506
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL JUNE 20, im
hamlet, partly in the parish of North Wrax-
hall, partly in that of West Kington. No
elevation of ground can account for the
name Mountain. In a terrier dated 1608
we find " monitons bower," probably a
mis-writing of Moncton's or Monkton bower.
In the parish of North Wraxhall, says
Aubrey (a good authority, as he was born
in the neighbourhood, and actually pos-
sessed a mill in the parish) " was formerly a
Commandery," or possession of the Priory
of St. John of Jerusalem. West Kington
was connected with the alien Priory of
Fulgers, paying 51. a year a payment now
made to Edward VII.
The next parish to Mountain Bower is Marshfield, formerly belonging to the Abbey of Keynsham. FRANCIS HARRISON.
" CONSERVATIVE " AS A POLITICAL TERM. A foot-note on p. 749 of the Centenary Number of The Quarterly Review says :
"It is stated in the ' Croker Papers ' (ii. 198) that Croker first introduced the appellation " Conservative ' for the Tory Party, in an article published in The Quarterly Review in 1831. It occurs near the close of an article on ' The State of the British Empire,' in No. 87 (January, 1831). But that article is by John Miller, not by Croker."
The word Conservative does occur in No. 87 (p. 317), and that was published in 1831 ; but ought not the date in the ' Croker Papers ' to be 1830 ? An article on ' Internal Policy ' in No. 83 (January, 1830) has the following passage :
" We despise and abominate the details of partizan warfare, but we now are, as we always have been, decidedly and conscientiously, attached to what is called the Tory, and which might with more propriety be called the Conservative, party." P. 276.
The earliest instance of the use of the word Conservative given in the ' N.E.D.' is taken from a letter of Sir Robert Peel's dated 28 May, 1831 (' Croker Papers,' ii. 117); and the next from a speech of O'Connell's delivered on 25 May, 1832.
DAVID SALMON. (Swansea.
[See also the articles at 8 S. vi. 61, 181 ; vii
? 6 L?V 494 ; 9 S ' iv " 333 5 viii - 4 89 ; ix. 478 \ XI. oU7.J
SNAKES GENERATED OUT OF HUMAN BRAINS. (See 10 S. x. 270.) A reference to Plmy ( N. H.,' x. 66 or 188) was given for this notion. In Plutarch's 'Life of Cleo- menes,' last section, occurs the following :
,,p4 *?T ^ ay8 c a ^ er ' the S^rds watching the
crucified body of Cleomenes saw a great serpent
coiled round the head and covering all the face,
that no bird of prey durst alight The
citizens of Alexandria resorted to the spot,
saluting Cleomenes as a ' hero ' and the son of a
god, until the wiser sort stopped them, by ex-
plaining that as putrefied oxen breed bees, and
horses wasps, and from asses in the same con-
dition beetles are born alive, so human bodies,
when the juices about the marrow have con-
tracted and shrunk, produce serpents. And it
was seeing this that made the ancients appro-
priate the serpent rather than any other animal
to ' heroes.' "
H. K. ST. J. S.
DEARE FAMILY. I have a Bible with MS. notes.
Charles Deare, R.N., married Margaret Mushet, 19 Sept., 1833. Children.
Louisa Rowley, 9 May, 1836, at West Cowes.
Robert Elphinstone, 18 Jan., 1838, St. Mary Church Devon.
Margaret Powell, 20 July, 1839, at Mill- field. Died 10 May, 1840.
Margaret, born 28 May, 1841, at St. Mary Church.
These items may interest some reader of 'N. & Q.' A. C. H.
NAVARINO SURVIVOR. The following cutting from The Daily Chronicle of 16 Janu- ary is, I think, worthy of preservation in the columns of ' N. & Q.' :
"The Rev. Arthur Alexander Bridgman, vicar of Legayre, Isle of Man, and one ot the senior clergy of the Established Church, has just died at the age of 95. He had been in failing health for some time. As a boy he was a midshipman in the British Navy, and was present at, and took part in, the Battle of Navarino, in 1827."
FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.
COWPER MISPRINT. In the works of Cowper edited by Mr. J. C. Bailey there is included a posthumous poem (one is glad to find that ' John Gilpin ' is not the only humorous poem written by this serious poet) ' To the Immortal Memory of the Halibut on which I dined this Day, Monday, April 26, 1784.' The last line has one mistake of a single letter.
The poem finishes :
Fare thee well !
Thy lot thy brethren of the slimy fin
Would envy, could they know that thou wast doomed
To feel a bard, and to be praised in verse.
It seems to have escaped the editor as well as the printer that the I in feel should
36 d.
Burns wrote a poem on the mouse which he had ploughed up ; it seems that Cowper not long before had written one on the fish which he had eaten. W. T. LYNN.
Blackheath.
