9*s.iLs E pT.i7,'98.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
235
3 feet wide, and 4 feet long, with three o
four stone bars or beams aoout five inche
wide very inconvenient for old people, anc
indeed, for any one to walk over.
G. K. PIERSON.
GORDON FAMILY (9 th S. ii. 128, 174). MB CALDER asks if there is a royal descent in th pedigree he gives. Certainly. Christian, siste of Robert I. (Bruce), and wife of Sir Chris topher Seton, was great-granddaughter o David, Earl of Huntingdon, the grandson o David I. of Scotland.
OSWALD HUNTER BLAIR, O.S.B.
Fort Augustus, N.B.
MUSICAL (9 th S. ii. 127, 173). There is an arcade in this town known by the name o " Old Sir Simon's Arcade." At the entrance of it, next to the main street (Market Street) there was once an ancient hostelry; whether i had for its sign the " Old Sir Simon " I have never been able to learn.
T. CANN HUGHES, M.A.
Lancaster.
A "WRITING ENGINE" (9 th S. ii. 129). Timperley, in his 'Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote' (1839), men- tions a George Ridpath. " He was," say. Timperley,
"one of the original authors of the 'Works oi the Learned,' and corrected Capt. Robinson's ' Voyages ' in eight volumes. Swift nas placed him in the ' Tale of a Tub,' and Pope in the ' Dunciad.'
In 1711 Ridpath, "for writing the Flying Post, a Whig paper, was bailed, and forfeited his recognizances to the amount of 6001." Can this be the George Ridpath alluded to by MR. APPERSON ? H. ANDREWS.
REMARKABLE LAPSUS CALAMI (9 th S. ii. 125). Surely this complaint of J. B. S. is a case of "much ado about nothing." Even if the great novelist tripped in such a small matter as that referred to by your correspondent, surely it would not warrant Dickens being charged with "wanton carelessness," and with the absence of the "infinite pains- taking " which J. B. S. appears to think the " essence of genius." But in truth there can hardly be said to be an error in Dickens's language, for certainly there is a signing of the register by the minister, if not by the parents, at a baptism ; and so far from its being unusual not to pay fees for a copy of the register, I have myself been present at six christenings of my own children, and have in each case paid for such copy ; but will J. B. S. be surprised to hear that at the date when ' Pickwick ' was written it was the common custom of the clergy in London to
charge a fee for baptism ? My son, who was
till lately a curate in one of the City churches,
tells me that he has seen a copy of the letter-
written by the Bishop of London to his clergy
urging the abandonment of the. custom, so
that Dickens was perfectly right in his state-
ment that fees were paid. C. T. S.
Birmingham.
Writing fifty years ago, Dickens was not so far wrong as your correspondent J. B. S. imagines. J ees for baptism (often under the pretence of registration) were asked and paid in many London churches. An Act of Par- liament (initiated by Bishop Wilberforce) was needed for their final abolition 35 & 36 Vic. c. 36. EDWARD H. MARSHALL.
Hastings.
J. B. S. has forgotten that a charge was made for the registration of baptism and burial. To an ordinary person when the fee was paid it seemed like paying the clergy- man for the baptism or burial. The Stamp Act of 1783 for the first time imposed a duty of 3d. upon every entry in the parish register. The new tax fell lightly on the rich and pressed heavily on the poor, and as the poor were often unable or unwilling to pay the tax, the clergy had a direct inducement to retain their good will by keeping the registers defective. The Act extended to Scotland, and excited there an outburst of popular indignation ; and as the statute virtually bestowed a premium on negligence and omissions, whole parishes and even counties discontinued the practice of registration. The obnoxious statute was repealed in 1794 (Mr. R. E. C. Waters's book on 'Parish Registers ').
Persons in receipt of parish relief could have their children christened without pay- ing the tax ; likewise no tax was charged for the burial of persons in receipt of parish relief. M.A.OxoN.
May I be allowed to point out another slip ? [n chap. xxxi. p. 276 of ' Dombey and Son ' Charles Dickens Edition) we read :
"All the party sign, Cousin Feenix last, who puts his noble name in a wrong place, and enrols limself as having been born that morning."
How could this be possible 1
P. J. F. GANTILLON.
PATTENS (9 th S. i. 44, 336, 413, 471 ; ii. 95).
fancy MR. THOMAS RATCLIFFE has not
understood my note, and I am quite sure that
~ do not understand his. Why should he say,
The clogs ST. SWITHIN writes about are not
logs at all," when he proceeds to describe
he very articles I mentioned, and explains
