Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/405

 9" s. vii. MAY is, 1901.) NOTES AND QUERIES.

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years possessed an Anglo-Saxon dictionary, and I did not forward the little excerpt from Mr. Barclay's * Stonehenge ' without first con- sulting it. I was not aware that I wrote a word in approval of Prof. Jones's suggested etymology, or attempted to support the guess of anybody else, and I have yet to believe that my conduct in furnishing a quotation touching a matter under discussion was in any way reprehensible. I could not cite the dictum of the 'H.E.D.' concerning Sarson, "because it is not yet in sight"; I could not, for a like reason, gain strength from Prof. Skeat's 'Etymological Dictionary,' and, if the word occur in his edition of Chaucer or of Langland, in 'William of Palerne,' or any other publication which everybody ought to possess and con, I am sorry to have overlooked it. I think the more learned contributors to 'N. & Q.' need to be reminded that, if no one were ignorant and nobody blundered, our groat's worth of wit and folly and wisdom would lose its raison d'etre. Hitherto it has subsisted as much on the ignorance of the many as on the erudition of the few, and I cannot think that there are many of its constant readers who would wish its con- stituent parts to be greatly changed.

ST. SWITHIN.

SIR JAMES EYRE, 1734-99 (9 th S. vii. 289). May I ask for the explanation of a further point with regard to the career of the Chief Justice 1 The Warden's register at Winchester College shows that he was admitted a scholar 16 June, 1748 ; and he left, superannuated, in 1753, his name appearing as third in the school on the Long Roll of 1 September, 1752. The register of admissions to Lincoln's Inn records his entry there on 26 November, 1753, describing him as "late of Winchester School." Now comes the point which needs explanation : the register of St. John's College, Oxford, records his matriculation there in 1749 (i.e., four years before he left school). Foster, 'A. O.,' gives the date as 27 October, 1749, and his age as fifteen. His brother Thomas was admitted at St. John's in 1748 as founder's kin, and the Chief Justice's portrait hangs in the college hall, but it does not appear that he ever resided. Is not the circumstance of his matriculation very peculiar'? It should be noticed that in Kirby's ' Winchester Scholars,' p. 248, the record of another James Eyre, who went to Merton College, Oxford, is erroneously given to James Eyre who became the Chief Justice. C. W. H.

FLOWER GAME (9 th S. vii. 329). In Suffolk, at least in the neighbourhood of Ipswich, children frequently amused themselves by

making daisy chains and dandelion chains. Daisy chains, made of the tiny flowerets, seem to be known all over England, but dandelion chains, which are altogether different, are apparently unknown around Northampton. Moreover, I could find no trace of them in North Essex. Dandelion chains are made with the flower stalks only. The supple hollow stalk, denuded of its flower, is bent in a circle, and the smaller end is pushed for about half an inch into the larger. A circle is thus formed, its size depending upon the length of the stalk. This is the first link of the chain. Link is added to link, and the only limits to the length of the chain are the paucity of dandelions and the persistency of the child making it. Some children make necklets of the chain. I suppose knights' collars made of daffodils are similar ; but the making of these chains cannot be called a game. K.

I think I used to make chains of these hollow stalks by simply thrusting the small into the large ends to form the links, after the dead flower heads had first been pulled off ; they did not make such good chains as dandelion stalks, not being so flexible.

THOMAS J. JEAKES.

REGISTER OF BIRTHS ON TOWER HILL (9 th S. vii. 329). The register of births, marriages, and deaths for Allhallows, Barking, which is only a stone's throw from Tower Hill, is complete from the year 1558, and it is pro- bable that your correspondent would find there the information he requires.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

D'AUVERGNE FAMILY (9 th S. vii. 68, 117, 176, 191, 251, 277, 332). Your correspondent D. is a little hard on the gallant Vice- Admiral Philip d'Auvergne. Does not the following extract from the Gentleman's Magazine, 1792 (vol. Ixi. pt. i. p. 485), show a legal as dis- tinguished from a merely "assumed" con- nexion with the duchy of Bouillon ?

" Gazette Promotions : Philip d'Auvergne, esq., captain in the royal navy, permitted to accept and enjoy for himself and the heirs male of his body the nomination and succession to the sovereignty of the duchy of Bouillon, in case of the death of the Hereditary Prince, only son of his Serene Highness the Reigning Duke, without issue male ; to take, from henceforth, the title of Prince Successor to the said sovereignty, and to unite the arms of the duchy with his own, pursuant to a declaration of his said Serene Highness the Reigning Duke, dated June 25, 1791, whereby he transmits, at the desire, and with the express and formal consent of the nation, the sovereignty of his said duchy of Bouillon, in case of the death of the Prince his son without issue male, to the said Capt. Philip d'Auvergne