154
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. AUG. 20,
of the seedless orange and the regretted
absence of the emasculate plum. The
general tendency of cultivation being, there-
fore, towards preserving the wild type of
seed, atavism has but scant opportunity of
becoming evident. J. DORMER.
The following would, I think, be likely sources of information : ' The Wanderings of Plants and Animals from their First Home,' by Victor Hehn, ed. by James Steven Stally- brass, 1888; 'The Origin of Cultivated Plants,' by Alphonse de Candolle ; ' Familiar Trees,' by J. S. Boulger, F.L.S., F.G.S. ; and 'The Management and Culture of Fruit Trees,' by William Forsyth.
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
COUTANCES, WINCHESTER, AND THE CHANNEL ISLANDS (10 th S. ii. 68).
"The bull separating the Channel Islands from their former see of Coutances, which was now no longer English territory, and attaching them to the
see of Salisbury This was afterwards altered to
Winchester, says Canon Benham; but from some cause, which does not appear, the transfer was never made until 1568," &c.' Winchester,' Bell's "Cathedral Series," p. 99.
GEORGE C. PEACHEY.
HONE: A PORTRAIT (10 th S. ii. 68). The only approach to a catalogue of this artist's work between the years 1748 and 1775 arose through a quarrel with the Eoyal Academy, for which see 7 th S. vi. 87, 256.
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.
mf CLOSETS IN EDINBURGH BUILDINGS (10 th S. ii. 89). Among books which describe the construction of houses in Edinburgh in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may be .mentioned Dunlop's ' Book of Old Edinburgh,' illustrated by Hole, 1886. Its description of "Robert Gourlay's House," built in 1569, is too long for exact quotation in * N. & Q.,' "but the following extracts may be of interest :
" One of the most massive Flights of stairs led
from the same point to different parts of the man- sion, and it was easily convertible into several
distinct residences On its demolition a secret
chamber was discovered between the ceiling of the
first story and the floor of the second Gourlay
seems to have put his house at the service of the
Government and during his lifetime it had the
bad pre-eminence of being a condemned cell for
fetate prisoners of gentle blood. The turret
contained a curious spiral stair, which led to the
room thus used and a small closet adjoining was
the sleeping-place of the locbnan in attendance. Amongst others, Sir William Kirkcaldy, of Grange, his brother Sir James, and the Regent Morton, all
passed over its threshold to die Here also was
lodged Sir William Drury, after whom Drury Lane m London was named, the commander of the
English auxiliaries in the siege of Edinburgh Castle
in 1573 Tradition names the apartment in the
turret stair as the scene of * The Last Sleep of Argyll,' son of the Marquess who suffered death under Charles II., and himself doomed to die by
James VII Sixty years after, in 1745, Prince
Charles wrote from Perth : ' There is one man whom I could wish to have my friend, and that is the Duke of Argyll, who, I find, is in great credit on account of his great abilities and quality ; but I am told I can hardly flatter myself with the hopes of it. The hard usuage which his family has received from ours has sunk deep into his mind. What have those Princes to answer for, who, by their cruelties, have raised enemies, not only to them- selves, but to their innocent children ! ' "
W. S.
The following extract from 'Traditions of Edinburgh,' by Robert Chambers (new edition, 1869), will prove illustrative. It may be added that no better authority can be cited :
- ' Oratories, This house [one in Chessel's Court
in the Canongate] presents a feature which forms a curious memorial of the manners of a past age. In common with all the houses built from about 1690 to 1740 a substantial class, still abundant in the High Street there is at the end of each row of windows corresponding to a separate mansion, a narrow slit- like window, such as might suffice for a closet. In reality each of these narrow apertures gives light to a small cell much too small to require such a window usually entering from the dining-room, or some other principal apartment. The use of these cells was to serve as a retreat for the master of the house, wherein he might perform his devotions. The father of a family was in those days a sacred kind of person, not to be approached by wife or children too familiarly, and expected to be a priest in his own household. Besides his family devotions he retired to a closet for perhaps an hour each day to utter his own prayers, and so regular was the custom that it gave rise, as we see, to this peculia- rity in house-building." P. 40.
JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.
Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
MR. SYDNEY PERKS will find several items bearing on his query in vol. i. of ' The Beauties of Scotland,' and 'The History of Edinburgh,' by Alexander Kincaid, 1775, works which I have repeatedly perused with intense pleasure. It is true that no special mention is made of the small closets ME. PERKS alludes to, but I am of opinion that he is correct in his surmise a conclusion I have arrived at from personal observation.
CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.
Baltimore House, Bradford.
Very likely this was the powder closet, where wigs were powdered.
ANDREW OLIVER.
'Goo SAVE THE KING' PARODIED (10 th S. ii. 88). May I refer your correspondent K. P. D. E. to a note of mine on this subject
