Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/567

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io s. it. DEC. 10, 1901.) NOTES AND QUERIES.


467


John Maclean, the eminent antiquary. Was V. S. Lean of the same family as Sir John Maclean ?

It would be interesting to know if there are many families of the name of Lean who have dropped the prefix of Mac.

ALASDAIR MACGILLEAN.

MCDONALD FAMILY OF IRELAND. In the memorandum dictated by my grandfather (see 9 th S. xi. 205) occurs this item :

" M'Pike from Scotland to Miss Haley (or

Haly)/rom England ; she was granddaughter of Sir Edmund Haley (astronomer), England. Children were James M'Pike, Miss M'Pike. Miss M'Pike married M' Donald of Ireland. 1 '

The italics are mine. Possible the marriage M'Pike Haley (or Haly) took place in Dublin, although tradition says* James McPike was born in Scotland, presumably in Edinburgh, circa 1751, and "sent off to Dublin to acquire a thorough military education." The Dublin parish registers are not accessible to me, nor are the records of Edinburgh. Can any one confirm the marriage of a Miss Pike or McPike to one McDonald in Dublin between 1760 and 1775?

EUGENE F AIRFIELD McPiKE.

1, Park Row, Room 606, Chicago.

AUDIENCE MEADOW. As no reply has been received to my query on this subject, ante, p. 208, I shall be glad to be allowed to repeat it. Audience Meadow is the name of a field in front of Tickwood Hall, near Broseley, Shropshire, where Charles I. is said to have held a conference in 1642. Where can I find an account of this ? W. H. J.

"FRESHMAN." When was this term first applied to a new arrival at any university 1 In the second translated edition of Buscon, 1670, p. 47, there is a description of the wel- come accorded to Don Diego at Alcala. The scholars having asked for and obtained money, "they began to make a hellish musick, crying Vivat, Vivat, welcome Fresh-man. Let him henceforward be admitted into our Society," <fec. I am aware of the notes on 'College Salting ' in 1 st S. i., and also the notes on

  • Freshmen ' in 8 th S. v. and vi.

HERBERT SOUTHAM.

[The earliest quotation in the'N.E.D.' for this sense of the word is from Nashe's 'Have with vou to Saffron- Walden,' 1596.]

MERCURY IN TOM QUAD, OXFORD. Many years ago there was in the fountain Tom Quad, Christ Church, Oxford, a figure of Mercury. I am seventy-six years of age. I have no recollection of it, nor can I meet with any one that has, i.e., persons of ad-


vanced age and blessed with good memory. I have read of it, but no guide-book informs me when it was removed. I am curious to know, and should be obliged if you or any of your readers could enlighten me.

ALMA MATER.

RULE OF THE ROAD. Can any reader give me the exact words of the second quatrain on this subject] The first I have not only from memory, but confirmed by Dr. Brewer in his ' Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,' where it runs :

The rule of the road 's an anomaly quite, In riding or driving along :

If you go to the left you are sure to go right, If you go to the right you go wrong.

It is of the second quatrain that I feel doubtful, though I know it exists, but cannot find it in either of Dr. Brewer's books, or in Eliezer Edwards's 'Words, Facts, and Phrases.' It runs, I believe, nearly as follows : But in walking the matter is different quite ;

There, in running or walking along, If you go to the right you are sure to be right,

If you go to the left you go wrong. Perhaps the better reading of the second line is :

In walking the pavement along.

EDWARD P. WOLFERSTAN.

National Liberal Club.

[The rule of the road in various countries was dis- cussed at 6 th S. iii. 468 ; iv. 34, 154, 258, 278, 316.416 ; v. 76. Several forms of the tirst quatrain were quoted, and it was pointed out that at 3 rd S. x. 63 a connexion of the Erskine family stated that he had always understood that this quatrain was written by the witty Henry Erskine, brother of the Lord Chancellor. No reference, however, was made in any of the communications to a second quatrain. We have generally heard the first as a distich :

The rule of the road is a paradox quite :

Go right, you go wrong ; go left, you go right.]

LADY JEAN DOUGLAS. Does any reader know of a portrait of Lady Jean Douglas (1698-1753), mother of the claimant in the " great Douglas Cause '"? If so, where is the original picture? and has it been engraved ?

T. F. U.

" CALF'S GADYR." What is the meaning of "gadyr"? It occurs in the accounts of the churchwardens of St. Mary's parish in Sand- wich, Kent, in 1449 :

" Item, for a calvis hede and a calvys gadyr with bread and ale thereto, for the parish's part in re- freshing of the ministers of the choir on Easter Day after the tirst hy masse, 12&c."

The same item of refreshment occurs in other years, and one entry gives *'in the vestry " as the place where they had this " refreshing."