9 th S. I. MAY 7, '98.]
THiS AJNU
367
^ hat he told him to do & if he had made any pro-
^ -ess in the work because he design'd to be married
^ 3ry soon he told him he had done something
t wards it, Why then said the Lord, most certainly
j DU have chosen your text, I must therefore desire
^ 3u will let me have the knpwlege [sic] of it before-
I ind. The Chaplain told him he had pitch'd upon
( en. 18. 12. Sarah laughed within her self, saying,
liter I am waxed old, Shall I have pleasure my
Lord being old also. Is that your fine text, said
his Lord, I desire neither to be troubled with your
Sermon nor it, & so the Chaplain gained his End, &
vas suffer' d to be at Quiet."
The above anecdote refers to Simon, Lord Harcourt, created Baron Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt, co Oxford, 3 Sept., 1711, and Viscount Harcourt of same 11 Sept., 1721, but not, apparently, to his "second wife, as stated. His first died in 1687, and the lady in question was doubtless his third wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Vernon, of Twickenham, co. Middlesex, and relict of Sir John Walter, Bart, to whom he was married 30 Sept., 1724, being only fifteen weeks after the death of his second wife, Elizabeth, in her sixty - seventh year. He himself died 28 July, 1727, aged sixty -six.
W. I. R. V.
WE must request correspondents desiring infor-
mation 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.
PORT ARTHUR, CHINA. From whom does this naval station take its name ?
HERBAGE LEGGE.
KEY OP THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. Is it known what has become of the historical key of the House of Commons, which Sir Miles Hobart put into his pocket on a certain memorable occasion ? J. H. LLOYD.
" A CROW TO PLUCK WITH." The Freeman's Journal, published in Dublin on Monday, 30 August, 1897, includes the phrase, " France has a crow to pluck with England in Egypt." Can this equivalent of the French maille a partir avec be traced outside of Ireland and the present century ? PALAMEDES.
[The phrase was used so early as 1460 in the ' Towneley Mysteries,' &c. See ' H. E. D.']
A DOMESTIC IMPLEMENT. There was re- cently sold, at a sale of household furniture, &c., near here, an article said to be a species of gofering iron. This, however, it certainly is not. Gofers, it should be explained, are a kind of tea-cake much in vogue here, but fit only for the most heroic stomachs. They are
usually oblong in shape, and are divided into
square compartments. They are baked in an
iron mould, shaped something like a pair of
snuffers, but with handles about two feet
long. The implement I am now inquiring
about is thirty inches long, weighs between
seven and eight pounds, and resembles a
gofering iron in every particular, except that
its " business end " terminates in two thick
flat discs, four and a half inches in diameter,
and fitting so closely together that no cake
could possibly be held between them. Their
inner surfaces are highly polished and elabo-
rately engraved, the one with a star, the other
with a crown and what were probably meant
for sprigs of laurel. There is also a border-
round each device. In the same sale there
was another similar article of larger size,
discs six and a half inches in diameter, made
of cast metal. The casting was very fine,
and the designs were good. Can any one
tell me the use of these articles'? Nobody
here can. They seem to me to have been
meant for stamping something : but what ?
C. C. B. Epworth.
"THE DEFECTS OF HIS QUALITIES." What
is the literary source and what is the exact meaning of this expression ? A. L.
FESSWICK FAMILY. I have been told that William Penn mentions, in one of his works, that whilst travelling through some of the English counties he stopped at the "Fess-
- "*"" 1 -~'" My informant had forgotten the
cks
particular book in which the statement occurs.
Jannot some one else give exact reference to
it 1 In what counties is the surname known 1
Z.
ROYER'S 'HISTOIRE DE LA COLONIE FRAN- CA AISE EN PRUSSE.' In Smiles's * Huguenots in England and Ireland ' the following reference is given : " Royer. Histoire de la Colonie Fran9aise en Prusse." The work is unknown bo the authorities of the Reading Room at the British Museum, and is not to be found in any bibliography. May I inquire if it is tnown to any reader of * N. & Q.' ?
HARRY SIRR.
[Can it form part of the ' Annales de la Religion ' L795-1803, which was edited by the Abbe Jean Baptiste Rover, sometime curd of Chavannes and afterwards deputy for the Department of L'Ain in
- he National Assembly ?]
WEDDING EVE CUSTOM. I cull the fol- .owing from the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle
- or 26 February :
" A meeting of the Newcastle Society of Antiqua- ries was held on Wednesday in the Old Castle, Mr.
