Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/197

 9- s. xii. SEPT. 5,i9o.ij NOTES AND QUERIES.

189

HOBGOBLIN'S CLAWS. What are these 1 Mortimer's ' Husbandry,' ed. 1721, vol. i. p. 222, says :

" Hobgoblin's Claws scraped to Powder, and put into a Quill, and blown into a Man's, Horse's, or Beast's Eye, is an extraordinary thing. You may have it at most Apothecaries in London."

F. J. F.

LLOYD FAMILY. Of what family was Edmund Lloyd, of Cardiff, High Sheriff of Glamorganshire in 1738 ? 1 should be glad to have particulars of his parentage and marriage, and to know whether he left any issue surviving. NEWTON WADE.

Newport, Mon.

GHENT ARMS. What coat of arms was used by this famous city in the fifteenth century?

A. R. BAYLEY.

St. Margaret's, Malvern.

"PASS." The sister of a clergyman who has lately accepted a living in Lincolnshire is amazed to find that the natives say, " Will you pass me the bread-and-butter 1" "Please pass the plate," and so on. In which of the English counties is this use of pass familiar, and in which is it unknown 1 An excellent French dictionary, abridged from Littre's great work, states that passer may signify u Transmettre, remettre de la main a la main," and gives as an example, " Passer cela a yotre voisin "; so clearly the phrase is not in itself objectionable. Yet the lady above mentioned is not alone in condemning it. Some years ago I heard it quoted as one of the locutions which are "impossible " in good society.

Mr. Jingle, who was not, however, in good society, uses the term in the second chapter of 'Pickwick ':

" ' Beg your pardon, sir,' said the stranger, ' bottle stands pass it round way of the sun through the

button-holeno heeltaps.' The wine was passed,

and a fresh supply ordered."

[So far as our knowledge extends, the custom is general. It is certainly so in London and the West Riding.]

GRUBB. I shall be greatly obliged for any information relating to the origin of this surname. G. H. GRUBB.

39, Airedale Road, Balham, S.W.

COUNT DE BRUHL. The other day I visited Chingford Old Church, Essex, and saw for the first time a plain headstone to the memory of "George, Count de Bruhl, died 1855, aged 80 years." It would be very interesting to lovers of Carlyle's 'Frederick the Great' if it could be shown what connexion there was between the Saxon Prime Minister, Count de

Bruhl, who suffers from the lash of Carlyle, and the George, Count de Bruhl, whose bones lie at Chingford ; also what led to his burial overlooking the valley of Izaak Walton's gentle Lea. For the information of the curious among your readers, I may add that the stone is to be found on the left of the stile leading from the path across the Lea valley meadows. F. H. WILTSHIRE.

DOG OF ST. ROCH. In the Azores there is said to have been a place to which the dog of St. Roch was tracked, and where, in con- sequence, a church was built (Folk -Lore, June, p. 127). What is known in ecclesiastical legend or folk-lore concerning St. Roch's dog? It is strange to find even in a popular tale a church built in commemoration of an animal.

ASTARTE.

GANNING FAMILY. Among the household of the Stuarts in exile mention is made of a family called Ganning, the male line of which died out about the middle of the last century. I should be very glad to know where I could get any information about them, and to learn whether, as I think I have seen somewhere, they were illegitimate children of the elder Pretender. There was a reference to them in the Daily News some years ago, but I have lost it. T. E.

MACAULAY AND DICKENS. Macaulay (House of Commons, 9 August, 1845, debate on Theo- logical Tests in Scotch Universities) said :

Swedenborgian, it would be better for himself and his customers that he should not know the difference between Epsom salts and oxalic acid, ? "
 * ' Is it seriously meant that, if a druggist is &

Are not these last words a quotation from the immortal juryman in 'Pickwick,' finished 1837 1 If so, is not this the only citation in Macaulay's works from Dickens ?

HERMAN COHEN.

MINISTERIAL WHITEBAIT DINNER. When was instituted this function, which used to be held at Greenwich at the close of each session, and when was it last held ? I re- member it as having taken place in 1879, when Lord Beaconsfield was Premier.

POLITICIAN.

" JOLLY BOAT " COASTER. About 100 years ago three ** coasters " were made : one for Wil- berforce the philanthropist, another for his brother-in-law Mr. Terrot, and the third for my grandfather, Charles Poole. The last is now in my possession. It is in the form of a flat-bottomed boat, of iron or tin, painted red. The bottom and halfway up the sides are covered with fur, so that it could be easily drawn by the ring at the bows round the