Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/197

 9*8. XL MARCH 7, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

189

This verb occurs on p. 3 of the Daily Mail for 15 January, in this sentence: "Because he had thoughtlessly endeavoured to unram a blasting charge that had missed fire, a labourer was fined yesterday at Kettering." E. S. DODGSON.

" GRANDMOTHERLY GOVERNMENT." Who was the first to introduce this term into our every -day political speech ? POLITICIAN. tt [Did not Sir William Harcourt first use the term

grandmotherly legislation" when he was Mr. Vernon Harcourt, below the gangway?]

COACHMAN'S EPITAPH. I have lately seen a curious epitaph to a stage-coachman at Haddiscoe, near Yarmouth, beginning : Here lies Will Salter, honest man ; Deny it, Envy, if you can. There must be many more epitaphs to the old mail and stage coachmen throughout the country. Can any of your readers furnish me with other examples ? F. J. EVANS.

JOHN HENDERSON was admitted to West- minster School on 4 July, 1770. I should be glad to obtain any information concerning his parentage and career. G. F. R. B.

POSTS IN EARLY TIMES. In the historical summary in the First Report of the Post- master-General (1855) it is stated that the words "haste, post haste," occur on the backs of private letters at the close of the fifteenth and at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and it is therefore inferred that the post was not at that time restricted to Government letters. There is a similar statement at the beginning of the article on the Post Office in the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' ninth edition. It seems very doubtful whether these state- ments are accurate, and I shall be glad of any information as to the transmission of private letters by post during the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. J. A. J. HOUSDEN.

Canonbury, N.

CANUTE AND THE TIDE. Who is the original authority for Canute forbidding the tide to rise ; and further, what writer first connected the story with Gainsborough and the high tidal wave, or eagre, on the Trent ? Will some correspondent of 'N. & Q.' also inform me in what public building in Copen- hagen there is a painting which represents Canute at the Lincolnshire town issuing his orders to the water? G. W.

THE ISLE OP AXHOLME. In Mr. Prothero's ' Simon de Montfort ' (p. 351) Thomas Wykes is referred to as an authority for the state- ment that Simon de Montfort the younger

was besieged in the Isle of Axholme by Prince Edward in the year 1265. As this incident does not appear to be mentioned by any of our local historians, I shall be glad if some one will kindly transcribe for me, unless it is too long, the passage in which the story of the siege is narrated, or give me any other information about it. I know what Tout says ('Edward I.'). H. J. B.

KEEMORE SHELLS. Among articles adver- tised for sale at the India House in 1816 (Asiatic Journal, ii. 539) I find "Keemore shells " These are, I suppose, the same as "Kemo shells," which Milburn, 'Oriental Commerce,' 1813, ii. 312, describes as " shells of a very large species of cockle, common on the shores of many of the Eastern islands, and sometimes upwards of 3 feet in diameter, and weighing from 2 to 4 cwt. per pair. They are occasionally brought home for curiosities, and are much esteemed. They should be chosen of the largest size, the internal part perfectly white, and free from cracks and decay." Is there still any trade in these shells ; what are they called ; and what is the meaning or origin of " Keemore " or " Kemo " 1

EMERITUS.

OLD CONDUITS OF LONDON. (9 th S. x. 421 ; xi. 73, 112).

IT would require a volume to deal with all the points of interest raised in the communications of MR. W. L. RUTTON, MR. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL, and MR. JOHN T. PAGE. The system of conveying water in wooden pipes was brought into common use after the New River works were opened, and it seems to have lasted till the middle of the eighteenth century. The instances lately given in ' N. & Q.,' which record the dis- covery of these wooden pipes, are confined to the West-End of London, but the pipes were equally common in the East. While the excavations connected with the^Whitechapel to Bow Railway were being carried out a few years ago, several hollowed trunks of trees were found which were exactly similar in character to those which have from time to time been brought to light in Bond Street and its neighbourhood.

The latter pipes had no connexion with the system under which Gilbert de Sanford introduced water into the City of London, nor with the later arrangements by which the Abbot of Westminster conveyed water to the Abbey and its surroundings. The round conduit house which MR. RUTTON has described may perhaps be identical with the