328
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[9 th S. II. OCT. 22, '98.
the usual books of reference. Was this artist
of any local note? W. B. H.
DANISH PRONUNCIATION. How is the diph- thong oe pronounced in Danish in such names as Roeskilde and Oersted 1 Is it as in Ger- many ; or like the Dutch : or what ?
W. T.
THEOPHILUS METCALFE, 1798. Any refer- ences to the family of this name will oblige. Metcalfe is mentioned in the will of a Col. Andrew Wilson Hearsey, H.E.I.C., 1798. Were the Metcalfes related to Perreau, Touchet, Barnard, Elton, Prescott ?
A. C. H.
BENCH MARK. Is it known why the Ordnance Survey mark a horizontal bar resting on the broad arrow which indicates height above the sea level, is so called ?
J. F.
PALK'S STRAIT AND BAY. In the 'Dic- tionary of National Biography ' and in many gazetteers and books of reference it is statea that Palk's Strait and Bay, between India and Ceylon, were named after Sir Robert Palk, who was Governor of Madras, 1763-7 ; and in some works it is added that the name was conferred by the Dutch on the strait and bay in question. I shall be glad to have positive proof of either of the statements. DONALD FERGUSON.
5, Bedford Place, Croydon.
ARMY LISTS, &c. Regiments of foot (c. 1745) had a mate an officer attached in the same way as surgeon. What were his duties, and how did he rank ? The first Army List (general) in the British Museum is 1754, but there are Irish Army Lists there for 1745 and for a few following years bound in one volume, known as ' Succession of Colonels,' I believe. These lists do not come down to 1754. Can a reader refer to any other lists which are previous to 1754 ? Will D'Alton's Lists to 1720 be completed and extended beyond that date? At about the period 1745-55 was it likely that officers, when regiments broke up or under other circum- stances, were without commissions possibly for a few years (in fact civilians) until they obtained appointments to existing or new regiments? Old Army Lists which record against officers' names " date of present com- mission " rather point to this. MARKEN.
CHAPEL. The following is the
are ._T f *on in the catalogue of a book bought i at Lpn-1 Brid port's recent sale, ' good de-aiL* been ^ B k f Common of the word Harlequin ; it fanciful derivations from F J P erfect > lettered on
side, Trafalgar Chapel. 1816." Where was
this chapel ; and is it still existing ?
WILLIAM LOCKE RADFORD.
DR. WARD, OF SOHAM. Is any thing authentic known of Dr. John Ward, whose tombstone in the churchyard of Soham, Cambridgeshire, records his death in 1641 at the age of 125? A long rhyming epitaph enumerates his many virtues, but does not allude in any way to his extraordinary age ; and this alone is a sus- picious circumstance. The lettering, as it exists now, is certainly not of 1641, but has been recut at a much later period, and the " 125 " seems to have been altered from some other number, which it is impossible now to make out. The parish register contains the following entry of Dr. Ward's burial :
" March, 1640, 26 th , Doc' John Ward, aged 125. Contestor Thomas Wilson, Vicar 1795, when this was corrected, being hardly legible."
The original entry is completely obliterated, but the entries before and after, which are perfectly clear and expressed in a different form of words, show that 1641, not 1640, was the date. The inscription on the tombstone may have been " corrected " by Mr. Wilson at the same time as the entry, and in all pro- bability he was utterly mistaken in his read- ing of Dr. Ward's age. The present vicar, the Rev. J. Cyprian Rust, who is well versed in the history and antiquities of his parish, has never come across any other mention of this wonderful ultra-centenarian.
R. MARSHAM-TOWNSHEND.
" CHUZA," A GAME. Capt. Mayne Reid, in describing a Mexican fete (' White Chief,' 1855, chap, vi.), says, "And the senoras, among themselves, had a quiet little game of their favourite chuza." Is this a game of cards ; and, if so, can any of your corre- spondents describe it, or tell where par- ticulars are to be found ? So far as I have examined, it is not given in any of the large dictionaries or encyclopaedias. J. S. M. T.
W. R. SCOTT. Can any Devonshire corre- spondent give biographical details of the above ? He was an original member of the Devon Association, a Ph.D., and head master of West of England Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Exeter, and at one time Pre sident of the Devon and Exeter Graphic Society. T. CANN HUGHES, M.A.
Lancaster.
EDWARD LIGHT invented, about 1798, an instrument called the harp guitar, which has eight strings. To what note was the eighth or lowest bass string tuned ? Where is it possible to obtain music for the instrument ?
