Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/254

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NOTES AND QUERIES. G> s. xn. SEPT. 26, ira.

furnishing with food there, the aforesaid players of enterludes," together with another tailor (North Riding Record Soc., i. 260, ii. 197). w n *

W. C. B.

"SENT ON SUSPICION." Firms which for- ward goods " on approbation " are, of course, well known to us in Britain ; but a phrase used by an American cigar merchant in an advertisement nosv before me seems a quaint and even suggestive variant of the term :

"My offer is this: I will, upon receipt of five dollars, send you by express, prepaid, one hundred
 * on suspicion.' "

It is only fair to the ingenious advertiser to add that the italics are in the original.

A. F. R.

REMARKABLE FECUNDITY. On p. 158, ante, under the heading of 'Lady Nottingham' (to which few persons would think of turning who wanted to trace instances of remarkable fecundity), is an incorrect version of the story of the Scotch weaver and his sixty-two children from the Harleian MSS. No. 980-7. In Brand's 'History of Newcastle' the narra- tive reads as follows :

"A weaver in Scotland had by one woman (52 chil- dren, all living till they wer baptized, of which ther wer but f o wer daughters onely, who lived till they wei women, and 46 sonns, all attaining to man's estate During the time of this fruitfulness in the woman her husband at her importunity absented himseli from her for the space of 5 years together, serving as a soldier under the command of Captain Selby in the Low Countries. After his return home his wife was againe delivered of three children at a birth and so in her due time continued in such births til through bearing she became impotent. The cer tainty of this relation 1 had from Joh. Delavall o Northumb' Esq r who, anno 1630, rid about 30 mile; beyond Edinburrough to see this fruitful couple who wer both then living. Her stature and feature: he described to me then more fully. Ther was no any of the children then abiding with ther parents Sir John Bowes and three other men of qualiti< having taken at severall times ten of thor children a peece from them and brought them up. The res wer disposed of by other English and Scottisl gent, amongst which 3 or four of them are nowaliv and abiding at Newcastle, 1630."

Compare this with the clipping from a New York paper. RICHARD WELFORD.

[See also ' Records in Maternity,' 9 th S. xi. 66 152, 238.]

SHAM BURIALS. Many years ago a learne Yorkshire antiquary who has long been dea( told me that the sexton of an East Riding church near the sea had on one occasion to dig a grave on the north side of the church- yard, where, so far as was known, there had never been a burial before. He, however, came upon a large coffin, which on being opened contained no remains of a human

3ody, but was closely packed with stones, tfy friend told me the name of the parish, rat I cannot at this distance of time call it to mind. When I heard it I had full confidence n the truthfulness of the narrative ; but my rust has been shaken, for a day or two ago

came on what seems a duplicate of the tory. Mr. Edward Hussey, writing on Scotney Castle in the Archceologia Cantiana
 * or 1887, says :

"The property [Scotney] remained for many years in the possession of the Darells... A rather lin^ular story is related respecting the funeral ot one of its members, possibly that of Arthur, last son of William and Elizabeth Darell, whose burial is recorded on December 12, 1720. It is said that when the mourners were assembled around the "rave, a tall figure, muffled in a black cloak, whom no one recognized, was observed among them ; and as the coffin was being lowered into the grave, he tapped his neighbour on the shoulder, and said, ' That is me they think they are burying. He soon afterwards disappeared, and no clue was ever found to the occurrence ; but many years afterwards, J ohn Bailey, who was sexton in the parish from about 1816 to 1867, having occasion to prepare a grave in the south-east aisle of the church, which belongs to Scotiiey, came upon a very solid and heavy oak coffin, studded with large iron nails, and from curiosity which its peculiar make excited, he raised the lid, which was partially decayed, and to his astonishment found no remains of a skeleton, but only heavy stones apparently put in to give it weight." Vol. xvii. p. 40.

This account was remembered by the vicar at the time when Mr. Hussey wrote his paper. It would be interesting to know whether these two parallel narratives are truth, folk- lore, or fiction. EDWARD PEACOCK.

HEBER'S ' PALESTINE.' (See ante, p. 119.) It seems to me that some verses of Cowper were the immediate original of those of Heber :

No workman's steel, no ponderous axes rung ;

Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung.

In the description of the palace of ice are the following lines :

Silently as a dream the fabric rose ;

No sound of hammer or of saw was there.

But Cowper must passage quoted from

the

have remembered ' Paradise Lost.'

E. YAKDLEY.

" TONKA BEAN." This is so well known, from its use for scent sachets, and in per- fumery generally, that it is worth while to be precise about its origin. The ' Century Dictionary ' says it is the name of the bean in Guiana. This is correct so far as it goes, but to be accurate it is necessary to dis- criminate between two classes of Guiana terms, firstly, those from the Indian (Arawak) tongue ; secondly, those from the Africo- English of the Surinam negroes. There is an