320
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.
19, 1920;
dock especially its root had a place in
medicine as a remedy in many skin affec-
tions, such as scabies, &c. The official
ointment into which it entered, the first
title of which was Unyuentum ad Pruritum
Scabiosorum, afterwards changed to Un-
guentum ex Oxylapatho, was a very old
preparation and survived in our pharma-
copoeia until 1746. C. C. B.
"DlDDYKITES" AND GlPSIES (12 S.
vi. 149, 193, 216, 261). In Suffolk a Papist was often spoken of as a Roman-diddy, and as teats are called " diddies " I deemed there was some allusion to the Gospel milk, but the remarks that have been made on the above suggest the far better derivation, that " diddy " is here a contraction of diddykite a pretender, and a Roman-diddy is therefore a Roman pretender. H. A. HARRIS.
MA.'OR JOHN BERNARDI (12 S. vi. 296). Major Bernardi's story was a very remark- able one and shows a most extraordinary state of affairs during the reigns of William III., Anne, George I. and George II. re- specting Acts of Parliament.
John Bernardi was an Englishman of Genoese extraction, his father and grand- father having been agents for the Republic of Genoa at the English Court. In early life he "was in the Dutch army under the Prince of Orange, but at the time of the Revolution he sided with James II., entered the English army, attained the rank of major and fought at the battle of the Boyne and at the siege of Limerick.
In 1691, on the discovery of Sir George Barclay's plot against King William he was arrested on suspicion with no proof of being one of the conspirators, and committed to Newgate where he was kept for forty years till, in 1736, death released him at the age of 82. He was never tried nor admitted to bail. He frequently claimed his legal rights during each of the afore-mentioned reigns, but the only result of his applications was that at different times six Acts of Parliament were passed authorising fresh terms of imprisonment !
Major Bernardi had one great comfort during his incarceration, namely the com- pany of his wife who, we are told, by a writer of the day, " by her industry contributed much to his support and comfort and to keeping of his heart from breaking." Ten children were the result of this marriage in Newgate, so probably lie has descendants.
Even Macaulay says John Bernardi '&
name " has derived a melancholy celebrity
from a punishment so strangely prolonged
that it at length shocked a generation which-
could not remember his crime."
CONSTANCE RUSSELL.
Swallowfield, Reading.
Born at Evesham, 1657, son of Count Francis Bernardi. Was wounded on active service in Holland ; arrested in London in 1C96 as a suspected conspirator in "the assassination plot " against William III., but was never tried. Imprisoned in New- gate for nearly fortv years and died there in his 80th year, " Sept. 20, 1736. (See 'D.N.B.' (re-is'sue) ii. 389-90.)
H. G. HARRISON.
SPROT OR SPROAT (12 S. vi. 274), The following may have some bearing on the- meaning of this name, from ' Surnames as a Science,' by Robert Ferguson, M.P., F.S.A. (1884) ; chap, x., 'Names which are Not what they Seem' (section, Names Apparently from Fishes ') :
" Spratt I class along with Sprout and Sprott (Sprot, ' Domesday '), comparing them, with O.G- Sprutho, as from Goth, sprauto, nimble, active." _ RUSSELL MARKLAND.
SIR WILLIAM BLACKS-TONE, 1723-80 (12 S^ vi. 209). Maclan's ' Chart of Oxford Print- ing,' printed for the Bibliographical Society, 1904, though it does not say that Blackstone- was a practical printer, states on p. 22 that a dispute arose about the nomination of delegates to the Press, which induced him to investigate the statutes and condition of the Press, and that he dealt with these- in a ' Letter to the Vice-Chancellor ' (1757). He shows that the Press was at a low ebb- from 1722-56, but he succeeded in infusing new order and new life into it, which it has ; never lost. ARCHIBALD SPARKE.
GRANDFATHER CLOCK (12 S. vi. 251, 298), I have been personally acquainted with- Mr. J. L. Bath, for many years : he is still alive, and about 80 years of age, residing at 4 Cleveland Terrace, Bath. He was always noted for these clocks. His great speciality was adding chimes to clocks, repeater watches, &c., and I know his services were in great request all over the United Kingdom. I have seen many beauti- ful specimens of his work, and am surprised! he is not mentioned in Britten's list.
H. HUMPHRIES.-
4 Prior Park Buildings, Bath.
