ETON: BARNARD, HEAD MASTER.-In Brinvilliers' shows that lady kneeling on the Scarborough Museum is a document of the scaffold without support, while the which the following is a copy :executioner holds the raised sword behind Eton Feb. 1 1754 I promise to relinquish all pretensions to the upper mastership of Eton school, & even in case it shou'd be offered to me to refuse; upon condition that Mr. Hetherington & Mr. Lyne will assist me with their votes & interest to procure the under mastership. Witness my hand E. Barnard This document is one of a miscellaneous collection put away in drawers in the room containing books as well as curiosities, perhaps called "the library." It is in the tier second from the door, in the fourth drawer from the top. Mr. Lionel Cust in his History of Eton College,' 1899, p. 115, says :— When Dr. Sumner resigned in 1754 the post of Head-master, there seemed every probability that the Usher, Thomas Dampier, would follow in his footsteps and succeed to the post... After a severe contest the post of Head-master was conferred on Edward Barnard.....Barnard was supported by the Townshend family, to one of whom he was resident tutor at Eton two years before his election." According to Annals of the King's College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, by Wasey Sterry, 1898, p. 169, Barnard was in 1752 private tutor at Eton to Charles and Henry Townshend." Usher " (ostiarius) was the old term for "Lower Master." 66 66 William Hetherington was elected a Fellow of Eton 16 Feb., 1749, and Richard Lyne was elected 15 Jan., 1752, the latter being next in order to the former. See Registrum Regale: sive, Catalogus, I. Præpositorum,' &c., Etonæ, Apud Jos. Pote, 1774, p. xi. Thomas Dampier was. Lower Master 1745-67; therefore he retained his lowermastership while Barnard was Head Master. Barnard filled that post from 1754 to 1765. See Eton College Lists, 1678-1790,' edited by R. A. Austen Leigh (Eton College, Spottiswoode & Co., 1907), pp. xxx, xxxiii. Presumably either Hetherington and Lyne did not accept Barnard's self-denying offer, or Barnard cancelled it. ROBERT PIERPOINT. her; and a contemporary print of the doing to death of Gontaut-Biron in 1602 exhibits him in like condition. In his case the headsman struck him so terrible a sword-blow that "his head flew to the midst of the....courtyard" (pp. 190 and 156 respectively). ST. SWITHIN. THE EEL-PIE SHOP. The pieman is a thing of the past, for unless I am much at fault there is no living representative of this ancient craft and mystery. During great football matches in the North hawkers of meat pies are allowed on the ground when the game is not in progress, but these bear no resemblance to the Flying Pieman and his contemporaries. Within my own knowledge the last example in London was a character who haunted the eastern part of the City, pushing a kind of portable oven on three wheels. EXECUTIONER'S BLOCK.-Before now the His cry was Mincey mutton! Mincey height of a beheading-block has attracted Mincey! Mincey! all 'ot, all 'ot! Try 'em!" the attention of 'N. & Q.' From two illus-I never tried them, a fact I now regret; but trations in M. Georges Cain's Walks in perhaps I was wise. Presumably affluent Paris it is plain that this point d'appui piemen became proprietors of eel-pie shops was sometimes dispensed with altogether. but evidently compilers of directories classi The copy of a woodcut on a broadside of fied them as pastrycooks, and they ceased 'L'Exécution remarquable de Madame de to be identified long before lottery-office keepers, gingerbread bakers, and lanternleaf and horn-plate manufacturers disappeared from the trades classification. Queries. formation on family matters of only private interest WE must request correspondents desiring into affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct. "PURPOSE," ALLEGED NAME OF A DANCE. xvi. (1862), says :-Whyte Melville, in 'The Queen's Marys,' exacted that at stated intervals the couples should "The Purpose was so called because the figure dance together through the doorway into an adjoining room, and, having made the circuit of that apartment, should return, unbosomed of any secrets they might have had to interchange, to the rest of adopted for the triumph of coquetry and the disthe laughing company. It was a figure obviously Where are the eel-pie shops to-day? They are worthy of better treatment