royal" for no better reason than that it had belonged to the Crown for a longer or shorter period. Had it been so, there would have been few English villages to-day unable to boast of the possession of more than one royal edifice, ranging in point of importance from royal chancels or royal manor-houses to royal cottages or royal barns. Subject to the possible exception of St. Mary's, the chancels of all the surviving parish churches of medieval Leicester have a perfect equality of status. No one of them holds any distinction or rank that is not shared with the others. If one is to be regarded as a 'royal chancel," all must be so regarded. Most people will look upon the incident which led to this discussion as regrettable. It is not without some amusing features, e.g. that it should have been imagined that the chancel of a church like St. Martin's could acquire a new dignity and importance by coming, as stolen property, into the hands of such a King as Henry VIII. SCRUTATOR. JOHN POND, ASTRONOMER ROYAL (cliii. 116, 159, 192). Considerable material on the Pond family, compiled by Mr. Percival Boyd, may be found, now, in the library of the Society of Genealogists, London. That collection has been extensively supplemented by other facts recovered by Mr. R. J. Beevor. From many interesting notes supplied by the latter, I extract the data following: One Isaac Pond married, thirdly, Martha Laske, and had issue: John Pond, bapt. at St. Peter's, Maldon, Essex, June 19, 1665; buried at St. Magnus', London, Jan. 27, 1748; will proved (P.C.C., 22 Lisle), Jan. 31, 1748/9. He married Mary Marshall (daughter of Arthur Marshall and Deborah Beckett; buried at St. Magnus, Jan. 3, 1741), and had issue: William Pond, bapt. at St. Magnus', Oct. 25, 1704; buried there Jan. 3, 1745. He married, first, Frances Clay, and, secondly, Paulina Wynde, who, upon the death of her husband, William Pond, married, secondly, Robert Smith, of Croydon. William Pond and Frances Clay, his first wife, had issue : John Pond, bapt. at St. Katharine Coleman, Feb. 14, 1733; linen-draper, of Aldgate; died 1793. In spite of the difference of age," he was, no doubt, identical with the John Pond of All Hallows', Barking, in Essex, who, as a bachelor, at a declared age of 28, married, Dec. 16, 1765, Arabella Raven, spinster, aged 22, of the same parish (ante p. 116). Upon the death of this first wife, John Pond married, secondly, Mary Smith, daughter of a first wife of Robert Smith, the second husband of Paulina Pond (born Wynde), widow of William Pond (ob. 1745). Arabella John Pond (bapt. 1733) and Raven, his first wife, had issue, a son John, who was, undoubtedly, identical with the future Astronomer Royal of that name. Mr. Beevor, found in the baptismal register of St. Katherine Coleman (in Aldgate), the entries following: 1767, Nov. 18, John, son of John and Arabella Pond; privately. 1767, Nov. 25, John, son of John and Arabella [immediately follows:] Pond; publickly. There may or may not have been other chudren of the marriage. A search for them has not been made. The burial register was not available; so a possible entry of burial of Arabella Pond has not, as yet, been discovered. Arthur Pond, born 20 July, 1701, was bapt. at St. Magnus, 3 Aug., 1701. His His name, however, appears in the register as "Martha"! He died Sept. 9, 1758, and was buried at Sanderstead (as was Paulina Smith also). Arthur Pond was a brother of John Pond, the equestrian, and of William Pond, the astronomer's grandfather. Arthur Pond's will (P.C.C., reg. Hutton, fo. 305), dated Sept. 13, 1757; proved Oct. 3, 1758, mentions nephew John Pond linen-draper, of Aldgate to whom he bequeaths certain properties, including copyhold estate in Little Baddow. Dated Will of Paulina Smith, wife of Robert Smith, formerly Paulina Pond; mentions son-in-law [? step-son] John Pond. Jan. 26, 1782; proved May 2, 1785 (P.C.C., reg. Ducarel fo. 271). Will of John Pond, of Dulwich, in the parish of Camberwell, in the co. of Surrey, gentleman; beloved wife Mary; to son John Pond copyhold land in Baddow, in co. of Essex, also copyhold estate in Lambeth; to bros.-in-law Robert Smith and Charles Smith, freeholds in Great Queen Street in the par. of St. Giles, in trust during life of wife Mary. Dateu April 23, 1793; proved Oct. 11, 1793 (P.C.C., reg. Dodwell, fo. 519). Will of Mary Pond, late of Croydon, now of Lambeth, widow; niece and god-dau. Sarah Smith, dau. of Charles Smith; Robert Smith, late father, of Croydon, maltster, by will dated Dec 3, 1784, settled land for self and then for late husband, John Pond, since deceased, and then for their children. 