Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/143

 9 th S. II. AUG. 13, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

135

THE HEAD OF THE DECAPITATED DUKE OF SUFFOLK (9 th S. i. 508 ; ii. 56). At the latter reference Miss POLLARD states that it is my " present attitude " which prevents the amal- gamation of Holy Trinity Church with St. Botolph's, Aldgate, taking place. This is a little mistake on her part, for it is the Rev. R. H. Hadden, the vicar of St. Botolph's, who stands in the way of " the Order in Council " being carried out.

In my new work ' Six Hundred Years,' of which I enclose a few particulars, every pos- sible information will be found in reference to the church, ranging from 1293 to 1893. Many wrong impressions are also there brushed away. SAMUEL KINNS.

THE PORTER'S LODGE (8 th S. xii. 507 ; 9 th S. i. 112, 198). Thus Mistress Lilias Brad- bourne, the waiting-woman on the Lady of Avenel, with reference to Roland Grseme :

" ' Nay, chide him not, Lilias,' said the Lady of Avenel, ' for beshrew me, but I think he comes of gentle blood see how it musters in his face at your injurious reproof.'

" ' Had I my will, madam,' answered Lilias, 'a good birchen wand should make his colour muster to better purpose still."' 'The Abbot,' chap. iii.

In chap. vi. of the same work a proverb is used which I have long been in quest of. Master Wingate, the steward at Avenel Castle, observes :

"And for Roland Graeme, though he may be a good riddance in the main, yet what says the very sooth proverb, ' Seldom comes a better' ? "

JOHN PicKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

HUGH AWDELEY (9 th S. i. 185). A claim to noble descent has been put forward on behalf of this miser may I not add usurer 1 Can the details be submitted to 'N. & O.'l

A. H.

"So PLEASED" (9 th S. i. 188, 315). It does not seem to have been noticed that there was a similar use in Latin of so for very, as in the phrases " non ita pridem " for " not very long ago" and "non ita multo post" for " not very long after."

ALEX. LEEPER.

Trinity College, Melbourne.

SAMUEL WILDERSPIN (8 th S. xii. 387 ; 9 th S. i. 270, 332.) Mr. Bartley, in ' The Schools for the People,' 108, repeats the statement about Robert Owen made by Lord Brougham. On the same authority it is added that "Mr. Buchanan shortly afterwards started the school at Brewer's Green, Westminster," " the first complete infant school in the world." EDWARD H, MARSHALL, M.A.

Hastings,

"FACING THE Music" (8 th S. ix. 168, 272, 477 ; x. 226, 306, 403). I have just come across another explanation or rather two, for there is an alternative of this phrase. In Mr. W. S. Walsh's 'Handy-book of Literary Curiosities' (London, 1894), is the following :

"Face the music, a proverbial phrase, probably derived from the stage, where it is used by actors in the green-room when preparing to go on the boards to literally face the music. Another explanation traces it to militia-muster, where every man is expected to appear fully equipped and armed, when in rank and file, facing the music."

Mr. Walsh is an American writer. It will be observed that the expression is the same as that used by Stevenson in ' The Ebb Tide,' a quotation from which, wherein the phrase is used, being printed at the last reference.

C. P. HALE.

" RESTORE THE HEPTARCHY " (8 th S. xii. 447, 516). In a recent number of ' N. <fc Q.' the question was asked, " Who was the author of the saying, 'Restore the Heptarchy'"? The Right Hon. Richard Lalor Shiel, M.P., was the author. He made use of the expression in a speech in the House of Commons, 19 May, 1843, on the Irish Arms Bill. He said :

" Repeal the Union restore the Heptarchy. Thus exclaimed George Canning, and stamped on the floor of this house as he gave utterance to a comparison in absurdity, which has been often cited. But that exclamation may be turned to an account different from that to which it is applied. Restore the Heptarchy repeal the Union."

SAMUEL RICHARDSON, B.A., B.L. Clontarf, co. Dublin, Ireland.

"CREX" (9 th S. i. 67, 117). Herein Warwick- shire we have a similar word, kex, a name given in general to all those umbelliferous plants with white flowers, so common in ditches and hedgerows and waste places, and, if seen in the meadows, as much a sign of neglect now as in Shakespeare's time : The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover. Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank, Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems But hateful docks, rough thistles, Tcecksies, burs, Losing both beauty and utility.

' Henry V.' V. ii.

BEN WALKER. Langstone, Erdington.

A fair-sized round, yellowish plum, only fully ripe in November, is known in Derby- shire as the "winter crack." They are called "cracks" because with the first frost 3 the fruit cracks on one side, being then fully ripe, THOS. RATCLIFFE,

Worksop,