Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/103

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us. m. FEB. 4, Ian.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


97


assemblies, concerts, readings, and lectures (see 9 S. v. 354). My impression is that the name " Cercle des Etrangers," to which MR. ABRAHAMS refers, was at one time linked with that of the St. George's Club which occupied the premises until they were razed for the erection of the inevitable pile of flats. The historic " room " became the dining-room of the Club, and its dis- appearance was regretted by many because of past memories. Some fine mural orna- mentations vanished also, nobody appears to know whither. CECIL CLARKE.

Junior Athenaeum Club.

"CARENT" (11 S. iii. 9). I would venture to suggest that the word " carent " falls into the category of legal macaronics. It is simply equivalent to the word " rent." The third person plural of the Latin verb careo, " I want," it applies equally to the position of landlord or of tenant. " Rent " is what tenants frequently want, or are destitute of. It is also what landlords some- times anxiously inquire after, but are destined not to receive. Hence " carent "- moneys which they want, but which are not forthcoming. SCOTUS.

SONGS OF THE PEASANTRY (11 S. iii. 47) Is MR. GRAHAM acquainted with * Songs and Ballads of the West ' ? There are one hundred and ten of them, collected by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould and the Rev. H. Fleet- wood Sheppard from old people living on and around Dartmoor, and set by them to music. Probably the best known of the ballads is

  • Widdecombe Fair.' So far as Devon-

shire is concerned, there is no other collection equal to this. A. J. DAVY.

Torquay.

INSCRIPTIONS IN CHURCHES AND CHURCH- YARDS (11 S. ii. 389, 453, 492, 537 ; iii. 57). During the greater part of 1893 my spare time was spent in Woolwich Churchyard copying the inscriptions on the gravestones before their removal so that the old grave- yard might be turned into a public garden, which was eventually done. I had the countenance, and to some extent the help, of the late Dr. Howard (Maltravers Herald) and Mr. Leland Duncan. There were 1,255 numbered gravestones, some of which were fully inscribed on both sides. The work proceeded slowly, and at the end of the year I had transcribed the inscriptions on 922 stones ; and as the work of removing them began early in the following year, my task came to an untimely end. Mr. F. A. Crisp of Denmark Hill was the originator


i one presumably a stonemason, 'tainly a wag added the following


of the design of preserving the inscriptions, and to him I handed my unfinished work. I believe it was his intention to publish the names among his " Fragmenta," but I do not know if this was done.

It is fortunate that so many inscriptions have been preserved, as during the work of removal, although great care was taken, many stones were, I know, destroyed. The legible dates ranged from 1700 to 1855.

I have preserved a copy of the schedule of names and dates prepared by the legal authorities before the removal, as well as a copy of their plan showing the relative position of each of the 1,255 graves.

One of my discoveries was a forgotten " comic " headstone which had been a source of great annoyance to the then Rector (Greenlaw). It held an inscription to Emmanuel Shipper, who died in 1842, and after his name and date was cut the following distich :

As I am now so will you be, Therefore prepare to follow me.

Some one i and cert lines :

To'follow you I 'm not intent

Till first I know which way you went.

WM. NORMAN. Plums tead.

WILLIAM JOSEPH LOCKWOOD (11 S. iii. 29). It was William Lockwood the father, not William Joseph Lockwood the son, who, according to Burke's ' Landed Gentry,' was " shot blind at Westminster School in a battle against the mob." See 1858 edition, p. 1349. William Joseph Lockwood, who was Verderer of Epping Forest and a captain in the Coldstream Guards, died in 1854.

W. SCOTT.

THE THREE WISHES (11 S. ii. 506). This story is also told in Brittany. It will be found in Mrs. E. W. Rinder's ' The Shadow of Arvor,' under the title of ' Devil-may- Care.' The hero is a blacksmith who had formerly been a soldier. St. Peter, as in the version recorded by MR. NICHOL- SON, accompanies the Lord. H. I. B.

KNOTS IN HANDKERCHIEFS : INDIAN CUSTOM (US. ii. 506 ; iii. 35). At 4 S. xi. 53 I showed that the custom is alluded to in ' The Ancren Riwle,' p. 396, i.e., it is as old as A.D. 1225 in England. This was reprinted in my ' Student's Pastime,' p. 73.

WALTER W. SKEAT.