Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/214

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XIL SEPT. 12, im.

"SCOGGAN" OR " SCOGGIN." (See 2 nd S. ix. 51.) The word " scoggan " is said to mean a weathercock, and to be used in the county of Kent. The 'Dialect Dictionary' gives an illustrative quotation under " scoggin." The word has been much discussed in connexion with the history of the steam engine, and I should much like to know whether it is in actual use in any part of England. It occurs on a print, published in 1719, of a steam engine erected in 1712 by Savery and Newcomen near Dudley Castle ; but only two copies are known, one being in the Birmingham Free Library, the other in the William Salt Library, Stafford. Notwithstanding this rarity, the print is fairly well known, as it has been frequently reproduced, and an en- larged copy is exhibited in the Machinery and Inventions Department of the South Ken- sington Museum. In the explanatory matter- in the margin are these woras : " 13. Scoggen and his Mate who work double to the Boy." This refers to the gear for working the valves of the engine so as to render it self-acting. " Boy " should be " buoy," as it refers to a float in the boiler, not in the cylinder, as stated in the quotation below.

The word also occurs in Desaguliers's Bourse of Experimental Philosophy,' third edition, 1763, vol. ii. p. 533, as follows :

" They used before to work with a buoy in the cylinder enclosed in a pipe, which buoy rose when the steam was strong and opened the injection and made a stroke ; thereby they were capable of only giving six, eight, or ten strokes in a minute, till a boy Humphry Potter, who attended the engine, added (what he called scoggan) a catch that the beam Q always opened, and then it would go fifteen or sixteen strokes in a minute."

There has been much discussion as to the invention of the self-acting valve gear of steam engines, and I do not wish to reopen it in your pages. It has, however, occurred to me that if I could fix the locality where "scoggan" is used it might help in deter- mining the origin of the contrivance. The gear in question does not in the least re- semble a weathercock, and there were no steam engines in Kent in the early part of the eighteenth century. li. B. P.

SWALLOWS PREDICTING A STORM. I am spending at present a holiday at the south end of the Island of Arran, Buteshire. The weather has, I am sorry to say, been ex- tremely broken. On Friday, 14 August, we had very heavy rain, and in the midst oi it two swallows came to pick what they could in the farmyard adjoining the house. A native of the far north of Scotland residing in the house on noticing the birds, remarkec

that when swallows came near the house to pick store food it predicted a 'storm." And sure enough, between Saturday evening and Sunday morning, it blew almost a hurricane ; so much so that I thought the old farm- louse would be blown down. I asked a very intelligent gentleman, a native of the dis- trict, if he had made the same observation regarding the swallow. He told me that he lad not, and that the saying was new to him. It may interest some readers of ' N. & Q.'

A., o.

THE " ZAUBER-KESSEL " IN ESSEX. Near the old Priory of Little Leeze, Essex, which was rebuilt by Lord Rich, Chancellor of Edward VI., is an old stew-pond. In this pond a box full of gold is supposed to be hid. A most respectable engineer near Stan- stead tells me that some years ago he was employed to drain the pond, and was informed that if any one spoke a single word during the operation the treasure would sink into the earth. Nothing was found.

I am not^folk-lorist enough to know if many instances of this " Zauber-Kessel " supersti- tion are known in Essex, but it is curious that the district near Leeze was largely settled by Huguenot and Flemish religious refugees, and that some great landowners, the Houblons, near, are of Huguenot origin. Leeze Priory now belongs to Guy's Hospital. It may be worth noting that the brickwork closely resembles that in Provost Lupton's work at Eton College. H,

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

LATIN ENTRY IN REGISTER. I am very desirous of an expert opinion on a sentence which I find in a short introduction to the earlier register of baptisms of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Soho Square. That church was first opened for worship in or about the year 1791 or 1792. Father Gaffy was the first chaplain. Exactly opposite, across the square, lived the famous Domenico Angelo, with whom Father Gaffy must have been well acquainted. On pp. 349 and 350 of the register have been copied, in Father Gaffy's handwriting, probably from some previous record, the baptismal entries of the twelve children of Anthony Angelo, who belonged to a later generation than that of Domenico Angelo, but whose father's name has yet to