Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/41

 s. ix. JAN. n, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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occurrence in Sheffield to-day to see men going about with these grindstones on their heads, disposing of them for the above pur- pose. In my early days I remember these stones were broken up and crushed to a fine powder for sanding floors, which reminds one of the words in Longfellow's poem 'Nurem- berg,' in which he refers to it in speaking of the house of Hans Sachs, the cobbler poet,

But his house is now an alehouse,

With a nicely sanded floor.

We have in Sheffield parish churchyard a grindstone used as a monumental stone, dated 1818. There is also in the same churchyard, to the memory of William Hobson, grinder, a flat stone with these lines inscribed on it, dated 1815 :

Beneath this stone a grinder lies A sudden death ath closed his eyes He lost his life by the breaking of a stone We hope his soul to Heaven 's gone.

In Attercliffe churchyard are two grinder's stones used for monumental purposes, the earlier dated 1776. Grindstones were used as seats in gardens, also for a covering over wells, the hole in the centre being enlarged to let the bucket pass through. I remember in my boyhood frequently seeing them on the hearths of cottagers' homes in York- shire. It was a common saying, " Sit thee down on t' grindlestone, i' t' ingle nook." There are several old songs on the grind- stone, which would take too much of your valuable space to quote. The following is a verse from one of the songs, entitled ' The Grinder's Hardships,' which was probably written during the formation of the Grinders' Misfortune Society, established at Crookes, Sheffield, 1804 :

There seldom comes a day but our dairymaid* goes

wrong, And if that does not happen, perhaps we break a

stone, Which may wound us for life, or give us our final

blow, For there's few that brave such hardships as we

poor grinders do.

CHARLES GREEN. 18, Shrewsbury Road, Sheffield.

COPPERPLATE CUTS (9 th S. viii. 444). During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (probably earlier) copperplate engravings used as illustrations to books were known, professionally, as "cuts." In the British Museum Library are two histories of England (which I have already mentioned in the pages of * N. & Q.') : Temple Sydney's, 1775, and Russel's, 1777, which contain many (full-page) copperplate prints,

Water-wheel.

excellently engraved. Although on the title- page the books are described (respectively) as "Illustrated with plates engraved from the drawings of Mr. Wale," and "Illustrated with up wards of one hundred Copper plates," yet in the directions to the binder special instructions are given as to the proper- placing of the " cuts." According to most dictionaries a "cut" is described as (apart from its other meanings) " a picture cut or carved upon a stamp of wood or copper, and impressed from it" (I quote from Walker, edition 1809). Originally, I believe, " cut " was the trade name for the block, stamp, or die upon which the picture had been engraved, and not, as subsequently, used to denote the impression taken there- from. With the revival of wood-engraving came a composite (sometimes hyphen) word, " woodcut " ; but when, in the early years of the last century, "wood-chopping" super- seded metal engraving, "cut" was applied by the profession almost exclusively to drawings engraved on wood. I do not think " cut " was ever much favoured by the " man in the street, ' but I recollect when a child, during the fifties, hearing artists, engravers, journalists, printers, &c., usually speak of the " large cut in Punch " which we should now style the cartoon. Since the introduction of "process" the word "cut" as applied to illustrative art has, I fancy, become almost obsolete. Process blocks could hardly be termed " cuts," although the better class of " half-tone " pictures are frequently finished up by hand with the graver.

HERBERT B. CLAYTON. 39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane, S.E.

See 'N.E.D.' under 'Cut,' sb. 2, iv. 21. Among the uneducated any picture, even a painted glass window, is called a "cut." See Peacock's 'Manley and Corringham Glossary.' Much in the same way, every figure, whether in sculpture, brass, or glass, is called a " picture " in k Rites of Durham.' J. T. F.

Durham.

ENTRIES IN PARISH REGISTER (9 th S. viii. 464). The "septum," not " septem," was the name given to the low marble wall or balus- trade which divided the nave of the ancient basilican church into three, inside the middle one of which were the clergy.

By 8 & 9 William III., c. 30, it was enacted that every person who, after the first day of September, 1697, shall be in receipt of relief of any parish, and the wife and children of any such person, " shall upon the shoulder of the Right Sleeve of the uppermost garment in an open and visible manner wear such