Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/436

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NOTES AND QUERIES, p* s. XIL NOV. as, 190*.

time as the front, let the body of soldiers be ever so large."

Reide, in his 'Treatise,' 1798, mentions the step, but his description of it is erroneous. It should be borne in mind that at that date ranks were formed three deep.

General Eliott was born at Stobs, where a large encampment has just been formed for the training of troops in the Scottish command. He was raised to the peerage as Lord Heathfield after the memorable siege of Gibraltar, during which he had displayed great mental and physical energy. His habits were very abstemious. He never took more than four hours' sleep at a time, his constant food was vegetables, and his drink water. He died in the seventy- third year of his age.

Qnttlt*.

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.

MARRIAGE HOUSE. In the description of a house at Stoke-by-Clare, in Suffolk, which I was offered, the following occurs : *' In the garden is an interesting building, an old Marriage House in which formerly weddings took place/' Can any of the readers of ' N. & Q.' inform me as to the nature and origin of such houses, whether they were confined to England, and when they ceased to exist? EDITH WOTHERSPOON.

GLASS MANUFACTURE. Can any of your readers kindly give me explanation as to the manufacture of glass by country gentlemen in the sixteenth century ? I have several letters to an ancestor from his steward, dated 1587 and 1588, referring to what was going on at his "glasshowse" in Knole Park. The following is a specimen :

" There hath byn charged since your worships de- parture xxiiij cords of wood to tiie glasshowse, and I have receaved so much glasse as amounteth to v/., and for the other iij cords I shall receave glass to- morrow. V alyan and Ferris have promised to deliver me xx,s. worth of glasse towards the payment of their debte before Saterday at night. They agree very well, God bepraysed for yt ; they worke night and day, bout only whyles the founder is tempering his met tell, on the one syde of the furnes Valyan and Jerris doe worke, and on the other side Brussell and the other younge man."

And so on. The person to whom this letter was written was not engaged in mercantile pursuits ; he held a legal appointment at Lincoln's Inn, and when not there lived in the country, where he had considerable

estates. What I wish to know is whether ifc was common in those days for country gentle- men to use part of their wood in making glass for their own use or for sale.

Among the published Sidney letters is a letter dated 1597. The writer says :

" My Lady went towards Penshurst to see all things well ordered there. She lay that night at Knole. Capt. Morgan accompanied her Ladyship so farre, and returned yesterday to London, hauing brought my Lady to the Great Glasshouse Hill towards Penshurst."

THOS. BARRETT-LENNARD. [For glass-making in 1640 see 7 th 8. xii. 321.]

ISLAND OF PROVIDENCE. Which was the Island of Providence in which were interested, in 1637 and thereabouts, a company of adven- turers, including Earls of Arundel and War- wick, Sir Edmond Moundeford, and others ? Moundeford writes of "Mr. Pirn, pur Trea- surer," and of the company's desiring, but not obtaining, royal sanction for selling the island to the Dutch. LOBUC.

NELSON'S SISTER ANNE. Horatio Nelson is known to have had three sisters. One of them, Anne, is said to have eloped from a boarding-school about the year 1775-6, and to have died young, but not before her por- trait was painted by Opie. Can any of your readers inform me where the school was, or give any information on the subject 1

BATHFORD.

SUNDIAL MOTTO. The following hexameter is copied from an old dial at Poles worth. Will some one kindly interpret it ? Hortus utramque tulit nos et meditemur in Horto. If the line is a quotation, whence is it bor- rowed 1 COLLECTOR.

'BooK OF THE FOUNDATIONS.' The Pilot of 7 November contains an article on 'Darwin and his Interpreters,' by P. N. Waggett, and in this article reference is made to the 'Book of the Foundations.' Inquiry and research have failed to identify this book. Can any of vour readers throw light on the subject? C. H. R.

GIPSY QUEEN. (See ante, p. 407.) It is stated that the effects of the Queen of the Boswell tribe of gipsies, who died and was buried a few days ago in Falkirk, have been destroyed at the gipsy encampment, in accord- ance with a custom of the tribe. The goods were of the value of 150Z. The caravan belonging to the Gipsy Queen, which cost 130., is also to be destroyed. Is such de- struction usual among gipsies ? UNION.

BRECKENRIDGE FAMILY. Can any one assist me in tracing the Breckenridge family