248
NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. x. SEPT. 26,
It lived to promote these principles in a con
stitutional way for over one hundred year?
and then dissolved itself, being suspectec
of sympathy (owing to its name) with the
principles of the French Revolutionists
I shall be glad to have any literary references
to the Society in the eighteenth century.
" Simon Search," the editor of The Spirit
of the Times, sometimes mentioned it in his
periodical numbers. He also wrote a letter
to the members, urging them to more exten-
sive action in the cause of the principles
they were associated to uphold. But they
shrank from the methods of the French
Revolution, and as a society dissolved.
FRANK PENNY. 3, Park Hill, Baling. . -
" WRONGHALF " : " PYCH " : " TARGE." Can any reader of * N. & Q.' explain the term " wronghalf " or " wranghalf," as applied to some process cloth underwent at a fuller's hands ? The expression seems to imply that the cloth was turned on its wrong side. The Coventry Leet Book (1518) has :
" No man put no cloth to ony walker to full
but if he will wranghalf it."
2. Can any one explain the word " pych " pitch, as applied to the size of the slay or weaver's reed ?
" Ther be noen [i.e. slays] occupied but of a true pych, >at [is] xiij quarters and a half or xiij at te lest" Ibid., 1514.
3. What is the meaning of " targe " ? "Dyuers inhabitants have used to hawke and
to hunt, kepying haukes, greyhondes spanielles,
ferettes, heyes, targes, and other engennes." Ibid., 1525.
M. DORMER HARRIS. 16, Gaveston Road, Leamington.
DUKE or WESTMINSTER'S ELOPEMENT WITH Miss CHILD. I remember seeing in some illustrated journal a short time ago an account of the Duke of Westminster eloping with Miss Child. There was an illustration of the postchaise, &c. Can any reader kindly tell me the name and date of the publication ?
MABERLY PHILLIPS, F.S.A. Steyning, Enfield.
HANNAH MARIA JONES. Who was this lady ? In 1837 she published a novel bearing the name of 'The Gipsey Girl.' When I was a child it was read aloud in the nursery, and was to me a most enthralling work. Were any more books, imaginative or other- wise, produced by her ? I have not found her name in any book of reference that I have consulted. COM. EBOR.
GEDNEY CHURCH, LINCOLNSHIRE. I
should be glad to know where I can find
particulars of this church, or any information
about it. C. H. R.
PARLIAMENTARY APPLAUSE : rrs EARLIEST USE. In the course of one of my contribu- tions to the discussion of the question of the origin of "Hear, hear!" (see 4 S. ix. 200, 229, 285 ; 6 S. xii. 346 ; 8 S. iv. 447 ; v. 34 ; vi. 518 ; xi. 31, 95 ; 9 S. i. 216 ; iii. 133) I asked (but as yet have received no- reply to the query) what were its foreign equivalents as a mode of parliamentary applause.
I would now supplement this with a further question as to when parliamentary applause of any kind came into recognized use. I find an example in 1679, on 30 April of which year Col. Edward Cooke, writing from London to the Duke of Ormond, then Viceroy of Ireland, and describing the delivery of a Speech from the Throne by Charles II., observed :
- ' If one may infer the heart from the voice, theirs
was very joyful, for I never yet heard so loud hums so often repeated as on the occasion of this speech, so that there was a great pause of silence necessi- tated between every paragraph." Historical Mfeb. Commission, 'Ormonde MSS.,' New Series, vol. v. p. 74.
The same correspondent, writing to Ormond on 23 Oct., 1680, and referring to another King's speech, said :
"When the King came to that endearing expres- sion of his tenderness to the Protestant religion, the echo was a unanimous hum of applause." Ibid., p. 459.
ALFRED F. BOBBINS.
UNITED STATES : SOCIAL LIFE IN THE SOUTH. Will some one acquainted with the social development of the United States nlighten an Englishwoman on the following points ?
1. What is supposed to have been the number of undoubtedly cultivated families in the Southern States during Colonial
- imes, as compared with the rest of the
population ?
2. What was the number of such families ust before the Civil War broke out ?
3. What was the proportion of families having a household of from six to ten
fficient servants not half-trained negroes with satisfactory grooms, gardeners, and ther employees in addition ?
4. Are many old Colonial mansions of respectable size to be found ?
To judge by modern historical novels, ihe country must have been full of families
