Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/194

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188


NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. SEPT. 2, me.


edition of ' Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, comprising Laws supposed to be enacted by Howel the Good,' fol., Loncu, 1841:

Tri phet a orchymyn Cyfreith y bawb [i.e. Three things Law imposes upon everybody] :

(1) Dwyn y fowyt yn addfwyn [To bear life meekly] ;

(2) Ac na wnelo coddyant y arall, na gostwng [An i not to cause vexation, nor abasement, to another] ;

(3) A roddi y ba-\vb a ddylya [And to give everybody his due].

Cf. loc. cit., p. 724, paragraph xxiii.

H. KREBS. Oxford.

DAYLIGHT SAVING. Dr. Home, writing from the R.H.S. Gardens, Wisley, Surrey, on the subject of spraying gooseberry bushes for the prevention of American mildew, says : " Spraying took place on May 20 at 5 P.M. (Willett's time), when the bushes were just dry after gentle rain in the afternoon." This is the first reference in print I have seen to the new daylight calendar as " Willett's time."

And, in passing, is not Dr. Home a little

" previous " in his reference, seeing that the

changing of the time did not take place until

2 A.M. the following day Sunday, May 21 ?

ANDREW HOPE.

Exeter.


\VE 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.

THE COLOURS OF THE 56TH FOOT: LOUDON HARCOURT GORDON. Through the courtesy of Mr. Arthur Humphreys I have just seen an entry in an old book-catalogue of a book by Loudon Harcourt Gordon entitled ' Discourse on the Consecrating of the New Colours to the Fifty-Sixth Regiment at the Isle of France,' 1819. It was " privately promulgated, amongst other reasons, be- cause the Press teems with advocates for Buonaparte." The volume is said, in a foot- note, to be remarkable for containing in the Preface " a most brutal and illiberal hint regarding Napoleon while at Longwood, whom in some verses he describes as

Alive, deserted, and accursed when dead."

Loudon Harcourt Gordon (1780-1831) was the younger son of the Hon. Lockhart Gordon (son of the third Earl of Aboyne). He entered the Artillery as a cadet in 1794,


was superseded in 1803, and got an ensigncy in the 56th in 1806. He and his brother, the Rev. Lockhart Gordon, became the talk of the town through " abducting " Mrs. R. Lee, De Quincey's " Female Infidel," in 1804, The report of the case, ' An Apology for the Conduct of the Gordons,' is fairly familiar to bookbuyers ; but I have never seen any reference hitherto to the above ' Discourse/ Where can I see a copy ?

J. M. BULLOCH.

123 Pall Mall, S.VV.

SHEEPSHANKS' s BIOGRAPHIES. De Morgan, in his ' Budget of Paradoxes,' states that Thomas Cooper attributes to the Rev. R. Sheepshanks (1794-1855), F.R.S. and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, clever ficti- tious biographies of public men which he successfully foisted on the editor of The Cambridge Chronicle. De Morgan knew Sheepshanks, and doubted his authorship.

Query, What were the biographies, when did they appear in The Cambridge Chronicle, and who was their author ?

In the same work (De Morgan's ' Budget '). he refers to " Mr. Halliwell's profound book on Nursery Rhymes." What were these rimes ? J. O. Halliwell (1820-89) apparently wrote them in 1842. II.

[Halliwell's 'Nursery Rhymes' a compilation, not original rimes is a well-known book, published by the Percy Society in 1842.]

SLONK HILL, SHOREHAM, SUSSEX. There is a hill so named situated to the north-east of this town. Local histories and guide- books derive " slonk " from the Saxon word " slaught," and refer to a tradition that a great battle was fought there in Saxon times. The hill slopes towards the level ground between the foot of the Downs and the sea. There is a field named " Slonk-furlong " in. the parish of Iford, near Lewes. What is the meaning of the word " Slonk " ?

H. CHEAL.

Montford, Rosslyn Road, Shoreham.

EPITAPH ON A PORK BUTCHER. I have a clear remembrance of having seen in some church not a very out-of-the-way church an epitaph on some one of whom it is said,

For killing pigs was his delight Both morning, afternoon, and night.

It ended with an aspiration that the- deceased might continue his favourite occu- pation in the place to which he had gone !

Can any of your readers say whether the epitaph is still in existence, and where, and give it in its entirety ? H. B. S.