than silent extinction. Surely some survive in the neighbourhood of Newington Butts, Mile End Gate, Deptford Broadway, or similar districts; but at present we have to record with regret that the famous Eel-Pie Shop in High Street, Islington, almost opposite The Angel,' ," has ceased to do business. It boasted an existence of over a century, and its appearance would substantiate at least two-thirds of that claim. The tin cupboards which kept the pies at a suitable temperature, and the marble-lined window in which two bowls of mince retained a perennial freshness, were indications of No authority is cited for this by Whyte maturity and unchanging success. These Melville. Where is this dance mentioned premises and some of their neighbours are elsewhere? Had it a French name? Inforvery much older than the plain brick mation about it is desired. exterior wall suggests. The low-ceilinged J. A. H. MURRAY. shops into which you step down are undoubtedly earlier than the commencement of the nineteenth century. ALECK ABRAHAMS. "CHOPS OF THE CHANNEL."-"N.E.D.' does not note this familiar phrase, but it is obviously an accepted one of very long standing, for it is to be found in a letter of 16 June, 1680, from the Duke of Ormond to his son, the Earl of Ossory. The Duke observes: "I suppose his Majesty may save in England full as much as we shall lay out here [Dublin.] since the stations of the Land's End, Cape Clear, and the Chops of the Channel may be supplied by them [ships."-Historical MSS. Commission, Ormonde MSS., New Series, vol. v., p. 336. Another instance is furnished in a petition of several merchants of London to the House of Commons in 1707, wherein the presumption was expressed that, in given circumstances, they might safely order their homeward-bound ships to steer directly for 'the chopps of the Channel" (ibid., 'Portland MSS., vol. viii. p. 301). ALFRED F. ROBBINS. THE STOCKS IN USE FIFTY YEARS AGO. The following occurs in the Exeter Flying Post for 7 April, 1859: , "Exeter Guildhall.-William Phillips, a 'navvy, in the employ of Mr. James Taylor, was charged with being drunk and committing a breach of the peace in South Street the previous evening. The Bench inflicted a fine of 5s. and the expenses; or the alternative of six hours in the stocks. A fortnight was allowed him to pay the money.' HARRY HEMS. comfiture of mankind." Oxford. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THESES: DUNCAN LIDDEL.-In Albrecht von Haller's 'Bibliotheca Medicinæ Practica' (1777), vol. ii. p. 316, there is given a list of theses maintained at the University of Helmstädt under Prof. Duncan Liddel as præses. Haller cites his authorities, but in contracted forms which he does not explain. Thus :De melancholia. Helmst. : 1596. Burckh. De apoplexia. Helmst. 1605. Riv. De morbis. Helmst.: 1598. He. De symptomatibus. Helmst. : 1598. He. Who are Burckh., Riv., He. ? The last suggests J. C. Heffter's 'Museum Disputatorium (1764); but although in vol. ii. p. 243 of that work Nos. 4176 to Liddel as præses, the two noted by Haller 4189 are fourteen theses maintained under Wood Hall, Calverley, Yorks. JOHN HUS BEFORE THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. Can any one inform me who was the artist of a fine painting of Hus before the Council of Constance in 1415 ? It was well engraved some forty years ago. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. "MINERIA MARRA," "MOTTO.-I shall be glad if some one will translate this heraldic motto. It belongs either to a Warwickshire or a Worcestershire family, I believe, but it seems difficult to trace. LEADEN FIGURES.-The makers of leaden figures and garden ornaments belong to the earliest years of Piccadilly. I believe much useful information respecting the industry and its fortunes in London generally has been provided in a volume or some of the many art periodicals, and I shall be obliged for the reference. The provision of statuary generally was presumably a considerable business even before the Great Fire. Would not the buildings in Lincoln's Inn Fields (1617 ?) and the erection of handsome residences west of the City have occasioned such an industry? If so, in what locality or street was it specially carried on? Piccadilly at a later date, and Euston Road in our own times, were the birthplaces of gods and goddesses innumerable. ALECK ABRAHAMS. "HEN AND CHICKENS SIGN.