Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/318

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [i28.iv.Nov.,i9i8.


of punch. And then fate took her accustomed hand in the game.

" Agnes was a child of fifteen, but loveliest of youthful maidens, and even as she scrubbed the stairs her beauty shone like a jewel amid rubbish. Harry saw her, and decided that she was no scrub-girl. He had money and a romantic spirit, and then and there proposed to the girl that -ehe go to a school in Boston and learn how to be a lady. Agnes accepted, with a warm and joyous delight that were characteristic of her through life.

" When Sir Harry saw her again she had bloomed into a rare and exquisite woman, with a mind as fine as her figure was perfect. With the result that the man fell desperately in love, but not so desperately that he proposed marriage. Agnes was made for love, however, and recog- nized her destiny without scruple. She gave herself frankly and openly, but was obliged to leave Boston and find some more secluded place. Harry built a fine great house for her in Hopkin- fcon, therefore [some fifteen mile* south-west of Boston], and there the two of them, lived a happy and adoring life for years, finally going to Lisbon, Portugal, where people did not bother about their relation."

LADY RUSSELL has continued the story from this point, but without any mention of the famous old Boston house they occupied in North Square (formerly Clark Square) on Copp's Hill. This house and its associa- tions are described at considerable length in Drake's ' Old Landmarks of Boston.'

It is interesting to note that Ftnimore Cooper visited the Frankland house before writing ' Lionel Lincoln,' in which the place is described as the residence of Mrs. Lech- mere, and located in Tremont Street.

HUGH HARTING.

46 Grey Coat Gardens, S.W.

SUGAR : ITS INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND (12 S. iii. 472; iv. 31, 61, 114, 199, 255). Sugar-loaves are mentioned in the list of ingredients required for making the wafers for the coronation banquet of Henry V. in 1413 : " Item xxx loves de sugre."

The Essex manor of Liston Overhall was lield by the tenure of making these wafers " per serjanteriam faciendi canestellos " for -the royal feast. This serjeanty was already in existence in 1185 (Round, ' The King's Serjeants,' pp. 228-30). But whether the sugar was included in the recipe at that early date is, of course, another question.

G. H. WHITE.

23 Weighton Road, Anerley.

The following references to sugar occur in tb.9 Account Rolls of the Priory of Holy Island. In 1343, under expenses : " Two pounds of sugar of Cyprus (cipor'), 16d." Canon Raine in ' Hist. North Durham ' .(1822), 86, has a foot-note in reference to


this. In the rolls for 1346-7 occurs " Bought 2 Ib. of draget " (from the French dragee, cakes or pastilles, the constituent part of which was sugar, given to the monks on feastdays), and " half a pound of lump sugar ? (in plait), 2 Ib. of white sugar (sugar alb'), and 8 Ib. of black sugar (sugir nigra)." J. W. FAWCETT.

Consett, co. Durham.

WORDSWORTH: SENECA (12 S. iv. 272). 1. The motto of the ' Ode to Duty ; is taken, with a slight verbal change (possim

possim for posset posset), from

Seneca, ' Epistles,' 120, 10. The same question was asked at 9 S. i. 148, and the Index volumes do not show that it was answered.

2. The lines in which Seneca " anticipated the discovery of America " are these :

Venient annis saecula seris, Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum Laxet et ingens pateat tellus Tethysque novos detesrat orbes Nee sit terris ultima Thule.

' Medea,' 375-9.

EDWARD BENSLY. University College, Aberystwyth.

" STUNT " (12 S. iv. 219, 252). This word occurs in Hood's poem ' The Blue Boar.' See p. 489 of ' The Complete -Poetical Works of Thomas Hood,' Oxford edition, 1911 :

He read, and mused, and pored and read, His shoulders shrugg'd, and shook his head ; Now at a line he gave a grunt. Now at a phrase took sudden stunt. And snorting, turned his back upon it, And always came again to con it.

The note at p. 758 states that the poem appeared in the ' Comic Annual. 1837.'

H C. Winchester College.

WHITE HORSE OF KENT : LANDSCAPE WHITE HORSES (12 S. iv. 245). The White Horse of Wantage (Berkshire) com- memorates a great victory gained by Alfred over the Danes in the reign of his brother Ethelred I. The horse, cut in the chalk hills, is 374 feet long, and may be seen at a distance of 15 miles. Chambers's ' Book of Days ' gives a column and a half to the Berkshire White Horse.

ARCHIBAXD SPARKE.

May we not trace the true meaning and origin of these landscape White Horses to a pagan belief regarding the bright figure of a white horse as a symbol of the sun ? According to primitive custom, horses were