Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/138

This page needs to be proofread.

110


NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL FEB. 9, 1007.


an artist ? I should be glad to know the date of his death. G. F. R. B.

ANTIQUABIAN SOCIETY, BATLEY, YOBK- SHIBE. The following occurs in the first volume of The Antiquary, April, 1880, p. 183 :

"An Antiquarian Society has been established at Batley, Yorkshire. The preliminary meeting was presided over by Mr. Yates and Mr. W. H. Hick, by whom the meeting was called together."

They made a statement showing that the parish was very rich in ancient relics. Have these, gentlemen, or has the Society itself, published matter which would be useful in a bibliography of Yorkshire ?

J HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

CHARLES READE'S GBEEK QUOTATION : SENECA. Many years ago I sent a query as to the authorship of the following quota- tion, but no reply appeared : KUI TOVTO //ey terras eort TC^I^S ayuQa Trof.lv TO, KO.KV.. (One accent only is given.) It appears in ' Hard Cash,' by Charles Reade, chap, xli., where it is said to come from one of the Greek philosophers.

In ' Seneca's Morals by Way of Abstract,' by Sir Roger L'Estrange, tenth ed., 1711, p. 273 (i.e., at the beginning of chap, xxiv., ' Of a Happy Life '), is the following :

" It is a Master-piece to draw Good out of Evil ; and by the help of Virtue to improve Misfortunes into Blessings."

Can any correspondent give the author of the Greek saying, or a reference to any passage in Seneca which may be the original of the extract from L'Estrange ?

ROBEBT PlEBPOINT.

DTJBOUBDIEU AND ENGLAND FAMILIES.

Can F. F. C., who wrote on the Dubordieu family at 10 S. vi. 305, confirm or supple- ment the following imperfect genealogical tree ?

Admiral Dubourdieu.

John Dubourdieu (fl. 1696).

Rev. Peter Dubourdieu, rector of Kirkby (something) in Yorkshire.

Mr. Bolton, Boulton,=T=Miss Dubourdieu or Bowden

Miss B(olton) ?=Thomas England

of Hull.

I spell the name as it is spelt on the title- page of a book I once had, but cannot find on the Theban Legion, by the Rev. John Dubourdieu, chaplain to the Duke of Schom ber ?- E. B. ENGLAND.

High Wray, Ambleside.


BELL-HORSES : PACK-HORSES.

(10 S. vi. 469 ; vii. 33.)

THE practice of affixing bells to some jortion of the neck - harness of horses attached to carts and waggons is one that las long been in use in this country, and is still continued in some districts. But the

erm " bell-horse " was, however, more

generally applied to the leading animal of a string of pack-horses, to whose neck was suspended a single loud-sounding bell. The pack-animals were a special breed, and were iccustomed to carry heavy and bulky weights of goods of every description on a wooden framework called a crook (long and short) ; in packs, or in paniers ; or, when mployed by farmers for conveying manure bo the fields, in wooden or metal " pots," like large bandboxes, with hinged bottoms, for discharging their contents. In Japan a sack tied at the bottom was (is ?) sub- stituted for the latter. By untying the Loop, " the manure dropped on the spot where it was wanted. A similar arrange- ment was at one time in use in Scotland " (' Gleanings from Japan,' by W. G. Dickson, 1889, 213-14).

The bell-animal was not only the best animal in the troop, but, according to Mr. Chanter, " it was a common custom for any one wanting a good horse to go to our north country and buy the leader of a string of pack-horses " (Trans. Devon. Assoc., vi. 190). The bell served two separate and distinct purposes, acting both as a guide to the rest of the troop, and as a warning to the approaching traveller.

The number of animals in a team varied considerably, and although they followed independently of each other, and were not bound to their fellows by traces or bonds of any kind, they one after another, in single line, implicitly followed the leading horse, being guided solely by the sound of the bell which he wore, and which must have clanged at every step he took. This is well expressed in some lines on ' The Pack- Horse ' that appeared in one of the peri- odicals in the middle of the eighteenth century :

Through tangled brakes and narrow paths they wind,

O'er pine-clad forests, or the dreary fell ; No trusty pack-horse ever lags behind.

Led by the music of the deep-ton'd bell.

A striking illustration of the guiding influence of the bell, even upon an extremely