Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/257

 9S.VII. MARCH 80,1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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du Gout ' is still further darkened by his Eng lish translator, and a rather interesting ques- tion is left unsolved. In his chapter 'On the Love of Good Living ' he has this passage :

" The mode of conducting their [married couples'^ meals has a great share in the happiness of their lives. This observation, though new in France, has not escaped the observation of Fielding, the English moralist. He has worked out the idea in his novel ' Pamela,' by painting the different manner in which two married couples finish their day. The first husband is a lord, an eldest son, and therefore heir to all the family property : the second is his younger brother, the husband of Pamela, who has been dis- inherited on account of his marriage, and lives on half-pay in a state but little removed from abject poverty," &c.

Mr. Anderson corrects "Fielding" to "Richardson," and in so doing makes it evident that he has not read ' Pamela.' There is not a word of the sort in the novel, and the situation is utterly incompatible with it. Pamela's husband is not a younger son, and the very point of the novel would be lost if he was, for it rests on her refusal to be the mistress of a man who can and does offer her the most splendid position as such, no less than 1,200. a year and an establishment pro- portionate. He is, in fact, an only son ; and as nis mother is dead, he is the sole heir and owner of an estate so large that the Govern- ment is anxious to have him become a peer, and offers to make him one, but he prefers to remain a country gentleman. Lastly, he has never been in the service, and so has no pay at all, half or other.

Now, what novel did Brillat-Savarin have in mind ? It can hardly be supposed that he invented this mass of details out of his own head, and he probably mixed up the remem- brance of one novel with the name of another, but I cannot identify it. F. M.

MORSAY, OR COUNT MARSAY. In John Wesley's 'Journals' (10 July, 1775, and 4 July, 1778) mention is made of Morsay as "a thorough enthusiast." Who was he ? What books, if any, did he publish ? Is the name properly spelt; or should it be Marsais, or Du Marsais? FRANCIS M. JACKSON.

Bowdon.

" COLPEARA." The following appears in a local newspaper. Is anything known of the custom elsewhere ?

" A quaint custom is observed at the Lizard every Shrove Tuesday. From dawn until noon all the boys and girls in the parish, with baskets, bags, and tin cans, go around from door to door asking for 'colpeara.' This signifies that every householder must put something into the bag or basket, and it is interesting bo see the contents of one of these turned out biscuits, cake, bread, sweets, nuts,

oranges, figs, potatoes, turnips, cabbages, herrings, eggs, butter, and cream are included in the store. The origin of the custom which does not obtain in the neighbouring parishes is unknown. It was in existence when the oldest inhabitants were children."

R. BARCLAY-ALLARDICE.

Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

FIRST EARL OF HYNDFORD'S DAUGHTERS. A correspondent writes in the Ban/shire Journal of 12 February as follows :

" I find in an old book the following note : ' John, second Lord Carmichael, succeeded his grandfather in 1672. He married Beatrice Drummond, and had issue seven sons and four daughters. He was created Earl of Hyndford in 1701, and died in 1710. One of his daughters, Alice, married one of her father's tenants, named Bisset or Biset, which gave offence to the family, who contrived to have her name omitted from the peerages after the marriage, though she had been mentioned before it.'"

In both Crawf urd's and Douglas's * Peerage,' and in the ' Diet, of Nat. Biog.' the available works which I have consulted only three daughters are spoken of, Ladies Beatrix, Mary, and Ann. I should like to know if there is any truth in the above statement as to there being a fourth daughter, named Alice. JOHN CHRISTIE.

A NURSERY RIME. Has this nursery rime, which my mother used to repeat to me when I was a baby, but which I have not leard or seen since, ever got into print? It must be an inheritance from South England, whence her line sprang, and whence she drew many curious survivals. Its dropping out of use and print is due, of course, to the modern delicacy about alluding to such subjects at all with little children ; but in country parts of New England, even fifty years ago, there was not quite such prudish- ness of idea :

Jack and Gye Went out in the rye, And they found a little boy with one black eye. ' Come, says Jack, "let's knock him in the head." No," says Gye, " let's buy him some bread ; f ou buy one loaf and I '11 buy two, And we'll bring him up as other folks do."

F. M. Hartford, Conn.

JOHN JONES THE REGICIDE. Where can particulars of his life be found ? He was born

t Maes-y-Garnedd, a farmhouse in the parish of Llanbedr, Merionethshire ; was sent to

Condon ; became servant to Sir Thomas Mid- dleton,Lord Mayor; joined Cromwell's army : married a sister of Cromwell, Jane, widow of Roger Whitston. He signed Charles's death warrant, appears to have become Major- General, and in 1657 Governor of Beaumans