"In the Dictionnaire de Pomologie,' by André Leroy, an excellent work consisting of six volumes, no mention is made of the variety; yet we should expect to find it described there if the variety was introduced here from Normandy.

"In another French work, Guide pratique de l'Amateur de Fruits,' Sops of Wine is described as an American variety introduced to the nursery establishment of Simon-Louis frères, at Plantièresles-Metz, in 1872. In this work there is also a description of another variety named Winesap, which was introduced from America at the same time (1872). This variety, Winesap, is described in Scott's Orchardist,' 2nd ed., p. 113, and attributed to America; but Sops in Wine is not mentioned. In this country the variety, I believe, is commonly known as Sops in Wine, also as Sops of Wine; but less frequently as Sops and Wine. If Sops in Wine be accepted as the earliest name, it might still be a corruption from soupçon de vin'; but I know of nothing to prove this. On the contrary, it has been found that when the variety is included in French lists, it is described there under the English name."]

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, IN EDINBURGH CASTLE.-Under the heading The House of Stewart' appeared in the number of T.P.'s Weekly for 30 August an article "by Monkbarns in which the following passage occurs:

"It seems not to be generally known that about thirty years ago I forget the precise date-some workmen engaged in repairing the small chamber in Edinburgh Castle where Mary Stewart was confined during the siege in 1566, in removing a large stone, discovered the remains of a still-born infant. It was wrapped in clothing declared by experts to be such as corresponded with that pertaining to the period in question, and worn by people of quality. The Scottish Society of Antiquaries inspected the remains; but by order from London, they were hurriedly replaced and closed up in the wall once more. Contemporary rumour openly said that Queen Mary brought forth a dead child, and that the newly born offspring of a soldier's wife of the garrison was substituted."

The writer proceeds to express his entire belief in the story, for reasons which need not be here recapitulated. I do not remember seeing any notice of the occurrence in the papers of the day; but it was recently mentioned to me (with certain variations from the foregoing accounts) by a friend as having appeared in The Scotsman ; the date of publication, however, not having been ascertained, I was unable to trace it.

I shall feel greatly obliged to any correspondent of N. & Q.' who can give a reference to the periodical or periodicals which gave currency to the amazing

rumour.

"THE TROUT

a place

J. ELIOT HODGKIN.

DART DOWN," &c.-Not

GREGORY: ALLEN: HAMPDEN.-Can any of your readers enlighten me on the following points? Robert Austen, of Shalford, Surrey, long ago a rimester, not altogether mute, married in 1772, Frances Annesley Gregory, but quite inglorious, was borne by Fancy to daughter of John Wentworth Gregory, whose wife's name Frances Allen. "aback o' beyont," where some unforgettable days of childhood had been spent. Again the wide moorlands, again the busy beck, which once ministered both to wonder and delight. A verse of the coneequent jingle ran :—

son

was

John

Wentworth Gregory was the eldest surviving of the Rev. Thomas Gregory, who married the Hon. Helena Thomson, eldest daughter of Sir John Thomson, Bart. first Lord Haversham, by the Lady Frances Wyndham, née Annesley, daughter of Arthur Annesley, first Earl of Anglesea. Who was the Rev. Thomas Gregory? Is anything

The trout dart down the clear brown stream,
Or neath the stones lie hid-
Ah! I have learnt so many ways:
The fish do as they did.

Now is this a plagiarism? Did, or did not, Mr. Horace Hutchinson, or some other writer of the same school, express a like reflection on revisiting a river-haunt from which he had been long absent ?

ST. SWITHIN.

ARMS, 1653. Will some one of your readers learned in heraldry say whose were the following arms in 1653? Argent, on a saltire sable five fleurs-de-lis or. Crest, a bird (? a martin) on an esquire's helmet. N. PAGET.

-

DR. WALTER WADE. - Information is wanted in regard to this celebrated Dublin physician. He was practising in that city about 1790, and, amongst other efforts, was largely instrumental in establishing the Botanic Gardens there. I particularly want to know if a portrait of him exists. If so, where can it be seen. E. A. COOKE.

3, Charleston Road, Rathmines, Dublin. [Wade died in 1825. He is included in the 'D.N.B.']