'I, the said Mary, having no child or children," bequeath it to son-in-law [? step-son] John Pond for life, and in the event of his decease to his wife Ann Pond for life. Dated Aug. 17, 1815; proved Nov. 18, 1819 (P.C.C., reg. Ellenbro, fo. 535). While we may be short of proof that John, son of John Pond (ob. 1793), was identical with John, the astronomer, whose father was John (Trin. Coll. Camb., Adm. reg.), who lived at Dulwich ('D.N.B.'), there seems no reason to doubt it. Absolute proof might be recovered from the Court Rolls of Little Baddow (now at Witham). The explanation of Pond's burial in Halley's tomb is given in The Times, Sept. 15, 1836, an extract from which has been sent me by Mr. Beevor. It reads, in part, as follows: 'BRYAN O'LYNN' (clii. 386, 431; cliii. 15, 48, 85).-I should like to thank all those who have kindly given further verses and information of Bryan O'Lynn.' In reply to G. E.'s queries the 28th Regiment gained the nickname of Slashers as the result of an incident in Montreal in December, 1764, when the ear of an unpopular magistrate, Walker by name, was cut off in retaliation for hardships caused by him to the families of the regiment. The battalion was not in Ireland at the time of the Kinnegad troubles of 1798, and I understand that the soldiers who defeated the rebels were the cavalry militia recruited around Kinnegad itself. (Beauties of the Boyne and the Blackwater,' 1849; and Musgrave's Memoirs of different Rebellions in Ireland,' &c., 1802, Vol. ii., p. 66). Whether the lively melody still popu lar in Ireland" and "named The Kinnegad Slashers in complimentary commemoration of the achievement of that corps at Clonard is the present march tune of the 1st Bn. Gloucestershire Regiment is what I have been trying to discover for some time. There is, I fear, no record as to when the tune was first adopted by the Regiment. A query as to the regimental marches of the Gloucestershire Regiment, together with a copy of the actual tunes, appeared in the Army Historical Research Journal, Vol. vi., p. 122, of April, 1927. The march of the 2nd Gloucesters is officially called 'The Hampshire,' being the march of the Hampshire Regiment. In the 61st it goes by the name of The Highland Piper.' LO The nickname "The Right Abouts," by the way, is not usually recognized in the 28th. R. M. GRAZEBROOK. Jhansi, India. ONGWOOD. THE PASSING OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE (cliii. 184). lines remaining on the walls of old Longwood' are evidently adapted from the well-known lines on Sir Francis Vere. If I remember rightly, the original version ran :— When Vere sought Death, armed with his sword and shield, -The posed inscription on the coffin was prompted by the idea that the ex-Emperor was to be regarded as a General Officer of the highest rank," and not as a Sovereign. But at least he used the French spelling of the name, unlike the rabid royalist in Les Misérables, who not only insisted on spelling it Buonaparte, but pronounced it in five syllables, in order to emphasise the fact that the late Emperor was not of French origin. G. H. WHITE. 23, Weighton Road, Anerley. HUGUENOT IN AND JANSENIST MODERN TIMES (cliii. 138, 178). It is hardly correct to place Huguenots under the term sect," their service being but the form of another class in the French language. There are, or were, Conforming and Nonconforming Churches, and of the former the last Church in London, known as the Savoy Church, has recently been closed. maining Church, that of Soho Square, known as the Threadneedle Street Church, is still The re alive, but Huguenots, as such, rarely visit it, and it may be said to exist for the distribution of the doles it is still able to give to poor and needy Frenchmen. The one at Canterbury, in the crypt of the Cathedral, is a live one, due largely to its quarters and the interest taken by visitors, coupled with the energetic work of its pastor, Mr. Jean Barnabas. If it be remembered that the Huguenot Churches existed only while the French element remained, and that the present families are purely English, with merely the traditional history of their French ancestry, it will be understood why of all the numerous Churches throughout the land, there are now but a couple left. W. H. MANCHEE. he did the amazing thing. He suddenly stopped ant of any sign, but could not fail to wonder Mr. Justice Bucknill, who is Provincial Grand Master of Surrey, waited to hear anything else Sedden might desire to say. But Sedden had finished. Then it was that his lordshop, who was chokreference to Freemasonry, saying: OLD SIGNS IN THE STRAND (cliii. 