opine they would be much invigorated by eating ants, which sometimes crowd upon their food. 4. In The Encyclopædia Britannica,' 11th ed., vol. v. p. 489, we are told :— and a half years before, the vacancy thereby caused not having been filled in the interim), and Richard Edgcumbe, disabled by the House of Commons for Royalism. For these vacancies Sir Philip Percivall, Knt.," and Nicholas Leach were chosen. What puzzled "In one direction the tabby shows a tendency me before, and puzzles me still, is why to melanism....while in the other direction Perceval was selected, and this despite the there is an equally marked tendency to albinism. explanation (ibid., p. 372) of that highest of red, is represented by the sandy cat, the female ..A third colour-phase, the erythristic' or all authorities on such a point, MR. W. D. of which takes the form of the tortoise-shell,' PINK, who showed that, though Perceval characterized, curiously enough, by the colour had been a strong Royalist during the being a blend of black, white, and sandy....' opening period of the Civil War, he later Thus far the European tortoiseshell cats quitted the King's side and threw in his lot would seem all to be females. But in Japan with the moderate Presbyterians. But the males of this colour are said to exist, Perceval's chief public service had been though exceedingly seldom. Formerly, trarendered as Commissary-General of Pro-ditions say, all wealthy sea-captains vied with visions in his Majesty's army in Ireland one another to procure one, even from one and provider for the Horse" there from to three thousand ryôs of gold being offered March, 1641/2, to July, 1647, during which |for it. So exorbitant a price did it fetch period, in 1644, he was Commissioner for the because its ascent of its own accord to the King at Oxford to treat with the Irish main mast's top was believed to portend a confederates. Perceval was of Tykenham stormy weather unerringly. The great noveand Burton, Somerset, and Duhallow, list Saikwaku, in his Shin Kashôki,' 1688, Ireland; and I can trace no Cornish con- tom. iii. ch. iii., tells how a lord of Echigo nexion of any kind to account for his choice incurred a serious expenditure and general for 8 Cornish borough. He came in, clamour by adopting an idle boon comhowever, when an Edgcumbe (and that panion's counsel and compelling his subjects Edgcumbe a brother of the younger Piers to search for a tortoiseshell tom throughout and a nephew of Lady Denny of Tralee) the region :went out. Is it possible that this supplies the link of connexion hitherto missing? ALFRED F. ROBBINS. 66 CAT FOLK-LORE. (11 S. xii. 183, 244, 286, 330, 369, 389, 428, 468; 12 S. i. 15.) PROBABLY MR. QUARRELL will find his question (11 S. xii. 369) solved in G. J. Romanes's Animal Intelligence,' 1881, wherein, if my memory deceives me not, the author has essayed to ascribe to her excessive maternal affection the cat's devouring her little ones sometimes when they happen to be too frequently handled by on-lookers. Out of MR. ACKERMANN's five queries I can answer the following four :: 1. In this part it is a common belief that as soon as a young cat is taken in its new master's dwelling, it would invariably disappear thence and return to its native house. The best way of preventing this is to convey it in a sack via a bridge after turning round with it three times thereon, which is said to throw its sense of direction into irrecoverable confusion. 3. The Japanese say nothing about the cat's eating flies, whereas some of them was "It proved bootless, all people were exceedingly distressed, and consequently the search stopped, its original projector being prohibited from approaching the lord. Thus everybody was convincing himself that there existed no male tortoiseshell cat, when suddenly a man found one and presented it to the lord." 6 5. If I remember aright, Charles Darwin, in his Origin of Species or Descent of Man,' adduced as a very inexplicable example of the contingent associations of animal traits the fact of all white cats with blue eyes being deaf. Whether recorded by others or not, during my eight years' stay in England (1892-1900) I repeatedly observed another such association in a peculiar breed of cat, which was not rare in London, but does not occur in Japan. It was dull grey, closely spotted with rather indistinct dark livid marks, had its chin somewhat protruded and its lower teeth grown a little before the upper, and uttered a very characteristic murmur whenever called from its slumber. I am desirous of being told what English name is applied to this breed. That the Japanese since olden times considered the cat as a very peculiar animal is borne out in the following passages: "The cat differs from all other mammals in these nine points. First, it cleanses its face when it feels contentedly. Secondly, it purrs to express fore' was PINAFORE gladness. Thirdly, it sharpens its claws when THE EIGHTEEN SEVENTIES: full of valour. Fourthly, its female nurses the kittens of any other females with a perfectly AND TENNIS (12 S. i. 149).