Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/141

 9 th S. XL FEB. 14, 1903.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

133

attested text of his statements, and it shall straightway be accorded due attention and respect. Others, it may be said, spared his modesty, and proclaimed his editorial prowess on his behalf. In that case, let their evi- dence be adduced and considered on its merits ; a mere ipse dixit in such a difficulty is inadmissible. Only after full proof on this and every head is given, and not a moment sooner, will it be incumbent on the inquirer to consider poetical parallelisms and the significance of the purple patches in Logan's sermons. THOMAS BAYNE.

" BONNET - LAIRD " AND " COCK - LAIRD " (9 th S. x. 328). Oldbuck in ' The Antiquary ' speaks of "auld Johnnie Howie, a bonnet- laird." A note mentions that " a bonnet-laird signifies a petty proprietor, wearing the dress, along with the habits of a yeoman." JOHN PICKFORD, M.A

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

There is a foot-note explaining the term " bonnet-laird ' in ' The Antiquary ' (chap. iv. ) : "A bonnet-laird signifies a petty proprietor, wearing the dress, along with the habits of a yeoman." C. C. B.

THE INTRODUCTION OF THE HOP (9 th S. x. 304, 430). Regarding this subject perhaps the following verses may be of interest. They are taken from ' The Ex-Ale-tation of Ale,' which is one of the 'Pills to Purge Melancholy ' in 'An Antidote against Melan- choly : Made up in Pills,' 1661. Reprinted in ' Choyce Drollery,' edited by J. Woodfall Ebsworth, Boston, Lincolnshire, printed by Robert Roberts, 1876, pp. 121, 124 : And in very deed the Hop ',s but a Weed,

Brought o're against Law and here set to sale : Would the Law were renew'd and no more Beer brew'd,

But all men betake them to a Pot of good ale.

Stanza 53.
 * And to speak of Killing, that I am not willing,

For that in a manner were but to raile : But Beer hath its name, 'cause it brings to the Biere,

Therefore well-fare, say I, to &pot of good ale. I Too many (I wis) with their deaths proved this,

And, therefore (if ancient Records do not faile), He that first brew'd the Hop was rewarded with a

And found his Beer far more bitter than ALE.

Stanzas 66, 67.

ROBERT PIERPOINT. St. Austin's, Warrington.

EXEMPTION FROM POOR TAX (9 th S. x. 467 ; i. 56). Had the overseers any legal power to exempt any person from payment of the ' rate] By 54 George III., c. 170, 11, r wa s given to two justices of the peace,

on application by any person rated,, to any rates and proof of inability through poverty to pay the same, with the consent of the churchwardens and overseers, to direct that such person should be excused, and to strike out his name from the rate. The allowance to owner mentioned at the last reference is something quite different, and is a percentage allowed to the owner in consideration of his paying the rate in lieu of the tenant. This is under the Poor Rate Assessment and Col- lection Act, 1869 (32 & 33 Viet., c. 41).

J. F. R. Godalming.

THACKERAY'S RESIDENCES IN LONDON (9 th S. ix. 508 ; x. 138, 238). The question as to the accuracy of the inscription placed on the front of the house No. 28, Clerkenwell Road, in the occupation of Mr. P. R. Pratt, trading as John Pratt & Son, has not been satis- factorily disposed of in the pages of ' N. & Q.,' although some of the daily papers notably the Daily News of 27 September, 1902 have devoted some space to its discussion.

It appears to be established on the authority of a paper on ' Thackeray as Car- thusian ' in Charterhouse School magazine, the Greyfriar (vol. ii. No. 7, April, 1892), that Thackeray, when a scholar at Charter- house in 1822-5, boarded at the house known as Penny's House, kept by one of the masters of the school. This house formerly consisted of two houses, Nos. 28 and 30, Wilderness Row, which were converted into one house, by means of openings in the party wall, by Penny, who subsequently, on his marriage, added No. 26, Wilderness Row for his private use. It was in Penny's long room that the fight took place between George Stovin Venables and Thackeray which resulted in the injury to Thackeray's nose of which he bore the marks to his dying day.

In August, 1821, just before Thackeray went to Charterhouse, a tunnel was formed from Penny's house and the house adjoining, under the roadway in Wilderness Row, to the open space in Charterhouse known as Under Green, to enable the boys to pass from the boarding-houses to the school and vice versa without coming in contact with the outer world, and portions of this tunnel are still in existence. At some time in 1825 Thackeray became a day boy, and removed to a boarding-house in Charterhouse Square kept by a Mrs. Boyes, who was not directly connected with the school, but took scholars from Charterhouse and Merchant Taylors' schools.

It would seem from these facts that the