391
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. v. MAY 19, 1906.
hedges, &c." Is it possible (pace Miss Baker)
that the word "pleachy," as used by Clare,
means trim or neat? I do not see any
difficulty in Clare's reference to a haystack's
" brow." This surely means the overhanging
thatch or eaves, e #., eye-broivs.
JOHN T. PAGE. Long Itchington, Warwickshire.
WHITCHURCH, MIDDLESEX (10 th S. v. 249, 336). The derivation of this place-name from Whitechurch does not seem to me quite satisfactory, though I have certainly met with the patronymic " Whitechurch." In Murray's * Handbook' it is referred to as
- ' Whitchurch or Little Stanmore, noted for
being the site of the large and costly mansion of the Duke of Chandos " (p. 61).
At a short distance is the old parish church of Great Stanmore, unroofed, and now abandoned to the owl and the bat. In it is buried " the travelled thane Athenian Aber- deen." A collection of monumental tablets has been shunted from it into one of the vestries of the new church. In this village it was that Dr. Parr started his rival establishment to Harrow.
The celebrated racehorse Eclipse is buried in Canons Park, at Little Stanmore, and the legend runs that he was once nearly seized as a heriot, but escaped through having had his legs whitewashed.
JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.
Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
SUPPRESSION OF DUELLING INT ENGLAND {10 th S. ii. 367, 435; iii. 16, 475; iv. 333; v. 112) Here are two more books :
The Duello | or | Single Combat | From An- tiquitie deriued into this Kingdome j of England with seuerall Kindes | and ceremonious formes there- | of from good authority described. London, Printed by G. E. for T. Helme, &c., 1610.
Antiduello | or | A Treatise | In which is dis- cussed the lawfulnesse | and unlawfulriesse of single | combats. Together with the forme of seuerall Duels | performed in this Kingdome up- | on sundry occasions. London, Printed by Thomas Harper for Benjamin Fisher, &c., 1632.
H. A. ST. J. M.
HAIR-POWDERING CLOSETS (10 th S. iv. 349 417, 453; v. 57, 95, 135, 177). There are several hair-powdering closets at Lord Mans- field's house at Kenwood, Highgate, and these are noticed in an article giving an account of the mansion which appeared in the 'Hampstead Annual,' 1905-6. p. 115.
R. B. P.
VAMPHORN (10 th S. v. 110, 154). A notice of 'The History of East Leake' (Notts), by Sidney P. Potter, in The Athenaeum of
29 Aug., 1903, made mention of a vamping
trumpet, 7 ft. 9 in. long when extended, with
a mouth (bell ?) 21f in. in diameter, as being
among the notable things of the place :
"This example is locally known as the Shawm. It was in use until about the middle of the last century as part of the west gallery orchestra [in the church], a bass singer vamping the bass through
it The parish plough was also kept in the
church until the fifties of the last century."
ST. SWITHIN.
SPINOLA'S WHALE (10 th S. v. 109, 173). There is aSpinola mentioned in the following couplet given by Stow :
Kirkebyes Castell and Fisher's Follie, Spinola's pleasure and Megses glorie.
In these lines four large houses built in London in the sixteenth century are, 1 believe, referred to. The probability is that the same Spinola had also some connexion with the celebrated whale ; but I am unable to throw any further light upon the subject.
JOHN T. PAGE.
Long Itchington, Warwickshire.
CRESSET STONES (10 th S. v. 308). There are at least three in Cornwall : at Lewannick Church, at Marhamchurch, and one found at Launceston, and now in the possession of Mr. Arthur G. Langdon, whose illustrated article on these three stones in The Reliquary for January, 1905, MR. WHITHAM should consult. The Lewannick stone (22 inches diameter, with seven hollows, each 4| inches deep) is figured in Journal of Royal Inst. of Cormvall, ix. 343. YGREC.
A four-wick cresset stone was found during the recent excavations conducted by Mr. Harold Breakspear upon the site of Waverley Abbey. See The Athenaeum for 21 April, p. 478. BENJ. WALKER.
Gravelly Hill, Erdington.
GALLIE SURNAME (10 th v. 309). Is not MR. GALLIE very near the origin of this name when he suggests that it may be of French extraction? " Gallie " might well be a friendly term for a " Frenchman." One finds in Bosworth's * Anglo - Saxon Dic- tionary ' Galleas, the Gauls, and gallia-rice, the kingdom of France. James B. Johnston, in his 'Place-names of Scotland,' explains Gal(l)atown, Kirkcaldy, interrogatively as Gaelic gall, a stranger, foreigner, and Galston in Ayrshire as "stranger's town" (ed. 1892,
p. 116, 117). J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
"THE COAL HOLE (10 th S. v. 306, 353). John Rhodes, proprietor of " The Coal Hole," died 1 August, 1850. This tavern was started in 1830 or 1831. The name was changed