SHEEP FAIR ON AN ANCIENT EARTHWORK. In chap. 1. of 'Far from the Madding Crowd,' a sheep fair at a place the novelist calls Greenhill is thus described::

"This yearly gathering was upon the summit of a hill which retained in good preservation the remains of an ancient earthwork, consisting of a huge rampart and entrenchment of an oval form encircling the top of the hill, though somewhat broken down here and there. To each of the two chief openings on opposite sides a winding road ascended, and the level green space of twenty or thirty acres enclosed by the bank was the site of the fair."

temp. Edw. I.; while Roger Thawchet was rector of St. Nicholas Coldabbey, London, in the reign of Henry VIII. Thawerham and Thaverham were old forms of the place Taverham. By a simple process, however, a German originally of the name Thau could in America become known as Thaw. The meaning is the same, just as our common word "thaw" agrees with the Teutonic thau. W. M. GRAHAM-EASTON.

LISS PLACE.-The following is an extract from an advertisement that appeared in a Hampshire newspaper of 1839:

"Liss Place.-Freehold Estate to be Sold by Auction, July 26th, 1839, comprehending Liss Place, Sparthows and part of Little Pople farms, consisting of a family residence erected about 14 years since (1825), on the site of an ancient mansion, of which a portion, heretofore a chapel, still remains.” Kelly's 'Directory' of 1875 also speaks of Liss Place being anciently a religious establishment. Can any reader say what this religious establishment was, by whom it was founded, and what was the owner's name at the time of sale? Was the ancient mansion referred to a fortified mansion ? and was it defended during the Civil War in Hampshire? If I remember rightly, T. Shore says the meaning of the word Liss or Lyss is a "fort," derived from the Saxon (T. Shore's Hampshire').

F. K. P.

EFFIGIES OF HEROIC SIZE IN CHURCHES. Mr. Hardy has here given an accurate-In Whitwick Church, Leicestershire, is description of a typical English earthwork of one of these, which a local history thus prehistoric times, and I should like to know describes:whether in Dorset or elsewhere sheep fairs "A tomb without an inscription bears the mailed have been held in modern times on such and much mutilated effigy of a man of gigantic earthworks. There is a prehistoric circle stature. The figure is seven feet in length, which near Penistone called Shepherds' Castle, and is much too short for the current traditions respectpossibly the name Hardcastle may meaning the size and strength of the redoubtable knight Sir John Talbot of Swannington, to whose memory Shepherds' Castle. it is believed to have been erected. Sir John Talbot died in 1365, in his fortieth year."

S. O. ADDY.

[The fair referred to took place last Tuesday on the top of Woodbury Hill near Bere Regis.]

THAW AS SURNAME.-Is the surname Thaw an English name? or is it in America an anglicized form of the Teutonic thau thaw? In old English records Thaw does not seem to occur, but there was John Thewe of Kinnardferry, Lincolnshire, in 1429; and Walter Thoche held lands in the Isle of Wight in Edwardian times. Simon de Thawmill (=Twamhull), Essex, flourished

Are similar instances known elsewhere?

W. B. H.

FORBES OF CULLODEN.-Was not Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Provost of Inverness-by his marriage with his cousin Janet Forbes of Corsindae-father of two daughters, one of whom married Sir Alexander Monro I. of Bearcrofts, M.P., co. Stirling (1690-1702), and ancestor of the Monros of Edmondsham, Dorset, and the

that the Russian regiment of which he was
one of the leaders gave way. A similar
incident is somewhere recorded as having
occurred in another war. What was this?
and where is it narrated ?
W. B.

"AS DEEP AS GARRICK."-Seventy years
ago a common expression in Cornwall and
Devon, in description of a specially acute
or clever man, was that he was "as deep as
Garrick." I have always understood this
as referring to the famous actor; but was it
used elsewhere?
R. ROBBINS.

66

BAIRD SMITH OF THE INDIAN MUTINY: GENERAL BAIRD.-Was the former any relation to Daniel Smith, who in 1742 married in Holland Margaret, sister of David Gavine? BIDAXE," A FARM TOOL. Is there Gavine married in 1751 Christian Hearsey, a derivation for the name bidaxe of a farm and in 1770 Elizabeth Maitland. Their tool used in East Cornwall for digging? daughter Hearsey married Robert Baird, and handed the surname down as a forename in the Fullerton, Gavine, Baird, Drummond, and Wauchope families. I also seek a General Baird, brother inlaw to Edward Williams, drowned with Shelley.

A. C. H.

W. H. BARRACLOUGH. Sydenham House, Otley Road, Bradford.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED.1. Beware of the lust of finishing.

2. We think at first that home is heaven; we find at last that heaven is home.

3. Truth heals the wounds that Truth herself hath made.

R. W. R BOUVEAR, BOUVIÈRE, OR BEAUVAIS.Information wanted of this Huguenot family, perhaps settled in Dublin. There is a tradition of a Comte de Beauvais; and Bouvears appear in Dublin registers. Dr. Leland, of Trinity College, Dublin, is a near relative of certain Bouvears. (Mrs.) B. DE Z. HALL. 11, Dingle Mount, Liverpool.

