Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/15

 9»s.vLJui,Y7>i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. prenticeship there, conceived a violent passiou fo him ; and though it met with no favourable return followed him to Lichfield, where she took lodgings opposite to the house in which he lived, and in dulged her hopeless flame. When he was informe< that it so preyed upon her mind that her life was in danger he, with a generous humanity, went tc her and offered to marry her, but it was then toe late; her vital power was exhausted; and sh actually exhibited one of the very rare instances o dying for love. She was buried in the cathedral o Lichn'eld; and he, with a tender regard, placed a stone over her grave with this inscnption : ' Here lies the Body of| M™ Elizabeth Blaney, a Stranger I She departed this Life | 20"1 of September, 1694.'' —Bogwefl's ' Life of Johnson,' 10 vols., 1876, vol. i pp. 31, 32. A friend living in Staffordshire has kindly sent me the following extract from J. B Stone's ' History of Lichfield Cathedral,' 1870 p. 108 :— "Among the many monuments that have been removed from time to time during the process o alteration or restoration, was a small white marble slab in the middle of the nave, near the west door upon which was the following inscription." As above, with the exception of the "2nd" for "20th "of September. What a pity that such an interesting memorial was ever removed ! Does it still exist anywhere; and is there any possibility of its restoration to its former place in Lich- field Cathedral ? I do not notice any mention of it in Mr. A. B. Clifton's ' Cathedral Church of Lichfield,' 1898, in "Bell's Cathedral Series." JONATHAN BOUCHIER. Ropley, Hampshire. WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. PEDIMENT, a triangular structural orna- ment : specially, the tympanum of a Greek temple. Prof. Skeat in his ' Dictionary ' has noted the oddity of this word, which looks like an adoption from Latin, though no Latin word pedimmtum exists, and which has no satisfactory reason in etymology for its sense. To what he has said this may be added. 1. Evelyn says, or seems to say, that it is only a workman's word :— "A Triangular plaine or Gabel that when our workmen make not so acute and pointed they call a Pedainent: which the Antients nam'd a Tym- panum." — ' Account of Architects,' &c., 1664, p. 140. 2. In Willis and Clarke's ' Cambridge ' the two following entries are given :— From Eton Coll. accounts, 1601-2: "To John Hill Joyner for xiiij yeardes of wanscott over the High Table in the College Hall—351: and for a Periment in the middest of the same wanscott xx'." —I. 451. From Trin. Coll. accounts, 1603-4 : " For a Perri- nient on the topp of the Organs with the scrowles & 7 bowles for the same," &c.—II. 575. In the glossary the words are explained " pediment"; and though the matter is not absolutely clear in either case, this explana- tion seems most likely to be correct. Is "periment," then, the original workman's word to which Evelyn or some one before him gave a learned look by making it "peda- ment"or"pediment"? If so, it may benothing more than a sort of nickname, and to trace the origin may seem hopeless. However, it is worth while to inquire whether anything further can be made of it. C. B. MOUNT. LOOKING-GLASS FOLK-LORE.—A lady who lives near Buntingford, Herts, told me the other day that her servants always went round the house and covered the looking- glasses up whenever a thunderstorm occurred. I have never heard of this custom before. Is it common, and has it any known origin 1 Is it merely superstition, or is there some idea that a mirror will attract the lightning ', M. B. iM-li concerning looking-glasses and death, children, &c., will be found in the General Indexes to the Sixth and Seventh Series.] COCKLEBREAD.—I shall feel obliged if any of your correspondents will give me in- formation respecting a sport called cockle- jread, mentioned by Aubrey (' Qentilisme,' 43), and alluded to by Hartland in his Legend of Perseus,' vol. ii., 'The Life- Token,'p. 124. G. F. PRATT. Stanley Public Library, King's Lynn. [You will find all that is known concerning •.ocklebread or cocklety bread in Mrs. Gomme's Dictionary of British Folk-lore,' part i., ' Tradi- "">••:I Games,' vol. i. p. 75. a work that should be n every public library. We have seen the game played in childhood. Girls crouching down and lasping their knees were swung backwards and orwaros to accompanying versos, two of which are:— Up with the heels and down with the head. And that's the way to make cocklety bread, ee also ^English Dialect Dictionary,' p. 685, another indispensable work.] WIFE OF DEAN ROBINSON.—I am anxious /o ascertain the date of death and the name f the wife of Dean Robinson, of York, who was, I believe, living about the beginning of his century. I was informed that Doth were M be found on a monument to his memory