Notes and Queries, Number 14, February 2, 1850

Table-Book.—Can any of your readers refer me to a museum containing a specimen of an ancient table-book? Douce had one, which was in Mr. Rodd's catalogue, but now sold; and Hone also possessed one. These two, and another in the hands of a friend of mine, are the only specimens I have heard of; but they are not quite as old or as genuine as one could wish.

    J.O. HALLIWELL.

Origin of the name "Polly."—Will you allow me to ask how persons of my name came to be called Polly?

    MARY.

Tomlinson, of Southwingfield, Derbyshire.—The parochial register of the parish of Southwingfield, in the county of Derby, contains, among its earliest entries (A.D. 1586), the name Tomlinson, as then resident therein. The family, to the present time, continues to reside within the parish, as respectable yeomen, and has thence extended itself to many of the neighbouring parishes, as well as to more distinct localities. Blore's History of Southwingfield makes no mention of such a family connected with the parish, as tenants or otherwise; nor does it appear that there is at present any family of Tomlinson bearing arms that can have been derived from any of the ancient lords of Wingfield. The wills at Lichfield, to whose registry Southwingfield belongs, are in a very dilapidated and unsatisfactory state, at the time immediately preceding the commencement of the Southwingfield parochial register. Probably some genealogist will be enabled to offer a suggestion as to the means which are available for tracing the genealogy of this fanily prior to the year 1586.

The Phrase "To have a Button in the Room," and "Sally."—I have again been reading that most amusing book, The Lives of the Norths. At p. 88 of vol. i. (edit. 1826) there is a passage which has always puzzled me. Speaking of some law proceedings in which the Lady Dacres was concerned, Roger North says:—

"And herein she served herself another way, for her adversary defamed her for swearing and unswearing, and it was not amiss to have a button in the room."

At p. 92. (post) there is another strange expression: —

"The horse, when he found himself clear of pursuers, stopped his course by degrees, and went with his rider (fast asleep upon his back) into a pond to drink, and there sat his lordship upon the 'sally.' (Qy. saddle?)"

    P.C.S.S.

St. Philip and St. James.—"And near it was the house of the apostles Philip and James the son of Alpheus."—Early Travels in Palestine (Mandeville), p. 175.; Bohn's Antiquarian Library. This is the only place, except in the Church service, where I have seen the above-named apostles coupled together, and have often wondered whether there was any old legend or tradition to account for the Church joining them together in one commemorative festival.

    A.H.E.

Sir William Hamilton.—On a tombstone in the burial-ground at St. Hilda's, South Shields, in the county of Durham, is the following inscription:—

"Here lieth interr'd ye body of Sir W. Hamilton Knt and Baronet sonne to ye Earle of Abercorne and late servant to Queen Henrietta Maria ye late Queene mother of our Soveraigne Lord King Charles that now is over England &c. who departed to ye mercy of God June 24th anno Domni 1681."

There is in the possession of an old lady living at Durham, in 1836, an original note in the handwriting of King Charles the Second, of which the following is a copy:—

"Whereas a debte of foure thousande one hundred and fifty pounds sterlinge apeares to be remayning dew by the king my father to Sir W. Hamilton brother to the Earle of Abercorne for the service done to the Queene my mother, I do hereby promis to pay ye sayde debte of 4150£. to ye sayde Sir William Hamilton his heires and assigns or to satisfie him or them to the valew thereof when it shall please God to restore me to the possession of my dominions.

"Given at Brussells 28 Mar. 1630.

"CHARLES REX."

Is any thing known of Sir William Hamilton, or of the services he rendered to Queen Henrietta Maria?

    A.H.E.

The Koran by Sterne.—Can you or any of your readers inform me if the work entitled The Koran, printed in some editions of Sterne's writings, is a genuine composition of his, or not? If not, who was its author, and what is its literary history? My reason for asking is, that I have heard it asserted that it is not by Sterne.

    E.L.N.

Devices on Standards of the Anglo-Saxons.—Can any of your readers inform me what devices were borne on the standards of the several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the so-called Heptarchy? The white horse is by many supposed to have been the standard of Wessex, and to have been borne by Alfred; but was not this really the ensign of the Jutish kingdom of Kent, the county of Kent to this day displaying the white horse in its armorial bearings? The standard of Wessex is by others said to have been the white dragon; but Thierry supposes that this, like the contrasted red dragon of Cymbri, was merely a poetical designation, and seems to infer that the flags of these two contending people were without any device. Again, it has been thought that a lion was the ensign of Northumbria; in which case we may, perhaps, conclude that the lions which now grace the shield of the city of York have descended from Anglo-Saxon times. The memory of the Danish standard of the Raven, described by Asser and other Anglo-Saxon chroniclers, still remains; but whether, when Northumbria and East Anglia fell under Danish power, this device supplanted previous Anglo-Saxon devices, is a curious question for antiquarian research. The famous Norwegian standard—the Landeyda, or ravager of the world—under which Harold Hardrada triumphed at Fulford, near York, but to fall a few days later at Stanford Bridge, is well known; but who can inform us as to the device which it bore? These early traces of heraldic usage appear to deserve more notice than I believe they have received.

