128
NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. vn. FEB. w, iwi.
Christian name of Serjeant Bettes worth, the
"booby Bettesworth" commemorated by
Swift, whose biographers have much to say
of him, but do not sufficiently identify him 1
EDWARD B. TYLOR. Oxford.
'THE THIRTEEN CLUB.' I shall feel obliged if you can tell me how I can obtain this recitation. H. B. STUNT.
12, Akerman Road, Brixton, S.W.
" PUT A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL." What IS
the original meaning of the expression, "I will put a spoke in his wheel " ? Did it first mean to help or to injure a man? I think now it is popularly used in the latter sense. HAROLD LEWIS.
Bristol.
["Both which bills were such spokes in their chariot wheels that made them drive much heavier." See 1 st 8. x. 54. See also 1 st S. viii. 269, 351, 576 ; ix. 601. The phrase certainly implies the idea of an obstruction.]
STANBURY OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. Any notes respecting this ancient family will oblige. Some years ago an elaborate pedigree was compiled for a member of the family, but all trace of it is lost. Perhaps some one may know whether it still exists. R.
"BULL AND LAST." Can anyone curious in signs explain the meaning of this sign at a public-house in the Highgate Road ? It is not named in the ' History of Signboards, by John Camden Hotten, 1866, nor in the 'Tavern Signs' in the various volumes of ' N. & Q.' EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.
71, Brecknock Road.
MOHUN or WOLLASTON. Pedigree wanted
(Mrs.) J. H. COPE. Sulhamstead, Berks.
HAMILTON. I want information on the subject of William Hamilton, of Liscrooney King's County, whose daughters Elizabeth and Jane (coheiresses) married respectively a father and son, i.e., Sir Thomas Crosbie anc David Crosbie, successive owners of Ardfert Abbey. David died in 1717. I am anxiou,' to know to which particular branch of th( Hamilton family William Hamilton belonged and should be glad also to learn the name o: his wife and those of her parents.
KATHLEEN WARD.
Castle Ward, Downpatrick.
HIGH AND Low : CONSERVATIVE AND LIBERAL. I was recently conversing witl an octogenarian labourer concerning th< election, and I noticed that he never one used either of the words which in the presen
ay designate the two great political parties.
Jhe only terms he knew them by were The
High Party " = Conservatives, and "The Low
Party " = Liberals. Were these titles at all
general at the beginning of last century 'f
JOHN T. PAGE.
West Haddon, Northamptonshire.
FORTH FAMILY AND ARMS. In the Office jf Arms in Dublin Castle the arms and crest described below are on record to " Cap fc Sam 1 ^orth of Col 1 Wolesley Reg* of Horse." Arms, Ermine, a harp or between three martlets, ,wo and one, gules. Crest, On a wreath or and gules, a naked dexter arm embowed, encircled by a coronet or, the hand grasping i broken sword, hilted of the same. The late of the arms is, I am officially informed, temp. William III. One of my great-grand- fathers was John Forth, Lieutenant R.N., who died in 1790, aged seventy. He used, on an armorial seal, arms and crest the same as
- hose above described (except that the harp
is crowned and the crest issues out of a mural crown instead of a wreath) ; the arms impaling the following : Arms, A saltire gules (or argent?); on a chief azure three crescents fesseways. Motto (on scroll below the shield), " Le fort se soumettra jamais." The family legend recounted to me years ago was that the Forth arms were granted to a Samuel Forth for service to his king in battle, whence the charge of the royal harp of Ireland ; also that for the same service the king made him a knight banneret on the battlefield, whence, perhaps, the coronet on the crest. Is anything known of this Capt. Samuel Forth, of Col. Wolesley's Regiment of Horse, in connexion with any battle fought by William III., either in Ireland or in the Low Countries? Also, To what family appertained the arms impaled with those of Forth on my great-grandfather's seal described above 1
JOHN H. JOSSELYN.
Ipswich.
MACKINTOSH. I want the names of the wife and all the children of Alexander Mackintosh (third son of Laughlan Mackin- tosh, of Deviot, and Anne, daughter of Colin Mackenzie, of Redcastle, married in 1687). Can any correspondent of * N. & Q.' kindly assist me ? WM. JACKSON PIGOTT.
Dundrum, co. Down.
JOURNALISTIC ERRORS. Why do our jour- nalists so often make blunders when dealing with matters literary 1 Thus the late George Augustus Sala, in his interesting article pub- lished in the Daily Telegraph of 24 January,
