Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/135

 o* s. v. FEB. 17, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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which is represented to be a thin quarto, but so far without success. Can any of your readers furnish references to lists, printed or unprinted, of the retainers of the Northern English lords who fought at Flodden 1

J. C. HODGSON.

GRIGGS AND GREGORIANS. Is anything known of these societies, which are mentioned together in Crabbe's ' Borough ' 1 The Gre- gorians are named in the ' Dunciad,' iv. 576, and in Smollett's 'Travels.' In D'Urfey's 'Wit and Mirth' (1719), p. 9, are the words

"Here's William the Whig, And Roger

the Grigg"; but whether the appellation here means a member of the society of Griggs I do not know. HENRY BRADLEY.

" GRIMGIBBER " : " GRIMGRIBBER." I have somewhere seen a statement that this curious word (meaning "jargon ") was used by Steele and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. The earliest instance known to me is in Home Topke. There are others in Bentharn and later writers. Bulwer Lytton has " glimglibber." I should be glad to be told of any examples of the word earlier than Tooke's (1786).

HENRY BRADLEY.

ALDERMAN VINER'S HOUSE. In the King's Pamphlets (Thomason Collection) at the British Museum, vol. E. 476 (No. 23, p. 2), it is stated that on 12 December, 1648, the house of Alderman Viner (the then Sheriff of London) was in St. Clement's Lane. What is known of it ? C. MASON.

29, Emperor's Gate, S.W.

PLASHED HEDGES. Can any reader of of agriculture inform me in what part of Europe the pleached, or plashed, hedge originated 1 When describing Gloucester- shire the Baron E. de Mandat-Grancey says, in 'Chez John Bull' (1895), pp. 257, 258 :
 * N. & Q.' who has studied the development

" Everywhere the fields are bordered with marvellously cut hedges. I notice some of them which are what they call plessdes in Normandy, that is to say, the shoots of which, interlaced like basket-work, form a much-esteemed fence, for it cannot be broken through. Except in Normandy, I have never seen any of this kind of work, which needs very good workmen, for it is sufficiently difficult to do well. It appears that there are many hedges of the kind in this country. They are called ' layed-hedges.' "

On p. 261 the Baron again alludes to the belles haies plessJes. Did hedge-plashing first arise in Normandy ; did the Normans acquire it from the English ; or did both peoples owe it to an earlier race ? I have some hazy idea of once reading that such hedges were also to be met with in Anjou and some other

parts of France where the English were once masters. M. P.

"PRINCE" BOOTHBY. In a letter to the Earl of Strafford of 3 July, 1769, Horace Walpole mentions " Mr. Boothby " as a typical "Maccarpni." I suppose this per- sonage was identical with " Prince " Boothby, mentioned elsewhere in the letters of Walpole, and in those of George Selwyn. I should be glad to know (1) why he was called "Prince " Boothby ; (2) whether he was a member of the Boothby family of Ashbourne, in Derby- shire : (3) whom he married : (4) when he died. H. T. B.

PICTURES COMPOSED OF HANDWRITING. Some time in the last century a print representing our Saviour was published, in which the whole of the work outlines and shading was produced by means of minutely engraved descriptive handwriting, the effect at a distance being exactly like ordinary line engraving. If there are other examples of this peculiar and painstaking art, I should be obliged for references.

CHAS. A. DALTON.

EIGHTEENTH - CENTURY 'HISTORY OF ENG- LAND.' Date, value, and any other infor- mation about the following are requested : " Russel's * History of England,' by William Augustus Russel, written prior to 1786, with upwards of 100 copper- plate engravings. Printed for J. Cook at Shakespeare's Head, No. 17 in Paternoster Row."

H. C. SPACEMAN.

THE PLOCKS. In the town of Blandford Forum, Dorset, is a thoroughfare bearing this curious appellation. Inquiries on the spot failed to elicit any information as to its meaning or origin. Possibly some reader of ' N. & Q.' can explain it.

FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

the author of this poem, and where is it to be found 1 J. S. M. T.
 * THE EXPOSTULATION ' (1645). Who is

BUSTS MADE BY ALCOCK OF COBRIDGE.

I have recently seen three china busts, about 8 in. high, of George IV., the Duke of York, and Canning respectively. They are of dead gold on marble plinths, and were made (and marked) by Alcock, Cobridge, Staffordshire. I am told that shortly after being made all these busts were recalled, ovying to the infringement of some rights. I shall be glad to know if any readers can give fuller par- ticulars vouching for the accuracy of this story. Chaffers ('Marks and Monograms,' p. 682) says that Alcock and Stevenson at