Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/497

 ii. DEO. 17, '9

NOTES AND QUERIES.

489

as < curious that three out of five names are misspelt, My ancestor, whose nanra wai Wolstenholme, writes it "Wostenholm"; xm grandmother, Lydia Johnson, makes hersel Lyda Jonhson"] and one of the witnesses whose name appears to have been Ward inscribes himself "Word." The wedding tools place in the parish church at Rotherham 6 March, 1815. Thinking that possibly th misspelling was an error on the part of th vestry clerk, I wrote thereupon, and have received a reply from the Rev. J. C. Walket assuring me of the accuracy of the document He adds :

" During the past ten years I have married som thousands of persons, and have been repeatedly surprised at the great number of these who insisi upon spelling their Christian and surnames in correctly."

Is there any superstition connected with this really odd sort of practice ?

HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter.

WORDSWORTH. Where is the passage alluded to by Scott in ' The Heart of Mid- lothian,' chap. xxx. (xxix. in later editions) ?

"The trees were a little separated from each other, and at the foot of one of them, a beautiful poplar, was a hillock of moss, such as the poet of Grasmere has described."

JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

WANSTEAD HOUSE. In Lucy Aikin's 'Me- moirs of the Court of Elizabeth ' occurs this passage (Ward & Lock's edition, p. 293) : " The favourite [Earl of Leicester] entreated to be indulged the privilege of entertaining her Majesty for several days at his seat of "Wan- stead House, a recent and expensive purchase." Is the house still in existence? If so, will any of your readers kindly tell me where the site is? If it has been demolished I should like to know the date of demolition.

M. L. BRESLAR.

Percy House, South Hackney.

DUKE OF ALBANY. Is it not a fact that (heraldically speaking) the daughters of Robert Stewart. Duke of Albany, became eventually his heirs ? Who was Sir John Graham, Earl of Menteith de jure uxoris, whose daughter Margaret was the wife of the Duke of Albany ? A. CALDEB.

" RUCTION." This word is used, both in a singular and a plural sense, as meaning a show of anger on the part of some person. "There 's sure to be ructions " is a common saying, implying the certainty of future strife. Would one be justified in deriving this slang term from the Latin ructo or dep. ructor = to

belch, to eructate? It woukl^e interesting to know how it first became equivalent- to v *a row." JAMES C, BENWICK, :

Winlaton, oo* Durham.

[The 'Century Dictionary* suggests as thejpro* batjle origin a dialectic perversion of eruption. " Rac' tation," used by Jeremy Taylor, i* derived from rucL]

DAFFODIL

Walk'd in a wintry wind by a ghastly glimmer^ and

found The shining daffodil dead and Orion low in his)

grave. Tennyson's ' Maud,' Part I.

Does Lord Tennyson refer in this passage to the flower? or, as there are no signs of dead daffodils in winter, is there any constellation known by that name to which he may refer ? He uses the same expression in the first verse of Part III., and again in conjunction with constellations. E. L.

[There is, we believe, no such constellation-. Tennyson seems sometimes to use "daffodil" as indicative of colouring.]

LEGEND. I have been asked, but cannot answer the Question, as to a legend hingeing on the incident of a man kneeling with a lady by the side of a holy well (in Ireland ?) and. drinking of the water from her hand. What is the legend, and is it embodied in a ballad or otherwise ? S.

BARTON AND STEDMAN. A 'Memoir of the Family of Barton, continued through that of Mowbray and that of Stedman,' was printed at Bath in 1857, 8vo. I should be much obliged to any one who would tell me where I can see a copy of this book.

GEORGE W. MARSHALL.

Heralds' College, B.C.

CAPE TOWN IN 1844. Are there any works which give a detailed description of Cape Town as it was in 1844-6 ? I should be greatly obliged for references to works which contain plates. R. L. B.

Paris.

CARLTON CLUB. The present Carlton Club

was established in 1832 as the central rallying

point of the Conservative party after the


 * reat Reform struggle. But in Boyle's

Fashionable Court and Country Guide

and Town Visiting Directory, corrected for

January, 1829,' there is given (p. 585) a

'arlton Club at 25, Pall Mall. What was

.his institution? when was it established]

and when did it end ? POLITICIAN.

HENRY CURTIS, B.A. A vicar of Maxey f this name, instituted 1678, who had been izarof Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and