    O.

Burning the Dead.—Can any of your readers, who may have attended particularly to the funeral customs of different peoples, inform me whether the practice of burning the dead has ever been in vogue amongst any people excepting inhabitants of Europe and Asia? I incline to the opinion that this practice has been limited to people of Indo-Germanic or Japetic race, and I shall be obliged by any references in favour of or opposed to this view.

    T.

Meaning of "Shipster."—Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the business or calling or profession of a Shipster? The term occurs in a grant of an annuity of Oct. 19. 2 Henry VIII., 1510, and made between "H.U., Gentilman, and Marie Fraunceys de Suthwerk, in com Surr Shipster."

    JOHN R. FOX.

55. Welbeck Street, Jan. 22. 1850.

Why did Dr. Dee quit Manchester?—In the Penny Cyclopædia, art. DEE, JOHN, I find the following statement:—

"In 1595 the queen appointed Dee warden of Manchester College, he being then sixty-eight years of age. He resided there nine years; but from some cause not exactly known, he left it in 1604, and returned to his house at Mortlake, where he spent the remainder of his days."

Can any of your correspondents assign the probable causes which led to Dr. Dee's resignation?

    T.T.W.

Burnley, Lancashire, Jan. 21. 1850.

Meaning of "Emerod," "Caredon."—In the Lansd. MS., British Museum, No. 70., there is a letter from Mr. Richard Champernowne to Sir Robert Cecil, dated in 1592, referring to the discovery of some articles pillaged from the Spanish carrack, which had then recently been captured and taken into Dartmouth harbour. Amongst these articles is one thus described:—"An Emerod, made in the form of a cross, three inches in length at the least, and of great breadth."

In the same volume of MSS. (art. 61.) there is the description of a dagger "with a hefte of white Caredon."

From the size of the cross described, "Emerod" can scarcely be read "Emerald," as applied by us to one of the precious stones.

Is "white Caredon" white cornelian?

Can any of your numerous correspondents give me a note in answer to the above queries?

    D.

46. Parliament Street, Westminster, Jan. 25. 1850.

Microscope, and Treatise upon it.—I am about to commence the study of the microscope. I want to know where I can purchase the most perfect instrument, and also the best Treatise upon it; this information will indeed be valuable to me, as it would enable me to go at once to the best sources without loss of time.

    R.M. JONES.

Chelsea, Jan. 2. 1850.

Old Auster Tenements.—"W.P.P." wishes to know the meaning of the expression "Old Auster Tenements," by which certain lands in the parish of North Curry, Somerset, are described in Deeds and Court Rolls.

REPLIES

THE FIELD OF FORTY FOOTSTEPS

The fields behind Montague House were, from about the year 1680, until towards the end of the last century, the scenes of robbery, murder, and every species of depravity and wickedness of which the heart can think. They appear to have been originally called the Long Fields, and afterwards (about Strype's time) the Southampton Fields. These fields remained waste and useless, with the exception of some nursery grounds near the New Road to the north, and a piece of ground enclosed for the Toxophilite Society, towards the northwest, near the back of Gower Street. The remainder was the resort of depraved wretches, whose amusements consisted chiefly in fighting pitched battles, and other disorderly sport, especially on the Sabbath day. Such was their state in 1800.

Tradition had given to the superstitious at that period a legendary story of the period of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion, of two brothers who fought in this field so ferociously as to destroy each other; since which, their footsteps, formed from the vengeful struggle, were said to remain, with the indentations produced by their advancing and receding; nor could any grass or vegetable ever be produced where these forty footsteps were thus displayed. This extraordinary arena was said to be at the extreme termination of the northeast end of Upper Montague Street; and, profiting by the fiction, Miss Porter and her sister produced an ingenious romance thereon, entitled, Coming Out, or the Forty Footsteps. The Messrs. Mayhew also, some twenty years back, brought out, at the Tottenham Street Theatre, an excellent melodrama piece, founded upon the same story, entitled The Field of Forty Footsteps.

In 1792, an ingenious and enterprising architect, James Burton, began to erect a number of houses on the Foundling Hospital estate, partly in St. Giles's and Bloomsbury parishes, and partly in that of St. Pancras. Baltimore House, built, towards the northeast of Bedford House, by Lord Baltimore, in 1763, appears to have been the only erection since Strype's survey to this period, with the exception of a chimney-sweeper's cottage still further north, and part of which is still to be seen in Rhodes's Mews, Little Guildford Street. In 1800, Bedford House was demolished entirely; which with its offices and gardens, had been the site where the noble family of the Southamptons, and the illustrious Russells, had resided during more than 200 years, almost isolated. Hence commenced the formation of a fine uniform street, Bedford Place, consisting of forty houses, on the spot; also, the north side of Bloomsbury Square, Montague Street to the west, and one side of Southampton Row to the east. Towards the north, the extensive piece of waste ground, denominated the Southampton Fields, was transformed into a magnificent square, with streets diverging therefrom in various directions. Thus, as if by "touch of magic wand," those scenes, which had been "hideous" for centuries, became transformed into receptacles of civil life and polished society.