Notes and Queries, Number 189, June 11, 1853

Has bent him up aloof;
And full against the beam he flung,
Where by the back the youth he hung
To sprawl unneath the roof."

As the author professes the poem to be "in the ancient English style," are these words veritable ancient English? If so, some correspondent of "N. & Q." may perhaps be able to give instances of their recurrence.

    Robert Wright.

Newx, &c.—Can any of your readers give me the unde derivatur of the word newx, or noux, or knoux? It is a very old word, used for the last hundred years, as fag is at our public schools, for a young cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. When I was there, some twenty-five or twenty-seven years ago, the noux was the youngest cadet of the four who slept in one room: and a precious life of it he led. But this, I hope, is altered now. I have often wanted to find out from whence this term is derived, and I suppose that your paper will find some among your numerous correspondents who will be able to enlighten me.

    T. W. N.

Malta.

"A Joabi Alloquio."—Who can explain the following, and point out its source? I copy from the work of a Lutheran divine, Conrad Dieteric, Analysis Evangeliorum, 1631, p. 188.:

"A Joabi Alloquio,
A Thyestis Convivio,
Ab Iscariotis 'Ave,'
A Diasii 'Salve'
Ab Herodis 'Redite'
A Gallorum 'Venite.'
Libera nos Domine."

The fourth and sixth line I do not understand.

    B. H. C.

Illuminations.—When were illuminations in cities first introduced? Is there any allusion to them in classic authors?

    Cape.

Heraldic Queries.—Will some correspondent versed in heraldry answer me the following questions?

1. What is the origin and meaning of women of all ranks, except the sovereign, being now debarred from bearing their arms in shields, and having to bear them in lozenges? Formerly, all ladies of rank bore shields upon their seals, e.g. the seal of Margaret, Countess of Norfolk, who deceased A.D. 1399; and of Margaret, Countess of Richmond, and mother of Henry VIII., who deceased A.D. 1509. These shields are figured in the Glossary of Heraldry, pp. 285, 286.

2. Is it, heraldically speaking, wrong to inscribe the motto upon a circle (not a garter) or ribbon round the shield? So says the Glossary, p. 227. If wrong, on what principle?

3. Was it ever the custom in this country, as on the Continent to this day, for ecclesiastics to bear their arms in a circular or oval panel?—the martial form of the shield being considered inconsistent with their spiritual character. If so, when did the custom commence, and where may instances be seen either on monuments or in illustrated works?

    Ceyrep.

John's Spoils from Peterborough and Crowland.—Clement Spelman, in his Preface to the reader, with which he introduces his father's treatise De non temerandis Ecclesiis, says (edit. Oxford, 1841, p.45.):

"I cannot omit the sacrilege and punishment of King John, who in the seventeenth year of his reign, among other churches, rifled the abbeys of Peterborough and Croyland, and after attempts to carry his sacrilegious wealth from Lynn to Lincoln; but, passing the Washes, the earth in the midst of the waters opens her mouth (as for Korah and his company), and at once swallows up both carts, carriage, and horses, all his treasure, all his regalities, all his church spoil, and all the church spoilers; not one escapes to bring the king word," &c.

Is the precise spot known where this catastrophe occurred, or have any relics been since recovered to give evidence of the fact?

    J. Sansom.

"Elementa sex," &c.—Perhaps one of your readers, given to such trifles, will hazard a guess at the solution, if not at the author, of the subjoined:

"Elementa sex me proferent totam tibi;
Totam hanc, lucernis si tepent fungi, vides,
Accisa senibus suppetit saltantibus,
Levetur, armis adfremunt Horatii;
Facienda res est omnibus, si fit minor,
Es, quod relinquis deinde, si subtraxeris;
Si rite tandem quæritas originem,
Ad sibilum, vix ad sonum, reverteris."

    Effigy.
Jack and Gill—Sir Hubbard de Hoy.—Having recently amused myself by a dive into old Tusser's Husbandrie, the following passages suggested themselves as fitting Queries for your pages:

Jack and Gill.—

"Let Jack nor Gill
Fetch corn at will."

Can the "Jack and Gill" of our nursery tales be traced to an earlier date than Tusser's time?

Hobble de Hoy.—Speaking of the periods of a man's life, Tusser's advice, from the age of fourteen years to twenty-one, is to "Keep under Sir Hubbard de Hoy." Is it known whether there ever existed a personage so named, either as a legend or a myth? And if not, what is the origin of the modern term "Hobble de Hoy" as a designation for a stripling? Bailey omits it in his Dictionary.

    L. A. M.

Humphrey Hawarden.—Information is solicited respecting this individual, who was a Doctor of Laws, and living in 1494. Also, of a Justice Port, living about the same period.

    T. Hughes.

Chester.

"Populus vult decipi."—

Who was the author of the maxim? which is its correct form? and where is it to be found? It seems to present another curious instance of our ignorance of things with which we are familiar. I have put the question to a dozen scholars, fellows of colleges, barristers, &c. &c., and none has been able to give me an answer. One only thinks it was a dictum of some Pope.

    Harry Leroy Temple.

Sheriffs of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire.—Where can any list of the sheriffs for these counties be found, previous to the list given by Fuller from the time of Henry VIII.?

    D.

Harris.—The Rev. William Harris, B.A., was presented, by Thomas Pindar, Esq., to the vicarage of Luddington, Lincolnshire, on the 7th August, 1722. Mr. Harris died here in June, 1748, aged eighty-two. On his tomb is inscribed,—

"Illi satis licuit
Nunc veterum libris, nunc
Somno, et inertibus horis
Ducere solicitæ jucunda oblivio vitæ."

A tradition of his being a wizard still lingers in the village, and I should be very glad to receive any particulars respecting him. From an inspection of his will at Lincoln, it appears that he used the coat of the ancient family of Harris of Radford, Devon, and that his wife's name was Honora, a Christian name not infrequent about that period in families of the West of England also, as, for instance, Honora, daughter of Sir Richard Rogers of Bryanstone, who married Edward Lord Beauchamp, and had a daughter Honora, who married Sir Ferdinand Sutton; Honora, the wife of Harry Conway, Esq., of Bodrhyddan, Flint; Honora, daughter of Edward Fortescue of Fallapit; besides others.