12 s. vin. FEB. 12, 1921] NOTES AND QUERIES. 135 The poor thing, when she came to die
- ' caused herself to be dressed from top tc
toe all in white," as a bride. Your readers have now probably had enough, and A. T. M too. The occurrences must all have taken place about 1610-20, at Esher in Surrey .{where Mr. Drake was patron of the living except that the last few weeks were spent &t Shardeloes, near Amersham, where she 'was buried. The first edition is *'by Hart On-hi,' i.e., John Hart, who is nowhere mentioned
- he others are anonymous. All three edi-
tions are in the British Museum, under Hart's name. FAMA. Oxford. The late Sir W. R. Drake, F.S.A., notes in his * Devonshire Notes and Notelets ' : " It is this Mrs. Joan Drake, whose peculiar melancholia is narrated in a curious and rare pamphlet printed in 1647, intituled ' Trodden - down Strength, by the God of Strength, or Mrs. Drake revived ; shewing her strange and rare case great and many uncouth afflictions for some years together ; together with the strange and wonderful manner how the Lord revealed himself Tin to her a few days before her death.' Her husband appears to have considered that his wife's disease was more fitted for the care of learned Divines than of Physicians, as he called to his aid to preach to her several church cele- brities, including the Rev. John Dod, and the Eev. Mr. Hooker. It is recorded by Manning and Bray ( * Hist, of Surrey,' fo., vol. ii. p. 746, note) that Mrs. Drake when dying caused herself to be dressed in white, like a bride, and desired to be so buried, which was done." CAREY P. DRAKE. Yat tendon. "THE ASHES" (12 S. viii. 110). It is astonishing what a number of inaccurate 1 .and misleading statements have appeared in print respecting the origin of this term i in relation to the cricket matches between i English and Australian teams. For ex- ample, soir.e twenty years ago that eminent I cricketer, Mr. P. F. Warner, brought out a hook entitled 'How we recovered the Ashes." It was originally published by v'.hapman & Hall and subseqiiently in a cheaper form by George Newnes in 1905. The epitaph which created "The Ashes" figured as a frontispiece to this book, and it was stated to have appeared in Punch. That, so far as I know, started the mis- , apprehension. In The Morning Post of the 22nd ult. a paragraph appearecj, commencing, "It jwas our old friend, 'Mr. Punch,' who in- | vented the * Ashes ' " ; and now, I observe from the editorial footnote to ANXIOUS ENQUIRER that the Intelligence Depart- ment of The Times attributes the ~ his- torical epitaph to The Sporting Life. The truth of the matter is as follows. On Aug. 29, 1882, a memorable match at the Oval terminated by Murdoch's Australian team defeating the English Eleven by seven runs. Four days later, viz., in its issue of Sept. 2, The Sporting Times printed the following epitaph with a black- edged border : Jn Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET Which died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. R.I.P. N.B. The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia. In the autumn of 1882 the Hon. Ivo Bligh (now Lord Darnley) took out a team to Australia. They played in all 17 matches. They won 9, lost 3, and 5 were drawn. Of these, 4 were called test matches and each team won two apiece. Anyhow, our eleven were deemed to have recovered the " Ashes " in that season, for the ladies of Australia presented Mr. Bligh with a little urn con- taining them which now reposes in his smoking room at Cobham Hall, Kent. A picture of it recently appeared in The Daily Mail as well as in one of the illustrated weeklies. WLLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK. "RIGGES" AND "GRANPOLES" (12 S. viii. 71). These names which occur in an enumeration of "royal fishes," temp. harles II. are referable to two kinds of shark. "Rig," commonly known to sea- coast fishermen nowadays as "Tope " and 'Toper," a widely distributed species, is Galeus vulgaris. " Granpole," i.e., big-head, is the Basking Shark (Selache maxima] our argest British fish, locally known as the ' broad-headed gazer. ' ' Both are well figured >y Couch and Day in their respective works on British fishes. In August, 1917, I received a photograph f a large basking shark which had been recently captured off Carradale, Kintyre, and was labelled "Broad-headed Gazer." This established its identity. The dimen- iions were not given, but the length of inother specimen from the Isle of Wight preserved in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) was ascertained to be 28 ft. 10 in., he length of its huge head being 6 ft. 10 in. J. E. HARTIXG.
