Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/434

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. n. NOV. 26,

receive a treatise on the custom of distri- buting bread, blessed but not consecrated, which prevails in some parts of France. Tc my surprise I found myself reading a rhymed satire on the extortions of churchwardens and other functionaries. Among other things a man is brought in who has buried his wife, and is charged 2,000 livres. Says he :

Si vous ne vous etes mepris,

II fait cher mourir a Paris ;

Deux mille francs, la somme est forte ;

Je n'en donnerai jamais tant ;

J'aimerois ma foi presque autant

Que ma fern me ne fut point morte.

The officials reply :

Deux mille francs, nous les aurons.

He demands an itemized bill. They state

various particulars :

Apres on doit pour la depence De 1'estrade et de la credence, Pour le port de trente flambeaux, Et de vingt cierges des plus beaux

gui bruloient durant le Service, our la peine de notre Suisse, Pour celle du Crieur jur6 ; L'on doit a Monsieur le Cure Pour ses Droits, pour son assistance, Apres il faut pour sa presence.

But, objects the poor fellow, he was not there. " II n'y fut point." They say in reply :

II y fut present en esprit : Sa presence spirituelle, Ronflat-il meme dans son lit, Se paye com me corporelle. Get Article passe tout net.

One would gladly know something more about this little book.

RICHARD H. THORNTON. Portland, Oregon.

" WHISKY " OR " WHISKEY." (See 8 th S. vii. 29, 151, 296.) It can hardly be that either the sack or the port of bygone days was ever as pre-eminent in its popularity as is whisky at the present day. Whisky is now distilled in Scotland at the rate of at least thirty million gallons a year. It may be worth while to place on record the fashion of whisky - drinking (now, probably, at its height) for the benefit of future chroniclers of our manners and customs. And it is inter- esting to be reminded by Smollett that the spirit was almost unknown in England what time Humphry Clinker was on his memor- able expedition a century and a quarter ago. Melford writes to his friend Sir Watkin Phillips :

"The Highlanders regale themselves with

whisky ; a malt spirit, as strong as geneva, which they swallow in great quantities, without any signs of inebriation. They are used to it from the cradle, and find it an excellent preservative against a winter cold, which must be extreme in these mountains."

I do not find whisky in Bailey, but he gives : " Usquebaugh, a certain cordial made in Ire- land." HENRY ATTWELL.

Barnes.

NAMES OF CHARACTERS IN FIELDING'S NOVELS. Some years ago I became aware of a curious fact connected with the names of Fielding's characters, to which fact I have never seen a reference in any biography of him which I have read. It is that a good many of his characters' names are found in the list of subscribers to Burnet's ' History of his own Time ' (folio, 1724-34) ; for instance, Abraham Adams, Esq., the Rev. Mr. Adams, Joseph Andrews, Esq., Thomas Jones, Gent., Henry Partridge, Esq., William James, Esq., and several Westerns, Esquires. There are also the surnames Atkinson, Bennet, Booth, Edwards, Harrison, Millar, Matthews, Trent, and perhaps others which appear in his novels. The "Rev. Mr. Francis Fielding" (whoever he might be) was a subscriber to the first volume, though not to the second. Whether this is of interest to any one but myself I do not know. Y. Y.

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.

RIBBONISM. I should be glad to be re- ferred to any work that would give me trustworthy information about Ribbonism, and especially on the secret passwords in use among the Ribbonists. In Carleton's ' Fardo- rougha the Miser,' published in 1836, the fol- lowing specimen is given on p. 221 : " What age are you in 1 " the answer oeing, " In the end of the Fifth." A note says that " this was taken from the chronological arrange- ment of the seven ages of the Christian Church, as adapted by the writer of Pas- torini." What does this mean 1

A. L. MAYHEW.

JOHN WINGFIELD was elected from West- minster School to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1578. I should be glad of any further particulars concerning him. G. F. R. B.

RICHARD DE STOURTON. Can any of your readers render me assistance to discover whether there was a Richard de Stourton during the Cromwell period 1 Any suggestion as to authorities I could consult would prove lelpful. My reason for troubling you is because an Eleanor Stourton married a Tive-
 * onnected with the defence of Worcester