168
NOTES AND QUERIES. en s. m. MAR. 4, 1911.
the 4 History of Whalley.' Are there anj
Shersons living in Lancaster now or in anj
part of the County Palatine ? I shall be
grateful for any notes on the family, as !
have not the opportunity to make persona
investigations on the spot.
E. STUABT SHERSON. 39, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W.
" CACKLING CLOUTS " occurs in Ford's 'Vagabond Songs and Ballads,' Second Series, p. 175 :
Forth spake the mither when she saw The bride and maidens a' sae braw, " Wi' cackling clouts, black be their fa', They've made a bonnie cast o't."
" CARPILLIONS " occurs in ' Poems in English, Scotch, and Gaelic on Various Subjects,' by John Walker, farmer, Luss, 1817, p. 89:
Whan storms come rattlin' frae the east, An' wife an' wee things apt to dozen, We're oft obliged to stop a lozen, An'carefully collect some rullions. Like hose, or breeks, or auld carpillions, Without regard to mode or form, But just to screen us frae the storm.
"GAINSHOT" occurs in Sir T. Dick Lauder's ' Moray Floods of 1829,' 3rd ed , pp. 316-7 :
i!, The north Esk . overspread the large bleach field at Craigie Mills, which was covered with
cloths and yarn, rose to the height of 3 feet in
the mill, and, if it had not been for a rampart raised by the people at the gainshot, by risking their lives, the whole works might have been swept
n.\xrniT T^Vn-k >-w /- v * J ,-.4-,-, j J_T T ^ .
away The proprietor measured* "the^height
- the gainshot of the mills, and found
of the water at cue ^UJIISHUL 01 i/ne mnis, an
jt 7 feet 2 inches above the ordinary level."
" HUNNIN' PIN " occurs in Lauder, on. cit , p. 100:
" I then teuk for the grun', an' drappit down on a wee bit spat [i.e. spot], where I fand an auld cupple log, which Hugh had bought for fire. I heezed it up. There was a hunnin' pin in't, and that was like a stap, an' sae I gat a' doon, praised be the Lord ! "
" KINCHIE " occurs in James Ogg's Glints i' the Gloamin ' (1891), p. 41: " Hi ! Bodkin, what cheer ? " Said the Kinchie wee man Wi' a comical kin' o' leer..
" SUFFLEE " occurs in Isaac Brown's Renfrewshire Characters and Scenery,' reprinted in Motherwell's ' Poetical Works 1881, p. 3 :
Mr. Brown was a manufacturer of Lappets, Suffices, and Foundations or. as ordinarv people would call him, a Muslin Manufacturer."
May I ask information as to the meaning of the above words ? ALEX. WABRACK
Oxford.
PHYSICIAN'S CANE. I understand that
down to about the beginning of the last
century physicians, when visiting patients,
suffering from infectious diseases, carried
with them, as a safeguard against con-
tagion, walking-sticks in the hollow heads
of which was cotton wool saturated with
Marseilles vinegar or other antiseptic. Can,
any of your readers, therefore, say whether
the stick in my possession is a genuine
" physician's cane " ? It is a hazel with a
natural round head. This is hollowed out,
and at the bottom are several perforations.
Over these holes (in the inside of the cavity)
is a piece of gauze, and also inside near the-
top are two perforated brass discs. The lid
or plug is a well-fitting circular piece of wood,
with a round hole in the centre.
JOHN LINN. Kirkliston, West Lothian.
SAMUEL BYROM was the author of ' An Irrefragable Argument, fully proving that to discharge Great Debts 5^ less injury and more reasonable than to discharge Small Debts,' 1729. Is anything known of him besides what can be gleaned from this pamphlet ? G. F. R. B.
LATIN HEXAMETERS BY MACHINERY. From a volume of American essays published in 1867 I extract the following extraordinary passage :
" Twenty years ago [1847] there was exhibited in London a machine which made excellent Latin hexameters. The unfortunate inventor had spent thirteen years in perfecting 'The Eureka,' as he called it. It actually ground out hexameters lik* hose of Virgil."
I remember as a boy watching the famous '* Automaton " at the Crystal Palace playing
- hess against all comers. Was this verse-
making machine constructed on similar ines ? Are there any records of its doings extant ? M. L. R. BRESLAR.
RICKETTS : GOODWIN : JOHNSON. Capt. William Ricketts of Bluefields Fort, Jamaica, m. Mary, dau. of Goodwin, and grand- daughter of Sir Francis Goodwin of Winchen- don, Bucks, by his wife Elizabeth, dau. of Sir Arthur, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton, K.G.
Mrs. William Ricketts, nee Goodwin, d. 16 April, 1750 (not 1758, as stated in Burke's Commoners ' and ' Landed Gentry '), being hen aged 96.
Her dau. Rachel m. Thomas Johnson, ^/ieut. R.N., and had issue an only surviving on Jacob Johnson of Springfield, Jamaica.
These Johnsons of Springfield used the armorial bearings of the family of Johnson
