Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/475

 9* s. x. DKC. 13, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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husband had been enjoying the profits of the benefice of Hinstock, co. Salop. This is the last I can find of Nicholas Metcalfe, and I shall be very grateful if any correspondent can help me to trace more of his career both before his coming to Wem and after hi ejectment from it. GILBERT H. F. VANE. The Rectory, Wem, Salop.

HANGMAN STONES. Will some one of your correspondents kindly send me a postcard referring me to a trustworthy authority on the folk-lore, legends, and history of Hang- man Stones ? H. M. BATSON.

Hoe Benham, Newbury.

GREVILLE : CREW : PIQUET. The anony mous author of 'Casino: a Mock-Heroic Poem,' about 1793, writes :

In Pope's Gay Verse immortal Ombre lives ;

Of Cribbage Greville just Description gives ;

Each titl'd card has had its Honor due

Describ'd in mirthful tales by sprightly Crew ;

Me, last and least, assist the Rules to tell

By which Casino's Votaries may excel. What are the references to Greville and Crew ? A poem on Piquet is quoted by E. Hoyle, jun., in his ' Calculations, Cautions,' &c. (1761). Is its authorship or existence now known ? F. J.

REV. ABRAHAM BOOTH. I am desirous of obtaining information concerning the children and descendants of the Rev. Abraham Booth (1734-1806), author of ' The Reign of Grace,' and minister of the Baptist Church in Little Prescot Street, Goodman's Fields, London. The children of his younger brother Robert settled chiefly in Nottingham, and full particulars of these and their descendants are known. I am therefore anxious to obtain particulars of the children of Abraham in order to complete a pedigree of the family for publication. JOHN T. GODFREY.

Market Chambers, South Parade, Nottingham.

JOHNDALTON was admitted to Westminster School in March, 1786. I should be greatly obliged by any particulars concerning him.

G. F. R. B.

SWEEZING OR SQUEEZING WATCH. Can any of your readers enlighten me concerning the meaning of this term applied to a watch 1 I have searched and inquired in vain. Could it mean a repeater? I enclose copies- of advertisements :

"Sweezing Watch. Lost coming.qut of the Play House in Drury Lane, from a lady's side, on the 18th Instant, a gold Sweezing Watch, made by Tompion with 1.8. in a cypher and Earl's Coronet on the out case ; whoever brings in to Mr. Dor- man by the Admiralty Office, near White Hall, shall

fe on Hno guineas R^ard." .BrftisA Apollo, June

wO*oU, 1/Uo.

In the same paper is another advertise- ment:

"Lost or taken from a Lady's side, going out of Pinkethnian's Booth the last day of May Fair, a gold Squeezing watch."

F. G. HILTON PRICE.

PASSAGE IN KINGSLEY. Can any of your readers tell me in N. & Q.' where in the works of the late Charles Kingsley the fol- lowing quotation can be found 1 I am not quite certain of the wording of it, but what I write is approximately correct : " Perhaps in some future state he may meet hia kindred soul, and be united to it by a bond still stronger than matrimony." VALTYRE. *

[Is not a reference intended to a well - known Platonian idea ?J

MELISANDE. I should be glad to know where to find the story of ' Melisande in the Wood,' and to be told whether it belongs to modern or medisevafliterature. TYLNEY.

" GOOD AFTERNOON." When, where, or how did this form of salutation originate ? I seem to remember that it hardly existed twenty-five or thirty years ago. Now it is common, being confined by no means to the " lower middle " and " upper middle " classes. I was always under the impression that the evening began where the morning ended. Certainly we are not told that "the morning, afternoon, and evening were the first day." Has not the North American his "high noon " ? J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

[The 'H.E.D.' defines afternoon as "the time from midday to evening." "This afternoon" occurs in 1527, and " the aftyr non" in 1450. The phrase " good afternoon " is mentioned, but no quotation seems to be given for it.]

EXEMPT FROM POOR TAX. The Act 43 Eliz., c. 11, gave the churchwardens and overseers power to tax all for the relief and employ- ment of the poor ; that was modified by 13 & 14 Ch. II. c. 12, and 22&23 Ch. II. c. 18, which again was continued and modified by 3 Will. III. c. 11, and by 8 & 9 Will. III. c. 30. This last was explained by 9 & 10 Will. III. . 11, but I cannot trace whence the dis- retion of the overseers was derived which gave them power two hundred years ago to exempt from poor tax (i.e., poor rates and and tax) any individual or class of that Deriod. In what way, and at what date, did
 * his exemption take effect? O. W.

MONARCH IN A WHEELBARROW. In my reading a long time ago I came across a king whose chief relaxation and pleasure it was to