Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/322

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s, n, OCT. is, '.s


the Abbot of Whitby had in his chamber a speculum for a looking-glass," See also Grose and Pegge's 'Provincial Glossary' (1839) and the 'Teesdale Glossary ' (1849).

C. P. HALE.

Seeing-glass for looking-glass is occasion- ally heard in this neighbourhood, though I hear it is dying out. A Bottesford person said to me in June, 1887 :

"We've bed nowt bud bad luck sin that theare seein' -glass was brok ; fo'st th' oat-stack got afire, an' noo th' lambs hes started a-deein' like mice,"

EDWARD PEACOCK. Dunstan House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

COOKE FAMILY (9 th S. ii. 88, 254). Does your correspondent know the children and grand- children of Sir T. Cooke and whom the grand- daughters (if any) married 1 An ancestor of my own married an Elizabeth Cooke, at St. Mildred's, Poultry, in 1759.

G. S. PARRY, Lieut.-Col.

BOOTS AND SANDALS (9 th S. ii. 148, 210). A history of boots, shoes, and other coverings for the feet will be found in 'Costume in England,' by F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A. Articles on the exhibition of ' Antique and Historical Shoes ' are given in the Standard of 13 March and 24 Sept., 1889, also the Antiquart/, xix. 271. ' The Boots of my Time ' were described by the late George Augustus Sala in the Daily Telegraph of 3 June, 1895. See also ' N. & Q.,' 5 th S. xi.; 6 th S. ii., iii., iv.; 7 th S. xii.

EVERAKD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

SAMPLERS (9 th S. ii. 169). There is an amusing mention made of these articles in ' The Antiquary,' the probable date of which is 1794, when Mr. Oldbuck is much incensed at the cleansing of his sanctum sanctorum, and has surprised his niece and her maid in the very act of putting things to rights :

" 'Indeed, uncle [Miss Maclntyre loquitur], your room was not fit to be seen, and I just came to see that Jenny laid everything down where she took it up.'

" And how dare you or Jenny either presume to

meddle with my private matters? Go sew your

sampler, you monkey, and do not let me find you here again, as you value your ears.' " Chap. iii.

In 'Illustrations of the Antiquary,' pub- lished by the Eoyal Institution for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland, folio, 1867, is an engraving of this scene, by G. C. Bell, after the painting by Kobert Herdman, U.S.A. Miss Maclntyre, the niece, en de"s- habille, is represented as a pretty young woman, wearing a dress pinned up over a stiff black petticoat, with nigh-heeled shoes, and holding a birch broom in her hand, The


engraving is entitled 'The Antiquary and Lovel entering the Sanctum.'

JOHN PICKFQRD, M,A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbrjdge.

I have a sampler worked by my wife when she was at school at Berkswell, in Warwick ^ shire. It is dated 1864. Besides this I possess one worked by her great-grandmother, Mary Olorenshaw, dated 23 June, 1777. It contains the following lines :^- Thig work in ha.nd My friends may have When I am dead & in my grave When hungry worms my body eat Hear you may reed my name compleat.

JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

As your correspondent M. N. is interested in samplers, I would refer him to ' N. & Q.,' 4 th S. vi., yii., viii.; 8 th S. ii., iii., iv., vii., via'., for many interesting articles on the subject. The only examples of a more recent date than 1853 are referred to at 4 th S. viii. 248.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

GREATEST HEAT RECORDED IN ENGLAND (9 th S. ii. 180, 255). Probably the greatest heat in the shade ever observed in England was recorded by myself in July, 1847. It was as follows: 13 July, 95; 14 July, 98 (!); 15 July, 93 : while on thirteen other days in this month the maximum temperature in the shade exceeded 80. On the 13th, being market day at Lewes, several bullocks dropped dead in the High Street. On the 14th the heat was still more intense, a per- fect calm prevailing, and all vegetation, even the oaks and forest trees, drooped beneath the power of the sun's rays.

C. LEESON PRINCE.

PICKWICKIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS (9 th S. i. 401 ; ii. 76). I must thank the three contributors for their notes on this subject. NEMO'S explanation of " basket buttons " may be recommended to Mr. Fitzgerald. I men- tioned them to emphasize the incongruity of events in the Bagman's tale, which events, including a "gig," "trousers," and "basket buttons," must have happened about 1750. About "alley-tors" I laid down no theory. Like NEMO and C. C. B. I spoke from ex- perience, and am glad to see that C. C. B. writes " taws." We generally used large glass marbles (if we could afford them, the wear and tear being great), and I have always associated the term with the leather instru- ments of juvenile grief referred to by NEMO. Our "taws" were engines of extermination : the more marbles they hit from the ring, and