Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/422

 414

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vn. MAY 25, mi.

perhaps the following inscription, taken from a tablet on the outside south wall of Stepney Church, may refer to a member of the same family :

Here lyeth interred the

body of Thomas lohnson Iun r

Esq r Son of Thomas lohnson

of Milend Esq r & Grandson

of Cap 1 Edward lohnson

late of Low Layton Gen*

he departed this life on

the 14 th of October 1689

aged 25 years.

JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

CROSSE HALL (9 th S. vii. 309). In 1587 one of the deputy-lieutenants of the county ordered the justices of peace to send the armour from " Croshall " to certain specified towns. The Crosse Hall referred to was the seat of Sir James Stanley and was situate in the parish of Ormskirk.

HENRY FISHWICK.

FUNERAL CARDS (9 th S. vii. 88, 171, 291, 332). -The Scots Magazine, April, 1752, has the following note to the intimation of the death of Sir John Schaw, of Greenock :

"Hew Dalrymple, of Drunmiore, Esquire, one of the Senators of the College of Justice, Sir John's brother-in-law, to avoid mistakes which probably might happen in giving particular notice to the numerous relations of the deceased and of his widow, takes this method of acquainting them of their friend's death."

An editorial note follows to the effect that it is hoped this example

"will add weight to the request we have often made, and which has been frequently complied with that persons concerned would send us accounts of the deaths, &c., which happen through- out Scotland."

The next volume contains a letter from a correspondent advocating the above custom, in which the writer says :

" When a person of any consideration dies a note is commonly inserted in the newspapers, somewhat resembling a message card, as a notification to the relations. These cards are of use, but they are frequently written in a slovenly manner."

J. G. WALLACE- JAMES, M.B. Haddington.

The answer to MR. PAGE'S question at the last reference seems to be that James Barrv Esq., of St. Mary le Bone parish, was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral on 14 March, 1806 See the cathedral registers (Harl. Soc. publ Reg. Section, 1899), p. 186, where there is an obvious misprint in the foot-note as to the date of his death. He seems to have died on 22 February, 1806. See Gentleman's Magazine vol. Ixxvi. part i. p. 286. J. (J t

' PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE ' (9 th S. vi. 450 ; vii. 53). MR. ALFRED CHAS. JONAS asserts that " this song was written and sung by Harry Clifton, music arranged by M. Hobson, and was very popular about thirty-four years ago." So far as the authorship is concerned, this statement is at variance with the sub- stance of a letter received by me three years ago from Dr. Edward P. Philpots, who wrote :

"I knew Harry Clifton very well. I remember going to meet him one day when he arrived at the railway station in Aberdeen from Glasgow, he having been engaged to sing at one of the concerts which were in those days held in the Music Hall at the top of Union Street. He was putting up at the Freemasons' Tavern in the Netherkirkgate, and thither we repaired. He was very tired, and asked for some tea. While taking it he said to me, ' I bought a book of jokes at the station to read as I travelled, and in it I found what I think is a very good subject for a song. Read it.' I read: 'An Indian in his canoe was asked by a man who was passing by the side of the river, " Sambo, how is it that you always look so happy, when other niggers look so sad in these unhappy days ?" and his reply was, " Massa, you see I always paddle my own canoe." ' Clifton then said, ' I have an air for it ; it is one I thought of putting to another song, but I think this is a prettier idea' ; and he hummed it. I said, ' Go on with your tea, and don't talk, and I will write a song with this refrain.' This I did, and what I wrote, with certain alterations by Clifton, which I need not go into, formed the song called ' Paddle your own Canoe.' After this I went to Greenland, and was away nearly two years. When I had landed at Peterhead, as I was walking up to the hotel at night, I heard a small boy, walking in the gutter, singing, ' Love your neighbour, &c., &c.' ; and I stopped him and said, ' What song is that you 're singing, laddie ? ' and he replied, * Of coorse ye dinna ken, of coorse not, dinna ken " Paddle yer ain Canoe " ! ' I knew it had taken on. After this 1 again met Harry Clifton, and he told me that the song had remained a dead letter for months on the publisher's hands, and that it suddenly rushed into notoriety. He got little or nothing for the song, and 1 got less."

Mr. Philpots graduated in medicine at Aberdeen in 1868. In March, 1865, while still a student, he sailed from Peterhead in the whaler Queen, which spent upwards of nineteen months in the Arctic regions, chiefly in Bethune Bay, in the neighbourhood of Cape Horsburgh, 75 N. lat., 80 W. long. He was assiduous in exploring the adjacent shores and in making botanical collections, and proved that the land previously believed to be a peninsula was in reality an island, the eastmost point of which is Cape Hors- burgh. This land is now marked on maps as "Philpots Island." A full and interesting account of this voyage, contributed by Mr. Philpots to the Peterhead Sentinel, was after- wards reprinted for private circulation. See