- H.M.S. Pinagood will. Fifthly, its pupils change their shapes first produced at the Savoy according to the hours of the day. Sixthly, its Theatre on the night of May 28, 1878, so it nose is always cool at the tip. Seventhly, it is obvious that the songs from it could not rejoices when one strokes its throat. Eighthly, it have been sung on board a German man-ofperishes in a place quite out of human sight, as if it wills not to let man see its dying look, which war in the spring of 1873. is unusually ugly. Ninthly, it is very passionately fond of the Matatabi-not only does it eat it, but also it rubs its body with the roots, stems, and leaves of the plant, well knowing it is its superlative panacea."-Kaibara, Yamato Honzo,' 1708, tom. xvi. 66 The question of when lawn tennis was first played in some shape or form covers a very wide field of research, as will be gathered from a perusal of an exhaustive treatise on the game by C. G. Heathcote in the Badminton Library" volume on 'Tennis, Lawn Tennis, Fives, &c.,' as well as in Julian Marshall's Annals of Tennis, published by It is recorded The Field office in 1873. in Nichols's 'Progresses of Queen Elizabeth,' for example, that "when Queen Elizabeth was entertained at Elvetham in Hampshire by the Earl of Hertford, after dinner, about 3 o'clock, ten of his servants, Somersetshire men, in a square green court, before Her Majestie's windows, did hang up lines, squaring out the form of a tennis court, and making a cross line in the middle; in this square and cord, as they tearme it, to the great liking of they played, five to five, with handball, with bord Her Highness." The Matatabi (Actinidia polygama) is a climbing shrub of the order Ternstroemiaceae, which also comprises the tea-plant and Camellia japonica. As its pentapetalous flowers bear a certain resemblance to those of the celebrated Japanese plum (Prunus Mume), its blooming branches, intentionally deprived of the leaves, are often used in the art of flower arrangement and called summer Mume. Its fruit resembles the jujube, but with acrid taste, and is salted and eaten by mountaineers. Besides, the plant produces a sort of gall flattish in form, and tasting more acrid than the fruit. It is dried and sold by druggists under the name of Matatabi. The cat is so fond of it that a widespread proverb compares one's dotingness to the the epoch of lawn tennis dates from no more For all practical purposes it may be said that cat and Matatabi. When it is given the distant a period than 1874, when Major Wingfield gall, it behaves as if suddenly possessed-resuscitated it by the introduction of sphairiscaressing and rolling it about before its tike." tasting, and drivelling and ejaculating during its eating. All its distempers, no matter how serious, are cured thereby. Moreover, the burning of the Matatabi is held to be the surest means of recalling a stray cat. It appears from the following quotation that a similar plant occurs in Ceylon :— "In connexion with cats, a Singhalese gentleman has described to me a plant in Ceylon, called Cuppa-may-niya by the natives; by which, he says, cats are so enchanted, that they play with it as they would with a captured mouse; throwing it into the air, watching it till it falls, and crouching to see if it will move. It would be worth inquiring into the truth of this; and the explanation of the attraction."-Tennent, 'Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon,' 1861, p. 32, note. I shall close this reply by noting that here we have an old usage of feasting a cat that has attained the bodily weight of one kwan (=8-281 lb.). Some folks still cling to the superstition that cats, when grown very old, acquire a demoniac power and do various mischiefs. Hence one uses to tell it how long he would like to keep it when he gets a cat in his house; when the term draws near its expiration, it is said to disappear of its own accord. KUMAGUSU MINAKATA. Tanabe, Kii, Japan. But, to quote Mr. Heathcote's words : 66 WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK. The following is an extract from 'H.M.S. Pinafore, or the Lass that loved a Sailor,' written by W. S. Gilbert, composed by Arthur Sullivan, price 18., London, Metzler & Co., p. 2: "First produced at the Opera Comique Theatre, on Saturday, May 25th, 1878, by the Comedy Opera Company (Limited), Manager, Mr. R. D'Oyly Carte. See also 'The Dramatic List,' edited by Charles E. Pascoe, revised and enlarged edition (c. 1880), sub nom. 