Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/120

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. VIL FEB. 8, wia


instance, but every editor knows how diffi- cult it is to detect a misprint of this kind when once it has been made. MR. T. BAYNE, from having consulted an incomplete edition of the ' Diary,' is unable to agree with PROF. DUNN as to the frequency of the references to this person. There are ten references to him, counting the one in which he figures as " Drum." His name is spelt as follows in the ' Diary ' : Dun 2, Dunn 1, Dunne 3, and Donne 3 ; the last spelling probably indicates the correct name. Lord Braybrooke's suggestion that the man was really Thomas Danes, a mes- senger of the Admiralty, seems to be a very improbable one. Donne was a trustworthy messenger to Pepys while he was at sea. He undertook to bring the Diarist's pro- perty from the ship to his house in London, and he carried out the undertaking satis- factorily. Once more Pepys alludes to Donne when the latter called at the Navy office and had supper off a haunch of venison (14 July, 1662). His name does not occur again in the ' Diary,' which looks as if he passed out of Pepys's life, and it is unlikely that he was an official of the Navy office. HENRY B. WHEATLEY.

MISLEADING MILESTONES (11 S. vii. 30). These very ancient stones probably mark the leuga, equal to 1| Roman miles. It passed from Gaul to Britain. Here it was defined as duodecim quaranteinis, 12 furlongs or roods of 40 rods. This measure survived for a long time in the circumference stated for the verge of the king's court. This duo- decimal multiple of the furlong was gradu- ally superseded by the mile, originally 5,000 Roman feet, then 5,000 English feet, and in- creased in Tudor times to its present length of 8 furlongs. It is seen, both in the leuga and in the mile, that these are multiples of the rod and the furlong, the latter not being originally a division of the mile.

It would, be interesting to know the exact, or the mean, distances between the Zeti^a-stones, whether they corresponded to the Roman mile = 1,621 yards, or to the longer mile in English feet.

EDWARD NICHOLSON. Cros de Cagnes, near Nice.

MR. J. LANDFEAR LUCAS, at this reference, speaks of the apparently incorrect distances shown by many of the stones erected by the sides of our old roads, and which go by the general name of milestones. He refers to their distance apart being in some cases 1 miles. Are we to understand that on a road between A and B, two places


4 miles (statute) apart, there would be three stones only, at 1| miles, 3 miles, and 4 miles, or that at each of these distances there would be stones marked 1, 2, and 3 miles ? If the former, how were the distances marked on the reverse journey, viz., from B to A ?

In some correspondence in daily journals since MR. LANDFEAR LUCAS says that he has now been informed loy a Devonshire friend that several such stones exist in the neighbourhood of Princetown, and the sup- posed reason for their being placed at the distance apart of 2 kilometres was for the benefit of French prisoners, 1806-11 (circa), on parole, who were given " limits " in the measure to which they were accustomed. As one who has tramped the roads and much of the moorland in the neighbour- hood of Princetown every year now for many years, and has never before heard of the existence of such so-called milestones, I should be glad if MR. LANDFEAR LUCAS or his friend would inform me through your columns at what places in the vicinity these boundstones may be found. Will he also kindly tell me how much of the existing road-system across the moor was in exist- ence at the time the Princetown prisons were occupied by French prisoners ? Also, were the parole prisoners taking exercise confined to the roads ? W. S. B. H.

WESTON PATRICK, HAXTS, AND KING FAMILIES IN IRELAND (11 S. vii. 29). It is perhaps scarcely necessary to observe that the surname King is not of Irish origin. The earliest bearer of it I can trace in Ireland is a James King, described as bo n in Dublin in 1498, celebrated as a scholar and author of ' Carmina in laudem Henrici Sydnsei ' and ' Diversa Epigrammata.' who died circa 1569. He was most probably of the family " Kinge of Dublin," whose arms, copied circa 1606, were "Azure, 3 lozenges or.' T Of the same family, there can be little doubt, were the Kings of Clontarf Castle, near Dublin, whose arms, also copied circa 1606, are the same as the preceding, save that the lozenges are " voided " (mascles), probably for a difference. They were amongst the English of the Pale who rebelled against the Commonwealth, and had their estate con- fiscated and given to a follower of Cromwell. Of the same stock probably was the scholar of the surname, described as a native of Connaught, who assisted good Bishop Bedell in translating the New Testament into the Irish tongue ; he was a convert to the Established Church, and appointed by