111, ing with emotion, addressed Sedden and made 156).-MR. NEWTON may like to add to his notes the fact of the old sentry-box, which used to stand outside Gosling's (now Barclay's) Bank, in Fleet Street. It remained there inside an iron railing until some few years ago, when the premises were rebuilt. The head cashier there used to speak of the time when he and a partner would take a cabload of tallies to the Bank of England on drawing the dividends due to their customers -and one day drew my attention to this old curio, as one of the few left in town at that period. It was the only one between Charing Cross and St. Paul's. Apart from the Royal Residences, and some Government Offices, was there another specimen left? I write of some thirty-five to forty-five years ago. W. H. MANCHEE. "MASONIC SIGNAL IN A MURDER TRIAL (cliii. 189).—I enclose a contemporary report in a newspaper of March 15, 1912. The murder was an atrocious one and there was not the slightest doubt of the prisoner's guilt. The Sign made from the Dock to In sentencing Sedden to death Mr. Justice Bucknill caused intense surprise to some of those in Court by remarking We both belong to the same brotherhood. To others, more closely observant, however, the remark was less surprising. We both belong to one Brotherhood, and it is very painful to me to say what I am saying. But our Brotherhood does not encourage crime. On the contrary it condemns it. I pray you again to make your peace with the Great Architect of the Universe. Mercy, pray for it, ask for it. Sedden had made nothing by his last desperate shift. It has since been stated that Seddon was observed, during the trial, to make Masonic signals to members of the jury. If this is true, the attempt to use the claims of Brotherhood to override the oaths and consciences of the jury was conspicuously unsuccessful.-Star, Mar. 15, 1912. JAMES J. GORHAM, M.D. See introduction to 'The Trial of the Sed- Corfe Mullen. [Another correspondent, who remarks that this has been done more than once, refers to Sir Richard Muir, a Memoir,' p. 126 (The Bodley Head).] COUNT SMORLTORK (cliii. 190).-I do not know what authority there may be for the assertion in an Australian Encyclopedia that Count Paul Edmund de Strzelecki was the original of Count Smorltork, but Dickensians in this country generally accept Prince Puckler Muscau as his prototype. A It was understood to be the judge's reply to a Masonic sign or challenge made by the pris- lithographed portrait of the Prince oner after the verdict of Guilty" had been published in 1832, with a caption stating that pronounced by the foreman of the jury, and he was the author of the Tour | In Germany, before the dread formula of the actual death Holland, and England | In the years 1826, sentence had been uttered by his lordship. on The Sedden, with the entire Court hushed, had 1827, & 1828 With remarks been for twenty minutes speaking-reviewing manners and customs of the inhabitants | the evidence, attempting more explanations, and anecdotes of Distinguished Characters and complaining of witnesses not called-when in a series of Letters | By A German Prince was Percy Fitzgerald, in his 'Pickwickian Dictionary and Cyclopædia' also supports Hayward in the statement that Count Smorltork was the Prince Puckler Muskau, and gives as his reason that the Count " did" England with extraordinary rapidity, and published accounts of his travels in 1830-1. ARCHIBALD SPARKE. A GOOSEBERRY-PIE RITE (cliii. 119). -The Mansfield "Gooseberry-Pie custom is part of the Robin Hood tradition so closely associated with Sherwood Forest and its surroundings. BIRTHS AT MIDNIGHT (cliii. 154, 211).— Tradition says that St. Patrick was born at midnight on Mar. 8, and his birthday was kept by some on that day, and by others on the 9th. The rival factions were reconciled at last by the ingenious suggestion of a priest that 8 should be added to 9. Hence the 17th of March. The story is beautifully told in a poem, St. Patrick's Day,' that was re-published in T.P.'s and Cassells' Weekly on 20 March, 1926. Whether St. Patrick was 'psychic " and saw two ghosts," I cannot. say, but he was certainly credited with two birthdays. Lyme Regis. ALL W. J. HARDING. LL SIR GARNET" (cliii. 