Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/502

 418 NOTES AND QUERIES. [Qs S. VI. Nov. 24. 1900- to his care. During the thirties this official changed his red coat of the weekday for a black gown on the Sunday, when he filled the situation of verger at the Foundling Hospital c la. e. Charles Knight, in his ‘London ’ (viii. 284), says :- “Within this district (three miles) the General Post let-ter carriers o through their respective walks with a bell, ant? for a penny each collect the let-ters which were too late (five o’clock) for the receiving houses, calling also in many cases daily at the countin -houses and shops of merchants and tradesmen, for which extra service they are re- munerated by a Christmas gratuity." I think this mode of collecting the letters for the night mails was discontinued shortly after the Penny Post Act came into operation. Evnmnn Home CoLl=:MAN. “DOING THE DANcsns” (9“‘ S. vi. 288).- “ Dancers” was criminals’ slang for the steps of the treadmill, the “stepper/’ the-“ wheel of life,” the “everlasting staircase,” or “ Col. Chesterton’s everlasting staircase,” after the inventor. Hence the word’s application to the domestic staircase. The term probably came in vogue with the invention of the treadmill, w ich was often the first act in the drama which culminated in the “dance upon nothing,” z'.e.,_hangin . “‘I am half inclined to dance.’ ‘ You’l dimes upon nothing pre- sently,’ rejoined Jonathan’ (H. Ainsworth, ‘Jack Sheppard] chalg. xxxi.). J. oLnEN LIACBIICHAEL. LUGGAGE TRAIN (9°" S. v. 332).-In a stray volume (the second) of t-he Practical Me- c}mn1Ic’s Journal (Glasgow, 1849-50) I find, at E 100, an article ‘On the Construction of ocomot1ves,’ signed T. Passavant, where distinctions are rawn between “passenger ” engines built for speed and “luggage” engines in which power is the main de- sideratum. Here “ luggage ” seems to signify “heavy draught” (from lug=to draw), and to have no reference to assengers’ trunks, boxes, &c., which generally go in the vans included in passen er trains. The foregoing may account for the term “luggage trains ’ having come to be used sometimes instead of the more correct goods trains. Apropos, it is curious that, as MR. THOMAS remarks at the above reference, trunks has come to be con- sidered an essentially American word. As a Kouné; Berkshire boy in the fifties I certainly ear my mother speak of packing my trunk -a small skin-covered affair with an arched lid and a lattice tray inside, for linen and clothes. There was also a larger painted deal box with flat lid, for books, cake, &c. Thackeray and Dickens both use trunk as an English word. The former, in the opening chapter of ‘Vanity Fair,’ mentions Becky Sharp’s “very small and weather-beaten old cow’s-skin trunk ”--perhaps a counterpart of mine, which came to me from my grand- father’s lumber-room-such as is depicted by Phiz in the illustration in ‘Martin Chuzzle- wit’ of Tom Pinch leaving Pecksniff’s, though Dickens in the text speaks of a box. Boz, however, in his youthful sketch of ‘Early Coaches,’ describes a troubled dream or nightmare, in which he was an apprentice in a trunk-maker’s shop. Kclly’s ‘London Directory’ for 1897 contains two columns of trunk and portmanteau makers. I think that nothing is more true than the trite remark that many a good old English word, after dropping out of every-day use at home, comes back to us across the Atlantic as purely American. Of course, Mn. THOMAS is quite right in saying that trunks now smacks of America. H. E. M. St. Petersburg. CALLAWAY SSP" S. vi. 369).-The name of Kellaway, Ca loway, Kelway, with other variants, is well known in Devon and Corn- wall. I believe the arms belonging( to this name are Ar ., two graziers or spo eshaves sa., between Tour pears or. I have an cm- blazoned coat of arms of seventy-two quarters in which this coat is shown, where it repre- sents either the family of Stowford of Stow- ford, co. Devon or Kelleway of Stowford, co. Devon, the latter adopting it by descent from the former. J. . A'r'rWooD. Plymouth. There is a Mr. John Callaway practising as a solicitor and holdin y many appointments at Westbury, Wilts. I believe his family came from Guildford. The well-known colonial bishop of the same name is one of the same family. W. B. Aurnoas or QUOTATIONS WANTED (7°** S. ix. 269).- Ten years ago C. W. asked where the following lines could be ound :- ’Tis but the casket that lies here, The gem that filled it sparkles yet. I believe no reply was ever given. Now in reading vol. iv. of Augustus Hare s ‘ Stem? of my Life, p. 300-1, I have come aerossgthe ollowing lines, iiound, Mr. Hare sa s, “ bg Lord Stanhope one Sunday in Glasgow, when lie ha betaken himself for hours to examining the epitaphs in the churchyard, and at length he found a single verse which atoned for the badness of all the rest :- Shed not for me the bitter tear, Nor pour for me the vain regret ; For though the casket is not here, The gem within it sparkles yet.” A-It