8
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL JAN. 5, 1907.
Queries.
We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.
"Unconscionable time dying."—Can any one tell me what is the original authority for the "unconscionable time dying" story of Charles II.? Osmund Airy.
"Thune": "(Œil-de-bœuf," French Slang Words.—In Farmer and Henley's 'Slang and its Analogues,' sub voce 'Rhino,' thune or tune is given as a French slang name for money generally. This looks odd to me, as I have always heard thune applied specifically to the five-franc piece. Can any reader tell me which is the correct sense? Is the origin of the term known? Being argot, it is not in the ordinary dictionaries. Another French slang name for this coin is œil-de-bœuf, corresponding exactly to the English term bull's eye for a five-shilling piece, just as its Dutch slang name, áchterwieler, corresponds to our hind coach wheel. I am collecting and comparing the popular names of coins in European languages.
Jas. Platt, Jun.
Thomas Caverley: Jean Cavalier.—I am in possession of an oil painting superscribed "Mr. Thomas Caverley, aged 100. J. Richardson pinxit." According to family traditions, the said Thomas Caverley was a French Huguenot refugee, whose original name was Cavalier, and his death is recorded to have occurred in October, 1745, and the place of his burial to have been St. James's Church, Garlick Hill, in a private vault, of which no trace appears to exist.
Now J. Richardson, sen., died in May, 1745, according to Rees's 'Cyclopædia,' in which he is stated to have had a paralytic stroke a short time before Presumedly, therefore, the portrait was by his son, J. Richardson, jun. Can that question be decided?
Again, was Thomas Caverley related to the well-known Jean Cavalier, a renowned leader of the French Huguenots, who held the appointment of Governor of Guernsey under the British Government? Of him, I am informed, it is stated in a French biographical dictionary that he was "né en 1629. … et mourut à Chelsea en Mai, 1740," i.e, at the age of 111! Is there an English biography of Jean Cavalier extant?
GAMELSHIEL CASTLE, HADDINGTONSHIRE.
Can any of your readers favour me with
information respecting the above castle ?
I can find nothing about it except in ' The
Picture of Scotland,' by Robert Chambers,
vol. i., 1827, and this is legendary. I want
to ascertain facts concerning the place, if
possible. WILLIAM GEMMELL,
Scotstown Hill, Glasgow.
GEORGE STEPNEY. (See 2 S. xi. 225.) The ' Diet. Nat. Biog.' says of this diplomat :
"Extensive collections of his correspondence are preserved in the British Museum and in the Public Record Office. Another large and important ool- lection is in the possession of the Earl of Maccles- field (Hist. MSS. Comm. 1st Hep. p. ix., app. pp. 34-40)."
A bibliography of Stepney concludes the sketch in ' D.N.B.,' liv. 191.
It appears that the Hist. MSS. Commission caused to be made, with the consent of the Earl of Macclesfield, copies of certain of the latter's manuscripts, and that these copies were deposited in the Public Record Office " among the semi-official documents com- monly called ' Transcripts.' " A * Calendar of the Papers of the Earl of Macclesfield' was also commenced and continued (perhaps completed) by the Hist. MSS. Commission (cf. 2nd Report, p. ix). Can any reader say if this calendar or the original letters from Stepney have been examined with a view to the recovery therefrom of new biographical material concerning Dr. Edmond Halley's two missions to Vienna (1702-3) ?
EUGENE FAIRFIELD McPiKE.
1, Park Row, Chicago, U.S.
ELEANOR OF CASTILE : HER TOMB. Miss Strickland speaks of the beautiful recumbent effigy on Queen Eleanor's tomb in West- minster Abbey as a likeness of the queen. Dean Stanley in his 'Memorials' asserts that it is not & portrait, but merely an ima- ginary type of beauty. This seems very unlikeH , and one would much rather believe that the striking and beautiful figure re* sembled the " chere reine." As a far-away descendant of the royal lady, J am deeply interested in the subject. Can any one enlighten me ? HELGA.
REV. R. RATJTHMEL. A topographical 1 work entitled ' Antiquitates Bremetona- censes ' was published in 1746 by the Rev. R. Rauthmel, and deals with the antiquities of Overborough. The author endeavours to show that a Roman road ran from Rib- Chester to Overborough.
In 1741 a certain Richard Rauthmell had been for some fifteen years curate of White-