28, 69, 141, The ceremony of serving up and consum- 196). Speaking from recollection, it ing a gooseberry-pie has been carried out is my belief that the phrase started in 1874, since the days of the bold Sherwood forester, after Wolseley's successful Ashantee camon the occasion of the holding of the July. paign. At that time Sir Garnet was spoken fair. This fair commences on the first of humorously as our only General.” Thursday of July, and the huge confection of crust and fruit is distributed by the Mayor for the time being. The old-time practice of Mansfield natives was to visit the homes of their parents to celebrate the fair, during which time they were regaled with the pies which their mothers had made in anticipation of their visits. From being practically a cottage custom it, in course of time, developed into a civic one. H. ASKEW. earliest reference in the Oxford Dictionary (x. 141) seems to be 1608, but many others are given. Consult the Phil. Trans. Abr. vii, 374 (1724-34) and Rees's Cyclopædia, xviii. (1819) under ignis fatuus. J. ARDAGH. Instances such as your correspondent seeks are recorded at 4 S. iii, 125; 7 S. ix, 305; xi. 275, 378; xii 473. Reference to use of the term will be found at 8 S. xi, 227. ARCHIBALD SPARKE. doubt. C. W. The meaning of this expression was fully shewn by my quotation, and was never in What is, however, curious, is that what was presumably a catchword "of the 'eighties should have survived until the present day, and it would be interesting to know if it is peculiar to London, as a rule, or if it The report I has still any widespread use. quoted came from The Times, and it is evident that the reporter thought it sufficiently uncommon to quote it verbatim, yet he must be as familiar as anybody with colloquial speech. E. PHILIP BELBEN. Corfe Mullen. 'HELL FOR LEATHER" (cliii. 156, 192). In two years' time, if I live, I shall be 70. I am certain that I heard the above expression much further back than 1892. One of my brothers, dead some years, used it as a hunting term, when describing a good run, and I feel sure it was used, years ago, in XVI CENTURY ST. PAUL'S (cliii. 189). descriptions of cavalry charges. ARRICK (clii. 406, 447; cliii. 34).-The followng entry which I have copied vervatim from the marriage register of St. Paul, Deptford, may be of interest: Marriages, 1746. August 3, James Orrok, Lieutenant of a Man of Warr, Batchelor, of This Parish & Sarah The Library. The Poems and Letters of Andrew Marvell. tercentenary of Marvell's birth being Maddox, Spinster, of Est Greenwich in ye Terentind us it is to be hoped that this County of Kent. R. BINGHAM ADAMS. ROBERTSON, MINIATURIST (cliii. 120). -A list of over two hundred of his portrait miniatures will be found in Graves's Royal Academy Exhibitors,' whilst a further list of his sitters is given in Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers.' According to Foster's 'British Miniature Painters (1898) at that date a large number of Robertson's miniatures were in the collection of Mr. Jefferey Whitehead. ARCHIBALD SPARKE. SHIPS' TONNAGE (cliii. 189). This information will be found in full in The Shipping World Year Book' 1927, pp. 277 et seq. CALCULATION OF H. HANNEN. RE EFERENCE WANTED (cliii. 120).-The lines Tous ces Anglais," etc., are quoted in an article on English Disagreeableness which is quoted from the Courier Français in The Times of Oct. 12, 1825, reprinted in The Times of Oct. 12, 1925. Emerson, in his English Traits: Manners,' says: In short, every one of these islanders is an island in himself, safe, tranquil and incommunicable." JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. new edition will find a considerable public English literature ready to appreciate " وو Of growth more sudden and more bold Are buried hence, as if already old, an intention to suggest geometric progression -each life having its own ratio, which in some AUTHOR WANTED (cliii. 190). The author is such as to make them outrun their age. of Zelda's Fortune,' was Robert Edward Francillon. It appeared in the Cornhill Magazine in 1873. He also wrote about a dozen other novels, particulars of which will be found in Allibone. Francillon was born in Gloucester, 25 March, 1841, educated at Cheltenham, and graduated at Cambridge, first class Law Tripos in 1862, called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1864. He died 11 March, 1919. ARCHIBALD SPARKE. In his dealing with the question of authenticity lies the most important service Mr. Margoliouth has rendered to Marvell. His 'General Note on the Text' contains an analysis of the MS books used by Edward Thompson for the edition of 1776, on which many attributions of the satires are based, and shows what dependence is to be placed upon that. Examination of MS. versions has compelled him to restore The King's Vowes ' to the number of authenticated |