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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vni. AUG. 10, 1901.

overlooked by others, I would like to bring forward to settle, if need there be, the sense in which the phrase has always been understood. I allude to George Leybourne's song (1866), * The Knifeboard of an Omnibus ': Oh, the knifeboard, the knifeboard ! I scorn inside; The knifeboard of an omnibus is the proper place

to ride.

If nay memory does not play me false, the music title of the above song (drawn by the late Alfred Concannon) depicted the '' Lion Comique," with half a dozen other young swells, "making" (as the Daily Telegraph a few years previously had humorously re- marked) " Aunt Sallies of themselves."

In the old days when there was a box- seat, it was, I fancy, considered rather '* play- ing second fiddle" to take a seat on the knifeboard ; somewhat like Copperfield when he had " his first fall in life."

HERBERT B. CLAYTON.

39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.

I cannot say more about this than that MR. WHITWELL can see old knifeboard tram- cars at Oxford. But I am reminded of the knifeboards of the Parisian omnibuses. When the Empire fell, as is well known, all the streets, &c., called "rue Imperial" were altered to " rue de la Republique " and every- thing else too. The only thing imperial left was the knifeboard, which is still called the " imperial " of the omnibus. I suppose it got the name from being highest of all.

RALPH THOMAS.

Referring to this subject, I beg to call the attention of your correspondents to the fact that in 'The Comic Almanac,' by George Cruikshank, there is an illustration entitled ' November St. Cecilia's Day' (1837), in which an omnibus is depicted. It is quite flat of roof, but with no seats thereon. And in the illustration k Overpopulation ' (1851) there are two omnibuses, on which two rows of passengers are seated respectively. The " boards " referred to by MR. MAcMiCHAEL are conspicuous by their absence.

HENRY GERALD HOPE.

119, Elms Road, Clapham.

" THREE ACRES AND A cow " (9 th S. viii. 14). This phrase is much older than 1802, or a date assigned by any one of your previous correspondents.

Daniel De Foe (1661-1731), in his descrip- tion of 'A Tour through the whole Islands of Great Britain,' the sixth edition of which (1761-2) was published long after his death, suggested that certain refugees from the Palatinate should be transferred to the New Forest in Hampshire. There the Govern-

ment were to provide every man with three acres of ground," and a certain quantity of common land, where they could have a tew sheep or cows. The volume is in the Cor- poration Library, Guildhall, E.C.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

14 V^SAC MIHM" (9 th S. viii. 45). -I believe that the inscription leaded into one of the corner stones in the east gable below the belfry of the old church at Temple reads

V.JE.S.A.C.

M.I.H.M.

There is a somewhat similar inscription, with a date, on a stone in the gable of the very old stone-roofed portion of the church of Abercorn in Linlithgowshire, thus :

D.D.I.D. M.H.I.M. 1612.

J. L. ANDERSON.

Edinburgh.

ISABEL OF PORTUGAL (9 tb S. vii. 428). Isabel, daughter of John L, King of Portugal, and Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, his wife, was born 1397. Married to Philip Bonus, Duke of Burgundy, 10 January, 1429-30, died 14 December, 1473. JOHN RADCLIFFE.

ASHWOOD FAMILY (9 th S. vii. 429). Mus- grave's obituary (Harl. Soc. Pub., 1899) gives seventeenth and eighteenth century refer- ences. 'Dictionary of National Biography' has "Bartholomew Ashwood (1622-1680)"; also " John Ashwood (1657-1706)." " The Pub- lications of the Thoresby Society," Leeds, 1897, vol. vii. p. 107, has " 26 May 1641 Adam Ash- wood and Mary Holy day, of Beiston, mar: at chap:" H. J. B.

SHIPS OF WAR ON LAND (9 th S. vii. 147, 235, 296, 354,431). I quote the following from the chapter on 'Scotland under the Roundheads' in Colville's 'By-ways of History,' p. 222 :

" In an interesting letter we read the story of the building of a citadel, and particularly of the great feat of dragging a forty-ton pinnace across six miles of dry land for service on Loch Ness, ' to the admiration of the spectators.' The men broke three cables with hawling of her. The west end of the Lough is near unto the Irish Sea, it wanting not above six mile of ground to be cut to make the shires north of it an entire island of itself.'"

w. s.

Passing record may be made of the full- sized model battleship Illinois at the World's Fair, Chicago, in 1893 without a doubt the most expensive model that has ever been produced. It was built up from the bottom of Lake Michagan, and stood as if at anchor, close against the pier