Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/356

 348

NOTES AND QUERIES. 19 th s. n. OCT. 29,

" LA TRINIT^ DBS VINS." I sa\v this, some weeks ago, as a sign over a wine-shop door in Normandy. What does it mean ?

THOKNPIELD.

"VESTIGIA NULLA RETRORSUM" is spoken of by Dean Hole as " the Hanoverian motto " ('A Little Tour in America,' p. 285). It is used by the family of Levinge of Knockdun Castle, Westmeath, and also by the Earls of Buckinghamshire; but I have never heard of its being the property of Hanover or Hano- verians. Will some one enlighten me ? Dr. Hole is not likely to have made a mistake.

K. P. D. E.

MARY BOWLES. Who was Mary Bowles, the registered owner of several allotments of land about Edmonton under the Enclosure Act of 1801-2 ? A. H.

" CHRISTMAS - TUP." Among the " words kept back " at the end of the first volume of the ' English Dialect Dictionary ' is the York- shire " Christmas-tup," the meaning of which still remains unknown. I believe that it signifies a Yuletide mummer who assumes the character of a tup, that is of a ram. About the year 1845 a cousin of my father's, who was then a boy living at Hemsworth, near Pontefract, described to him the Christ- mas mummers' game as played there. One of the actors in it went by the name of " the old tup." This tup ran about on all-fours, and had, if my father remembers correctly, rams' horns, either real or imitation, on his head. Another animal, " the old sow," used to appear at harvest suppers in Lincolnshire, some sixty or seventy years since. It, too, was represented by a disguised man, going on hands and knees. The creature is de- scribed as causing great hilarity by running, as well as it was able, at the feet of the women and girls present, who laughed, screamed, and retreated with their skirts held tightly round their ankles. The hobby- horse is, of course, well known. Can any of the readers of ' N. & Q.' give further informa- tion concerning the animals represented at ancient festivals ? M. P.

COLUMBARIA : DOVECOTES. The still exist- ing examples of these buildings indicate their importance as appanages to manors and farms. What was their significance in re- lation to land tenure ; and where is the first mention of them to be found ?

XYLOGRAPHER.

"JESUS' TREE." Can it be true that Sir Thomas More, the friend of Erasmus and the author of ' Utopia,' had a tree in his garden

which he christened " Jesus' Tree," because it served as a flogging-post for unfortunate heretics ? That this was so was stated in a review of 'The Village of Palaces,' by the Rev. A. S. L'Estrange, Times, 21 Oct., 1880.

JAMES HOOPER.

ALEXANDER MCGRUTHER. Was the Alex- ander McGruther who pleaded as his defence for having been ''out" in 1745-6 that he was forced into the insurrection by the Duke of Perth against his will identical with Alex- ander McGruther of Meigor, who d ied 28 March, 1797, aged eighty-one ; or, if not, is there any evidence connecting him with the family of Meigor, in Upper Strathearn ?

J. PARKES BUCHANAN.

Union Club, S.W.

THEATRE TICKETS AND PASSES. Mr. W. J. Davis, of 46, Trafalgar Road, Moseley, Birming- ham, and I are collecting material with a view of publishing a descriptive catalogue of the metallic theatre tickets and passes of a like character. If any of your numismatic readers having a collection of such pieces would com- municate with either of us, we should feel greatly obliged, as it is our wish to make our work as complete as possible.

ARTHUR W. WATERS.

51, The Gardens, East Dulwich, S.E.

" PLACK ": " BODDLE." In R, L. Stevenson's ' Kidnapped,' chap, xv., we read : " If you gave them a plack and asked change [they] would very civilly return you a boddle" Now Chambers explains a plack as an old Scotch coin, one-twelfth of an English penny, and a boddle as a sixth part of an English penny. Was Stevenson rignt or wrong in this case ; or how is this passage to be understood 1

Dordrecht.

WILLIAM CHAMBERLAINE. Information re- lative to the William Chamberlaine who was a partner of, and joint grantee of a patent for tinning sheet iron in 1661 and 1673 with, Dud Dudley, of Dudley and Himley, or in- dication of the channels through which such information may be found, will much oblige.

W. G. NORRIS.

Coalbrookdale, R.S.O.

THORPE AND PEMBERTON. In Surtees's ' Durham,' vol. iii. p. 208, Anne, baptized at Egglescliffe, 14 Oct., 1621, daughter of John Pemberton, of Aislaby, Esq., by Isabel, daughter of Henry Grey, Esq., is stated to have married Robert Thorpe, of Yarm. Can any of your readers give information as to the ancestry or issue of the above-named Robert Thorpe or Thorp ? SILO.