Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/216

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. vn. MARCH IG, 1901.

" CARRICK." A financial diary of a former citizen and Sheriff of Exeter (1631-43), penes me, contains the following items :

"1633, Nov. 28. m r Clement p'miseth to send

me a staffs carrick."

" 1639, Sept. 3. m r Abraham Sherwill sent me a carrick stick for a token."

The ' H.E.D.' throws no light upon the term, but the 'E.D.D.' notes two examples of its use in Scotland, for a stick for playing hockey or any similar game. (Confirmed by an entry in Jamiesori's 'Scottish Dictionary.') As the writer and his family were Devonians, it would be interesting to learn how the term was imported into their county. The same diary includes another entry in which "carrick" is again mentioned, but in an entirely different sense :

"1640, June 29. Paid ni r White a Londonner xxxiij 8 for a parcell of Carrick, or Cheny, viz., a basin & ewre, 11 dishes of severall sizes, & a vinegar

spowt 1. 13."

No dictionary that has been consulted affords any explanation. Possibly it may be traced back to the A.-S. carr, a rock.

T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D.

" NOBLE." I should esteem it a favour if any of your readers would inform me as to the meaning of the word " noble " in a Swiss genealogical tree. It occurs repeatedly in one now before me, between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. No other title is given, and it would be interesting to know its meaning. The verbiage is French, and the places most frequently mentioned are "Agy" and "Yverdon." Swiss CONNECTION.

CONFIDENTIAL DISPATCHES TO THE WAR OFFICE. Can any of your readers give me the history and origin of dispatches to the War Office being confidential, e.g., from the Commander-in-Chief in the field 1

CYCLOPS. [See 9 th S. vi. 107. J

BISHOPRIC OF MONS MARANUS. Can any of your readers tell me the whereabouts of any bishopric called Mons Maranus ? 1 have an episcopal seal with the legend "S. petri epi Montis Marani," and a repre- sentation of the Annunciation a figure of Gabriel kneeling before the Virgin, who stands on the left. A label with "Ave" floats between them. CHEVRON.

OLD MARRIAGE CUSTOM IN YORKSHIRE. In the fifties (and I don't know how long before) the privilege belonged to the two top boys of King Edward VI.'s School at Giggles- wick of attending the marriages of persons of the upper classes in any of the neighbour-

ing churches, and of reciting one of Martial's nuptial odes or epigrams. As soon as the marriage ceremony was finished the two boys joined hands and barred the passage between the altar and the vestry where the register was to be signed, stood face to face with the happy pair, recited their ode together, and were generally rewarded with a guinea. Does such a custom prevail else- where ? J. B. W.

A SON OF LORD BYRON. In Mr. William Sharp's ' Life and Letters of Joseph Severn,' on pp. 207-8, there is a letter dated " June 22 [1846?]" from George Gordon Byron, in which the writer states that he is " engaged at present in writing a life of the late Lord Byron," and he concludes by stating "in confidence " that he is " the son of the author of * Childe Harold.' " Mr. Sharp adds a foot- note, " The ' Life of Byron ' is by no means apocryphal, I understand, though the MS. has not yet come to light, and perhaps never will." Is anything known of this individual or of his projected work ?

W. E. WILSON.

INSCRIPTION IN BJNNEL CHURCH. (See 7 th S. xii. 369.) Looking over an old volume of 'N. & Q.,' I find the following inscription recorded :

While girss grows green and water rins clear, Let nane but Ogilvys be buried here.

I am induced to inquire whether this in- scription has yet an existence, and where Rinnel Church is situated, for I have searched through several topographical dictionaries of Scotland without being able to find the name of the place. Many years ago it was said that Cortachy, in Forfarshire, was the burial- place of the Ogilvys, and so in fact it was. The last two Earls of Airlie, however, do not lie there, for one died in Manitoba, and his son - " that gallant soldier," as Lord Roberts justly called him fell recently in South Africa. I can remember meeting them both at the gathering of the Clan Ogilvy at Clova, in Forfarshire, in 1866, and the band playing the old Scotch melody 'The Bonnie House of Airlie.' JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

[Perhaps Kinnell Church, on Lunan Water, is intended. It is in Forfarshire.]

CLIFFORD: MORTIMER: WALLER. In Berry's ' Bucks Pedigrees ' there is an unusually, careful chart "of the Waller family, in which it appears that Henry Waller married Alice de Mortimer, arid his grandson Thomas Waller married Catherine de Clifford, the latter marriage being probably about the year 1330. I am desirous to tra.ce the