350). It is only worth noting as one of the numerous differences between English and Scottish practice that a clerk's "habit of writing the title before finishing the folding" is not a Scottish clerk's habit. He folds from bottom to top, as MR. WARREN describes, and again in the same direction. Then he writes the title on the second quarter, which is, of course, uppermost. This Scottish practice seems now to be adopted by English printers of prospectuses. WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK.

Glasgow.

NEWTON'S HOUSE IN KENSINGTON (8 th S. xii. 507). Mr. Wilmot Harrison, in his 'Memor- ,ble London Houses,' London, 1889, wrote :

" At the east end of Pitt Street is ' a large old Tick house, which stands in a curious evading sort )f way, as if it would fain escape notice, at the back )f other houses on both sides of it,' so described in Leigh Hunt's ' Old Court Suburb.' Here, at ' Bul- ingham House' (see board with inscription ibove the wall), Sir Isaac Newton spent the two ast years of his life. In Maude's ' Wensleydale ' he is said to have ' died in lodgings in that agree- ible part of Kensington called Orbell's (now Pitt's) buildings.' "

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

NAVY OF LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (8 th >. xii. 488). Samuel Pepys, in his 'Memoires elating to the State of the Royal Navy of

England for Ten Years,' gives a complete list f the Royal Navy upon 18 Dec., 1688. He ives the names of nine first-rates, eleven econd-rates, thirty-nine third-rates, forty- ne fourth-rates, two fifth-rates, and six ixth-rates. Besides these he gives the names f three bombers, twenty-six fire-ships, six oys, eight hulks, three ketches, five smacks, nd fourteen yachts; total 173 vessels, ustering 42,003 men, and 6,930 guns. Pepys

arrote with authority, having been Secretary c the Admiralty for many years.

G. F. BLANDFORD.