218
NOTES AND QUERIES. -in s. XL MAR. 13, 1915.
and so forth, and so forth. The fellows
record makes one shudder. No doubt some
of the pictures were on screens such a* those
which, worthily treated by Sir W. B. Rich-
mond, still delight a beholder at Southwold.
There is another chancel screen of the like
tvpe at Woodbridge, and there are probably
many more in the same cou < nty ' SwiTHIN
STARLINGS TAUGHT TO SPEAK (11 S. xi. 68 114 154). I did not reply to this query when it first appeared, because what was wanted was authority for the truth oi the belief rather than for the belief itself ; but it is not, perhaps, quite beside the point to refer to the well-known passage in the second branch of the Mabinogi,' which in Lady Charlotte Guest's translation reads :
" \nd Bramven reared a starling in the cover of the kneading trough, and she taught it to speak, and she taught the bird what manner ot man her brother was."
The romancer does not represent the bird as telling Branwen's story to her brother, but merely as carrying a letter ; but the passage quoted shows that the belief in the starling's powers of speech existed in Wales at an early period. H. I. B.
One of your correspondents writes to me direct with reference to this question, that in 1876, when he was a lieutenant in the (then) Bengal Fusiliers, a sergeant in the same regiment named Owen had a starling which used to pronounce its owner's Chris- tian name Richard quite distinctly.
R. XICHOLLS.
DE QUINCE Y ON " TIME FOR DIRECT
INTELLECTUAL CULTURED (11 S. xi. 166).
It is surely not De Quincey who has made an " extraordinary miscalculation/' If the whole of the 7,000 odd days before the twentieth birthday are to be deducted from the total, it will not do to deduct in addition over two thirds of those same days ! The deductioi for sleeping and daily work must be two thirds of fifty years, not of seventy. So also with the one hour ad coi^pus curandum. Or this basis I make the balance to be 5,32 days ; from which I infer that De Quince? must have allowed three hours ad corpu* curandum to get the total below 4,000.
The miscalculation reminds me of the curious blunder made by a daily paper a few years ago in criticizing the view that the ideal of holidays was to take " one day in seven, one week in seven, one month in seven, and one year in seven." This, it said.
vould mean four-sevenths of life devoted to
recreation, forgetting that during the course
of any one of the longer periods of rest the
shorter periods could not be taken also..
ilxact calculation is impossible, owing to the
variable length of the month ; but I make
he proportion of life devoted to recreation
on this scheme to be a little over four-ninths.
A. MORLEY DAVIES. Arngrove, Harrow Road, Pinner. [MR. J. J. FREEMAN and MR. R. NICHOLLS also- hanked for replies.]
HARRISON = GREEN (11 S. xi. 108, 173). My apologies are due to MR. ROLAND AUSTIN or giving a wrong date, and my only excuse- s that I was misled by a MS. copy of the- Harrison pedigree, originally published in ihe Miscellanea Genealogica ct Heraldica r vol. iv. p. 118, w T hich at present I am unable* to consult. Though much obliged for this correction, I shall be still more thankful for an answer to my query.
W. H. CHIFPINDALL, Col.
Kirkby Lonsdale.
HENLEY FAMILY (II S. xi. 129, 194). Some account of this family may be obtained from the following w r orks : ' The Visitation of Somersetshire, 1623 '; Collins's 'Peerage,' 1768, vol. vi. p. 201 (Henley r Earl of Northington) ; Burke's ' Extinct Baronetage ' ; Hut chins" s ' History of Dor- set " ; and Brown's ' Somerset Wills,' 6 vols. Collins states that Sir Andrew Henley,, the third baronet, married a daughter of - Ball of Yateley, in the county of Southampton, Esq. I fail to find any Henley amongst the returns to the Short Parliament, 1640. CROSS-CROSSLET.
DA COSTA: BRYDGES WILL YAMS (11 S.. xi. 190). It was in 1863 that Disraeli came into possession of the considerable fortune of Mrs. Brydges Willyams, who was the widow of a Cornish squire residing at Torquay. She was a lady of Spanish- Jewish parentage, and her family, the Mendez da Costas, had intermarried with Disraeli's family, the De Laras. She was buried at Huglienden, close to the grave of Disraeli. ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L.
SAVERY FAMILY OF DEVONSHIRE (US. xL 148. 196). A very full account of the life of Thomas Savery, F.R.S., engineer and inventor, will be found in ' The Devonian Year-Book, 1915,' from the pen of Rhys Jenkins, M.I.Mech.E., Examiner in the- Patent Office.] W. G. WILLIS WATSON..
Exeter.