'Barrington, Rutland.' The first of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas was, I think, 'Thespis, or the Gods Grown Old,' produced at the Gaiety Theatre Dec. 26, 1871. See 'Dictionary of National Biography,' sub nom. 'Gilbert.' ROBERT PIERPOINT. The first request to Gilbert and Sullivan for a light opera came from John Hollingshead, the result being "Thespis, or the Gods Grown Old,' at the Gaiety Theatre Dec. 26, 1871. No other manager approached them until D'Oyly Carte in 1875 proposed they should again collaborate, and Trial by Jury' was produced at the Royalty Theatre. Lawn tennis was first introduced in 1874But the actual beginning of the Sullivan It was then played on a court shaped like an comic operas was in 1877, when D'Oyly Carte hourglass, wide at each end and narrow in commissioned Gilbert and Sullivan to furnish the middle, with some other variations from him with another opera, and The Sorcerer its present style. The shape of the court was produced at the Opera Comique. After was altered, and it took its present form a run of six months it made way for 'H.M.S. about 1877. H. J. B. CLEMENTS. Pinafore, May 25, 1878. TOM JONES. The late Mr. Davenport Adams's useful 'Dictionary of the Drama,' of which vol. i. (A-G) only has been published (1904), gives, 8.v. Gilbert,' 1878 as the date of H.M.S. Pinafore.' This agrees with my own recollection. I think 1873 is too early. As for tennis, the Oxford Dictionary,' 8.2. Lawn Tennis, gives a quotation from The Army and Navy Gazette of 1874 (vol. xv. p. 154), which fixes the date of the game :— 66 A new game has just been patented by Major Wingfield.... Lawn-Tennis -for that is the name....is a clever adaptation of Tennis to the exigencies of an ordinary lawn." G. L. APPERSON. Killadoon, Celbridge. [MR. A. R. BAYLEY, MRS. E. E. COPE, MR. WM. DOUGLAS, MR. N. W. HILL, and ST. SWITHIN also thanked for replies.] M. BELMAYNE, THE FRENCH SCHOOLMASTER (12 S. i. 29). The recorded facts about John Belmain have been brought together by Prof. Foster Watson in Religious Refugees and English Education, Huguenot Society of London, 1911, pp. 8, 9. reprinted from the Proceedings of the Belmain taught French to Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth. In 1546 he was granted an annuity of 40 marks during his life. He was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Edward VI., and a Free Denizen in 1551. In 1550 he obtained a lease for twenty-one All the authorities on operas and dic-years of the parsonages of Minehead and tionaries of biography give the first produc- Cotcombe, co. Somerset, and in 1552 a lease tion of H.M.S. Pinafore, or the Lass that of the Manor of Winchfield, Hampshire. loved a Sailor,' as May, 1878, but the dates Prof. Watson's references include Archæologia, vary. I think we may, however, take The vol. xii., mentioned by G. F. R. B.; J. G. Times as correct, May 25, 1878, the piece Nichols's account of Edward VI. (presumably being played at the Opera Comique. It was in his Roxburghe Club Literary Remains of originally called 'The Mantelpiece,' and Edward VI.'); Strype's Life of Cheke '; readers may remember the lines from Bab and Stevenson's Preface to the 'Calendar of Ballads': :State Papers, Foreign Series, 1558-9,' p. xXV. EDWARD BENSLY. ....the worthy Captain Reece, Commanding of the Mantelpiece. ARCHIBALD SPARKE. 'H.M.S. Pinafore, or the Lass that loved a Sailor,' was produced at the Opera Comique Theatre by R. D'Oyly Carte, May 25, 1878, and ran for seven hundred nights. Lawn tennis made its appearance in 1874. The first lawn tennis championship meeting was held at Wimbledon in 1877, and the first inter-university contest in that game took place at Prince's in 1881. G. F. R. B. Lawn tennis was invented by my friend the late Col. Walter Wingfield of the Royal Body Guard, and succeeded Badminton' in about 1873. HAROLD MALET, Col. 66 'H.M.S. Pinafore' was first performed on May 25, 1878, and ran for seven hundred nights. It seems unlikely that there could have been a previous play with the same title, but is it certain that the date of the letter is correct? If not clearly written, a mistake might easily be made between 1873 and 1878. CLERKS IN HOLY ORDERS AS COMBATANTS: (11 S. xii. 10, 56, 73, 87, 110, 130, 148, 168, 184, 228, 284, 368; 12 S. i. 77).