Notes and Queries, Number 203, September 17, 1853

    B. H. C.

Poplar.

Sheer Hulk (Vol. viii., p. 126.).—This phrase is certainly correct. Sheer = mere, a hulk, and nothing else. Thus we say sheer nonsense, sheer starvation, &c.; and the song says:

"Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling,
The darling of our crew," &c.

The etymology of sheer is plainly from shear.

    B. H. C.

Poplar.

The Magnet (Vol. vi. passim).—This was used by Claudian apparently as symbolical of Venus or love:

"Mavors, sanguinea qui cuspide verberat urbes,
Et Venus, humanas quæ laxat in otia curas,
Aurati delubra tenent communia templi,
Effigies non una Deis. Sed ferrea Martis
Forma nitet, Venerem magnetica gemma figurat."

    —Claud. De Magnete.

    B. H. C.

Poplar.

Fierce (Vol. viii., p. 125.).—Oxoniensis mentions a peculiar use of the word "fierce." An inhabitant of Staffordshire would have answered him: "I feel quite fierce this morning."

    W. Fraser.

Tor-Mohun.

Connexion between the Celtic and Latin Languages (Vol. viii., p. 174.).—Your correspondent M. will find some curious and interesting articles on this subject in vol. ii. of The Scottish Journal, Edinburgh, 1848, p. 129. et infra.

    Duncan Mactavish.

Lochbrovin.

Acharis (Vol. viii., p. 198.).—A mistake, probably, for achatis, a Latinised form of achat, a bargain, purchase, or act of purchasing. The passage in Dugdale seems to mean that "Ralph Wickliff, Esq., holds two-thirds of the tithes of certain domains sometime purchased by him, formerly at a rental of 5s., now at nothing, because, as he says, they are included in his park."

    J. Eastwood.

Henry, Earl of Wotton (Vol. viii., p. 173.).—Philip, first Earl of Chesterfield, had a son Henry, Lord Stanhope, K.B., who married Catherine, the eldest daughter and co-heir of Thomas, Lord Wotton, and had issue one son Philip, and two daughters, Mary and Catherine. Lord Stanhope died s. p. Nov. 29, 1634. His widow was governess to the Princess of Orange, daughter of Charles I., and attending her into Holland, sent over money, arms, and ammunition to that king when he was distressed by his rebellious subjects. For such services, and by reason of her long attendance on the princess, she was, on the restoration of Charles II. (in regard that Lord Stanhope, her husband, did not live to enjoy his father's honours), by letters patent bearing date May 29, 12 Charles II., advanced to the dignity of Countess of Chesterfield for life, as also that her daughters should enjoy precedency as earl's daughters.

She took to her second husband John Poliander Kirkhoven, Lord of Kirkhoven and Henfleet, by whom she had a son, Charles Henry Kirkhoven, the subject of the Query.

This gentleman, chiefly on account of his mother's descent, was created a baron of this realm by the title of Lord Wotton of Wotton in Kent, by letters patent bearing date at St. Johnstone's (Perth) in Scotland, August 31, 1650, and in September, 1660, was naturalised by authority of parliament, together with his sisters. He was likewise in 1677 created Earl of Bellomont in Ireland, and, dying without issue, left his estates to his nephew Charles Stanhope, the younger son of his half-brother the Earl of Chesterfield, who took the surname of Wotton.

This information is principally from Collins, who quotes "Ec. Stem. per Vincent." I have consulted also Bank's Dormant Baronage, Burke's Works, and Sharpe's Peerage.

    Broctuna.

Bury, Lancashire.

Anna Lightfoot (Vol. vii., p. 595.).—An account of "the left-handed wife of George III." appeared in Sir Richard Phillips' Monthly Magazine for 1821 or 1822, under the title of (I think) "Hannah Lightfoot, the fair Quaker."

    Alexander Andrews.

Lawyers' Bags (Vol. viii., p. 59.).—Previous correspondents appear to have established the fact that green was the orthodox colour of a lawyer's bag up to a recent date. May not the change of colour have been suggested by the sarcasms and jeers about "green bags," which were very current during the proceedings on the Bill of Pains and Penalties, commonly known as the Trial of Queen Caroline, some thirty years ago? The reports of the evidence collected by the commission on the Continent, was laid on the table in a sealed green bag, and the very name became for a time the signal for such an outcry, that the lawyers may have deemed it prudent to strike their colours, and have recourse to some other less obnoxious to remark.

    Balliolensis.

"When Orpheus went down" (Vol. viii., p. 196.).—In reply to the Query of G. M. B. respecting "When Orpheus went down," I beg to say that the author was the Rev. Dr. Lisle (most probably the Bishop of St. Asaph). The song may be found among Ritson's English Songs. When it was first published I have not been able to ascertain, but it must have been in the early part of the last century, as the air composed for it by Dr. Boyce, most likely for Vauxhall, was afterwards used in the pasticcio opera of Love in a Village, which was brought out in 1763.

    C. Oldenshaw.

Leicester.

Muffs worn by Gentlemen (Vol. vi. passim; Vol. vii., p. 320.).—In Lamber's Travels in Canada and the United States (1815), vol. i. p. 307., is the following passage:

"I should not be surprised if those delicate young soldiers were to introduce muffs: they were in general use among the men under the French government, and are still worn by two or three old gentlemen."

    Uneda.

Philadelphia.

Wardhouse, and Fisherman's Custom there (Vol. viii., p. 78.).—Wardhouse or Wardhuuse, is a port in Finland, and the custom was for the English to purchase herrings there, as they were not permitted to fish on that coast. In Trade's Increase, a commercial tract, written in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, the author, when speaking of restraints on fishing on the coasts of other nations, says:

"Certain merchants of Hull had their ships taken away and themselves imprisoned, for fishing about the Wardhouse at the North Cape."

    W. Pinkerton.

Ham.

"In necessariis unitas," &c. (Vol. viii., p. 197.).—The sentence, "In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas," may be seen sculptured in stone over the head of a doorway leading into the garden of a house which was formerly the residence of Archdeacon Coxe, and subsequently of Canon Lisle Bowles, in the Close at Salisbury. It is quoted from Melancthon. The inscription was placed there by the poet, and is no less the record of a noble, true, and generous sentiment, than of the discriminating taste and feeling of him by whom it was thus appreciated and honoured. Would that it might become the motto of all our cathedral precincts!

    W. S.

Northiam.

Miscellaneous

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC

The Botany of the Eastern Borders, with the Popular Names and Uses of the Plants, and of the Customs and Beliefs which have been associated with them, by George Johnson, M.D. This, the first volume of The Natural History of the Eastern Borders, is a book calculated to please a very large body of readers. The botanist will like it for the able manner in which the various plants indigenous to the district are described. The lover of Old World associations will be delighted with the industry with which Dr. Johnson has collected, and the care with which he has recorded their popular names, and preserved the various bits of folk lore associated with those popular names, or their supposed medicinal virtues. The antiquary will be gratified by the bits of archæological gossip, and the biographical sketches so pleasantly introduced; and the general reader with the kindly spirit with which Dr. Johnson will enlist him in his company—