Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/472

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s.i.


of the earliest type, which were the im- mediate successors of rivers and natural pools.

Since writing the above note I have remembered one important link in the chain of evidence that I had omitted, namely, the baptismal tanks in the Coptic churches, sunk below the floor-level, e.g., at Old Cairo. And in the Basilica of St. Stephen, by the Tomba dei Pancratii, near Rome, is a square baptistery with a sunk font in the centre, for baptism by immersion (Murray's ' Rome,' 1894, p. 415). These baptismal tanks may well have been called "piscinae."

J. T. F.

Durham.

JANE AUSTEN'S ' PERSUASION.' In the Preface to ' Persuasion ' in J. M. Dent & Co.'s edition of Miss Austen's novels, edited by R. Brimley Johnson (I quote from the third edition, 1893), there is this reference to the cancelled chapters :

'" But she afterwards wrote chapters x. and xi- as we now have them, which are thus the latest* and certainly not the least brilliant, part of her works."

I do not know what other editors have said about these chapters, but in ' Jane Austen, her Life and Letters : a Family Record,' by W. and R. A. Austen-Leigh, 1913, exactly the same mistake is copied from J. E. Austen- Leigh's ' Memoir,' p. 157 :

" The tenth and eleventh chapters of ' Per- suasion,' then, rather than the actual winding-up of the story, contain the latest of her printed compositions."

In the ' Memoir,' too (1906 edition, pp. 167 and 180), the " Cancelled Chapter " is called

  • ' Chap. X.," and at the end of it is the

statement : " Then follows Chapter XI., i.e., XII. in the published book." Of course, what really follows in the published book is chap, xxiv., and the new chapters are chaps, xxii. and xxiii. G. E. P. A.

SMUGGLERS' HELL-FIRE CLUBS. During the eighteenth century on the south-west coast of Scotland, in the numerous places where contraband trade was carried on, the smugglers formed Hell-Fire Clubs, which served as a sort of trust to buy back goods seized by the authorities, to arrange future business, and to rejoice after a successful coup (' The Minister of Dour ' and ' The Back o' Beyont,' by S. R. Crockett). The clubs probably took their name from the fires lit by sympathizers to aid the landing of cargoes, the meetings being held in ruined castles or caves near the seashore ; the


clubs existed in Ayrshire, Galloway, and Fife (Chambers, ' Traditions of Edinburgh,' 1869, p. 70 ; Rogers, ' Social Life in Scot- land,' vol. ii. p. 411 ; Trotter, ' Galloway Sketches ' ).

In the parish of Dundonald, the centre of the smugglers' activity, these fires were regularly lighted ; recent writers connect them with the Beltane or Beltein fires. In the parish church was the gallery known as the " smugglers' loft," where these traders sat on the Sabbath with their wives, " highly respected by all the worshippers " (' Social Life in Scotland in the Eighteenth Century,' Graham, 1899, vol. ii. p. 262).

I am indebted to MR. R. M. HOGG for much help. Any further information will fee welcomed. J. ARDAGH.

35 Church Avenue, Drumcondra, Dublin.

PEMBROKESHIRE FARM-NAMES. Odd in- stances of peculiar names in this respect are the following : Dumpling Dale, Addle Pits, Frog's Hole, Frog's Hall, Pig's Parade, Slow-worm's Nest.

ANEURIN WILLIAMS.

ERASMUS SAUNDERS, WINCHESTER SCHOLAR, who entered the College from Ewell, Surrey, aged 12, in 1547, was the second son of William Saunder, Esq., of Ewell, one of the Commissioners for Ec- clesiastical Goods, 1553, High Sheriff of Surrey, 1556, by Jane his wife, daughter and coheir of William Merston or Marston of Surrey, and widow of Nicholas Myne or Mynd of Norfolk (Kirby, 'Winchester Scholars,' p. 127 ; Berry, ' Surrey Gene- alogies,' p. 42). He proceeded to New College in due course, but vacated his Fellowship, presumably as a Protestant, in Cardinal Pole's visitation of 1556. He married Janet, daughter and heir of William Barret of Tenby, and became Mayor of Tenby in 1577 (Dasent, ' Acts of the Privy Council,' x. 147, 166). He was in the Fleet as a Papist in 1579, 1580, and 1583, and was still in prison as a recusant in 1592 (Strype, ' Annals,' II. ii. 660 ; ' Catholic Rec. Soc. Publ.,' i. 60; ii. 223, 229; ' Cal. Cecil MSS.,' iv. pp. 267, 272). In the last year he is described as of Ewell, and as of the parish of St. Bridget in the ward of Farringdon Without, London. He had a son named Nicholas, who lived at Trenollet in Carmarthenshire.

On Dec. 18, 1592, one Erasmus Sanders or Sander of the diocese of Norwich left the English College at Rheims for the English College at Douay, and in the January following matriculated at the university