Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/60

 54

NOTES AND QUERIES. [0as.iii.jAK. 21,

invariably used the spelling "cieling." It mav have been handed down from his grand- father, an architect, through Prof, Cockerell ; but this is purely conjecture on ray part.

MARKEN.

I have noticed in old sixteenth and seven- teenth century papers ei is often ie in such words B&feild for field. E, E. THOYTS.

SWEATING-PITS IN IRELAND (9 th S. ii. 107, 157, 271). Allow me to draw the attention of your corresponden ts who have written on this subject to the account given in Du Chaillu's 'Land of the Midnight Sun,' vol. ii. p. 206 et seq., of a curious custom prevalent at the present time in Norway and of a similar nature. The whole account is too long for quotation, but a few lines from it may interest your readers. It is said "travellers see strange things ":

" One of the most characteristic institutions of the country is the Sauna (bath-house), called Bad- fttuf/a in Swedish. It is a small log-house, built very tight, with no windows, having a single aperture above to let the smoke out ; in the centre is an oven-like structure built of loose stones, under which a fire is kept burning till they are very hot ; then the fire is extinguished, and the women clean the place thoroughly of ashes and soot, the smoke- hole having been in the meantime closed. A large vessel filled with water is placed within ; a number of slender twigs, generally of young birch-trees, are put into it, to be used as switches. The bath-house stands by itself, and at some distance from the other buildings, for safety in case it should take fire. Every Saturday evening, summer and winter, all over that northern country smoke is seen issuing from these structures. It is the invariable custom for all the household, on that day, to take a bath, for the work of the week is ended, and the beginning of Sunday has come. After washing, all put on clean linen and their best clothes." Chap. xvii.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

I conceive that a reference to the prevalent belief in an earth cure for rheumatism and the presence of numerous of these excavations or structures in Ireland is apparent in the last line of the ballad, popular among the Hibernian lower class during the last century, commencing with the quatrian : The night before Larry was stretched [slang for

The boys they all paid him a visit ; A mouthful of grub too they fetched, They 'd have sweated [pawned] their duds [clothes]

Each stanza of eight lines ends, if I remember rightly, with an extra line, by no means superfluous, since it adds emphasis to the preceding verse.

The company arrive to condole and (more Hibernico) to carouse with the convict in the

condemned cell. Such convivialities were con- ceded to the doomed in Ireland in those days. They not only bring food with them, but an ample supply of the indispensable "craytur." The result, as might be foreseen, is that the visitors pass from the jovial to the quarrel- some stage, and " a row royal," ending in a fight, ensues. When peace is at length re- stored, they take an affectionate farewell of their moribund friend, and, in anticipation of the almost immediately impending com- mittal of his body to the grave, "earth to earth," the final supernumerary line informs us (italics mine) that

they leave him to take a ground sweat.

NEMO. Temple.

WILLIAM PRYNN (9 th S. ii. 288, 336, 496; iii. 14). My attention has been called to a note in *N. & Q.' in which I am mentioned as the President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and to a note of correction from MR. BENJAMIN WALKER, A.R.I.B.A., at the last reference. I need hardly say that had I known of the mistake, I should have at once asked you to correct it, and claimed the right and honoured title President of the Architec- tural Association. MR. WALKER is quite right in stating that the R.I.B.A. and A.A. are quite different bodies, but he is entirely wrong in adding that "the active members of the latter body are for the most part pupils and junior assistants."

The Architectural Association, which is the chief architectural educating body in the country, consists of some thirteen hundred members, of whom, as a matter of fact, the smaller proportion are assistants and students. As regards its " active members " if it is to the officers and council that MR. WALKER refers nearly all are representative men in practice, who give their valued services voluntarily in the cause of furthering archi- tectural education. As I write this simply to correct two mistaken statements, I will only add that if MR. WALKER will kindly take the trouble to refer to the list of past presidents, he will see that there are several names that have some claim to be well known in the profession, and, I may add, all at the time of their election have been men of large experience and many years in practice. GEO. H. FELLOWES PRYNNE, F.E.I.B.A.

6, Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, S.W.

HORACE WALPOLE AND HIS EDITORS (8 th S. xi. 346, 492 ; xii. 104, 290, 414, 493 ; 9 th S. i. 91; ii. 75, 332, 531). In a letter addressed to Earl Harcourt, Walpole writes, according to Cun- ningham's edition (vol. viii. p. 405, under date