ii s. vm. NOV. s, 1913.] NOTES AMD QUERIES.
377
foreigner." The statue was originally at Walton Hall, another Lancashire seat of the De Hoghton family, and was removed to Hoghton Tower about or shortly after 1834, in which year Walton Hall was pulled down. F. H. C.
Throwing a Hat into a House (11 S. viii. 288, 336).—Mr. Thos. Ratcliffe's explanation of this custom does not agree with what I have been led to believe regarding it. In the middle of the last century the custom was not uncommon in Yorkshire and Lancashire. I have always understood that when a man arrived at his home particularly on pay-day under the influence of drink, and with little, if any, money, he threw his hat in first as a means of ascertaining whether it was safe for him to follow. G. T. S.
"Esquire" by Charter (11 S. vii. 287).—I regret that I am not able to answer this question, but I suggest that a reply card sent round to the Royal Societies will settle it. I perfectly recollect at one of the exhibitions of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers seeing a notice that the King had authorized or directed (I forget the exact word) that the members should be entitled to the use of "Esquire." I have searched the file of Catalogues of this Society at the Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, but was unable to find any copy of this authority.
There was an article on 'Esquire and Gentleman' in The Law Times, 9 Nov., 1907, p. 26. Ralph Thomas.
ALMSHOUSES NEAR THE STRAND (11 S.
vii. 130, 236, 315, 417; viii. 333). The
(identification " near the Strand " was pos-
sibly intended to be very wide in its applica-
tion. If it is stretched sufficiently, it can
foe made to refer to Stafford's Almshouses,
Gray's Inn Road, or Edwards's Almshouses,
Christ Church, Lambeth. These were of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries re-
spectively. ALECK ABRAHAMS.
Mr. Vallance was a former Chaplain to Tthe Ironmongers' Company, but the Com- pany have no connexion with the almshouses -above named. E. H. NICHOLL.
CATHEDRAL BELL STOLEN (11 S. viii. 27, .290). The interesting communication of MR. MINAKATA brought to my mind the fact that we have in Leeds two stolen Japanese lamps. These beautiful objects .are now in the grounds of Kirkstall Grange late home of the Beckett family now
enlarged and converted into the new Train-
ing College. The lamps bear inscriptions,
and some time ago these were deciphered
by a well-known Japanese gentleman who
happened to be paying a visit to the city.
To his surprise, he discovered that some
200 years ago, during a period of temporary
unrest, they had been stolen from a royal
tornb in Japan. How they found a resting-
place in Leeds is a mystery. I believe an
effort was made to trace the history of these
highly interesting examples of Japanese art,
but without result.
A businesslike member of the Leeds Education Committee is reported to have said : " We shall be delighted to restore them to the Japanese Government if they will be so kind in return as to stock our College library for us." That most generous offer is still open, for on my last visit to the College I found the ancient lamps still in position ; also, I was amused to find a library without books. JOHN W. SCOTT.
Leeds.
COLONIAL GOVERNORS (11 S. viii. 329). A number of eighteenth-century dispatches addressed to early Australian Governors by the Duke of Portland, Lord Sydney, and other Ministers in charge of the colonies, may be seen in the early volumes of the ' Historical Records of New South Wales.' They are couched in very stiff, frigid, and formal phraseology. The complimentary expression " Your Excellency "or " Your Honour " never occurs. It is always " you " and " your," with the small y. But in other correspondence and documents of the period there are incidental references to " His Excellency the Governor." This would seem to suggest that this styie or title was in colloquial use, but not officially sanc- tioned by the Home authorities. The point raised needs some research among the archives of the Colonial Office. I fancy it will be found that it was not until the rise of the self-governing colonies, and the evolu- tion of a socially superior type of Governor, that " Your Excellency " came to be officially recognized in Downing Street.
J. F. HOG AN.
Koyal Colonial Institute,
Northumberland Avenue.
KNIGHT'S CAP WORN UNDERNEATH HEL- MET (11 S. viii. 329). Early in the thir- teenth century a knight wore on the head a thick woollen " coif " to protect the skin, and over that an iron " pot-de-fer " to take the drag of the " hood " of the hauberk of chain-mail that was drawn over the head.
