Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/56

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48


NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. ix. JAN. is, 1002.



dovery bridges in Carmarthenshire, Aberavon bridge in Glamorganshire, and Glasbury bridge in Brecknockshire; and to his son David Llandilo bridge over the Towy and Newport bridge over the Usk. Two other sons were also builders. Did any of them build or design any bridges not in Wales *

THOMAS MAUKICE, 1754-1824. Will some one who has access to Maurice's ' Memoirs very kindly tell me whether the author ol 'Indian Antiquities' was ever at Harrow School 1 He refers apparently to the demo- cratic spirit which prevailed thereat under Dr. Sumner, and the 'D.N.B.' says he devoted himself to classics under the tuition of Dr. Samuel Parr at Stanmore.

A. K. BAYLEY.

St. Margaret's, Malvern.

CONFESSIONALS. In the Roman Catholic Church in Libau I notice that the con- fessionals are quite open, there being a seat for the priest with a wooden grating on either side, but the front is open, and the penitent must be in full view of any one in the church. A lady informs me that she has seen penitents kneeling at the chancel step while the priest sat within the rails. Is this at all usual, or is it a Polish custom ? I understand that the sermon is preached in Polish one Sunday, Russian the next, and Lettish the next, but that the majority of the congregation are Poles. FRED. G. ACKERLEY.

Seemansheim, Libau, Russia.

"MiscHiEF-NiGHT." What is the origin of this term for the eve of Gunpowder Plot 1 ? After dark on 4 November of last year a maid from my house (near Bramley, Leeds) was in Kirkstall, when she was set upon by a number of small boys armed with sticks. She alleges that they struck her pretty sharply, and that to her remonstrances they merely said : "Oh, it's ahl reight, missis, it's ' mis- chief-neight,' doan't you knoa 1 ?" Are such forms of assault and battery on the night before " the Fifth " purely local 1

DOWNHAULER. Leeds.

THE EARTH MOTHER. Under St. Walburga (25 February), Baring-Gould says :

"There can be no doubt that S. Walburga has inherited the symbols and much of the cultus anciently devoted to Walborg, or Walburg the Earth Mother."

Where shall I find particulars of this Walborg cultus 1 PRESBYTER.

[We find nothing directly bearing on this point in either Grimm's ' Teutonic Mythology ' or Frazer's ' Golden Bough.']


4 ROBINSON CRUSOE.' I should be much pleased to correspond with any one interested in the early editions of this work, in which I have observed several curious discrepancies e.g., in the preface to the first edition it reads " because all such things are dispatch'd," instead of "disputed," as in later editions Also in the fifth edition, 1720 (which I have), the frontispiece, though similar, is not exactly the same. Will any one haying an early edition kindly communicate with

WM. A. CLARKE.

1, Warnborough Road, Oxford.

MINIATURE OF COL. GEO. FLEETWOOD. In looking through some Fleetwood wills, I came across that of John Fleetwood, citizen and glass seller, of London (Ludgate Hill 1\ proved 17 January, 1760, by John Fleetwood, son of his late brother Robert, sole executor. There is a bequest to his niece Jane Fenton, widow, of 50/.,

" in case she gives my executor hereinafter named within one month after my decease the picture for a watch of my late grandfather Colonel George Fleetwood deceased, otherwise the said legacy of 5QL" to sink into the residuary estate.

Can any of your readers inform me who the Col. Geo. Fleetwood alluded to was 1 I have seen the engraving at the British Museum of a miniature of the regicide, and also the original thereof, painted by Samuel Cooper, now in the possession of Mr. Gery Milner- Gibson-Cullum, F.S.A., and have had indis- putable proof that the miniature named in the will is not the one engraved. This one was left by the regicide to his daughter Anne, in his will, 1651 (this must be the date of the will), as follows :

"I do hereby give and bequeath to my daughter

Anne and also my Picture set in a gold Box

enamelled, in lieu whereof I give unto my wife the sum of one hundred pounds." By her it was left to her aunt, Mrs. Honoria Cradock, by her will proved 1676 (made 1674), in the following words: "Item to my dear aunt Mrs. Honoria Cradock I give my Father's little Picture." It remained in the Cradock family till, at the death on 22 November, 1772, of Thomas Priest, of Gesyngs, Suffolk, who married Elizabeth Cradock (she died with- out issue), it was sold and purchased by Mrs. