Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/305

 9* s. xii. GOT. io, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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liam III. came out in his true colours as a firm supporter. The first Duke of Bolton, who married Mary, eldest illegitimate daughter of Emanuel Scrope, Earl of Sunder- land, built Bolton Hall in Wensleydale, a fine structure, consisting of a centre and two wings, recently destroyed by fire. Bolton Castle, the ancient seat of the Scropes, and one of the many prison-houses of Mary, Queen of Scots, is now a dreary ruin, and only a little distance from Bolton Hall.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

EVIL SPIRITS AND INKBOTTLES (9 th S. xii. 106)." As in that old story " must relate to 'The Fisherman' in 'The Arabian Nights,' where the Afreet developes from the black smoke which issues from the brazen vessel. Le Sage's Diable Boiteux, or Devil on Two Sticks, was released from captivity by the breaking of the bottle in which he was confined.

" It broke into a thousand pieces, and overflowed the floor with a blackish liquor, which by little and little evaporated, and converted itself into a thick smoke, which dissipating all at once, the amazed student beheld the figure of a man in a cloak," &c.

If there is any story of a devil being actually confined in an inkbottle, it cannot be very old. Reginald Scot, in 'The Dis- coverie of Witchcraft,' mentions a story that Solomon confined Belial, Asmodai, and the legions under them, in a brazen vessel, and threw the vessel into a lake at Babylon. But the Babylonians, thinking that the vessel contained treasure, brought it up, and, open- ing it, let all the devils out, much to the disadvantage of mankind in general. This looks like an Eastern legend which has travelled West, for it is somewhat like that of the Afreet who was set free by the fisher- man ; but it bears a stronger resemblance to another Arabian tale, which I think is in Lane's edition, but I forget the name of it. There is also a likeness between the story and that of the box of Pandora.

E. YARDLEY.

Does not Freytag refer to a quite familiar story in * The Arabian Nights 'that of ' The Fisherman and the Afrit'? This evil spirit, it is true, did not come from an inkbottle, but he developed out of the smoke which came from a somewhat similar receptacle, and the vague phrase "as in that old story" does not seem to bind us to demand exact similarity in all details. L. H.

The spirit developing from the smoke coming from a bottle in the old story is probably Asmodeus in ' Le Diable Boiteux,' by Le Sage. M. N. G.

" KILLEN" OR" KEELING "= A BARN (9 th S. xii. 149). I cannot answer 0. A. B.'s question, but I think he may like to know that Halli- well has " Skeelinff, the inner part of a barn or garret, where the slope of the roof comes. South." ST. SWITHIN.

Bailey's 'Dictionary,' 1726, gives " Skeeling, an Isle or Bay of a Barn, Suff." but does not suggest the origin of the word.

C. M. PHILLIPS.

Sheeting, quoted by your querist, probably supplies the answer ; for this, with little doubt, = Scotch shieling or sheal, a shed or hut : root skeu. to cover or shade.

H. P. L.

Miss GUNNING, DUCHESS OF HAMILTON (9 th S. xi. 468; xii. 32). The following are abbreviated extracts from catalogues issued by Messrs. Maggs Bros., 159, Church Street, Paddington Green, in 1898 :

"Hamilton (Elizabeth, Duchess of, died 1790),

one of the 'beautiful Miss Gunnings.' Half

length, in low dress with lace edging, flowers in bosom, fine oval mezzotint by Houston after Cotes, folio, circa 1755, scarce, 21. 17s. 6d.

" Ditto, three-quarter length, standing on

terrace, in low dress, long hair, left hand resting on

head of greyhound, landscape behind mezzotint

by Houston after Hamilton, folio, circa 1755, very scarce, 21. 12s. 6d." Catalogue 153, p. 17.


 * ' Gunning (Elizabeth, died 1790), second daughter

of John Gunning, Esq Half length, in oval frame,

low dress mezzotint by Brookshaw after Cote?,

first state, small 8vo, circa 1755, 20*." Catalogue 159, p. 17.

Mr. Henry B. Wheatley, in his * Historical Portraits ' (George Bell & Sons, 1897), p. 184, says that Francis Cotes and Gavin Hamilton painted portraits of the Countess of Coventry (Maria Gunning), and that the present Earl of Coventry lent to the Guelpn Exhibition a picture by Hogarth containing portraits of the sixth earl and his wife. "At the same exhibition was a portrait of the Duchess of Hamilton by Reynolds." In 'A Catalogue of Twenty Thousand Engraved Portraits on sale by John Russell Smith, 36, Soho Square,' 1883, p. 72, is the folio wing : "Gunning (Miss, afterwards Countess of Coventry), 8vo, mezzotint, rare, 15s. Etched by B. Wilson, 1751." ROBERT PIERPOINT.

IMMUREMENT ALIVE OF RELIGIOUS (9 th S. xii. 25, 131). Absence from home has pre- vented my seeing your correspondents' re- marks on this subject until now, but, with your permission, I will ask space for a few words in reply. All three of those whose letters are printed appear to be in the same position as that so naively confessed by MR. PEACOCK, who says, " I have not seen