origin. Perhaps the custom holds elsewhere; it must be ancient. Herbert Hardy.
Dewsbury.
Queries.
We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest, to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.
The Punishment of “Carting.”—All have heard of whipping at the cart’s tail—a punishment inflicted up to the end of George III.’s reign. (See ‘N. & Q.,’ 6th S. vi., vii, viii, passim.) Amongst other malefactors, bawds were specially the subjects of it; so we are told by Chambers, ‘Supplement to Cyclopædia,’ 1753. But there was formerly in use another punishment, called “carting,” which was also commonly and specially inflicted on the class above mentioned. To this many allusions are made by writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though the memory of it seems to have been lost among moderns. Under the verb to cart, Johnson gives as one definition, “to expose in a cart for punishment.” He quotes from Hudibras,
To see bawds carted through the crowd.
And from Prior,
The nature of the punishment is clearly seen from the two passages following:—
“For playing the whore, this is her comfort when she is carted, that shee rides when all her followers goe on foot, that euery dunghill pays her homage, and euery tauerne looking glasse powres bountifull reflection upon her.”—John Taylor, ‘Works,’ p. 101. 1630.
“Another priest, called Sir Tho. Snowdell, was carted through Cheapside, for assoiling an old acquaintance of his in a ditch in Finsbury Field; and was at that riding saluted with chamber pots and rotten eggs.”—Strype, ‘Eccl. Memls.’ ch. xii. a. 1553.
From these places it appears that the person was fastened inside a cart, and dragged through the town, exposed to shame, ridicule, and the peltings of any who chose to pelt. In fact, he was in a moving pillory. Hence the word would seem to have been used to denote the infliction of any shame or ridicule. So I suppose we must understand a line in Fletcher’s ‘Loyal Subject,’ Act III., sc. i.
What, are we bob’d thus still, colted and carted?
Johnson’s notice scarcely tells us whether the thing was still practised in his time. Can any one supply further information on the matter, specially as to the latest mention of it, and when it was discontinued? May I ask for direct answers? C. B. Mount.
14, Norham Road, Oxford.
William Grant, Lord Preston-Grange.—I wish to know the exact date of his birth, the place of his education, the date of his marriage, and the full names of his father-in-law, the Rev. Millar. G. F. R. B.
Googe’s ‘Whole Art or Husbandry.’—Will some reader of ‘N. & Q.’ who owns or who has access to Googe’s ‘Whole Art of Husbandry’ (of an edition earlier than 1577, or of any edition other than those of 1577, 1578, or 1596) kindly enable me to collate my copy with one or more of those editions, sufficiently to determine its date? Without troubling the Editor further, I will ask for direct communication with W. C. Minor, M.D.
Broadmoor, Crowthorne, Berks.
Palace of Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester.—May I ask the able writer of ‘A Few Particulars of Old Southwark,’ contributed to the latest volume of ‘N. & Q.,’ if he can impart any information respecting the palatial residence of Henry of Winchester, “near London Bridge”? The fact of this residence is recorded in one of the ‘Cluni Charters’ (vol. ii. p. 82), shortly to be issued to subscribers. G. F. D.
First Introduction of Ginger into England.—I have in my possession a document of the reign of Edward I. in which mention is made of ginger. The rent service of a tenement is reserved, consisting of ginger. In Woodvile’s ‘Mediæval Botany’ it is stated that ginger was first introduced into England early in the eighteenth century, and was brought from the shores of the Red Sea. Can any one throw light on this? The date of the introduction of ginger into England ought to be more accurately determined. H. A. Heylar.
Coker Court, near Yeovil, Somerset.
English Regimental Flag in Paris.—I should be glad of any information respecting the English flag that is now close to Napoleon’s tomb in the Hotel des Invalides, Paris. Henry Gerald Hope.
Freegrove Road, N.
Castle Martyr Pictures.—In the year 1796 my grandfather, Hugh Hovell Farmar, gave five pictures of the Walsingham family to the second Lord Shannon, and I am told all the pictures at Castle Martyr, co. Cork, were sold a few years ago. Can any one kindly tell me in whose possession these pictures now are? W. R. Farmar, Major-General.
Grasshopper on Royal Exchange.—Perhaps you could help me in searching for the prophecy relating to the Royal Exchange, viz., that when the grasshopper on the vane of the Royal Exchange met the griffin (?) on a church (what church?) in the City, then some great misfortune would befall the Royal Exchange. How this prophecy was fulfilled—for in 1838 the grasshopper was taken to
