298
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. vii. APRIL 13, 1901.
utmost to get him into Christ's Hospital.
Dean Vaugnan, alas ! had just given his
nomination away, or he would have given it
to little De Foe. Between those dates (1880-86)
I attended a missionary meeting in Bishop's
Stortford ; in front of me young De Foe sat,
sound asleep. However, I did not rouse him.
I interested Mr. Gladstone for the De Foes,
for they were in bad circumstances, and Her
gracious Majesty the late Queen sent them a
handsome pecuniary present by his advice.
I exerted myself in the De Foes' behalf with
the concurrence of the late vicar or rector of
Thorley, Mr. Vandermeulen. Perhaps some
Herts student of *N. & Q.' will set to work
and find if the report is true that the last
descendant of Daniel Defoe has joined the
majority. M.A.OxoN.
There is no parish named Elton in North- amptonshire. The village in that county where Daniel Defoe's grandfather James Foe lived is Etton. There is an Elton in Hunting- donshire, about eight miles from Peter- borough, and nearly all accounts of the family (until Mr. Thomas Wright's 'Life of Daniel Defoe ') have confused this with the much smaller village of Etton, where the Foes resided. The name still occurs in the neigh- bourhood. In this parish, which adjoins Etton, there is an old couple named Foe. W. D. SWEETING.
Maxey, Market Deeping.
MRS. ARBUTHNOT (9 th S. vii. 187, 231). Probably Harriet, dau. of Hon. Henry Fane and wife of Right Hon. Charles Arbuthnot. She died in 1834. There is a beautiful en- graved portrait of her from a picture by Sir Thomas Lawrence. GERALD PONSONBY.
BRASENOSE COLLEGE, OXFORD (9 th S. vi. 509 vii. 92, 157, 235). William Smith, Bishop of Lincoln at the end of the fifteenth century, belonged, if I am not mistaken, to a Smith family inhabiting the parishes just north of the city of Lincoln, especially Brattleby, South Carlton, and Welton. I have traced them by the Subsidy Lists back to the beginning of the fourteenth century, when they were styled " Faber," and were, I pre- sume, the hereditary smiths of the manors. Probably their ancestors had been for count- less generations the witch-doctors of the country-side. At the beginning of the seven- teenth century these Smiths were still wealthy and powerful. Richard Smith, M.D., of Welton, purchased the manor of Potter Han worth, and in 1602 devised it for the endowment of a free school at Lincoln. This disposition was the cause of a family lawsuit.
The testator's cousin Robert, son of John
Smith, was a proctor of the Ecclesiastical
Jourt of Lincoln. By his wife Anne he had
^ssue Faith, married to Anthony Monson,
Esq. ; Mary, to William Simcotts, gent. ;
and Jane, the wife of Brian Smith, gent.
R.O., Proceedings of Charity Commissioners,
iGlO). Of the South Carlton stock were my
bwo great-great-uncles Smith, one of whom
fought at Waterloo and the other at Trafal-
gar. I believe this family is extinct now.
Their arms are : Argent, a fess dancettee
between three roses (or cinquefoils), pierced
gules. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.
Town Hall, Cardiff.
"SMOUS" (9 th S. vi. 409, 493; vii. 131). It should perhaps be noted that smouse used to be a common word in South Africa, no doubt emanating from Holland. But while in modern Dutch it may be used as "a nickname for a Jew," and secondly "to indicate a swindler," in South Africa it meant "a glorified pedlar," a sort of itinerant merchant, who was generally the country commercial traveller of storekeepers fixed in the towns. No doubt "Mr. Smouse" knew how to bargain, and perhaps cheat a little, and therefore the connexion between the different meanings assigned to him in Holland and South Africa shows them to be not so widely divergent. Railways and the general opening up of the country have seriously crippled him, and in all probability he will die a natural death.
HOLCOMBE INGLEBY.
AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (9 th S. v. 317).
They eat and drink and scheme and plod,
They go to church on Sunday ; And many are afraid of God, And more of Mrs. Grundy.
These lines are from Locker's ' London Lyrics,' ' The Jester's Plea.' G. A. M.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.
A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Edited by Dr. James A. H. Murray. L Lap. By Henry Bradley, Hon. M.A. (Oxford, Claren- don Press.)
WITH the new quarterly part of this great dic- tionary begins a new volume, the sixth. The intro- ductory note to this reports with the " profoundest regret" the death, on 1 Feb., 1901, of Dr. Fitz- edward Hall, who had " rendered invaluable help in all the portions hitherto published of this dic- tionary." By what is mentioned as a noteworthy coincidence, " the latest page which contains his additions is that with which the Section ends."
