254
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. MA*CH 31, im
CREMITT MONEY (8 th S. ix. 348, 397 ; x. 264).
I am glad to place on record a further
notice of this from the Yorkshire Herald of
14 Feb. At the quarterly meeting of the
York City Council,
"the Lord Mayor, in moving that the report of the Finance Committee be approved, explained the new system of paying accounts and signing cheques which the Committee recommended should be adopted. The Committee had received from Mr. Saxe-Wyndham, of Thornton Lodge, Surrey, an original letter of the Archbishop of York in 1705 in reference to a charity known as ' Cremitt Money.' They had printed the letter in the report. It ap- peared that the Lord Mayor of the city of that date had requested the archbishop to use his in- fluence in order to secure the nomination of the recipients by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen instead of by a Crown official. The Lord Mayor added that the money was now paid by the Charity Trustees of the city. The original letter had been placed with the old records of the Corporation which they prized so highly. The following extract from the archbishop's letter is appended : ' It is at the Re- quest of My Lord Mayor and Aldermen of York that I give you this Trouble. There is, it seems, a Dispute between them and Mr. Hart (her Mties present Receiver of the Fee Farm Rents in this County) about the disposal of the Cremits money. This Cremits money is an Antient Pension of 4U. 6s. 8d. allowed yearly by the Crown to 31 Poor People of York (viz., II. Qs.' 8d. to each), wch Poor People are called Cremits (which now 1 suppose is a corruption of Lachrymites). This Pension has always been paid, it is said from the time of King Athelstan, and is paid to this day.' "
ST. SWITHIN.
ADVENTURES IN THE MOON ' (9 th S. V. 128).
The late MR. EDWARD SOLLY in 5 th S. iii. 55 inquired for the author of this work, and he says he bought his copy as an early work of Lord John Russell. He gives the date as 1841. RALPH THOMAS.
A correspondent of *N. & Q.,' 1 st S. ix. 245, highly commends this book, which he states has been neglected by all the reviews. Another correspondent, twenty years after (5 th S. iii. 55), inquires who was the author, and adds, "I bought it in 1843 as an early work of Lord John Russell." A second edition appears to have been issued by Messrs. Longman in 1846.
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.
'DR. JOHNSON AS A GRECIAN' (9 th S. iv. 451, 545 ; v. 71, 213). I must protest against the tone of C.'s reply at the last reference. " Has the man ever read ? " is not the way in which correspondents address each other in 4 N. & Q. J Such discourtesy is happily yet unusual in these columns. It carries its own answer with it.
C. has detected an obvious mistake on my
part, due to forgetfulness, which I frankly
admit. But it does not affect the argument
to any appreciable extent. C. started by
saying that " the star of the famous Madame"
Vestris, supposed to have taught Dr. Johnson
dancing, "did not shine in Johnson's time
with the brilliancy of her father's" (i.e., that
of M. Vestris, the dancer). C. has never yet
explained to which "famous Madame" he
referred, but has seemingly avoided doing so.
I have shown that reference to the Madame
Vestris whom many of us remember, or to
the great tragic actress Madame (Dugazon)
Vestris, is equally impossible, for different
reasons. JULIAN MARSHALL.
"WIDOW'S MAN " (9 th S. v. 148). This expres- sion admits of different meanings. Formerly the term "widow" was applied to both man and woman who had lost a partner for life. A man whom we should now call a widower was called a " widow's man." Field- ing, in his 'Tom Jones' (1749), book iii. chap, vi., says :
" As to Square, who was in his person what is called a jolly fellow, or a widow's man, he easily reconciled his choice to the eternal fitness of things."
Widows' men are thus described by Admiral Smyth in his 'Sailor's Word-Book':
"Imaginary sailors, formerly borne on the books as A.B.s for wages in every ship in commission; they ceased with the consolidated pay at the close of the war. The institution was dated 24 George II. to meet widows' pensions ; the amount of pay and provisions for two men in each hundred were paid over by the Paymaster General of the navy to the widows' fund."
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.
71, Brecknock Road.
It may be worth recalling that an amusing instance, and an explanation in afoot-note, of this sea phrase occur in an early chapter of Marryat's 'Peter Simple,' a propos of the equally mythical " Cheeks the marine," who was feigned to serve out cocked hats and dirks gratis to newly fledged " midshipmites."
H. E. M.
St. Petersburg.
"IN GORDANO" (9 th S. v. 126). The family owning Charlton House, in the parish of Wraxall, co. Somerset, with Easton, Weston. and other neighbouring lands in the hundred of Portbury, bore the name of Gorges. The manor of Wraxall came to Ralph, the son of Ivo de Gorges, of Tamworth, through his wife Elena, heiress of John de Moreville, in the reign of Henry III. Wraxall remained in the possession of this family until 1709, when the heiress Elizabeth married John
