Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/374

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. ix. MAY 10, 1902.

wealthy magistrate and master shipwright of Dover.

mes-

In the * Calendar of State Papers (Dome* tic), 1659-60,' p. 361, I notice the following :

"13 Feb. Tho" White to the Admy Com". Being ordered by the Navy Com" to be their Agent at

Dover I took to my assistance my son-in-law

Basil Kennet as storekeeper, and he had as much employment therein as he could well perform ; first in taking into the storehouse such stores as were sent from Deptford, and what we bought at Dover or else- where for the use of the Navy, faithfully performed by Kennett, and no man in the town being able to do the service so well, he having been trained up in it these five or six years. I entreat you to confirm him in the place of storekeeper, and allow him such salary as may allow him to subsist. There has been nothing allowed him these five years but what I have given him out of my own salary."

Again, 20 February, p. 373 :

" Now my request is that you will be pleased to continue my son as storekeeper, and allow him what you think fit."

And finally, on 21 February, p. 373 :

"My son Kennett the storekeeper has gone to London, with a request for such stores as we stand in need of ; his services are very necessary both for the safety and profit of the Commonwealth ; if you will examine him concerning the particulars, he will give you an account."

From the above it would appear that the bishop's father was originally a storekeeper under his father-in-law Thomas White, and subsequently took holy orders and became vicar of Postling, in Kent, where the bishop's younger brother, Dr. Basil Kennett, was born in 1674. R, J. FYNMORE.

Sandgate, Kent.

SNODGRASS, A SURNAME. A notice of the ' Choice Humorous Works of Theodore Hook ' in the Athenaeum of 22 March, p. 370, makes mention of the name of Mr. Pickwick's friend Mr. Snodgrass in a manner which, whether rightly or wrongly, has left on my mind the impression that the writer imagined it to be an invention of Charles Dickens. This is certainly not the case. It occurs in the late M. A. Lower's * Dictionary of Family Names '; and in Bohn's 'Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual' a James Snodgrass, D.D., and a Major J. J. Snodgrass appear as authors.

It is probable that if search were made nearly every name in 'Pickwick' could be proved to be that of a real family.

ASTARTE.

MOURNING SUNDAY. The following para- graph from the St. James's Gazette of 11 April refers to a custom which is perhaps worth noting, if it has not been noted tefore in 'N. &Q.':-

"A curious custom exists amongst the peasantry of the Isle of Man, and it is probably only of recent

years that the better classes have given up its ob- servation. The Sunday following the funeral of a relative is called 'Mourning Sunday,' and as many of the dead person's relations as are available meet together ana go to church. The extraordinary part of it, however, is that throughout the entire time they remain seated, and do not enter at all into any outward participation in the service. It would be interesting to know whether any similar custom prevails in other countries of the United Kingdom, or whether it is a Scandinavian relic."

The same custom is observed in North Devonshire. There was an instance of it at Tawstock Church, near Barnstaple, in Novem- ber last year. In that case a child had died of scarlet fever, yet the parents were in church the day after the funeral, which was a Sunday. They remained seated throughout the service. J. P. LEWIS.

GREEN CANDLES IN CHURCH. (See ante, p. 339.) I do not know what is the custom now, but green tapers used to appear on the altar at All Saints', Margaret Street. In the late fifties, when Archbishop Tait (then Bishop of London) had some trouble regarding what is now called ritualism, he was represented in a cartoon in Punch as driving out of church sundry clergymen carrying candlesticks, &c., and then was given a rime

Yon Barney must not here be seen With Christmas candles red and green.

The church was St. Barnabas's, Pimlico.

GEORGE ANGUS. St. Andrews, N.B.

AN INDUSTRIOUS LITTERATEUR. It will interest numerous readers of 'N. & Q.,' I am sure, to learn that Mr. Thomas Bayne, an exceptionally well-informed and always interesting contributor as is shown by his latest article, in which he contends, against some formidable opponents, that the ' Ode to the Cuckoo ' is the work of Michael Bruce has completed a series of sketches of 'Literary Churchmen ' in Saint Andrew. Beginning with Blair, Robertson, and Home, the series closes with Principal Caird and Dr. Boyd, the genial essayist known to the literary world as A. K. H. B. It is to be hoped Mr. Bayne will publish these literary portraits in volume form. Some readers of ' N. & Q.' will like- wise be interested to hear that the March Temple' Bar contained an article on 'James Macfarlan, the Pedlar Poet,' from the pen of Mr. Bayne. JOHN GRIGOR.

105, Choumert Road, Peckham.

DRYHURST : COLUMBELL. In Ashover, near Chesterfield, is a farm called Dryhurst, which is bounded on the west by Columbell Lane. The soil is peaty, and beneath it fallen trees