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NOTES' AND QUERIES. C^ s. vm. OCT. 12, 1901.

bell, of Lawera, and another was perhaps his nephew Sir James.

But a question of somewhat wider interest is raised by this power to confer knighthoods possessed by the Earl of Loudoun. The earl, who is called by Clarendon "the principal manager of the rebellion " in Scotland, cannot be classed among royalists. While of a some- what vacillating disposition in politics unlike the Marquis of Newcastle he was no true friend to the king. He therefore would not be an individual likely for personal reasons to be entrusted with this authority. He was, however, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and it is highly probable that it was owing to his official position that he received the royal command to bestow certain Scottish knighthoods. That some high official had, in the king's absence, the power to confer knight- hood in Scotland prior to the union of 1707 is, I believe, tolerably certain. But who this official was seems to be unknown. The Lord Chancellor of Scotland was the highest j officer of state in the country, King James VI. having ordained that he should thus have the first place and rank in the nation. By virtue of his office not only was he head of the courts of law, but President of all meet- ings of the Parliament. There could be no more likely officer in whom to vest this semi- regal power of bestowing knighthood.

W. D. PINK.

Lowton, Newton-le-Willows.

SCIENCE AND SORCERY. I think the follow- ing note from Le Journal of 21 August worthy of a corner in ' N. &, Q.' :

"Le Journal de Saint - Ptiersboury, qui parait depuis 175 ans, rappellequelques-unesdes e"phem- rides de sa propre existence. C'est ainsi qu'il vient de publier la note suivante, qui parut dan ses colonnes en 1751. II s'agit d'une correspondance qui lui tait adressee (de'ja!) de Naples: ' Le roi a fait venir de Prague, en Boheme, des machines qui servent a electriser. Un savant eccle"siastique en fit la demonstration a la cour. Mais tout le nionde a pris cet homme pour un sorcier et, pour remedier au scandale, il a fallu que la Sainte-In- qmsition defendit 1'entree des instruments e"lec- tnques dans leroyaume de Naples.' Et Ton s'etonne ( A'?P la ,f' 1 V nce ait niis u n si long temps a progresser ! Bjlle n etait pas emancipe"e. Depuis qu'elle est libre, lie marche, et d'un tel pas, qu'on a peine a la

W. ROBERTS.

PAYING RENT AT A TOMB IN CHURCH.- In Canterbury Cathedral library, in one of the MS. volumes of cases heard in the Court of the Archdeacon of Canterbury, is a copy of the lease by which Archdeacon Redman (1576-96) granted in October, 1577, for twenty- one years, the "Rectory, parsonage, or chapel Of Stone nigh Faversham with all manner

of tithes great and small, pastures, meadows, &c.," to one Hugh Jackson, citizen and stationer of London, who next year sub- granted the same to William Baronsdale, of London, doctor of physic, the latter

" yielding and paying therefor the sum of 201. of

lawful English money at the tomb of the late Abp. Islip deceased, or at the place where the said Abp. Islip his tomb now standeth within the cathedral church of Canterbury, yearly during the said term of twenty years," &c.

Archbishop Islip was buried in April, 1366, at the east end of the centre of the nave, but when the nave of the cathedral was rebuilt about twenty years later his monu- mental brass was removed to between the second and third pillars from the centre tower on the north side of the nave (see Arch Cantiana, vol. xx. p. 279).

ARTHUR HUSSEY.

Tankerton-on-Sea, Kent.

"PLAY THE GOAT." I have often felt that the frolicsome, capricious nature of the goat hardly .supplies a sufficient justification for the character assigned to him in the phrase "To play the goat." 'H.E.D.' gives (s.v. * Goat,' 3 fig. b) " To play the (giddy) goat : to frolic foolishly, colloq." No quota- tion is given, but the explanation is, I think, scarcely adequate. Does not the expression involve a charge of betrayal of a person or a cause 1

The following extract from Mr. Louis Robinson's most interesting work ' Wild Traits in Tame Animals ' (p. 184) may throw light on the origin of the phrase :

" I have known instances of butchers who have kept goats in order to entice victims into their slaughter-yards. Usually as soon as an ox smells the taint of blood he becomes suspicious and refuses to go further, but if preceded by a goat he will follow quietly to the place of execution."

To enact such a role as this would indeed be " to play the goat " with a vengeance.

W. F. R.

" CROOKEN." It is stated in the 'H.E.D.' that crooken is an obsolete verb. This is not true of the very conservative English spoken in Ireland. For instance, in the report of the "speeching" at the Aughrim demon- stration in favour of the Irish language movement published in the Sligo Champion of 10 August, Dr. Douglas Hyde is said to have

"told a story of a band of young men in South Galway who bound themselves by a pledge never to crooken their mouths by talking the language of England, except with those ignorant, unlearned persons who did not know the language of their own country.

The verb "to speech," i.e., to make speeches,