-How could the "Hen and Chickens" have had its origin as a trade sign in the City ? There were signs with this name in Paternoster Row, in St. Paul's Churchyard, in Cheapside, in Southwark ; near the Royal Exchange, Cornhill; near the New Exchange, Strand; at Holborn Conduit; and on Hammond's Key, Eastcheap way. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. WELSH JUDGES.-Is there any printed biographical list of the old Welsh judges, after the manner of Foss's Judges of SENEX. England' ? THE ACORN AND THE GABRIEL.-I wish to find out in what year the 18-gun brig Acorn (Capt. Clarkson) captured the slaver C. J. P. BARLOW. Gabriel. L. H., ARTIST, 1793.-I have two sepia 1823, which would be only six years before drawings of little boys, nude figures, signed Lord Prudhoe's visit, it does not allow L. H., 1793 (the initials forming a mono- sufficient time for Gordon's journeys in graph), and I shall esteem it a favour if Kordofan. Is anything more known of some correspondent of N. & Q.' can tell Capt. Gordon's travels? His name does me of any artist of that period signing his not appear in the 'Dict. Nat. Biog.' works as above. One drawing represents FREDK. A. EDWARDS. four figures playing about a winepress; the other shows three of the boys playing with a large vase, from the top of which issues a jet of water, while the fourth is asleep. The technique and figure-drawing are so good that I believe the drawings are by an artist of some repute. Caversham Park Gardens, Reading. W. MILES. SQUIRE DRAPER AND HIS DAUGHTER. Will any reader of N. & Q.' kindly volunteer information anent an ancient Yorkshire hunting squire named Draper and his renowned daughter Di Draper ? In her ardour for the chase she twice swam the river Ouse, opposite Cawood Castle, after the hounds. We in our family possess & large oil painting of her, and it is always said that Sir W. Scott took Di Vernon (in Rob Roy ') from her. The painter's name is not on the likeness, but an engraving (an exact copy) has been met with in some magazine of the eighteenth century. I shall be grateful for any information. (Mrs.) E. A. HILLWELL. Wistow, Dewey Avenue, Aintree, Liverpool. CAPT. R. J. GORDON AND THE AFRICAN ASSOCIATION.-Capt. Robert James Gordon, of the Royal Navy, left Cairo in May or June, 1822, on behalf of the African Association, for the purpose of ascertaining the Sources of the Bahr el-Abiad, or White Nile, then an unknown mystery (The Quarterly Review, October, 1822, p. 93; J. J. Halls, 'Life of Henry Salt,' 1834, ii. 205, 211). On 20 June the French traveller Frédéric Cailliaud met him between Assouan and Dongola (Cailliaud, Voyage à Méroé,' 1826, iii. 267). He visited several of the mountain regions of Kordofan, and, to use the expression of the Arabs, "had written down all the country (G. A. Hoskins, Travels in Ethiopia,' 1835, p. 180). He fell ill in Kordofan, but managed to reach Wad Medina, on the Bahr el-Azrek, or Blue Nile, a little north of Sennar, where he died and was buried. Lord Prudhoe, who visited Sennar in 1829, says Gordon arrived at Welled Medina about eight years before, in the month of June, and died in ten days of a violent tertian fever (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1835, p. 47). But, unless we are to understand this as June, 39, Agate Road, Hammersmith, W. COL. PESTALL.-I have a song entitled 'Pestall,' published by B. Williams, 30 (Fountain Court), Cheapside, with accompaniment for the pianoforte. It bears no date, but must have been published at least sixty years ago. On the frontispiece is an illustration of a British officer in uniform, in a prison cell, with a chain connecting the wrists. Beneath the illustration is printed: The melody of this song was marked on the wall by Col. Pestall (a victim to Russian Tyranny) the night before his Execution." Who was Col. Pestall, and what were the circumstances which led to his execution? T. MURRAY WIGHT. On 31 May, 1722, Thomas Ripley, Esq., THOMAS RIPLEY AND RICHARD HOLT. GOD OF ARCHITECTURE.