--It may interest readers of N. & Q.' to know that the Rev. Arthur Buckminster Fuller, a graduate of Harvard and a chaplain of a Massachusetts Regiment, after the Union forces had been driven back in their first attempt to storm the heights of Fredericksburg, in 1862, seized a gun and joined his regiment in the next charge upon the heights held by the Confederates, and was speedily killed. CHARLES E. STRATTON. 70 State Street, Boston. DAVID MARTIN, PAINTER, 1737-98 (12 S. i. 166).-Information with regard to portraits. by Martin of the family of Keir, or of the Bruces of Kinloch, may be obtained from the catalogues of the Society of Artists, of which he was a member, and of which during the years 1773 to 1775 he acted in the capacity of treasurer. E. E. BARKER. The John Rylands Library, Manchester. 'HACKNEY" (12 S. i. 150).-The origin of the words "hackney " and "hackneyed is ancient and obscure. Various countries appear credited with them, but one of the most ingenious derivations is drawn from the Middle Dutch, with hacken or hakken a chop; the alternate lifting and dropping of the horse's feet in ambling, with the accompanying sound, being compared to the alternating movement of a pair of chopping knives in chopping cabbage or the like (although the late Prof. Skeat took it in the sense of jolting)—thus the horse, the coach, and even hired people have all fallen under the description of hackneys. And so the word became known to convey the meaning to wear, weary, or exhaust by frequent or excessive use, as a horse. Thus Shakespeare, in Henry IV.,' has it : Had I so lavish of my presence been, So common hackneyed in the eyes of men. Marvell wrote: "Both men, and horses, and leather being hackneyed, jaded, and worn out." And Goldsmith says: "I always held that hackneyed maxim of Pope." While a charming living writer, Mr. George A. B. Dewar, puts it thus : "The Sahara desert could no more be vulgarized by a beanfeast than the Pacific Ocean by an excursion boat. Still less can such places be hackneyed by writers. The Sphinx-how infinitely less it is than Sahara. Yet who can hackney the Sphinx?" J. LANDFEAR LUCAS. Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey. THE "FLY": THE 19 'HACKNEY (12 S. i. 150).-MR. ACKERMANN will find much information concisely conveyed in Omnibuses and Cabs,' by Henry Charles Moore (London, 1902). He says, at p. 182, that hackney-coaches were established in London early in the seventeenth century. At p. 189 is given a picture of a hackney-coach about 1680, and at p. 194 a picture of a hackneycoach about 1800. At p. 225 he says that about 1837 the first four-wheeled cab was placed upon the streets, being called covered cab." It carried two passengers inside and one on the box seat : "This cab was quickly improved upon, and the Clarence,' our much-abused growler,' was the result. Lord Brougham was highly pleased with the new vehicle, and in 1840 he instructed his coach-builder-Mr. Robinson of Mount Streetto make him one of a superior description. Hence the brougham." On the same page is given a picture of the first four-wheeled cab. The old hackney coaches were generally discarded familycoaches. At p. 204 Mr. Moore writes : "The origin of the word hackney' cannot be decided. In all probability it was derived from the old French word hacquenée, which was applied to horses-and sometimes coaches-let on hire. The claim that Hackney was the first place where coaches could be hired, and gave its name to the vehicles, does not bear investigation." JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. MR. ACKERMANN may like to know that the use of the name of "fly" for a vehicle commenced long before that of "fourwheeler," for it arose in 1809 at Brighton when a carpenter employed at the Royal Pavilion Stables injured himself, and on his recovery made a seat on wheels to be pulled about on by a single horse. The Prince Regent saw it, and ordered another, and this was used by him and his friends in their larks at night, who named it a fly by night." The carpenter at once sent the pattern to HAROLD MALET, Col. obtain more from London. 