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NOTES AND QUERIES. 10* s. m. MAR. 4, m

for the towers of Amiens, they were plainly designed to be both like the southern, but the builder of the northern improved and heightened it. At Rouen and Chartres a new architect, centuries later, gave a totally new design. E. L. GARBETT.

POPLADIES (9 th S. i. 448 ; ii. 18). According to an aged inhabitant of Staines, Middlesex, these cakes have been made and sold there from time immemorial on New Year's Day. I first heard of them in 1897, and some that I obtained in January of that year are now before me. They are about six inches long, three inches broad in the widest part, and one inch in thickness, and are roughly fashioned so as to represent a female, without arms or legs, but with a deep indentation on either side to indicate the waist, and a flat head, in which two currants are inserted for eyes. They, seem to me to be made of the same ingredients as ordinary penny buns. I have not been able to hear of any tradition relating to their origin. Further references to these cakes, as made at St. Albans, may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1820, pt. i. p. 15, and in 'N. & Q.,' 4 th S. xi. 341, 412.

W. P. MERRICK.

Shepperton.

SIR ALEXANDER IRUIN, OF DRUM (9 th S. iii. 107). The incident is thus alluded to in Gardiner's 'Commonwealth and Protectorate,' vol. ii. p. 66 :

" Strange to say, it was mainly to the Royalist gentry that the Commissioners could at present look for support. Dislike of the severe discipline of the Kirk formed a common bond between them. Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum, himself a Roman Catholic, not only refused to appear before the Presbytery of Aberdeen, but appealed to Monk on the ground that he was unable to acknowledge the judicature of the Church courts ' as not being estab- lished by the Commonwealth of England.' "

Monk was one of the Commissioners as- sembled at Dalkeith in January, 1652. Col. Robert Overton commanded a brigade at the battle of Dunbar in September, 1650, and was afterwards employed in the north of Scotland. He is frequently mentioned in Carlyle's ' Cromwell's Letters and Speeches.' W. S.

For Sir Alexander Irvine's appeal to Col. Robert Overton see 'Diet. Nat. Biog.,' xlii. 388 a. W. C. B.

BOOK TERMS (8 th S. ix. 341 ; x. 400 ; 9 th S. ii. 322, 521 ; iii. 53). MR. JULIAN MARSHALL'S objection to anam/m has already been taken, in a way, by Dr. Murray. I can only say, if we are to discard words for this reason and because only one letter differs, there will be

plenty of work on hand. MR. MARSHALL can start with natation, notation^ nutation.

In answer to COL. PRIDEAUX, I should cer- tainly call "A Hertfordshire Incumbent " a pseudonym, and have done so for over thirty years, as can be seen by a reference to the ' Handbook of Fictitious Names,' p. 7, where it is further designated a geo-demonym, other- wise a geographical denomination pseudonym. I do not think, if I had to do this over again, I should trouble myself to give a thing so obvious a designation. RALPH THOMAS.

CURE BY THE HAND OF A CORPSE (9 th S. iii. 68). The custom to which B. H. L. alludes seemed to be familiar to me, although for the moment I could not think where I had seen or heard of it. But on referring to the chapter on ' Charms ' in Dyer's ' English Folk-lore,' I found the following, which must have been the source of my knowledge:

"In Surrey, a sovereign cure for the goitre was to form the sign of a cross on the neck with the hand of a corpse."

Probably this will account for the old countrywoman's belief. C. P. HALE.

For some of the learning upon this subject see Brand's ' Popular Antiquities,' iii. 276-7. EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A. Hastings.

ARMORIAL (9 th S. iii. 28). The heraldic device of the Franciscans is as follows, but I must write from memory: Argent, chape ploye sable ; two dexter arms and hands, with palms extended, proper, issuant from dexter and sinister in saltire, the hands in chief ; the first arm naked, the other habited tenney ; each palm displaying a wound proper. The allusion is to the stigmata of St. Francis. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff.

The arms of the Franciscan Order are thus blazoned in Dr. Woodward's 'Ecclesiastical Heraldry,' p. 418:

"Argent, a cross of Calvary traversed by two human arm in saltire (sometimes issuant from clouds in base), one in bend naked, representing the arm of our Saviour, the other in bend sinister habited in the dress of St. Francis, both bearing the stigmata. (The Franciscan Cordeliere is sometimes knotted round the shield.)" Substantial representations of these crossed arms are to be seen on the pulpits of churches served by Franciscans. ST. SWITHIN.

BEAMISH (9 th S. iii. 6). Lower says the name may be derived from the German Bohmisch, a Bohemian, or from Beamish, a township in Durham. The arms of the Beamishes of co. Cork (who have been settled there nearly three