SOVEREIGNS AND C. W. S. HALF-SOVEREIGNS: THEIR WEIGHTS AND DATES.-I have two CURIOUS BOOK TITLES.-Could any reader brass disks for weighing sovereigns and halfoblige with information as to where to sovereigns. On the obverse of each is obtain curious, humorous, punning, or fic- Queen Victoria's head, and in the margin titious titles of books? There is a long list" Royal Mint 1843." On the reverse is in Rabelais, and Tom Hood also made one. Any titles or names of books where such may be found will be gratefully received direct by me. GEORGE BERRY.

2, South Oxford Street, Edinburgh.

[See the General Indexes of ' N. & Q.'] CRIMEAN WAR INCIDENT. In describing one of the battles of the Crimean War (Ï think the Alma), Kinglake says that when, time after time, a body of Russian troops had been broken up by the British fire, they were unfailingly rallied by a particular officer, whose appearance he depicts, and that it was only when this officer was shot

Currt Weight," and "Sovereign and "Half-Sovereign" respectively in the margin. In the middle of the larger is “5 dw 2 gr"; in that of the smaller "2 dw 131 gr. This gives the half-sovereign current as less than half of a sovereign by grain.

W. Tate, in Modern Cambist,' eleventh ed. 1862, P. 4, after giving "5 Dwts. reign, says :31 Grains as the full weight of a sove

23 Grains, or the Half Sovereign, when its weight "The Sovereign, when less in weight than 5 Dwts. is less than 2 Dwts. 13 Grains, has no legal currency."

This gives the minimum weight of the halfsovereign as greater by gr. than half the minimum weight of the sovereign.

I will now prove that the proposed explanation is wholly wrong, and could not have proceeded from any one who has even a moderate acquaintance with Middle Eng

The 1843 weights appear to make an extra allowance for wear in the case of the half-lish phonology and grammar. sovereign, so that two half-sovereigns may weighgrain less than one sovereign; but the 1862 weights make an equal difference the other way.

Were these weights correct at their separate dates? and, if so, when and why was the change made? One-eighth of a grain either way makes in 1,000l. a difference of a little over 17.

His quotation contains two bad misprints. The word "whe," in the third line, is a misprint for "were"; and the word "begin," in the fourth line, should (as he says himself) have been "began.'

He tries to get a new sense by entirely ignoring the presence of the word " also." In modern English prose Chaucer says: "When the month of March was complete, and thirty-two days had also passed since the beginning of March"; that is to say, the month of March and thirty-two days more had passed. If to the thirty-one days of March we add thirty-two days more, we are landed in May. And that is all. It is really a very elementary sum in arithmetic, and most people have hitherto succeeded in getting it right, with the admitted exception of the scribe of the eccentric Harleian MS., who states that, besides March, two months and two days had passed, and thus succeeds in landing us in June!

We are told that bigan does not mean "began," but means "begone or passed away; in fact, that "Sin March bigan "= post Martium præteritum. Such a construction is quite impossible in Middle English. To begin with, "Sin" does not mean post in the prepositional sense, but is always an adverb; and such a phrase as "since March begone "is not only impossible in modern English, but never existed at any date whatever. Secondly, bigan for "begone is only possible in Northumbrian or in texts strongly marked with Northern peculiarities; and that is how I "prove that Chaucer could not possibly have used gan gone."

=

Next, I read as follows: "If such proof be forthcoming, then bigan must be changed to bigon." First, I may remark that the MSS. have the same spelling bigan in 1. 370 as in 1. 367, meaning, of course, the same thing, viz., "began." The change to bigon will not help us at all, because it then ceases to be a past tense, and becomes a past participle; and the construction of sin with a past participle is impossible.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

BILL STUMPS HIS MARK (10 S. vii. 489; viii. 95).-The inscription at the latter reference, not having been discovered until 1880, was necessarily absent from vol. vii. (Inscriptiones Britanniæ ') of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum,' that volume having appeared in 1873. It is given, however, with a facsimile, in the seventh volume of the Ephemeris Epigraphica (No. 827 pp. 278-9), among the "Additamenta Quarta ad Corporis vol. vii." edited by Dr. Haverfield. With one or two exceptions, Dr. Haverfield agreed with Zangemeister's reading of the inscription, and for the interpretation referred to the German professor's article in Hermes. In some few points absolute certainty seems unobtainable, but no one, I imagine, who has carefully studied