374
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. L MAY 7, MM.
papers after the year 1700 as the "Mitre"
only. The " Mourning Bush " was known as
such so late as 1742 (see the Daily Advertiser
of 26 April for that year) ; and in Phoenix
Alley, afterwards Hanover Court, on the
south side of Long Acre, lived Taylor, the
Water Poet, who there kept an alehouse named,
in memory of Charles I., the " Mourning
Crown." Under the Commonwealth, we are
told, he prudently changed the sign to the
44 Taylor's Head," with the lines beneath :
There 's many a head stands for a sign ; Then, gentle reader, why not mine?
'Hist, of Signboards.'
J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.
As the very interesting communications at the second reference imply that the firm of Davison, Newman & Co. still exists, it may be well to place on record the fact that 44, Fenchurch Street, is not now a grocery establishment. F. W. READ.
MlTCHEL & FlNLAY, BANKERS (10 th S. i.
310). I have in progress an index to the London rate-books, &c. It may interest SIR CHARLES KING to know that the 'Book of Names of Inhabitants of St. Mary, Woolnoth, and parts of St. Mary, Woolchurch Haw,' gives Charles Mitchell in 1789 and 1795, also a James Mitchell in the same years. As the registers of this parish are printed down to 1760, I did not think it necessary to index this book before 1750.
GERALD MARSHALL. 80, Chancery Lane, W.C.
For "Shelburne Lane, n r ye Post Office, London," read Sherborne Lane, King William Street, E C., near the Lombard Street post office. A. H.
BASS ROCK Music (10 th S. i. 308). George, Earl of Dumbarton, was colonel of the Royal Scots from 1645 to 1681. W. S.
FAIR MAID OF KENT (10 th S. i. 289). For her eldest son, Sir Thomas Holland, second Earl of Kent, see ' D.N.B.,' vol. xxvii. p. 157, and for her third son, Sir John Holland, first Duke of Exeter and Earl of Huntingdon, the same vol., p. 147. The former's daughter Margaret, first Countess of Somerset, was ruother of Joan Beaufort, Queen of James I. ot bcots, and ancestress of all the later kings of Scotland (xxix., 240). Eleanor Holland, Margarets eldest sister, married Roger de Mortimer (vi.), fourth Earl of March and Ulster (xxxix. 145), thus becoming ancestress of the House of York.
The Lady Margaret, mother of King Henry VII, was daughter of John Beaufort]
first Duke of Somerset, by Margaret, widow
of Sir Oliver St. John, and heiress to Sir
J. Beauchamp, of Bletso. She erected a fin
monument over her parents' grave in Wim
borne Minster. A. R. BAYLEY.
" FOLEIT' " (10 th S. i. 309). We shall not arrive at the sense of this word by assign- ing impossible origins. The Lat. folidtus is F. feuilltf, Anglo-French foiU^ and cannot possibly give a F. word beginning with fol-. The Lat./o^are would merely g\vefole,foul, and does not help us with respect to the suffix, it is more likely that we have to dp with some derivative of follis. The F. poil follet means "down"; and follet meant "foolish, soft."
However, Godefroy's O.F. Diet, gives : " Folet, follet, adj., qualifying a sort of silk ; as in ' Coustepointe traciee de soie follete a. i. feuillage d'espine,' and also sb. m., as in 'donner a un drap blanc qui sera taint en folet autre liziere que blanche.'" These quo- tations are dated 1316 and 1406 respectively.
Mistral gives the modern Prov. pe"u fouletin, down : and notes that fouletin also appears as foulatin, foulati, fpuletil, fulati. The difficulty is in the suffix -eit ; we should expect foleif to result from a Latin
- follectum. WALTER W. SKEAT.
TORPEDOES (10 th S. i. 286). The following extract from my 'History of Bampton' is copied from an old manuscript scrap-book which belonged to a youth named Tinklar, an officer on the ship Maidstone :
"The American Torpedo boat, which was sent down from New York for the destruction of His Majesty's Ship, Maidstone, at anchor off Gardener's Island.
" New York, June 29th, 1814.
"Torpedo Boat. A new invented Torpedo Boat, resembling a turtle floating just above tiie surface of the water, and sufficiently roomy to carry nine persons within, having on her back a coat of mail consisting of three large bombs, which could be dis- charged by machinery, so as to bid defiance to any attacks by barges, left this city (New York) one day last week to blow up some of the enemy's ships off New London. At one end of the boat
E rejected a long pole under water, with a torpedo istened to it, which, as she approached the enemy in the night, was to be poked under the bottom, and then let off. The boat, we understand, is the invention of an ingenious gentleman, by the name of Berrian.
" June 22, 1814. Received information of the torpedo having been driven on shore close to Oyster Pond, Long Island, where she was com- pletely destroyed by the boats of the Maidstone and Sylph. The militia had collected on the neigh- bouring heights, and kept a sharp fire of musketry on the boats until a small detachment of marines had effected a landing, when the militia immediately decamped with unaccustomed rapidity. Pursued
