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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. APRIL is, me.
and the piece written in Dublin, he used ' box'd
the fox,' which is the term there for robbing an
orchard."
Borrow in c Wild Wales ' uses a somewhat analogous expression, l< to box Harry." At a small village inn he is unable to get a proper dinner, so he says to the landlady : " I will have the bacon and eggs with tea and bread and butter, not forgetting the pint of ale ; in a word , I will box Harry." The hostess says : "I suppose you are a com- mercial gent."
Borrow goes on to explain that commercial travellers in a small way, instead of having the usual commercial dinner, owing to in- sufficient salaries, contented themselves with a beefsteak or mutton chop, or tea and bacon and eggs, the regular dinner of commercial gentlemen being " fish, hot joint and fowl, pint of sherry, tart, ale and cheese, and a bottle of old port at the end of it."
The former were said to " box Harry." The ominiscient Borrow offers no explana- tion, a very unusual proceeding for him so the phrase probably floored him.
Both expressions imply deceit. In the first instance the owner of an orchard would be, from long experience, a wary creature, hence a fox. To " box " or " trap " the dangerous animal would be the first object of the marauder ; but this scarcely goes far enough to explain the saying. " Boxing Harry" is equally obscure ; it seems more redolent of ' Tom and Jerry ' than com- mercial dinners, vide the scene at Temple Bar in ' Life in London.'
J. H. MURRAY.
Edinburgh.
" MARKING- STONE " IN 1786. On p. 122 of vol. i. of " Zoriada : or. Village Annals. A Novel. In Three Volumes." (London : Printed for T. Axtell, Royal Exchange, 1786), these words occur :
" Aye, sir, said Martha, looking very archly, you know better than that ccmes to, it is not for such a poor body as I to throw a marking stone."
The Dictionary defines " Marking stone, an earthy stone used for marking cattle, &c." ; but quotes specimens from the years 1545 and 1676 only. Here we see it in use, at least in the moral sense, at the end of the eighteenth century. Is it known who wrote ' Zoriada,' or the French version which exists in the British Museum, published in London in 1787 ? In some details of word- ing it reminds one of W. Toldervy's ' History of Two Orphans.'
EDWARD S. DODGSON.
' THE MANCHESTER COURIER.' As this is
he first provincial daily newspaper of con-
siderable standing to suspend publication,
temporarily owing to the European war, it
should be "of interest to place the fact on
record. Friday, Jan. 2 8, saw the last issue,
and in an advertisement the proprietors
frankly state the cause for their decision*
The first number of the paper is dated
Saturday, Jan. 1, 1825. It was then a weekljr
with Sir Robert Peel as its " patron." It
became a daily on Monday, Jan. 4, 1864,,
celebrating its jubilee in 1914.
ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L.
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.
SIR ROBERT MANSEL, KT., of Margam and Penrice, Glamorganshire, was Admiral of the Narrow Seas, and Vice- Admiral of the Fleet, the first Vice- Admiral ever appointed in England. This was about the year 1600. Shortly before his death in 1656 he resided at Greenwich, but I cannot find out where he was buried. Can any readers enlighten me ?
The * Dictionary of National Biography * states that Sir Robert Mansel married the- half-sister of Francis Bacon. Under the- heading ' D'Oylie ' it is stated that Elizabeth Bacon, Francis's half-sister, married Thomas- D'Oylie (see also Strype's ' Annals,' 8vo ed., vol. i. part ii. f. 210). G. T. Clark r Mansell, and others, no doubt copying from each other, all say Sir Robert Mansel married the half-sister of Francis Bacon. On examination this seems to me to be- hardly possible.
Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Nicholas Bacon, and half-sister to Francis, was born about 1554, and in 1573, when Robert Mansel was born, would be 19 years old, and if they married when he was 25, say in 1598, she would then be 44 : hardly a likely union f I think this Elizabeth must have married Thomas D'Oylie, as is stated.
It is more probable that Nicholas, the eldest son of Sir N. Bacon, born about 1542, and married before 1572, who had six chil- dren, the youngest a daughter Elizabeth, bom about the same year as Sir R. Mansel', was the father-in-law of the latter. And if this be correct, then Francis Bacon would be half- uncle to Elizabeth. Perhaps the relation- ship with Sir R. Mansel, a renowned sailor
