Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/35

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us. vm. JULY 12, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


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'The Mask,' a Humorous Review.—I have The Mask, edited by Alfred Thompson and Leopold Lewis, vol. i., February to December, 1868.

In the Preface one reads:—

"Our success has exceeded our most sanguine expectations …… In January we shall resume our Mask, and with additionally attractive features."

A bookseller's Catalogue (1890) says as to vol. i. "all published." Did The Mask in fact end in 1868?


AUTOGRAPH LETTERS OF CHARLES I. From the ' Taylor Papers ' I extract the following :

" After the death of Queen Charlotte on the 23rd of December, 1818, General Taylor, the executor, sends to the Prince Regent a collection of autograph letters of Charles the First and his Queen and others, which were found in an old box deposited in one of the lower passages of the Queen's palace, into which they appear to have been thrown with some useless lumber."

What became of these letters, and where are they now ? H. D. ELLIS.

" DUBBING " : " ILING." In a manu- script survey of the manor of Penwortham, Lancashire, dated 1570, these words occur several times, as in the following examples ;

" One firehowse of iij baies and one dubbinge, one barne of iiij baies and one dubbinge.

"One firehowse of one bay and too dubbings.

" One backehowse whereof the moitie standeth upon the Waste with one Hinge.

"One incrochement with a barne of two bayes and two ilings."

A " firehouse " is a house with a fireplace, but what is a " dubbing," and what an " iling " ? An experienced land agent thinks that a "dubbing" is a pent-house or lean-to structure, the word " down-dub " being still used in parts of Lancashire to express the same thing, and the general sense of the word " dub " seems to be " add to." He points out that " iling," or rather " hoiling," (hoil=hole) is Lancashire for " making holes," and he conjectures that the word probably means " cellar." I fancy there must be some other meaning.

C. W. SUTTON. Reference Library, Manchester.

ROBERT BURNS'S MATERNAL GREAT- GRANDFATHER. Burns told his friend, Ram- say of Ochtertyre, that his maternal great- grandfather was " shot at Aird's Moss " when Richard Cameron was killed. Can any of your readers give the name of this great-grandfather ? I am not aware of any printed pedigree of the forbears of Burns's mother, Agnes Broun. F. A. J.


SIR FRANCIS GALTON IN THE SUDAN. In the notice of the late Sir Francis Galton in the ' D.N.B.,' Second Supplement, ii. 71 (1912), it is stated that

' : in 1844 his father died, and he found himself with means sufficiently ample to allow him to abandon his proposed medical career. He accordingly made a somewhat adventurous journey up the Nile to Khartum, and afterwards in (Syria. On his return he devoted himself from 1845 to 1850 to sport."

This is evidently an error, antedating his visit to the Sudan by a couple of years. In 'Men of the Time,' 8th ed., 1872, we read that he " travelled in North Africa and on [sic] the White Nile " in 1846. In ' Men and Women of the Time,' 1899, this is altered to read that he " travelled in 1846 to [sic] the White Nile." Mr. G. T. Bettany in his Introduction to Galton's ' Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa,' " Minerva Library of Famous Books " (Ward, Lock & Co., 1889), states, evidently with more accuracy, that Galton "in 1846-7 sailed or rode far beyond all the deserts, temples and cataracts of Egypt into the Soudan." This would date his visit to Khartum probably in the first months of 1847. Did he sail up the White River above Khartum ? And did he pub- lish any account of this visit to the Sudan ? His name does not appear in Prince Ibrahim- Hilmy's ' Literature of Egypt and the Soudan.' FREDK. A. EDWARDS.

ELLIS WALKER, TRANSLATOR OF EPIC- TETUS. Is there any biographical reference to Ellis Walker, M.A., author of * The Morals of Epictetus made English in a Poetical Paraphrase,' published in 1716 ? The effort is dedicated to his " uncle, Mr. Samuel Walker of York," and after the Dedication are appreciations in verse by Joshua Barnes, Emmanuel College, Cambridge ; M. Brian, LL.D. Oxoniensis ; Ezekiel Bristed, A.M. ; William Clark, of Katherine Hall, in Cam- bridge ; and Will. Pierse, Emmanuel Col- lege. Are these names of notable persons ?

THOS. RATCLIFFE. [For Joshua Barnes vide ' D.N.B.']

BELL FAMILY. Wanted for literary pur- poses some account of the lives of George Grey Bell and Thomas Charles Bell, who wrote papers in the early volumes of Archce- ologict, JEliana. Thos. Chas. Bell's paper is on the Roman station of Rutupiae, near Sandwich, and is dated 1830; Geo. Grey Bell's is on a cave near North Sunderland, and is dated 1845. Each paper is illus- trated by a plan. RICHD. WELFORD.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.