Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/441

 9* s. v. J DNE 2, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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cut across the grain. If it were oak the chink would still be seen, but if sweet chestnut it would disappear. Of course one cannot always examine the bottom of panels when set in buildings, but the test is worthy of note. HOLCOMBE INGLEBY.

Heacham Hall.

EDWARD EAST, WATCHMAKER TO CHAS. I. Respecting this eminent London maker, Britten, in his recently published ' Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers/ gives some interesting particulars, and states, apparently with some doubt, that East "seems to have removed to Fleet Street" (from Pall Mall) at some time after 1632. From a MS. "Return of "Strangers" dwelling within the Ward of Farringdon Without, 22 October, 1635, in my possession, it appears certain, however, that at the latter date he resided in Fleet Street, in the parish of St. Dunstan-in-the-West, employing "as Jorneyman." living in the house, a Dutch- man, one Elias Dupree, watchmaker, who had then been in London about twenty years. It must be understood that Dupree, and not East, was the " stranger."

W. I. R. V.

" COMMANDO." It may be noted that the impromptu processions of young men carry- ing Union Jacks, which were extensively organized in the leading streets of London both on "Ladysmith Day" and "Mafeking Night," were known to those who participated in them as commandos, a use of the Boer word which may linger long after the present war. POLITICIAN.

MISERERE CARVING. How far these in- teresting records, heraldic, grotesque, and Scriptural, have been "restored" away of late years may be appreciated by the fact that this Easter I visited quite half a dozen churches in Norfolk where they existed in 1832 (and were then copied in water colour), to find that they were gone. Yet many remain, and I had the pleasure of photo- graphing a good many of them.

In Norwich Cathedral, besides the ones in the canons' stalls and Corporation pews, there are two within the altar rails, one on either side. I think these stood formerly in the north aisle. The whole series (of two dates) is well worth careful study, including as it does specimens of the boys' school, a wrestling match, a monkey riding a cat, a mermaid suckling a lion, not to speak of the coronation of the Blessed Virgin, and most interesting heraldry. To me it seems in- explicable that the tourist should have his

attention called to the pseudo-classic abomina- tions of the Restoration when the customs and manners of an earlier and less -known period are displayed on these small, but generally hidden brackets.

THOMAS A. MARTIN. 1, Hare Court, Temple, E.G.

THE SAXON SHORE OP BRITAIN. It is reported that the Kaiser's Government is negotiating for a new line of submarine telegraph between Borkum and Bacton in Norfolk. Borkum is an island at the mouth of the Ems, between Hanover and Holland, it being one of a string of islands off that coast. It may safely be assumed that they appertain to the old group known as the " Electrides," or Amber Islands, also called Glessarise, a Celtic equivalent ; later they were the Isles of the Saxons, and now the Frisian Islands. It was from these predaceous Saxons that the south-east coast of Britain acquired the name of the " Saxon shore," shown by the series of Roman stations defined in the 'Notitia,' the command of which district, as a "count," gave Carausius his opportunity to assume the imperial crown.

It is remarkable that electron, or amber, once abundant off the Cimbrian coast, and still floating to the Norfolk coast, should now renew this connexion by the developed word, electricity. More wonderful is it that the words of old Herodotus should thus be confirmed through the agency of amber and tin, which he knew came from the far North, thus classing Britain as a section of Hyperborea and the mythic Eridanus.

A. HALL.

Highbury, N.

GENIUS AND LARGE FAMILIES. It would appear from the biographical sketch of Karl Goldmark, the celebrated Viennese composer, in a recent issue of the Jewish Chronicle, that he is one of a family of twenty-four children, many of whom became similarly distinguished in the world of music. The only parallel case the writer can recall is that of Thomas Dempster (1579-1625), a Scottish scholar, who was one of a phenomenal progeny of twenty-nine. The whole subject is well worthy of the attention of physiologists, and should elicit some interesting communications.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

" CENTUM." This word is omitted from the ' Encyclopaedic Dictionary ' (my edition, Greig & Co., Limited, London, 1896). In the 'New English Dictionary' it is marked as "not naturalized." Surely this is a mistake. Cent., the contraction qf centum) is undoubtedly