Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/196

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* B. v. MARCH 10, 1000.

GEORGE DELAY AL was admitted to West- minster School on 27 January, 1768. Any particulars concerning his parentage and career are desired. G. F. R. B.

DR. ROBERT UVEDALE, a schoolmaster at Enfield, co. Middlesex, 1680-1700. What is known of him? Does a list of his scholars during that period exist; and, if so, where can it be seen 1 C. MASON.

29, Emperor's Gate, S.W.

ALUM TRADE. I believe that a study of this industry in England was published some years ago, and shall be grateful for a refer- ence to its whereabouts. The subject is one of much interest to the student of economic history, and, if it has not been adequately dealt with, may be recommended to those in search of work in the byways of history.

Q. V.

SIR JOHN MAUNDEVILLE ON ORANGE PEEL. I amused myself in a cafe with a paper- called the Lady (18 January), and read some- thing of an article 'About Oranges,' which asserted :

" In the diary of that mediaeval explorer Sir John Maundeville a curious passage respecting them dilates on their pleasant properties, and adds a hope that 'if the delightful fruit ever be brought to London unlikely though it be death by burning should be the punishment for every idle apprentice or townsman that throws peeling on the highway ; far better that than a chief justice, bishop, or even a puny baron should fall and break his bones through idle orange eaters!' According to the fourteenth- century globe-trotter death by impaling wa.s an un- failing penalty in the East for any person convicted of carelessness on this particular head."

I have deciphered my note with difficulty, but think I have succeeded in copying it correctly. Will somebody tell me where to find the passage in Maundeville 1

ST. SWITHIN.

PORTRAIT OF ARCHBISHOP USSHER. -In October, 1855, a full-length portrait of Arch- bishop Ussher, catalogued as a Vandyck, was sold at a six days' sale at Shotover House, near Oxford, then the residence of General Schutz. This portrait is said to have gone into the north of England, but cannot as vet be traced there. It is also said to have been resold shortly after the Shotover sale in London. Can any one state its present locality 1 S. A.

"IvERS." An inquiry was made in * N. & Q.' (' Drulsches,' 8 th S. ii. 28) as to the derivation of "Ivers," applied to certain coppices at Longbridge Deverell, Wilts. No reply ap- pears to have been elicited. Before 1 saw the above reference my curiosity was excited

by the term in connexion with long, narrow covers situated on the side of a steep hill about five miles from this city, which are known as Burcombe Ivers, and are so named in the Ordnance map. Chancing to meet the original querist recently, I found him to be still unenlightened. Any explana- tion will greatly oblige us both. Is the word used in a similar sense elsewhere? During many years' residence in Hants, Somerset, and Gloucester I have never heard it.

CHAS. GILLMAN. Church Fields, Salisbury.

"FEBRUARY FILL-DYKE." Whence comes this locution, now almost proverbial, and rendered familiar by the admirable picture painted by B. W. Leader, R.A., and exhibited some years ago 1 I do not find it in Bartlett's ' Quotations,' or in any other book of refer- ence in my possession. True or not true, it might have been said of the month just ex- pired the wettest since 1883.

EDWARD P. WOLFERSTAN.

[There is a homely North-Country description of the months beginning " January freeze pot to fire, February fill-dyke ; March comes and mucks it out," &c. This is the origin of the locution, to which attention has previously been drawn in 'N.&Q.']

ROCHESTER FAMILY. John Rochester, a monk of the Charterhouse, was executed, with others of his order, for denial of the king's supremacy in 1537 (' N. & Q.,' 6 th S. [no volume given] 23). Can any reader give the parentage and family of this John Rochester 1 ?

John Rochester, of the county of Essex, son of Robert Rochester, controller of the household of John, Earl of Oxford, married Grissel, daughter of Ralph Writtle, and had issue Robert (died 1557, s.p.), William, and John (Morant's 'Essex,' vol. ii.). Can the Carthusian John Rochester be identified with the Essex family 1

(Mrs.) HELEN JANIN.

Washington, D.C., U.S.

BROWNING'S 'PARACELSUS.' Can any of your readers inform me whether the first edition of this volume has now become rare ]

G. S. F. Madras. [A copy was sold recently by auction for 4^.]

WARREN LISLE, ESQ., OF UPWAY, DORSET. He seems to have held some office in the last century connected with the taxes of Ireland, and to have acquitted himself so well as to obtain a testimonial from the Commissioners thereof. All particulars about him will be welcome, but especially any bearing on the