66 at Brighton in 1816, and originally drawn or Fly-the name of a light vehicle, introduced pushed by men; but a horse being soon employed the name was gradually extended to any one-horse covered carriage, as a cab or hansom, let out on hire. Local usage of the word varies; in some places fly is confined to a four-wheeler'; but it is generally applied to a vehicle hired from a livery stable, and not plying for hire." : 1847, Act 10 & 11 Victoria, c. 89, § 38 :'Every wheeled Carriage....used in standing or plying for Hire in any Street....and every Carriage standing upon any Street, public or private....having thereon any numbered Plate required by this....Act....shall be deemed to be a Hackney Carriage." A. R. BAYLEY. [G. F. R. B. thanked for reply.] THE TURKISH CRESCENT AND STAR (12 S. least two centuries earlier than the taking of i. 189). The Turkish badge was in use at Constantinople in 1453. At the meeting of the British Association held at Leicester in that this crescent has nothing to do with 1907, I remember, Prof. Ridgeway maintained the moon, as is generally supposed, but represents an amulet of two claws placed back to back. He exhibited such charms, I think, from his own collection. No doubt COL. POWLETT would find an abstract of Prof. Ridgeway's paper in the Proceedings of the Association. several CHARLES J. BILLSON. The Priory, Martyr Worthy, Winchester. At the meeting of the British Association held at Leicester in 1907 Prof. W. Ridgeway delivered a lecture on The Origin of the Crescent as a Mohammedan Badge,' in which he advanced the theory that "primitive peoples were in the habit of wearing, as an amulet, claws or tusks of the most powerful and dangerous animals. These in time were placed base to base, and the crescent form resulted. and the Muhammadans therefore adopted a pre-existing symbol, and the connexion of the crescent with the moon is a later development."-Report, p. 649 f.; Man, vol. vii. p. 144. The assertions referred to by COL. POWLETT will be found in Haydn's Dictionary of Dates' and similar books of reference. If COL. PoWLETT will consult Rawlinson's 'Empires,' and examine especially the pictures of the coins, he will be able to trace the use of these symbols in the turband or head-covering of the sovereigns depicted on them. From which fact it would appear that these symbols of rise and growth were adopted by each successive race of conquerors on the defeat of the previous race. FRANK PENNY. 66 JOANNA LA Loca (12 S. i. 128).-Joanna, Queen of Castile, called by the Spaniards la Loca," died at Tordesillas, April 13, 1555, aged 73, and was buried in [close to] the Cathedral of Granada, where is still to be seen her tomb, by the side of that of her husband, who was brought there from Burgos (Biographie Universelle,' vol. xxi., 1818, sub nom. Jeanne, reine de Castille '). For confirmation of this see Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Spain,' by Richard Ford, ninth edition, 1898, pp. 360, 361, where Juana la Loca's monument and coffin, in the Capilla Real, attached to the Cathedral of Granada, are described. A footnote refers for interesting details of her to 'Cal. of State Papers,' edited by Bergenroth, vol. v., Appendix, London, 1862. ROBERT PIERPOINT. SIR CHRISTOPHER CORWEN (12 S. i. 190).— The person knighted when Anne Boleyn was crowned must have been Sir Christopher Curwen of Workington, who was Sheriff of Cumberland in 1525 and 1534. His son Thomas was "educated in part with Henry VIII. when Prince of Wales, and "at the dissolution of abbeys was granted a lease of the Abbie of ffurnes for 20ty one See J. F. Curwen's Pedigree of the Family of Curwen,' pp. 34, 35. JOHN R. MAGRATH. According to Hammer, the crescent was first placed by Alaeddin Tekesh of Kho-yeares.' varesm (the territory between the Oxus and the Caspian Sea), a non-Ottoman ruler (about A.D. 1223), on his flags and tents; but the same device with the sun and the crown of Khosroës figured long before his time on Persian coins as symbols of those rulers' power over the sun and moon (French edition, i. 37). The author, however, does not state when the Ottoman Sultans adopted the crescent for their device and added the star. L. L. K. 1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie,' ii. 117: Selim, Emperour of Turkie, gaue for his deuice a croissant or new moone, promising to himself increase of glory and enlargement of empire." A. R. BAYLEY. Queen's College, Oxford. GEORGE INN, BOROUGH (12 S. i. 90, 137, 175, 216).—In the appendixes to the Second Records, vol. ii. part ii. (1914), p. 93, there Report of the Royal Commission on Public is a contribution signed by Mr. F. W. X. Fincham, Superintendent of the Literary Search Department at Somerset House. In this article, which deals with certain classes of records in the Probate Registry, he remarks:- "The Deposition Books of the Consistory and historical personages. contain allusions to Commissary Courts often The Responsa Personalia' might, I imagine, afford valuable historical |