Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/145

 9* s. vn. FEP.. 16, i9oi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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occasion have ever since been indicated bj the boulders in question. This, of course must have been prior to his Satanic majesty' last visit to the northern fringe of Dartmoor It is a portion of every Devonshire person 5 ! creed that it was thereabouts, or, to be exac as regards locality, "at North Lew, the Devi died of cold," and was duly buried beneath its old village cross. HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

Most of the stones referred to by your cor respondent J. K. are boundary crosses anc stones between the counties of York anc Lancaster. The boundary line in this locality is curiously sinuous. Answers to several o1 his questions are given on Hennet's map oi Lancashire, date 1829. If your correspondent happens to live in this locality, I could show him other maps giving much curious infor- mation on the subject. HENRY TAYLOR.

Birklands, Southport.

Is there any known limit to the power of glacier action in depositing boulders, as to their size or weight ? One speculates, Were the monoliths at Carnac so accumulated for subsequent adjustment in alignments? So with the tremendous earth-fast stones at Ave- bury, thus treating Stonehenge as more recent. It appears that one section there has lately fallen ; what will be the amount of force required to replace it ? A. HALL.

"IN THE SWIM "(9 th S. vii. 29). This phrase is, one fears, bad English, in so far as it has acquired a souppon of vulgarity which in the first place perhaps it did not possess, since it is thought to have originated from anglers being in luck when they find a swim or " school " of fish. Thus it has come to mean being in the popular current, either in opinion, speculation, or fashion dans le mouvement, in the vogue with others. It is possible that the phrase was suggested to anglers by the Eastern metaphor, " To swim in golden lard," meaning to be prosperous : "And, gentle sir, when you do come to swim in golden lard " (B. Jonson, ' The Fox,' I. i.). " Cottontree, who knows nearly everybody in the swim of European society.. '....informs him that Lucy Annerley is the daughter of Sir Jonas Stevens" (A. C. Gunter, 'Mr. Potter of Texas,' book iii. xiv.).

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL. Wimbledon Park Road.

Webster gives it as colloquial, and says the meaning is " to be in a favoured position ; to be associated with others in active affairs." The 'Imperial Dictionary' also classes the phrase in the same way, and describes " the

swim "as "the current of social or business events ; the tide of affairs ; the circle of those who know what is going on." The origin as from an angler's phrase, and says, " A lot of fish gathered together is called a swim, and when an angler can pitch his hook in such a place he is said to be 'in a good swim.' " ARTHUR MAYALL.
 * Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ' gives the

BEARDSHAW OR BEARDE-SHAWE (9 th S. vii. 48). Ralph Parsons Beardshaw was for many years in practice as a surgeon at 36, Wood- house Lane, Leeds. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries of London in 1840. In 1828 there were six families of Beardshaw resident in Sheffield. These were George, a publican ; J. & Son, saw manufacturers and general merchants ; John, fork manufacturer ; Jonah, fork manu- facturer ; William, stag and horn bone scale cutter ; and William & Son, table - knife manufacturers. In 1841 there were but four families of the name namely, J. & Son and William afore mentioned, and George, knife manufacturer, and William, publican.

CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D. Bradford.

SCHOOL-TEACHERS IN KENT, 1578-1619 (9 th S. vii. 3). In the 'Calendar of State Papers ' there is a letter from the Lieutenant of Sandgate Castle, dated 26 February, 1623, omplaining that Richard Harris, the under- porter, keeps scholars in the castle, and refuses to produce his authority for so doing.

R. J. FYNMORE. Sandgate.

CORPSE ON SHIPBOARD (9 th S. vi. 246, 313. 374, 437, 492 ; vii. 75). Your correspondents are so far right that I cannot claim this Dassage of Virgil as an instance of u corpse on shipboard " ; but I think it is to some xtent a testimony to the existence of the same superstition. For we must abide by

irgil's words. First, the cause of pollution vas the funus, which all explain as the presence of the dead body dead, not

unburied." Burial would not affect death. Secondly, the dead body polluted the whole leet, and not merely the persons concerned, whether on sea or shore. It cannot be upposed that everybody in the fleet, and nobody else, was responsible for the burial.

R. YARDLEY seems to have overlooked his wn previous reply. W. C. B.

u BIJOU " AS A CHRISTIAN NAME (9 th S. vii. 48). Possibly the use of this in England may