Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/22

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NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. ix. JAN. 4, 1902.

and quite above such low practices. He must be dead years now.

M. L. R, BRESLAR.

J. Caraden Hotten's 'A Dictionary of Modern Slang and Cant Words' has under ' Spin-em-Rounds ' :

"A street game consisting of apiece of brass, wood, or iron, balanced on a pin, and turned quickly around on a board, when the point, arrow shaped, stops at a number and decides the bet one way or the other. The contrivance very much resembles a sea compass, and was formerly the gambling accom- paniment of London piemen. The apparatus then was erected on the tin lids of their pie cans, and the bets were ostensibly for pies, but more fre- quently for ' coppers,' when no policeman frowned upon the scene, and when two or three apprentices or porters happened to meet." This supplies the information required.

ARTHUR MAYALL.

BARBARA JOHNSTON (9 th S. viii. 484). Some pen-and-ink notes from an old copy of Burke's 1 Extinct, Dormant, and Suspended Peerages ' in my library may interest your correspondent MR. JOHNSTON. The copy is of the 1831 edition, and has the signature of " Jas. Gil- bert Johnston, 39, Hyde Park Square," on a ily-leaf. The notes are on the page giving an account of the Montague family, Barons Halifax, Earls of Halifax, &c. George Mon- tague, second Baron Halifax, created Earl of Halifax in 1715, married secondly Lady Mary Lumley, daughter of Richard, Earl of Scar- borough, and had issue George, his successor, and six daughters : Frances, Anne, Mary, Elizabeth, Barbara (died unmarried), and Charlotte, married to Col. Johnston. A foot- note in the same handwriting as on the fly- leaf says, "Col. J. was my g fc grandfather. After the death of Lady Charlotte he married the widow of the Rt. Revd. -- Twisden Bishop of Raphoe, and son of Sir Wm. Twisden, Bart." There are also other notes on the same page and elsewhere in the same handwriting.

The Barbara Johnston of your query may have been a daughter of this Col. Johnston. Assuming she was, she may have been namec after her maternal aunt Barbara, who died a spinster. Another note states that Ladv Mary Lumley lias a sister Lady Barbara who married the Hon. Chas. Leigh. The name Barbara " ran " in the Lumley family. The Rev. Robert Lloyd, who claimed the' barorn of Lumley in 1725, claimed as lineal de scendantof Barbara Lumley, sister (daughterl of George Lumley, who was attainted.

It will be odd if this stray marginal note from an old book picked up years ago at < second-hand stall in a neighbouring city, ana recalled by your correspondent's query from

nemory, where it had been unconsciously tacked, supplies the information sought for. f it does it will be a remarkable instance of he utility of ' N. & Q.,' and an instance also f " genealogical luck."

LIONEL CRESSWELL.

ORCHESTRA OR ORCHESTRE (9 th S. viii. 424).

Our attention has been drawn to an editorial

ote in your issue of 23 Nov., 1901, referring

the word " orchestra," which reads, " ' Or- hestre' is said in the 'Century' to be obso- ete, and is unmentioned by Funk & Wag- tails." Permit us to point out that in our Standard Dictionary,' on p. 1237, column 3, welfth line from the foot of the page, the wo obsolete forms of the word " orchestra,"

1 orchester " and "orchestra," are given. We hall feel greatly obliged if you will do us the dndness of correcting this statement.

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY.

POMEROY FAMILY OF DEVON (9 th S. viii. 24). See ' Visitations of the County of )evon,' by the late J. L. Vivian, pp. 605-9.

W. D. PINK.

DEVONIAN will find a pedigree of the above

amily in Vivian's ' Visitations of co. Devon,'

vhich gives full particulars ; also a short

account in Archdall's edition of ' Lodge's

D eerage of Ireland ' under 'Harberton.'

JOHN RADCLIFFE.

Various articles respecting this family will oe found in 6 th S. ii. 328, 493 ; iii. 58 ; 8 th S. Kii. 388, 456. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

CROSSING KNIVES AND FORKS (9 th S. viii. 325, 433). ROBIN GOODFELLOW is not positive as to the religious significance of the Russian mode of placing table cutlery. I remember only too well the sharp rebukes my father was wont to administer to us youngsters if we happened to cross our knives and forks by way of artistic finish to a well-polished plate. My father was of Polish extraction and came largely into contact with all classes of the best Russian and Polish society of his clay, and must frequently have observed this cruciforming habit at their tables.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

The sight of accidentally crossed knives upon our luncheon table to-day (28 Novem- ber) caused a distinct shudder to run through my wife and grown - up daughters, all of whom first saw the light within a few hundred yards of my present residence. The nearest one made a grab at the offending cutlery and at once carefully placed the knives parallel. Further, they almost sirnul-