Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/399

 9'" S. IV. Nov. 25, '99.] 443 NOTES AND QUERIES. Blane was a child, was leading an eremitic life at Kilcathan in Bute, now the Kilchattan of the tourist. Her son Blane became to some extent famous. He was raised to the epis- copate, visited Rome, and is said to have per- formed the miracle of restoring sight to a blind boy. St. Ertha lived in the sixth cen- tury. See Smith and Wace's ' Dictionary of Christian Biography,' s.v. ' Blane.' Arthur Mayall. She was sister of St. Blane, under whose name she is mentioned in Smith and Wace's ' Dictionary of Christian Biography.' See also Stokes's ' Ireland and the Celtic Church.' Edward H. Marshall, M.A. Hastings. Clerks of the Board of Green Cloth (9th S. iv. 329, 388).—I have looked at Beatson's (not Beaton's) 'Political Index,' but in the copy that I have seen there is no such sup- plement as that named by Mr. Welford. Could Mr. Welford tell me on what page to look for the list of the clerks? H. K. H. Was this Act of 1782 a real suppression t The Lord Steward's Department is still the " Board of Green Cloth, and the directories define a chief clerk and one or two others; perhaps their powers are reduced. But is not this office the same as Shakspere's " Table of Green Fields " ? A pen thereon is necessary, and would look " sharp " enough on the green cloth or baize. A. H. " Three Pound Twelve " (9th S. iii. 249; iv. 218, 292, 314).—This coin-weight is not un- common. There are also several others which were used for checking light-weight gold coins, or to determine the value of gold in foreign gold coins. "Three pound twelve" in English gold would represent the weight of the gold dobra of John V. of Portugal. For example, a dobra of John V., dated 1728, of value 12,800 reis, weighed 442 .grains, and our guinea of the same period weighed 129jj grains. B. Lowsley. Southsea. The pieces described are not tokens, but merely weights to test the correctness of foreign quadruple pistoles, which in the last century were commonly accepted in England as being of the value of Si. 12s. John Evans. Coal Folk-lore (9th S. iv. 326).—Since the root of our word " coal" is found in the obsolete German kol, fire, the folk-lorist might be for- given for thinking that the well - known custom, peculiar to the burglar, of cherishing a piece of coal on his person as an amulet to ensure his " good luck," may be accounted for in the ancient superstition, traceable to sun-worship, of regarding any object asso- ciated with fire as an emblem of the solar fire, and in the light of a preservative against the baneful machinations of the Evil One. The barbarous custom of "dressing" a witch "in a red gown," i.e., consigning her to the purifying flames of the baal-fire, is thought to have given its origin to the expression being " hauled over the coals." And it will be observed that the superstitious ideas con- cerning a piece of coal alluded to by Brand (1841 edition, vol. i. pp. 170-1) relate to the pagan celebration of the summer solstice on Midsummer Eve. Such an assumption will still more forcibly commend itself if it be allowed that the know- ledge of the utility of coal for smelting pur- foses was in the possession of those of the ron, or even of the Bronze Age, or that the destruction of vast primeval forests had rendered the employment of fossil fuel neces- sary. A rude ornament made of cannel coal, anrl found in Ayrshire, has been assigned by geological calculation to an age fifteen cen- turies bofore our era. This estimate, however, owing to uncertainty of the uniformity of land movements, is acknowledged to be merely tentative and conjectural (Lyell, 'Antiq. of Man,' 1863, p. 55). J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. Ride from Paris to Fontainebleau (9th S. iv. 349). — The following extract from the Gent. Mag. for November, 1754, answers H. T. B.'s query :— " Lord Powerscourt of the Kingdom of Ireland, lately laid a wager with the Duke of Orleans, that he would ride on his own horses from Fontainebleau to Paris, which is forty-two English miles, in two hours, for 1,000 louis d'ors He was to mount only three horses, but did it with two ; both which, however, he killed. He performed the wager in one hour, thirty-seven minutes, and twenty-two seconds." G. F. R. B. Pronunciation of " Water" (9th S. iv. 287, 354).—The pronunciation of water brings to mind the story of the witty John Clerk, of the Scotch bar, ultimately raised to the bench as a Senator of the College of Justice under the title of Lord Eldin. His memory is still fresh as one of the ablest and most successful lawyers who ever practised before any court. Mr. Clerk was pleading in a Scotch appeal before the House of Lords. The question at issue was in regard to a right of water. Mr. Clerk, more Scotico, pronounced the word watter. " Pray, Mr. Clerk," said one of the law peers, " do you spell water with two t's in Scotland 1" " No, my lord," was the dignified