Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/403

 a*s. VIL MAY is, MM.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

395

CENTIPEDES : LOCAL NAME (9 th S. vii. In my early days in Devon I never heard of any other name for this animal than " forty-legs," i.e. amongst boys and labourers.

A. J. DAVY.

Torquay.

In Derbyshire the common term was '* forty-legs " ; but a few of the older people, who then certainly had a better knowledge of insects generally than now, called them " forty-four legs," and some said " fifty -legs " in cases where the insect was a very large one. Folks always seemed afraid of them, and it was the rule invariably to stamp them out of existence with the foot. The "forty-legs" preys at times upon " old sows," and it is an interesting sight when the "forty-legs" seizes upon an "old sow" with the intention of making a meal. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

"NON TERRA SED AQUIS " (9 fch S. vii. 247).

The above is the motto used by the family of Dunnet of Dunnethead, co. Caithness. It refers to the arms. A sea proper, in the base a cleft or, on a chief argent a s wart's head and cuddin or snaith in saltire of the first. Crest, a rock, thereon a fox proper. JOHN RADCLIFFE.

THE LAST MALE DESCENDANT OF DANIEL DEFOE (9 th S. vii. 86, 177, 297). Since penning my reply at the last reference I have lighted on the missing article in the Sketch of 27 Sep- tember, 1893. It is entitled 'The Last of the Defoes,' and is illustrated by portraits of the original Daniel, the lately deceased James William, and his son Daniel, who is attired as a Blue Coat boy, his portrait being reproduced by the Meisenbach process from a photograph taken by Bradshaw, of Newgate Street. His relationship to the author of 'Robinson Crusoe' will justify me, I venture to believe, in transferring to these columns the additional details concerning him which the Sketch article supplies. I quote the following from a letter sent by his father to the Daily News in September, 1 893, which is reproduced in extenso in the Sketch. James William Defoe writes :

" It is quite true, through the kindness of Alder- man Sir Wm. Ellis, my little boy Daniel was placed in Christ's Church Blue Coat School, after he had been the usual time Scholars remain there, after then he choose the Sea as his livihood and was apprentised in the Prior Hill Barque for 4 years, having now 8 months to serve before he is out of his time, during service he has been to many ports, viz., San Francisco, Valperaiso, Melbourne, Sydney, Dunkerque and many other places, he is now on his voyage to New York <k Melbourn & Sydney."

I have preserved the erratic orthography.

Thus far the father. The article concludes as follows :

" Daniel, now (1893) a boy of nineteen, wa ad- mitted to the Blue Coat Boys' School in September, 1884. He left it in May, 1889, and, with an appro- priateness which is worthy of attention, set out on life after the manner in which Crusoe became known to posterity, namely, on the sea."

Little did the writer apprehend how soon that career would be ended.

CHARLES KING.

Torquay.

The late Mr. De Foe was married three times. He had only one son, but several daughters, some of whom married and had children of their own. How many grand- children he may have had, or how many (if any) are now living, I cannot say, as I have lost sight of the family for over ten years. One, whom I knew in 1888 as a little boy, would, if now alive, be close on eighteen or twenty. I never met Mr. De Foe, but I was acquainted with his third wife a little old lady with white hair also with her son, the Blue Coat boy ; but my special friend was Emma De Foe, a daughter by the first wife (a Miss Towell, of Hungerford Market). We have not met (at least, not to speak) for years, but I believe assuredly I hope she is alive and well. During the short period of our acquaintance she proved, by kindly sympathy and advice at a time when both were sorely needed, how true it is " a friend in need is a friend indeed."

HERBERT B. CLAYTON.

39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.

I am desirous of knowing why the "[?]" is put after the word "Acid" in MR. KING'S

reference to Mr. Thomas W r ^ nt ' s poem * The Acid Sisters.' The book lies before me now, as it doubtless did before MR. KING when he wrote his interesting note, and I fail to see why Mr. Wright's judgment in the selection of the title of this absorbing poem should in any way be discounted. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northampton.

[The name seemed strange, and we suspected a misreading. 1

I have not seen Mr. Wright's 'Life of Defoe ' ; the work of Mr. W. Lee dated, I see, about 1869 is the last work of authority I studied. Yet the ever-green ' N. & Q.' pro- duces fresh blossom every week ! What I did send was designed to open the subject and elicit full details. A. H.

SIR JOHN BORLASE WARREN, BART. (9 th S. vi. 490 ; vii. 15, 92, 198). I regret to find that I gave the date of his admission at Emmanuel