Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/446

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

366


NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XIL NOV. 6, im


^whether this portrait by Sir Godfrey was -engraved, and whether there are any copies in existence. The portrait in question is now, I believe, in the possession of Sir George Nares, a son of my old friend. I once possessed a pencil drawing of it, but pre- sented it to a friend.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

THE LIVING DEAD. (See 9 S. xi. 427, 497 ; xii. 14, 97.) On 19 Aug., 1807, whilst a great festival was being celebrated in honour of the god Hachiman at Fukagawa, Yedo, the famous Eitai Bridge was partly broken down by the excessive weight of the people who thronged on it to see the procession. In this catastrophe, a contemporary states, 440 persons perished, 340 were restored to life, and 745 rescued. Among other queer incidents, he tells one thus :

" A man [who fell in the disaster, but escaped with life], after reaching the further side of the river, was wandering raving, with his body covered with mud. A friend recognized him, and asked, ' Why do you behave so madly ? ' ' I am,' he answered, ' now dead by drowning ; is this a street in the spiritual world ? ' " Oota, ' Yume-no-Ukihashi,' p. 404, ed. 1907.

KUMAGTJSU MlNAKATA.

SAWBRIDGEWORTH LEGEND. " Say's Gar- dens," in the parish of Sawbridgeworth, were, according to Salmon (' Hist, of Herts,' 1728), situated between the church and the river. The site of these is said to be in a hollow in the field on the left of the footpath which leads from Bridgefoot Farm to the church. This has the appearance of having been a gravel-pit ; it seems a curious site for a building, but its odd appearance is accounted for locally by the statement that " they dug out the foundations and carried them away." The legend runs that Say's Castle (as it was then called) was inhabited by two sisters who led notoriously evil lives so bad, indeed, that the Father of Lies had marked them for his own. It is stated that after some more than usually wild orgie, a storm arose in the night, and when dawn broke " the house was not." It had been swallowed up by some uncanny means which left the spot much as it is to-day, whereas before it had been a high mound.

It is of some interest to note that William de Say (temp. Richard I.) had but two daughters, afterwards married respectively to Geoffrey Fitz Piers and William de Bokeland. There is no reason to believe that they were any better or worse than


their neighbours, and the story of their misdeeds seems purely legendary. But that a building, the manor house, stood near the hurch, is highly probable ; and it is not unlikely that at the period referred to (the twelfth century) the whole valley of the Stort was liable to floods (as it is to some extent at the present time), and that after some unusually heavy rains the rise of the waters undermined the site and swept the building away. W. B. GERISH.

Bishop's Stortford.


WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.


" TAGLIONI " = GREATCOAT. The follow- ing quotation is given in Webster's * Dic- tionary,' 1864, as from Scott: "He ought certainly to exchange his taglioni or comfort- able great-coat for a cuirass of steel." This is apparently an early example of the word, which is also mentioned by Thackeray in 1837. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' help us to find the Scott passage ? It may be in a novel, or in his letters. Any other example of taglioni as a garment before 1837, or any information as to its introduction, will be welcome. J. A. H. MURRAY.

Oxford.

BARRY O'MEARA. Is there any known picture, painting, or engraving representing Barry O'Meara, who was Napoleon's surgeon at St. Helena ? BRYAN.

Washington, D.C.

[The 'A.L.A. Portrait Index' states that The Century Magazine for 1900, vol. xxxvii. p. 610, con- tained a reproduction of a portrait.]

HOTEL SERVANTS : THEIR SYMBOLIC CORRESPONDENCE. It is generally believed that vagrants and beggars put certain marks on houses, in order to make known to their fellow scamps if the house is well or badly guarded, if there are men inside, if a dog watches, &c.

Is it true that a similar mode of correspon- dence exists between hotel servants ? Globe- trotters are aware that in Switzerland and in other tourist countries porters or waiters stick bills or labels, with the name of the hotel, on the luggage when one leaves. The trunks look very ugly at the end of a trip, and require a sound washing.

I have been told that the place where these labels are stuck, and the way of putting