Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/500

 528 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9-»s.iv.DEc.23,m foundation, except his own speculations and dogmatic assertions ; and to stigmatize his rashness in presuming to call Robert Ware a " forger" and a " rogue," and such standard historical writei-s as Strype, Lingard, Gar- diner, et al. "dupes," because, forsooth, on finding the value of Robert Ware's historical collections, they very properly made full use of them. G. M. M. MR. PEACOCK asks at the last reference whether the blood in the sponge said to have been placed on the head of the image would not have coagulated. Certainly it would, and the serum probably would all have run away from it before the sponge was placed in posi- tion. In any case there would be nothing " truckle " from it that could be mistaken for blood until long after the time specified in the narrative, that is, not until the fibrin in the blood had been broken up by bacterial action, which would take several days. The cheat, therefore, cannot have taken place, unless, indeed, we are to suppose that some of the coagulated blood was squeezed out of the sponge when it was placed on the head oi the image, and that it was the stain, not the trickling of the blood, that the worshippers saw. This, however, is not what Ware seems to say. C. 0. B. THE DEVIL'S DOOR (9th S. iv. 127, 178, 218 256, 313).—In old times, I have been told, i was not unusual after the consecration of f church to build up the north door, out o which the devil was supposed to have been expelled. There is such a door built up in the church of Lamplugh in this neighbour hood. ALFRED F. CURWEN. Harrington Rectory, Cumberland. CHURCHES WASHED AWAY BY THE S (9th S. iv. 249, 330, 426, 460).—To the example given may be added the cathedral church o the former diocese of Selsea, or Selsey, Sussex founded by Wilfrid in the seventh century The site is now under the sea half a mile tx the south of Selsey Bill ; and a place callec the " Bishop's Park," where the local fishing smacks are anchored, traditionally marks th position of the episcopal palace and demesne EDWY Q. CLAYTON. Richmond, Surrey. " GENTLEMEN AND LADIES " (9th S. iv. 476 —The French are said to be a gallant nation but I recollect that some years ago, when much frequented French cafis, I shruggef my shoulders on learning that the correc thing on leaving—and, of course, raising th hat—was to say, " Bon spir, Messieurs e Dames," especially at a cafe bourgeois, wher was familiar with the proprietor and ome of the customers. And I remarked hat the custom was universal. EDWARD P. WOLFERSTAN. "HEUDIN" (9th S. iv. 457).—We use this ord in Scotland—or, at any rate, we Tdid use it in comparatively recent times, while he flail was "still with us as an implement of msbandry. Our pronunciation probably liffers somewhat from that of Northampton- shire, for we say "huidin," just as Burns says "puir " forjxior in his classic phrase " For >uir auld Scotland's sake "; but the thing we Jenote by the won] is the leathern tie that oins the staff and the " souple " of the flail x>gether. Jamieson, in the 'Scottish Dic- tionary,' enters it as " hooding," and gives the Lothians and Roxburghshire as the counties .n which the name is prevalent. As a school- 3oy in Fifeshire I learned it from the last public thresher of his district, who died about twenty-five years ago. The romancing of this agricultural artist over the "auld times" that he loved, and his other queer and inscrutable ways, made him uncommonly fascinating to youths let loose from school, and it was a coveted privilege to be allowed to use his spare flail in doing with him a bout of harmonious threshing. But woe to the luckless wight who chanced to miss a stroke in this blithe concert of barn utensils ! The dexterous veteran smote the "souple" of the erring flail unmercifully and sent it rearing towards the nose of his unskilled coadjutor. One learned to be on one's guard, for a single experience of this kind was sufficient for the life of an assistant amateur thresher. Old Jamie — or " Tip-fap," as we irreverently called the little lonely bachelor, from a slight limp that affected his gait—was a curious original, with certain elements of greatness in his character, and we do not expect to look upon his like again. THOMAS BAYNE. ST. MILDRED'S,' POULTRY (9th S. iv. 478).— Much, if not all of the information required by G. S. P. is to be found in ' The History of the Church of St. Mildred the Virgin, Poultry, in the City of London, with some Particulars ofithe Church of St. Mary, Cole- church,' by Thomas Milbourn, published in 1872. EDWY O. CLAYTON. Before St. Olave's, Jewry, was pulled down, my father copied the inscriptions, some of which had originally been in St. Mildred's, Poultry. If G. S. P". will let me know what name he is searching for, I will help him if I can. URSULA CRISP. Grove Park, Denmark Hill, S.E,