Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/453

 9 th 8. XI. JUNE 6, 1903.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

445

backs, as a preventive against accidents and

" In the church I saw a number of women stand- ing ki turns in a stone sarcophagus, which they thought had contained the saint's body, and on being asked what special blessing they expected, they told me it was a cure for toothache.

"A curious part of the religious ceremony was the throwing from the church tower of a fowl to the people below. In a moment the animal was caught by its legs, wings, tail, and head, and torn into so many pieces. 1 was told that the one who caught the head and carried it off was considered the champion, and that the parish he belonged to was sure to get the best harvest during the year.

"As you see, we are some centuries behind the times in Brittany."

The gentleman who wrote this is a Welsh- man, who has been a pastor for many years in Brittany. J. H. R.

RICHARD NASH, Under the heading Richard Nash, in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' the date of his death is given as 1762. The following is an extract from the Bath Town Council Minute Book, dated 14 February, 1761: "That a sum not exceeding 501. be contributed towards the funeral expenses of the late Mr. Nash," under the direction of the Mayor and Chamberlain. JOSEPH DAVIS.

Bath.

THE ORIGINAL "UNCLE TOM." I venture to offer an extract from the Weekly Irish Times of 11 April upon this good old subject ; and, should the claims of the under-named centenarian be verified, they would, at least to my mind, tend to prove, either that the story of "Uncle Tom's" cruel treatment, as narrated by Mrs. Stowe, was rather "more fiction than truth," or else the old darkie must have had a * wonderful " constitution to outlive it all. However, there have been so many claimants to the title role one (whose name I cannot for certain recollect, though I think it was Josiah Henson, but I hold myself open to correction) visited England about thirty years ago on a lecturing tour that I long ago arrived at the conclusion that "Uncle Tom" was not the actual biography of any one man, but only a clever, if prejudiced sketch of a "type," a melange made up from several models, after the manner of the Greek sculptures :

"The supposed original of 'Uncle Tom' in Mrs. Beecher Stowe's famous story died on the 9th ult. at Paint Lick, Kentucky. His name was Norman Argo, and he was said to be 111 years old."

HERBERT B. CLAYTON.

39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.

THE LETTERS OF DOROTHY OSBORNE. (See ante, pp. 319, 385.) May I venture to add a note or two for the consideration of the editor of a future issue of the above 1 ?

Letter xxxv. Both Judge Parry and Mr. Gollancz print, " If you read it when you go to bed, 'twill certainly make you sleep ap- proved." Should there not be a stop after ' sleep " 1 The " approved " is from the end of one of Dorothy's ' Receipts for Candying,' or the like. Cf. Pope :

For want of rest, Lettuce and Cowslip wine : probatum est.

Letter li. In the note to this Mr. Gollancz Edward Waller dedicated to her

^Christiana, Countess of Devonshire] his Epistles, with its concluding ' Epistle to the Duchess.'" This statement, with the ex- ception of the misprint " Edward " for Ed- mund, is from the 'D.N.B.,' but one would be glad to see some explanation of it.

Letter Ixvii., " Sir John Greenvil's sister."

The following is part of this lady's epitaph

in Wye Church, and ought, surely, to be

known to readers of the ' Letters,' if only in

justice to " the veriest beast that ever was ":

Near this marble lyes interred the body of the

Right Honourable the Lady Joanna Thornhill,

daughter of S r Bevill Grandvill,

She was second wife of Richard Thornhill, of

Ollantigh, Esquire, Comander of a Regiment

of Horse, which he had raised at his own charges, for

the service of King Charles the first. A Gentleman whose loyalty, & sufferings, steady

adhere- nce and large contributions to the Royal cause were

not

inferiour to the greatest examples. She liud with him in the most intire affection

near three years being in the 22nd year of her age at the time

of his

death. She survived him fifty- two years which she

spent in the most devout and religious widowhood :

She was Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen

Catherine

Consort to King Charles the 2nd to the time of her death,

She was born the 30th of September 1635,

and dyed January the 7th, 1708. She chose to [be] buried in this place out of a due regard to the memory of her excellent Husband,

G. THORN DRURY.

THE DUKE OF CHANDOS AND HIS MARRIAGE. In Walford's 'Greater London,' vol. i. p. 290, is a harrowing story of how the first Duke of Chandos is said to have met his third wife, purchasing her from her husband, an ostler at Marlborough, where he was cruelly beating her. The only portion of truth in the story is to be found m N. & (^.,