9* s. vi. OCT. 20, im] NOTES AND QUERIES. 307 was wanted, and therefore made inquiries The replv, given with some hesitation, was that her husband was ill, and that she desirec the bird that she might cut it open alive anc put it on his breast to cure him. I do no remember what ailment the man sufferec from. It need not, I trust, be said that the farmer disregarded the woman's petition and used strong language at being though! capable of lending countenance to such a horrible rite. EDWARD PEACOCK. Dunstan House, Kirton-in-Lindsey. "VERIFY REFERENCES." (See ante, p. 212 art. ' Alamains.')—PROF. SKEAT'S admonition is so commendable that it is a pitv to find it marred by the serious blemish of denouncing as wrong a reference which is quite correct. "Claud II. Cons. Stil." means not "Claudian's second poem in praise of Stilicho," but his poem on Stilicho's second consulship. F. ADAMS. 115, Albany Road, S.E. LAIWSMITH.—A querist in L'Intermtdiaire (vol. xl. col. 811) asked for the origin of the name of the town Ladysmith, then besieged by the Boers. He was answered correctly that it was from the wife of Sir Harry Smith, who was Governor of the Cape from 1847 to 1852, after a distinguished military career. But one of the respondents (col. 942) adds an oddly perverted account of Smith's romantic marriage. Warfare, he states, was going on between English and Spanish troops in South Africa (as if such an event ever took place), and when the former, under Sir Harry Smith, had taken a fortress, which afterwards grew into Ladysmith, two beautiful Spanish ladies came to the English camp and constituted themselves prisoners, one of whom captivated the commander, who subsequently married her. It is true that Lady Smith was a Spanish lady; but it was after the siege of Badajoz in 1812 that she and her married sister sought the protection of Smith and a brother officer. She was only fourteen years of age at the time, and Smith married her two years after- wards. As his wife she became Lady Smith in 1846; she survived him twelve years, and died in 1872 without children. W. T. LYNN. Blackheath. PLURAL VOTING.—It would appear from the Daily News of the 2nd of October that at the General Election in 1895 the largest number of votes was held by the late Rev. Washbourne West, Bursar of Lincoln Colleg_e, Oxford, who possessed twenty-three in twenty-three counties. A correspondent writes on the following day that among present plural voters Mr. Joseph Baxendale, senior partner of the firm of Pickford & Co., ought to stand high, he having forty-three votes. A. N. Q. (games. WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. ANCIENT SCOTTISH CUSTOM.—It is stated in the Daily Telegraph of October 15th that, in accordance with the express wish of the late Marquis of Bute, his heart will, at an early date, be conveyed to Palestine for burial at the Mount of Olives; and that, at the funeral from Cumnock House, the heart was carried in a specially prepared receptacle. This appears to have been in ancient times a favourite request among the Scottish nobility. I should be glad to know of the names of Scotch noblemen whose remains have been treated in like manner. N. S. S. 'LINCOLN MARRIAGE LICENCES.'—Can any one inform me if the second part of ' Lincoln Marriage Licences,' dating from 1628, has Deen published? In the part ending on that late, and published about twelve years ago, it was stated that a supplement was in course of preparation, but this supplement does lot appear to be in the British Museum [library. CHEVBON. LINCOLNSHIRE FAMILY PEDIGREES.—Where
- an I find a copy of the 'Pedigrees of
Lincolnshire Families' compiled by the late Liord Monson and Mr. Larken? Mr. Joseph Foster advertised, some fifteen years ago, an edition of this book, to be published by subscription, uniform with his Yorkshire and "lancasnire compilations. CHEVRON. "SPICK AND SPAN." — Attention is called H the above with a desire that the actual date when first used in this country and the origin of the saying may. if possible, be arrived at. With this object in view I venture a few words on the subject. The coupled words have an obvious general meaning, and yet seem to require ex- planation. "Fresh and new" is no doubt he ordinary interpretation, but neither word can be said to bo a metaphrase of ' spick and span." Dr. Brewer writes, " First applied to cloth just taken off the spannans stretchers) and spikes (hooks)," and then refers to the " Italian spicco (brightness), and
