Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/460

 452

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vm. NOV. so, 1901.

derived from an imaginary Indian word aloof, signifying a bony fish, was Jerome V. C. Smith, an entirely untrustworthy writer. Many others, nevertheless, have accepted that etymology, and among them Dr. Murray, but with a cautionary reservation ("Corrupted from 17th c. aloof e, taken by some to be an American -Indian name; according to others a literal error for Fr. alose, a shad. Further investigation is required"). Dr. Murray quotes " 1678, Winthrop in Phil. Trans, xii. 1066." Winthrop (p. 1065, not 1066) has remarked that "Maiz " is " planted between the middle of March and the begin- ning of June" and that " some of the Indians take the time of the coming up of a Fish, called Aloofes, into the Rivers, which occurs at the same season." Now, aloof es must be simply the result of a typographical error for aloose, the compositor having taken the old- fashioned median s for an/, or carelessly used the metal /for the old s. Alose is quoted in the ' H.E.D.' from Percival (1591) and Ray (1674), and allowes from Venner (1620) under Alose.

Your correspondent interested in the impor- tation from Nova Scotia may be informed that a local name for the fish in that colony is " gaspereau," but alewife is the trade name. It is a very abundant anadromous fish along the American Atlantic seaboard. The scientific name is Clupea (or Pomolobus) pseudoha rengus.

Cannot some reader of ' N. & Q.' tell about the present use of alewife in England ?

THEO. GILL.

Cosmos Club, Washington, U.S.

CAPT. GORDON AND THE LANCASTER GUNS AT SEBASTOPOL (9 th S. viii. 385). The Alex- ander Gordon here referred to was my cousin Capt. A. Gordon, R.A., of Pitlurg, Parkhill, &c., Aberdeenshire. He was in command of the guns' mounted in " Gordon's Battery " by his cousin Sir William Gordon, R.E., of Mauldsley Castle and Harperfield, Lanark- shire. Sir William (then Col. Gordon) had just moved out of the battery, the better to see the effect of the guns, when a huge shell fell on poor Alec's head and blew his body to pieces. J. G. R. FORLONG, Major-General.

DESTRUCTION OF HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS (9 th S viii 339).-The extract from the article entitled Catholic Antiquities of Bosham ' quoted from the August number of the Month, is inaccurate in many particulars, for Ine parish registers were not destroyed J hey are still in existence and in excellent preservation. (2) Kearvell did not destroy the papers through ignorance. His regret-

table act was due to a sudden fit of temper after a good deal of provocation. "Ira furor brevis est." (3) This did not happen when Mr. How was vicar ; and (4) the writer's imagination is very lively, for it is not exactly known what papers were burnt, though his conjecture may be near the truth. His statements are somewhat too positive. FRANCIS A. HAINES, M.A. Bosham, Chichester.

" QUARTER " OF CORN (9 th S. v. 456 ; vi. 32, 253, 310, 410). At the last reference MR. NICHOLSON says that in only one table of measures has he found any mention of the chaldron as a corn measure, viz., Hylles's ' Arte of Vulgar Arithmeticke ' (1600), wherein "8 bushels make 1 quarter, 4 quarters 1 chalder." I cite the following :

"Quarter In Measure, the quantity of eight

Bushels or the fourth part of a Chaldron." ' Dic- tionarium Anglo-Britannicum ; or, A General English Dictionary,' by John Kersey, second edition, London, 1715.

" Chaldron, Chaudron Bushels 32, of corn : 36 of coals." 'Arithmetic,' by Solomon Lowe, London, 1749, p. 116.

" Dry Measure, called also Corn Measure. 4 Bushels = 1 Coomb or Sack. 2 Coombs = 1 Quarter. 4 Quarters = 1 Chalder."

"Chaldron or Chaudron Bolls ; 16 of Corn; Bushels, 32 of Corn ; 36 of Coals." 'A New Intro- duction to the Mathematicks,' by Benjamin Donn, of Biddeford, London, 1758, pp. 74, 80.

"Q. Wherein does London differ from other places in England in the Coal Measure?

"A. In London 36 Bushels make a Chaldron ; but in all other places 32 Bushels make a Chaldron." -' The Schoolmaster's Assistant,' by Thomas Dil- worth, twentieth edition, 1780, p. 18.

It appears that, at all events, some persons were taught, 158 years after the date of Hylles's ' Arte of Vulgar Arithmeticke,' that four quarters made one chaldron of corn.

ROBERT PIERPOINT. St. Austin's, Warrington.

ROYAL PROGRESS OF WILLIAM III. (9 th S. viii. 404). Macaulay's 'History of England,' iv. xxi. F. G. R. POLLARD-URQUHART.

Castle Pollard, Westmeath.

WEARING THE HAT IN THE ROYAL PRESENCE (8 th S. vii. 148, 338, 391 ; 9 th S. viii. 368).

"Sir John Pakington on 5 April, 1529, had an

extraordinary grant from the king namely, that he might \vear his hat in his presence and in the presence of his successors, ' or of any other persons whatsoever, and not to be uncovered on any occasion or cause whatsoever against his will and good liking.' " ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' xliii. 88.

"Sir John Skuish (or Skewes) in 1514 had the privilege of wearing his hat in the king's presence." -Ibid., lii. 359.

The rarity, or perhaps discontinuance, of