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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. JAN. 4, 1902.

education I learnt to associate it with the curfew, a connexion still retained in my mind. GNOMON.

Temple.

SURNAMES DERIVED FROM FRENCH TOWNS (9 th S. viii. 464). MR. HILL has started an interesting subject. Some of our old Norman families, deriving their names from places in Normandy, are still represented amongst the nobility of that province, in which the Due de Harcourt holds the foremost position. Amongst the lesser nobility, of which branches attained to a far higher rank on this side the Manche, we still find the families of _Reviers, Rivers, or Redvers (which derived its name from a seigneury in the neighbourhood of Caen*) and of JBailleul, which gave a king to Scotland, and of which the original ancestor hailed from a village near Hazebrouck, in French Flanders, which is passed by every tourist travelling between Calais and Brus- sels. The great family of St. John which, if the descent of Sir Oliver St. John of Bletsho, who died in 1437, from the feudal barons of that name can be established, can claim descent in the male line from a great Domes- day tenant-in-chief (Hugh de Port), a very rare, if not unique distinction, according to Mr. Round derived its origin from St. Jean- le-Thomas, overlooking the bay of Mont St. Michel, in the extreme west of Normandy. t The family of Mohun (De Monteminori) was from Moyon, in Normandy, a commune of the canton of Tessy, arrondissement of St. Lo and department of La Manche (Stapleton, introduction to ' Liber de Antiquis Legibus,' p. xx). Bethune, from which the Bethunes and Beatouns of Scotland were descended, is a railway station, canton, and arrondissement in the Pas de Calais. The great family of De Courcy is from Courcy-sur-Dive, a com- mune of the canton of Coulibueuf, arrondisse- ment of Falaise, department of Calvados (ib., p. xl). Ferrieres, from which the illus- trious family of Ferrers (De Ferrariis) de- rived its origin, is in Normandy, while Forz or Fors, whence the equally historic family of De Fortibus descended, is a commune oi the canton of Prahecq, arrondissement ol Niort, department of Deux Sevres, in Poitou ($., p. xxxiv). The distinguished family of Gurney derives its name from Gournay-en Bray, chef-lieu of the canton of that name arrondissement of Neufchatel-en-Bray de partment of the Seine Infdrieure (ib., p. cxvi)

derives the name of this seignory (Ripuariai) frori its situation on the banks of several rivers
 * Huet, in his work ' Origines de la Ville de Caen

t I he Genealogist, xvi. 1.

The baronial family of Tregoz was not Cornish

>y origin, as might be inferred from the name,

jut derived from the commune of Troisgots,

n the canton of Tessy, arrondissement of

3t. Lo, department of La Manche (it., p.

xcviii). Numerous other instances might be

given, and I may further state that a book pub-

ished several years ago, called ' The Norman

D eople,' though not to be relied on as abso-

utely accurate, will afford your correspondent

ome valuable information regarding the

irigin of many of our old Norman families.

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

The Editor is of course quite right. Camden

ays ('Remains,' p. 118, J. R. Smith's edition)

here is no village in Normandy " that gave

not denomination to some family in England,"

and the names which represent towns else-

vhere in France, and those reminiscent of

he provinces of that delightsome land, are

probably too numerous to be repeated with

profit in the pages of ' N. & Q.'

ST. SWITHIN.

" SPATCHCOCK " (9 th S. viii. 403). Halli well dopts this explanation : " A hen just killed ^nd quickly broiled for any sudden occasion." The Rev. A. Smythe Palmer in his 'Folk Etymology ' illustrates the same meaning by quotations from Kettner's ' Book of the Table,' ' Memoirs of Thos. Moore,' King on the ' Art of Cookery,' Webster's 'Northward Ho,' Cart- wright's 'The Ordinary,' T. Brown's ' Works,' and Cotton's 'Burlesque upon Burlesque Poems.' EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

Grose's 'Classical Dictionary,' 1796, gives u Spatchcock [abbreviation of dispatch cock], a hen just killed from the roost or yard, and immediately skinned, split, and broiled. An Irish dish upon any sudden occasion."

JOHN RADCLIFFE.

Mr. A. G. Bradley, in his ' Highways and Byways in the Lake District,' p. 62, speaks of a man's " being made a spatchcock of," that is (as he explains), " of his head being stuck in a rabbit hole, and his legs staked to the ground." This, I gather, is a Cumberland custom. C. C. B.

FIRE ON THE HEARTH KEPT BURNING (9 th S. viii. 204, 412). Sixty years ago, in the rural districts of Aberdeenshire, where almost the only fuel burnt was peat or turf, the kitchen fires were never intentionally allowed to go out. The cinders were carefully covered with ashes over-night, and when raked out in the morning were almost invariably alive. When it was the reverse, which did not occur more than once in half a dozen years or so,