278
NOTES AND QUERIES, tns. XL APRIL 10,1915.
The trouble was that these occasions
always came along so suddenly that
.no opportunity offered itself for testing
the belief by an actual experiment. The
master, in this particular, was sure to get
ahead of us. But we knew that the remedy
would w r ork if a boy once were lucky enough
to try it. Of course, our forefathers brought
over^this valuable tradition from England.
In nearly every instance a popular super- stition, when traced to its source, is dis- covered to be founded in some sort of a reason. Perhaps some one may enlighten your readers as to the origin of this curious bit of schoolboy credulity.
FRANK WARREN HACKETT.
Washington, D.C.
THE HEIGHT OF ST. PAUL'S. The follow. Ing appears in The Guardian of 19 March :
" AUTHORITATIVE STATEMENT. " A discussion has recently been raised in the
Eages of the weekly and daily press as to the exact eight of St. Paul's Cathedral, and authorities -have been quoted as giving the height, from the level of the Cathedral floor to the top of the cross, in figures varying from 340 ft. to 404 ft., or even more. These doubts are now laid to rest by a statement by Canon Alexander, the Treasurer of
- St. Paul's, to the effect that very careful measure-
ments have just been made by the Cathedral staff showing that the height from the floor to the cross is 355 ft. 6 in. It should be remembered that the level of the Cathedral floor is several feet above the surrounding ground, and this, again, several ieet above the level of the crypt."
WM. H. PEET. [See 11 S. x. 388, 434, 474 ; xi. 13.]
THE LAST OF THE LTJCKNOW DINNERS. It has, according to The Times, been decided to discontinue the annual commemoration of the Belief of Lucknow. A donation of 50Z. 14s. Id. has been made to the Indian Soldiers' Fund by the few surviving sub- scribers to the Relief of Lucknow Dinner Timd. These include Major-General G. Stewart, Major-General H. Cook, Major- Oeneral F. E. A. Chamier, Col. G. B. Blake, Col. Charsley Thomas, Col. L. A. M. Graeme, <?apt. Pearson, and Mr. J. Berrill.
FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.
10, Essex Street, Norwich.
" JOHN INGLES ANT." I alwaj^s thought that this name was invented by Mr. Short- house, but I was surprised to find in the x Leicestershire Post Office Directory ' the following entries :
" Inglesant (John Herbert), 250, Humberstone Road, Leicester.
"Inglesant (Thomas Henry), 19, Saxe Coburg Street, Leicester."
R. P. B.
WE must request correspondents desiring in-
formation 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.
SERJEANTS' FEASTS. Dugdale in his
' Origines Juridiciales ' (Lond., 1666) gives
his forty-eighth chapter to an account of the
feast of 16 Oct., 1555, which he cites
" Ex cod. MS. penes Eliam Ashmole arm. an. 1662."
The Serjeants at this call were J. Prideaux, I.T. ; Francis Morgan, Robert Catlyn, and Anthony Browne, M.T. ; Will. Rastall and Will. Benlowes, L.I. ; and John Walpole, O.L
The paper in question does not appear to be catalogued among Ashmole's MSS. in the Bodleian Library. Has it been " borrowed " by Dugdale or some later historical student ? If it can be identified elsewhere, Sir James Murray will be very glad to have particulars. I understand the feast comprised the earliest recorded " Turky - Chicks .... at iiij.s. a piece." Q.' V.
" STATESMAN." In his ' General View of the Agriculture of the County of West- moreland .... drawn up for the Consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement ' (Edinburgh, 1794), Andrew Pringle writes ( i. p. 18) :
" A large proportion of the county of Westmore- land is possessed by a yeomanry who occupy small estates of their own from ten to fifty pounds a-year, either freehold or held of the lord of the manor by customary tenure, which differs but little, if at all, from that by copyhold, or copy of court roll"
In discussing the question of labour ( vii. p. 30) he says :
"Labour is dearer in Westmoreland than it is in almost any of the counties either to the north or south of it. This probably is owing to the great number of small landholders, or statesmen above- mentioned, who doing the work upon their own estates, with their own hands and those of their families, are perhaps disinclined to labour for other people."
Dr. Bradley will be very glad to have any earlier quotations, and to know whether the definition " Yeomen ; small owners," occurs in the first edition (1787 ; B.M. press- mark 966. g. 10) of W. H. Marshall's ' East Norfolk.' In the Bodleian Library the second (1795) id the only edition repre- sented. Q. V.
