Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/238

192 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2s.vni.MABCH6.i92i. PARLIAMENT HILL. Why was Parliament Hill, London, N.W., so named ? I have heard it said, Because the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot stood there to watch the House of Parliament be blown up. ALFRED S. E. ACKERMANN. AUTHORS WANTED. I should be glad to know who wrote the following : 1. How thick with acorns the ground is strewn rent from, their cups and brown 1 How the golden leaves of the windless elms come singly fluttering down ! The briony hangs in the thinning hedge, as russet as harvest corn ; The straggling blackberries glisten jet, the haws are red on the thorn ; The clematis smells no more, but lifts its gossamer weight on high If you only gazed on the year, you would think how beautiful 'tis to die. 2. In the golden glade the chestnuts are fallen all ; From the sered boughs of the oak the acorns fall, The beech scatters her ruddy fire ; The lime hath stripped to the cold, And standeth naked above her yellow attire; The larch thinneth her spire I'o lay the wavs of the wood with cloth of gold. D. W. Who is the author of the following lines : 3 I shall remember while the light lasts, And in the darkness I shall not forget (MRS.) F. S. BENJAMIN, [Swinburne ' Poems and Ballads.' The lines ocf*ur in ' Erotion ' and run I shall remember while the light lives yet, And in the night-time I shall not forget.] "THE SWORD OF BANXOCKBURK (12 S. viii. 151.) PROBABLY the sword referred to under this title is the blade preserved at Douglas Castle in possession of the thirteenth Earl of Home, who represents in the female line the ancient Lords of Douglas. It is said to have been given to the Good Sir James of Douglas by Robert I., King of Scots. There is nothing in the blade itself inconsistent with its traditional origin, for it is not a double-handed sword like that ascribed to Wallace, long preserved in Dunbarton Castle and now, if I mistake not, in the Wallace Monument on Abbey Craig near Stirling. Double-handed swords were unknown until nearly one hundred years after Wallace's death. But if the sword - blade at Douglas be genuine, as it well may be, the verses bitten into it by acid are certainly of later date, being in Roman- characters. Moreover, the mention of many good men of one surname does not fit the chronology, seeing that family surnames were still in a state of flux in the early part of the fourteenth century, and very few persons as yet had borne the territorial one "de Douglas." Many years ago I tran- scribed the legend on the sword-blade. .It runs as follows : So mony gvid as of the Doyglas Beine Of 'ane surname was never in Scotland seine I wil ye charge efter that I depart To holy grayfe and thair bvry my hart Let it remain for ever both tyme and hovr To the last day I sie my Saviovre So I protest in tyme of al my ringe [reign] Ye lyk subject is had never ony Keing. HERBERT MAXWELL. Monreith. JOHN BEAR, MASTER OF THE FREE SCHOOL AT RIPON (12 S. viii. 150). In 1730 the master of Ripon School was a Mr. Barker who might be the John Barker of Christ Church, "1717, B.A., 1721; M.A., 1724. He was succeeded in or before 1732 by Mr.. Steevens or Stephens. J. B. WHITMORE. 41 Thurloe Square, S. Kensington, S.W.7. " ATJSTER " LAND TENURE (12 S. viii. 109) Yesterday, or was it on July 15, 1882, I made a somewhat similar inquiry in the columns of ' N. & Q. ' thus : In the Enclosure award of the parish of Weston-super-Mare dated in the year 1810 the Commissioner appointed for the purpose, after making various awards, sets out, allots, and awards : " The residue and remainder of the said moor* common, and waste lands unto, for and amongst the several proprietors and persons claiming and being allowed rights of common thereon in respect of their tenements commonly called old Auster or ancient tenements situate within the Parish of Weston-super-Mare in the proportions and manner hereinafter mentioned that is to say, unto James, &c." I received several replies, and to my mind, the correct solution from MR. G. FISHER, who wrote : " I would refer your correspondent E. E. B. t- ' X. & Q.,' 1 S. i. 217, 307 where it is said that this word is a corruption of the word astrum meaning a messuage held in villenage of the Lord of a Manor." ERNEST E. BAKER. Weston-super-Mare.