Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/39

 9> s. x. JULY 12,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

31

of the war with Russia. This also belonged tc the same series, the secular volumes of which likewise include three songs by Chorley No. 1, ' May Day,' " The sun already from the skies," and No. 2, the well-known harves song, "Thro' lanes with hedgerows pearly, as well as a fireside song, "O, never fear though rain be falling." The hymn for peace is included in the 'Congregational Church Hymnal.' The 'Hymnal Companion' also contains four of the six verses.

Many of Chorley's poems appeared first in the Athenaeum; a list of these is given in 4 John Francis, Publisher of the Athenaeum (Macmillan & Co.). Two of them are quoted one, a ' Hymn of the Old Discoverers,' is full of beauty. A. N. Q.

THE NATIONAL FLAG (9 tb S. ix. 485). A fc 35, Belgrave Square, the residence of a dis- tinguished general, there is hanging as a Coronation decoration, alongside of our national flag, an enormous standard, pro- bably captured from our recent enemies in South Africa. It has the "Four Colours," the band of green by the staff, and crosswise from it the horizontal tricolour of the same three colours as those of Russia, France, and Holland ; the red stripe topmost, which gives the flag its close resemblance to the so-called "red, white, and blue" flag which some ignorant Britons, until corrected by ' N. & Q.,' believed to be a standard of our country. T. N. F.

DEAD SEA LEVEL (9 th S. ix. 488). The Ordnance survey of Western Palestine was completed by Lieut, (now Viscount) Kitchener in 1878. The level of the Dead Sea below sea- level is given as minus 1292'! feet on the P. E. Fund's map. Recent observers have reported a considerable rise, which has greatly modi- fied the coast line, but, of course, not altered the main fact that the Dead Sea lies in the deepest depression known. C. S. WARD.

Wootton St. Lawrence.

^ The discovery of the fact that the Dead Sea was very much below the level of the Mediterranean was made independently by Schubert, on the one hand, and Moore and Beek, on the other, in 1837, and confirmed by Russegger and Symonds (' Encyclopaedia Biblica '). In May, 1848, Lynch calculated that the Dead Sea was 1,316 feet below the level of the Mediterranean at Jaffa. This calculation was made by levelling across country. By the barometer he calculated that the level was 1,234 feet. The level varies at different times of year, but as 39?, to 395 metres (1,285-1,289 feet) is given by 'La Grande Ency-

clopedie,' and about 1,300 feet by the 'Ency- clopaedia Biblica,' it -may be taken, that the figure is fairly well settled. A number of other calculations are given in Smith's ' Dic- tionary of the Bible,' 1863, vol. iii. 1175. In that work Lake Assal, in East Africa, is said to be 570 feet below the ocean, and to furnish the closest parallel to the Dead Sea. W. R. BARKER.

10, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn.

CATHERINE BABINGTON (9 th S. ix. 449). Previous correspondents in ' N. & Q.' have stated that Catherine Babington was the widow of Thomas Babington of the Green - fort family when she married Col. John Pigott on 2 August, 1740. She died in November, 1758. Her maiden name is not given. See 6 th S. ix. 490 ; x. 57, 111, 177.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

ARMS OF KNIGHTS (9 th S. ix. 328, 398). There appear to have been three distinct branches of the Sturmey family, all bearing different arms.

Of the Wiltshire family Fuller in his ' Worthies ' says :

" They were lords of Woolf-hall in this county ; and from the time of King Henry the Second were, by right of inheritartte, the bailiffs and guardians of the forest of Savernake, lying hard by, s which is of great note for plenty of good game, and for a kind jf fern there that yieldeth a most pleasant savour : in remembrance whereof, their hunter's horn, of a mighty bigness, and tipt with silver, is kept by the Seymors, dukes of Somerset, unto this day, as a monument of their descent from such noble ances-

rs."

William Sturray, miles, of Woolf-hall, was High Sheriff of Wilts 6 Henry V., and Henry Sturmy from 35 Edward III. for six years, and again in 47 Edward III. They used as arms Argent, three demi-lions gules.

A third branch were resident at Dromon by, n Yorkshire, and ended with Alice, daughter ind heir of John Sturmy, who married Robert Constable '(see Constable of Dromonby, Visitation of Yorks, 1584-5 '). The arms of this ine are variously given as Sable, a lion ram- oant argent, and Sable, a lion salient argent.

In 31 Edward I. William Stormy, jun., eld twelve bovates of the Percy fee (in Kil- lale) in North Cave, and in Kirkby's ' Inquest ' he name several times occurs.

John Constable, of Halsham, married Al- breda Bulmer, relict of John Sturmy ; and

lizabeth, daughter and heir of Sir William Sturmyn, Kt., 26 Edward III., married first Sir Laurence Acton, Kt., and secondly Wil- iam Kingsman.

According to Plantagenet Harrison, Sir