616
'-ftS AND
[9 th B. V. JUNE 30, 1900.
vices in these capacities, or any notices of
his life and doings ? He was buried at Ox-
burgh, Norfolk, 2 March, 1684 ; his son, the
Laureate, died in November the day seems
to be uncertain 1692, and was buried at
Chelsea. JAMES HOOPER.
Norwich.
"TYRE." In the churchwardens' accounts at West Hoathly, Sussex, under date 27 Feb- ruary, 1790, it is recorded that "Dame Steles wants some tyre Allowed J dozen, Id" The word occurs frequently in the books in question, large extracts from which appeared in the Church Review, 11 August, 1898, p. 509. What is " tyre " 1 R. B. P.
GUNPOWDER IN CHINA. It is a common belief that the use of gunpowder has been known to the people of China for two thousand years. Is this true ? If it is true, how can we explain the omission of any reference to it by Marco Polo ? F. J. P.
EARLY MENTION OF RIFLING. An early mention of rifling is to be found in Hugh Platte's 'The Jewell House of Art and Nature,' published in 1594. The inventor, Hugh Platte, proposed to make a pistol carry a ball "point blank eight score feet" by grooving the barrel with eight grooves, the bullet to be " a thought bigger than the bore," and well rammed home with the "skowering stick." Is an earlier reference than the above known 1 I am unable to refer myself to any works on military antiquities. MAURICE J. D. COCKLE.
Solan, Punjab.
CHURCH OF ST. SAVIOUR, SOUTHWARK. I am about to write a little book on this church, and I should be deeply obliged to any reader of ' N. & Q.' who would give me par- ticulars of any out-of-the-way books or articles on its history and architecture.
CHARLES HIATT.
[The General Indexes overflow with allusions.]
" WINCHESTER PIPES." Mentioned in ' The Alchemist/ I. i., as part of the equipment of a fashionable tobacconist's shop, and evi- dently at that time the best pipes procurable. Is anything further known of them ; were they clay pipes ? PERCY SIMPSON.
?TH ROYAL FUSILIERS. I have a small mezzotint engraving representing a man oi colour, half-length, holding in his right hanc a jug frothing over, labelled "Fine Ale"; in the other hand is a sheet of paper displaying the following : "30, Rue St. Honore, Drake's Hotel. Table d'h6te, Roast beef of old
England, London Porter," &c. On the wall
immediately behind the man's head hang
two pictures. One represents a racehorse,
with jockey mounted ; above the picture,
1 Calembourg," and below, " Property of Mr.
J. Drake." The other picture has over it the
words " Albuera, 7th Fusiliers Advance." The
picture itself represents a regiment of soldiers
charging with fixed bayonets ; in the fore-
ground a white horse is prancing, held by a
^room. My engraving has little margin, and
no descriptive letterpress at foot. I should
be glad if any of your readers could throw
some light on the subject, and explain the
connexion between J. Drake and the 7th
Fusiliers. S. M. MILNE.
Calverley House, near Leeds.
REGISTERS IN FRANCE. Were there parish registers in France before the Edict of Nantes period? I want to trace a French Huguenot family named Hautenville.
(Mrs.) E. E. COPE.
Sulhamstead, Reading.
SHOWERS OF SNAKES, FISH, SPIDERS, &c. An interesting article was recently published in Pearson's Weekly entitled ' Serpent Storms and Spider Showers.' It is too long to quote, but the statements made might be cor- roborated and fresh instances noted.
The writer of the article in question states that " some thirty-five years since " there fell on a party of Irish immigrants in Arizona a shower of "poisonous young rattlesnakes." In August, 1892, a shower of fish "of the whiting order," all "alive and kicking," fell at Bjelina, in Bosnia. " A similar fish shower is stated to have occurred at Cranstead, Kent, in the year of the Great Fire of London." A "spider shower" is stated to have been witnessed in 1832 by Darwin "some sixty miles off the La Plata river." Black rain is said to have fallen on 4 May, 1882, at Edrom, in Berwickshire, and similar rain at Mont- real ; also " a snowstorm with black flakes was once witnessed at Dicken Peterzell, in Geneva." It is stated that a " blood " shower once fell at Bristol, and that Carniola, in Germany, has had a red snowstorm ; that in 1880 red and blue hailstones fell in Minsk, Russia ; red hailstones also falling in May, 1885, at Castlewellan, Ireland, and orange- red on 14 March, 1873, in Tuscany. These are instances given by the writer of the article in question. Can the list be extended 1 R. HEDGER WALLACE.
" REPORTER." When did this term, as spe- cifically applied to a journalist, first come into use 1 In one other sense that defined
