Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/436

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ 12 s.m. SEPT., 1917.


the best-used roads for this important journey. Those selected would not, I sub- mit, take the cavalcade past Burton Grange. The old glazeiier's memory must have played liim false, or else he was " pulling the leg " of his hearer. E. G. B.

Robert Surtees in his annals of the city of Durham, ' Hist. Durh.,' iv. (1) 10, says :

" 1646[-7]. Feb. 3. King Charles came to Durham, attended by the Scottish Commissioners. It seems there was some fear of a rescue, for the Scots write to the Earl of Manchester, ' The King came this day from Newcastle to Durham, where he arrived by two o'clock in the afternoon, and the reason we take no long journies is to avoid such inconveniences as might possibly befall us in travelling late in the evening.' "

In the parish register of St. Helen's, Auckland, under date Thursday, Feb. 4 (1646/7), is:

" Our gracious King Charles laid at Christopher Dobson's house in Bishop Auckland."

J. W. FAWCETT.

Consett, co. Durham.

"DEATH'S PART" (12 S. iii. 360) is that portion of the movable estate of a deceased person which remains over after satisfying the legal claims of wife and children. In Scotland this surplus " the dead's part " was the only part which the deceased could dispose of by will or testament until the law was altered by 19 and 20 Viet. c. 94.

A. C. C.

" CHURCH DROPS " (12 S. iii. 360). In North Yorkshire the water which runs from a church roof, particularly that shed from that part of it which covers the chancel, is supposed to be a restorative for ailing people, when sprinkled over them. Perhaps the threepence noted at Hampsthwaite may have been given as a tip to somebody who took the trouble of collecting the remedy.

ST. SWITHIN.

I think the phrase " church drops " may refer to the easy chairs sometimes kept in country parishes for the sick and elderly, and lent to those most in need of them. Such chairs were sometimes provided from the 'Communion offerings, and regarded with some reverence on account of their origin and use. See ' E.D.D.' (under ' Dropping '), vol. ii. p. 183. A. C. C.

May I suggest leakages from roofs, &c. ? I have often come across entries for moss used about this date for stopping drops, &c.

B. J. W.


WOOD-SORREL (12 S. iii. 360). The following is from a poem by Charlotte Smith (1749-1803), a friend of Cowper. She de- scribes a flower-gatherer

Who from the trunks with bright green mosses

clad

Plucks the wood-sorrel; with its light-green leaves Heart-shaped, and triply -folded ; and its root Creeping like beaded coral.

JOHN T. PAGE.

John Gisborne (1770-1851) speaks of

Wood-Sorrel that hangs her cups Ere their frail form and streaky veins decay O'er her pale verdure, till parental care Inclines the shortening stems, and to the shade Of closing leaves her infant race withdraws.

QUILL.

MR. SAMPSON may like to know that a very recent poet has not overlooked the wood-sorrel. Mr. J. W. N. Smith includes in his ' Visions ' a little collection of verses showing much love for nature, and just published by Mr. Over of Rugby a short poem called ' Wood-Sorrel,' of which I quote the last verse :

So for new hope

And old regret The quiet herb among the woods

Groweth yet. Cheering the tired wayfarer,

A bitter taste doth bring Wood-sorrel for memory

Growing in the Spring.

J. R. T.

ARMS WANTED : ^LANCASTER : FITZREIN- FRED (12 S. iii. 332). Newton, ' A Display of Heraldry,' 1846, has at p. 246 :

" Camden, in treating of arms, borrowed, as he terms it, by gentlemen of their liege lords, says that in Cumberland, and about that part of the country where the old Barons of Kendal bore for their arms, Argent, two bars and a canton gules, the latter charged with a lion passant or, many of the barons and gentlemen, their de- pendents, took nearly the same device, changing the colours, or the charge upon the canton."

I have not Camden handy for reference.

S. A. GRUNDY-NEWMAN, F.S.A.Scot.

PORTRAITS IN STAINED GLASS (12 S. ii. 172, 211, 275, 317, 337, 374, 458, 517 ; iii. 15, 36, 76, 95, 159, 198, 218, 286, 344). Winkles' s 'French Cathedrals' (1837) says of the choir windows in Chartres Cathedral :

" In the rose, or circular part of the window which surmounts the two lancet-formed lights, is a portrait of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, bearing a shield charged with his own arms, and carrying the banner of the honour of Hinckley in Leicestershire, by the tenure of which the Earls of Leicester of this family were high stewards of England."

W. B. H.