neither read nor write, on receiving an office of marriage, said: "Well, Jim, these here things don't ought to be done in a hurry I mun consither a bit afore I speak." After she had meditated on the subject for some days and come to a definite conclusion, she folded up a sulphur match in a small parcel which she put into her lover's hand the next time they met, thus avoiding the blushes which would have accompanied a verbal acceptance.Edward Peacock.
Wickentree House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.
"Matches" in Congreve (10 S. vii. 269 351).—In June, 1875, my father's house at West Haddon, Northamptonshire, was struck by lightning and burnt to the ground. It was a rambling old place, and contained two open chimneys. During the rebuilding I was one day standing by while the workmen were demolishing one of these. As they were removing a large beam which supported the opening over the hearth an original tinder-box was discovered in an interstice behind it. All the requisites were present: flint, steel, tinder, and matches. Of the last there were two or three small bundles. The matches were about 3 in. long, ⅛ in. wide, and of the texture of ordinary wood shavings. Both ends were slightly pointed and tipped with sulphur.
Long Itchington, Warwickshire.
M. N. G. says that the old sulphur matches "were of the same shape and size as those now in use," and other correspondents say that they were "tipped at both ends." What I remember were thin strips about 3 in. long and ¼ in. broad, cut to a point, and tipped with brimstone at the "business end," the other end remaining unsplit, so that a match was broken off the bunch as it was wanted. I can remember something of "Congreves" superseding the old sort.
Durham.
Bishop Hall, in his 'Aaron's Censer,' speaks of "a set match" as if an intrigue or conspiracy were meant: " Lest they should think this a set match betwixt the brethren." Can this be an allusion to sulphur-tipped splints of wood then in use?
Windmills in Sussex: Windmills with Many Sails (10 S. vii. 149, 214, 276).The windmill Mr. Curtis mentions (which had six sails, and not five) was one of the three Kingston mills standing on the Downs in that parish, about three miles south-west of Lewes.
One means of ascertaining the number of windmills in Sussex would be to count them from the Ordnance map, in which the position of every mill is indicated by a miniature representation of one; but there is nothing to show whether the mill is still in use, or its condition (very many mills are sail-less ; neither are smock-mills and post-mills differentiated. Supplementary to this your correspondent, if his ultimate object justifies the trouble, might advertise for information in a county paper. There are probably—if they could be found—half a dozen men in Sussex who could name between them every mill left standing in the county, and a good many of those that have disappeared.Perceval Lucas. Thakeham, Pulborough.
Windmills with five sails, formerly known as "five-wand" mills, are not so uncommon as Mr. Curtis's informant believes. Here in Newcastle we have a very conspicuous example standing between the Castle Leazes and the Town Moor; and I fancy there is one on the east side of the Great Northern Railway, which I see merrily revolving when I travel by daylight to London.
The name of another is preserved in the "Five-Wand Mill" Inn, Bensham Road, Gateshead; but the mill itself, alas! no longer keeps company with the hostelry
Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
[Further replies next week.]
Miscellaneous.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
Mr. Loftie has supplied an interesting topographical and antiquarian text to a volume adorned by the beautiful drawings of a Japanese artist. There are many matters in which we side with Mr. Loftie some of them often discussed in 'N. & Q.' Among the few points of difference we name two. George Augustus Sala used to say that the Reform Club was the finest Italian palace in the world. Some one replied, "Before the Carlton was spoilt by additions to its front," and vaunted the architectural claims of the rival "next door." To him quoth "G. A. S.," severely: "Can't say; never saw it; don't go home that way." Mr. Loftie names "the Carlton and Conservative Club houses" as "very close in their resemblance to the greatest Italian palaces," and omits the finer building. In two passages Mr. Loftie suggests that the boundaries of London date only from 1888. The metropolis was created by Sir B. Hall's Act, and the London County Council was the successor of the Metropolitan Board of Works.
