Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/576

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NOTES AND QUERIES, uo s. VIL JUNE 15, 1907.


Shug Lane, a lodge was held in 1753, and from 1766 to 1772.

ALFRED SYDNEY LEWIS. Library, Constitutional Club.

4. James Abbadie, D.D., was Dean of Killaloe from 1699 to his death on 25 Sept., 1727. See 'Diet. Nat. Biog.,' vol. i. p. 1, and Cotton's ' Fasti Ecclesise Hibernicse,' vol. i. p. 478. G. F. R. B.

[H. L. 0. and MR. J. B. WAIXEWRIGHT also thanked for replies.]

MANSFIELD GOOSEBERRY-TART FAIR (10 S. vii. 329). These pies (for they are hardly tarts) are still made at Mansfield, and what is an old custom shows no signs of failing. A Mansfield friend tells me that they usually speak there of " Mansfield Fair Gooseby Tarts," and not of " Mansfield Gooseberry-Tart Fair." The custom of making these tarts or raised pies is very old, and my friend tells me that none can say when the custom began. The July fair of Mansfield, he says, is probably very much older than the custom of making " goose- by tarts " with pork-pie crust and shape. At the present time with every fair the confectioners and pork butchers fill their windows with them. My friend thinks the custom probably arose because goose- berries in July are always in just the right hard, green condition for the purpose. The gooseberries require to be small ; and plenty of good, pure cane sugar should be used in the making. If large gooseberries are used, they shrink so much that when the pies are done there is but little fruit in them. Mansfield Fair is held on the Thursday nearest to 10 July.

THOS. RATCLIFFE. Work sop.

" MATROSS " : " TOPASS " (10 S. vii. 348 411). In Firth's ' Cromwell's Army,' p. 427 is to be found a statement drawn up by General Monck in 1657, wherein objections were submitted against abolishing certain officials, and among them

"The mattrosses for amunition. It is humbl> desired that their may bee two mattrosses belong ing to the stores of tlie trayne to attend for dryin; of powder that is decayed in Summer, helping t remove the tents, collers, and cordage to keep them in good condition, alsoe to helpe the Comi sarie in delivering out amunition to the officers tha come to receive it."

Clifford Walton, in his ' British Army p. 733, says :

"The term mattross, matros, or montros, evidently akin to the Dutch matroos, and th German matrosen, a sailor ; but I am unaware


e origin of the word in the sense of a gunner's; Distant."

'his is followed by a quotation from a letter ated London, 29 Jan., 1690/1, in which le spelling is " Montrosses." An illustra- on of their uniform in 1689 is in Clifford Valton's collection at the Royal United ervice Institution.

In ' The Gentleman's Dictionary,' 1705,.

is said that

" Matrosses are soldiers in the artillery, next to

gunner; their business is to assist the gunners xmt the gun, to traverse, spunge and fire, to ssist in loading, &c. They carry firelocks, and larch along with the store waggons, both as a .iard, and to help in case a waggon should break own."

his description is repeated, almost verbally^ i Watson's * Military Dictionary,' 1758-

he name seems to have become obsolete n 1783, w T hen they were called gunners.

W. S.

I cannot see why " matross " should be ooked upon as an Anglo-Indian word. It

as in use in England in 1639 as meaning

soldier of the train a distinct rank ; vide Grose's ' Military Antiquities ' (quoted from lushworth), vol. i. p. 373.

The term was abolished in India in 1819,.

gunner " being substituted for it, and the ank hitherto known as " gunner " was hanged into " bombardier."

JOHN H. LESLIE.

Dykes Hall, Sheffield.

TAILOR IN DRESDEN CHINA (10 S. iv. 469_ 136 ; vii. 292). A man riding on a goat and hung about with sundry sartorial attributes was one of the Early Victorian ornaments which gave interest to my lursery chimneypiece. I presume, there- r ore that the model came to be imitated in 3aser clay than that used at Meissen. This igure was ever a cause of wonderment to me, as I could not imagine why the tailor was. so treated by his maker. ST. SWITHIN.

WILLIAM TALMAN, ARCHITECT : HAMPTON COURT PALACE (10 S. vii. 288, 395). I have examined the volume of drawings attributed to Talman in the library of the Royal Institute of British Architects in Conduit Street. It contains nothing which throws, additional light on the lives of the two Talmans. There is a note in the handwriting of the late Wyatt Papworth, the Curator of the Soane Museum, to the effect that the designs for a palace, &c., are to be ascribed to William Talman, and the sketches to his son John Talman. Bound in this volume are some designs in sepia for stained-glass-