Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/497

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iii. JUNE 24, m] NOTES AND QUERIES.

491

and there is a mention of the place in Mr. John Nicholson's 'Beacons of East Yorkshire," 1887, p. 29. W. C. B.

I once, in my rambles in the rocky wood- clad range of the C6te d'Or, lighted upon a deserted hamlet. It is rather a curious ex- perience for a lonely traveller to find himself unexpectedly in a still more lonely place of former resort. THOMAS J. JEAKES.

JACK PLACKETT'S COMMON (9 th S. ii. 508; iii. 423). Perhaps MR. HEBB could elicit from the vestryman the name or nature of the local history which he has searched, and from which he has discovered that the site in ques- tion was common land, known as "Jack Plackett's Common," because a notorious highwayman of that name was hanged there I have a strong suspicion that the local his- tory does not date further back than the last volume of ' N. & Q.,' and that MR. HEBB'S suggestion about the highwayman has in the space of six months ripened into an estab- lished fact. If the freeholder's title is ex- hibited to the vestry, I hope that the result of the inspection may be published for the benefit of London topographers.

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

" On the 28th July, 1762, John Placket, a notori- ous robber, was executed here [i, e,, on the triangular piece of ground at the junction of the City Road and Goswell Street Road] for robbing and ill-treating a Mr. Faye, a Norway merchant, whom he had de- coyed to a field in the neighbourhood ; many persons were much hurt on the occasion by the 'breaking down of the fence between the footpath and the edge of the hollow, whereby numbers were precipitated to the bottom. The place was afterwards called Jack Placket's Common, and became noted as the scene of pugilistic contests. Placket, alias Country Jack, was born at Islington, of poor parents, and was formerly servant to a noted cowkeeper and farmer there, and afterwards worked with the coal- heavers at Puddledock, Blackfriars ; but taking to bad courses, was transported for seven years, at the expiration of which he again took to his old vicious courses, and justice at length overtook him." Lewis's ' History of Islington,' p. 348.

JOHN HEBB.

MUSCAT (9 th S. iii. 444). With reference to the extract from my ' History of the Indian Navy' (Bentley, 2 vols., 1877) at the above reference, I have nothing to observe except that MR. T. J. JEAKES, who reprints the account of the services of his grandfather contained therein, is mistaken in his state- ment that Capt. Kinchant, I.N., my friend and informant, was my father-in-law. He was in no way related to me. My father-in- law was the late General J. T. Boileau, of the Royal Engineers, F.R.S., an officer, as Sir- Henry Yule said in his introduction to my

memoir of him, "well known and well beloved." C. R. Low.

CAUL (9 th S. iii. 408). I cannot add to G. W.'s synonyms for "caul," though I am informed ray eldest sister-in-law was born with one, which was preserved by her mother with the family records till her death, when the original owner resumed possession, albeit she does not appear to have placed implicit faith in it, since she is reported to have been the most timid of any in the water. Perhaps she was fearful of discrediting the super- stition. I should like, however, to ask^ for synonyms of wicken=" mountain -ash"; I believe there are a good many.

THOMAS J. JEAKES.

The names by which a caul is also known are "friar's caul" (' N. & Q.,' 1 st S. v. 557), " the helmet" (6 th S. ix. 206), "silly how," i.e., the holy or fortunate cap or hood, and " silly hood" (8 th S. xi. 144). See also Brand's ' Popular Antiquities,' iii. 59-62.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

OBLIVION (9 th S. iii. 426). The love for scandal will never die out, and Hannah Light- foot had supporters of eminence. In defence of Miss Tytler, it should be remembered that certificates of the alleged marriage were pro- duced ; we may now call them forgeries, but they served a purpose for the time. A. H.

OLIVER CROMWELL AND Music (9 th S. iii. 341, 417). It is an ascertained fact that Cromwell was fond of music. But I should like to ask your correspondents how that fact proves that he did not order or allow the breaking down of organs in cathedrals and churches. There seems to be a body of evidence which will require some clearing away. A man may hang his own portrait on the walls of his house, and yet strongly object to pictures in church. W. C. B.

A HOY (9 th S. iii. 365). I have not Sydney Smith's ' Works ' at hand, but I feel sure that in one of his reviews he ridicules " a religious hoy " that sailed to Margate. W. C. B.

THE DEBT OF NATURE (4 th S. x. 430, 515; xi. 44, 534; 7 th S. xi. 28; xii. 158). The Ordo Commendationis Animse ' deserves to be quoted : " Ut, cum humanitatis debitum morte interveniente persolveris, ad Auctorem tuurn, qui te de limo teme formaverat, re- vertaris." RICHARD H. THORNTON.

Portland, Oregon.

GORDON OF LESMOIR (9 th S. iii. 408). I have a lengthy pedigree of the Gordons of Letter-