-I have read somewhere that the Chinese have a special god whom they worship when a new building is erected. Can any reader of 'N. & Q. give the name of this god, or particulars of any similar deity? Is there a patron god of architecture or buildings in any system N. BOOTHROYD. of mythology? Holmleigh, Batley. SOTBY AND BLEASBY MANORS, LINCS.The Inq. p. m. of John Clayton of Crooke, Lancs, who died in 1625, shows that he was the owner of the above manors and a large quantity of other property in that county. These Lincolnshire estates seem to have passed, with his Lancashire property, to his daughter Dorothy, and So to the descendants of George Leycester of Toft, co. Chester, her husband. How did he acquire them? It does not appear that his father (or his uncle, whose heir he was) owned them. Did they come VINTNERS' COMPANY.-I should be very grateful to any one who could inform me in what magazine, more or less recent, I have come across an article on, or bearing upon, the early days of the Vintners' Company. I rather think it was in one of the monthlies. R. A. H. UNTHANK. 27, Paulet Road, Camberwell, S.E. HARVEST SUPPER SONGS.-Where can I obtain the words of English songs such as were sung at harvest suppers in Surrey and Sussex twenty years ago? Wiggie, Redhill. 6 ARTHUR TROWER. Replies. "MURKATTOS": "CAPAPS." (10 S. ix. 66.) As no one has as yet enlightened W. J. P. on the meaning of these two mysterious words, may I (although rather late) be allowed to inform him that they are mere ghost-words, both being misprints? The fact is that the writer of the article on Animals, &c., in the Island of Ceylon,' in The Sporting Magazine for April, 1796, had got hold of vol. iii. of Churchill's collection of voyages and travels, which contains the English translation of Baldæus's work on Ceylon (published 1672), and dished up as original some of the information he found there. In chap. li. of that translation we read : "There are certain Birds [in orig. Kuykendieven. lit. chicken-thieves,' i.e., kites] in Ceylon call'd Minhotos by the Portugueses, who [sic] often make bold with the young chickens." We see, therefore, that "murkattos " is a misreading of the printer's for "minhotos." This word minhoto, the dictionaries appear to imply, is a corruption of milhano, which is from the Latin miluus, through a form *miluanus. Plaice, Crabs," and so on, nineteen other varieties of "fish" being named, among which the egregious translator (whom I have already gibbeted in N. & Q.') enumerates Haddocks (for Goa cod), Sharks (for mullets), "Orados (the original has d'Orados), "Seals " (for soles !), and "Bomtos" (for bonitos, the original having the misprint Bomten), "is interesting, repre cacap The word “ senting, as it does, the Malay (ikan) kakap, from which comes the Anglo-Indian cockup,' a word the origin of which neither Yule nor the 'N.E.D.' was able to give, but which is explained in the second edition of Hobson-Jobson.' Wouter Schouten, who was a contemporary of Baldæus's in the East Indies, in his 'Oost-Indische Voyagie (1676), ii. 159, says that “in the [Javanese] fish as cacop," &c. Valentyn, in his enorfish-markets is to be got in abundance such mous work the 'Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien (1724-6), has a number of references to this fish. In the section on Ceylon (p. 54) he enumerates among the fishes of the island “Cakab"; and the governor Ryklof van Goens, in his memoir of 24 Sept., 1675, printed by Valentyn, speaks (p. 222) of Cacabs." In his description of Batavia (p. 255) Valentyn mentions among the many sea-fish to be had there kacab"; and in his very lengthy account of the fishes of Amboina, he says (p. 344) :— re "The Cakab is likewise one of the most delicate and whitest fish that the sea here yields. It is also as firm of flesh as curd, so that it is the prime of the market. At Batavia, indeed, it is kept in tanks in the gardens." 66 Valentyn's appreciation of the cockup is even stronger than that of Yule, who calls it an excellent table-fish," and states that it forms the daily breakfast dish of half the European gentlemen in Calcutta. According to Klinkert, as quoted in Hobson-Jobson' (2nd ed.), the more common form of the Malay name of the fish is siyakap. Now Niewhof, in his Travels in the East Indies,' as translated in vol. ii. of Churchill's collection, says (p. 351): "The Fish call'd Siap Siap by the Javaneses, is a River Fish in great request among the Javaneses, and is taken in considerable quantity near Batavia.” Niewhof does not mention the kakab, and one might be tempted to identify his siap siap (the reduplication may be simply the plural form) with the siyakap of Klinkert, were it not that Valentyn, in his description of Batavia referred to above, speaks of the "sjap sjap fish separately from the |