140
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[12 S. IV. MAY, 1918.
HEDGEHOGS (12 S. iv. 76). There was
formerly a standing committee in every
parish for the destruction of " noyfull
fowles and vermyn," and this object was
felt to be so important that the practice
was expressly sanctioned by statute. A
committee, consisting of the churchwardens
and six other parishioners, was authorized
to be appointed, with power to tax and assess
every person holding lands or tithes in every
parish yearly at Easter, and whenever else
it might be needful to raise a sum of money
to be put into the hands of two other persons,
who were to distribute it. These distri-
butors were to pay this money in rewards for
the different sorts of vermin brought in,
and a scale of payment was prescribed, which
included twelvepence for the head of every
fox ; a penny for the head of every polecat,
wild -cat, or fitchewe ; and twopence for the
head of every hedgehog. The statutes
relating to the subject are 24 Henry VIII.
cap. 10 and 8 Elizabeth, cap. 15. They
have, however, long ceased to be operative.
The urchin or hedgehog was destroyed
because it was (and in some places still is)
popularly supposed to suck the udders of
cows, and abstract the milk. Its shape was
also believed sometimes to be assumed by
mischievous elves. Hence Prospero in ' The
Tempest ' (I. ii.) says :
Urchins
Shall, for that vast of night that they may work. All exercise on thee.
In the witch scene in ' Macbeth ' the hedge- pig is represented as one of the witches' familiars. In calling a child a little urchin the elfish idea remains.
In the churchwardens' accounts for Clitheroe for the latter half of the seventeenth century there are many payments for fox heads at Is. each, and for fullimarts' or foomards' (that is polecats') heads at 2d: each. There are the following payments for hedgehogs :
1699. ffor 4 ffoomards 8d., and 4 hedge-
hogs lOd. 016
3 hedghoggs more . . ..006
1700. Paid for one foornard and 3
hedgehogs 008
WM. SELF WEEKS. Westwood, Clitheroe.
LILLIPUT AND GULLIVER (12 S. iv. 73). There is no need to go to Poole to find the source from which Swift took his hero's name. In The Athenceum for Nov. 25, 1905, Dr. E. J. L. Scott described Ms discovery among the Westminster Chapter archives of the proceedings in actions brought by Lemuel Gulliver of Westminster against
Peter Swift, yeoman, at one time of Longdon,
co. Worcester, with bills of costs dated
8, 14, and 22- Geo. II. Longdon, as Dr.
Scott observed, is " a place not far removed
from Goderich, co. Hereford, of which
Thomas Swift, grandfather of Jonathan
Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, was
vicar."
The rash suggestion that Swift alluded to these actions in Part II. chap. vi. of the ' Travels ' was disposed of by Mr. G. A . Aitken and Mr. L. R. M. Strachan, who drew attention to the chronological error (Athenceum, Dec. 16, 1905).
EDWARD BENSLY.
The following foot-note is from Timbs' ' Anecdote Lives,' &c., vol. i. p. 54 :
" Rogers notes : ' When I was at Banbury "I happened to observe in the churchyard several inscriptions to the memory of persons named Gulliver ; and on my return home looking into ' Gulliver's Travels,' I found to my surprise that the said inscriptions are mentioned there as a confirmation of Mr. Gulliver's statement that his family came from Oxfordshire.' ' Table Talk,' p. 257."
H. C N.
SHEPPABD MURDER STONE (12 S. iv. 18). From the ' Nottingham Date-Book,' under the year 1817, I abstract the following particulars with reference to the above. The murdered girl was 17 years of age, and lived with her mother at Papplewick. She left there on July 7 to seek a place in service at Mansfield, and was seen to leave on her return journey about 6 P.M. Early the next morning her body was discovered in a ditch by the roadside ; her skull was badly fractured, and a large blood-stained hedge-stake, 5 feet in length, was found near. Her umbrella and shoes were missing. A Mr. Barnes was appointed to take charge of the case ; he soon found a trace of a mn who had sold the umbrella at Bunny, and who was later apprehended at Loughborough and made a full confession. He was a soldier named Charles Rotherham, aged 33, of Sheffield, and had served twelve years as a driver in the artillery, having visited Egypt, and been at Badajoz, Salamanca, and Toulouse. He did not know the girl, and had never spoken to her. On the impulse of the moment he struck her down, and repeated the blows until she was life- less. Discovering no money on her, he took the boots and umbrella, and these led to his detection. He was tried by the Hori, Sir John Bayley at the County Hall, Notting- ham, and at first pleaded guilty, but was prevailed upon by the judge to submit to a
