448
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vn. JUNE s, 1901.
ceasing to be a thoroughfare, in the time oi
the tale, "after a long, straggling, sawney
course." In chap. v. Lady Hampshire is saio
to have spoken "in her sawney voice oi
factitious enthusiasm, as if she pitied the lot
of all those who were not about to sleep in
wet sheets." What is the precise signification
of " sawney " ? The dictionaries immediately
available do not help, except to the extent
of giving a similar form as a variant oi
"Sawny," the national nickname for a
Scotsman. The meanings offered in Halliwell
seem inappropriate to either of the usages
cited. THOMAS BAYNE.
MOLINE FAMILY. There is a letter signed Francis Moline in a pamphlet relating to the execution of a Capt. Burley in the Civil War. The letter is dated 4 February, 1647, from Caris b rooke Castle. Is anything more known of this Francis Moline or any of the same name ? I am also very anxious to get into communication with a family of the same name in France with whom an ancestor of mine had correspondence in 1767 the Molines of St. Yon. I see from the British Museum Catalogue that a General Alexandre Pierre Moline de Saint Yon published a book on the Counts of Toulouse in 1860. Can any one tell me how I can find out the present address of this family 1
REGINALD HAINES.
Uppingham.
SKULLS ON TOMBSTONES. In churchyards in Aberdeenshire, and perhaps elsewhere, skulls carved on tombstones have sometimes a projection like a mushroom growing as it were out of the ear on the side most exposed to view. What does it represent ?
JOHN MILNE.
108, Clifton Road, Aberdeen.
Louis XVI.: ACCOUNT OF HIS DEATH.
At Sotheby's a little while ago was sold an autograph letter from Sanson, the execu- tioner, to the editor of a newspaper in Paris. The letter is dated 20 February, 1793, or less than a month after the execution of Louis XVI., and gives a minute account of the last moments of the king and the words used by him upon the scaffold. Sanson was not only an eye-witness, but also a most important actor in a scene which must have been still vividly in his recollection as he wrote, yet the account does not coincide in all points with other accounts to which we are accustomed. He takes some pains to contradict a report, probably circulated at the time, that the king struggled violently and had to be bound by force. " L'espece de
petit debat qui si fit au pied de 1'echaffaud "
was due to his dislike to taking off his coat
or having his hands tied, and his wish to be
permitted to cut his hair off himself. Sanson
also implies that the king was not at any
time allowed to address the people, as he
wished to do, and that when it was explained
to him that "la chose etoit impossible," he
permitted himself to be led to the guillotine,
it was here, and to those standing around
him - not to the people that he made his
speech. The words also are not the same as are
given in other accounts. The letter concludes
with an admission that k 'il a soutenu tout
cela avec un sang froid et une feruiette' que
nous a tous etormes." Is this letter known
to historians 1 I need not point out that the
account varies from that given by Carlyle,
Bertrand-Moleville, Clery, JDe Conches, <&c.
Some years ago your correspondent DR.
CHANCE gave some interesting notes from the
'Memoires des Sansons,' a work not often
met with ; in it there may be something on
the subject. CHARLES L. LINDSAY.
[DR. CHANGE'S note at 8 th S. x. 249 dealt with Sanson's interview with Louis, when the king sug- gested an improvement in the construction of the guillotine. DR. CHANCE also had a note on the history of the guillotine in 8 th S. xi. 22, but neither article describes the king's execution.]
FILLINGHAM FAMILY. I desire to ascertain all that is to be known about the Fillingham family. They were, I understand, at one time resident in Lincolnshire. What was the origin of the name ? Where can any record respecting them be best found, &c. ?
G. FILLINGHAM.
16, East Parade, Leeds.
DR. BARRY. In 'The Journal of Mrs. Fenton ' (Arnold), which is an interesting chronicle of European society in India, Mauritius, and Tasmania in 1826-30, a refer- ence to this curious figure in military history crops up. Can any reader state if he (or she) is the only such instance known among English commissioned officers? Dr. Barry was in 1829 the military "superintending surgeon " at Port Louis, and the author, who was on friendly terms with him, states that an extraordinary mystery then sur- rounded him, and that he was said to be a woman. Mrs. Fenton writes that she had been informed of this, when in India a year or two previously, by a nurse who, sent by a patient in urgent need, had entered the doctor's room unceremoniously, and had seen that the doctor was not of the sex which he professed to be. The nurse, thus obtaining
accident the doctor's secret, had excited
