Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/423

. iv. OCT. 28,1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 349 should be much obliged if any correspondent of ' N. & Q.' could inform me if any traditions of this well still exist in the neighbourhood. W. F. PEIDEAUX. RAINSFORD HALL.—I should be ever obliged if yon could kindly tell me what number of The Illustrated London Neivs contained a picture of Rainsford Hall, co. Lancaster. I think that it was about the year 1870, but it may have been at a much earlier date. The Hall was built by Sir John Rains- ford, Knt., circa 1550, and is represented in The Illustrated London News as having been "lately destroyed by fire." I hunted in our National Library here ; but I had to draw it blank. FREDK. RAINSFOED. 86, Haddington Road, Dublin. PRISONS IN PARIS DURING THE REVO- LUTION.—Will any of your readers kindly tell me where I can get information about the above? I wish to know what rules and regulations were in force during the Reign of Terror, particularly with regard to the treatment, feeding, and general super- vision of the aristocrat prisoners. Any facts relating to their prison life and routine would l>e especially valued. Also, were the sexes segregated, or confined in separate quarters (or prisons)? or were they allowed to mix together ? E. W.-L. HAIR POWDERING CLOSETS.—On the second floor of the old palace at Kew (known as " the Dutch House " from its having been built, in 1631, by £amuel Forterie or Fortrey, a Dutch gentleman and merchant of London) are the bedrooms once used by the princesses, daughters of George III. The rooms—not open to general visitors — are now quite vacant, retaining only as relics of the past the old wainscoting and some primitive wall-paper on canvas ; nor are the fireplaces potable except in the case of one, which from its character appears to have belonged to the old Tudor mansion that preceded the Dutch House on the same site. There is, however, a small room or closet which provokes a question. It is said to have served the princesses for their hair-powdering, and is therefore extremely interesting. The closet is partitioned off one of the rooms, is scarcely ten feet square, and is lighted by a small casement which borrows its light from a window opposite to it. The casement or sash—three feet wide—works up and down in the usual manner, the sill being thirty- two inches above the floor, ana one is told that the lady, outside the closet, placed her neck on the sill while the operator, within the closet, administered the powder to the fair head, the object being that the hair only should be thus dusted, and the dress of the lady saved from the pounoe-box. The process, however, seeming neither practical nor comfortable (the _ possible guillotine action of the sash considered),_ I would ask for information as to hair- powdering closets from any kind reader who may have a larger acquaintance with them. W. L. RUTTON. 27, Elgin Avenue, W. [Powdering gowns and powdering slippers are discussed at 9th S. vii. 268, 374, 473, 488.] WATSON AND HODGSON FAMILIES.—I am collecting materials for genealogical histories of the families of Watson and Hodgson, and shall be pleased to hear from any one who has old family papers, deeds, &c. GERALD FOTHERGILL. 11, Brussels Road, New Wandsworth, S.W. LORD BATHURST AND THE HIGHWAYMAN.— In T. P.'s Weekly, 29 September, there is an anecdote which relates that Lord Bathurst said to a highwayman, " I would never hand these over were it not for your friend just behind your shoulder." Taken off his guard, the gentleman of the road instinctively turned his head to discover who was so near him, and was instantly shot by the peer. Whence is this story derived 1 how old is it ? and how many versions are current? I am informed that in Lincolnshire its hero is a country squire. •• E. MARTIN MALAPERT.—The following passage occurs in 'A Treatise concerning the Right Use and Ordering of Bees,' by Edmund Southerne, Gent., London, 1593:— " Yet I remember once there was a Gentleman, a very friend of mine, which had good store of Bees, unto whom the Parson Oho yet liveth, and 1 feare is one of Martin Malapert's house) came and demanded tythe Bees." What is the meaning of the clause within parentheses, and why Martin ? H. J. O. WALKER. Leeford, Budleigh Salterton. HERALDRY.—Can any of your readers name the following coats?— 1. Quarterly, gules and or, on a bend or two falcons azure, a label of three points argent. 2. Sable, an escallop and three pales in chief or. Motto, EN FYN SOIT. The glass is seventeenth century, and the arms are not given in Papworth. JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.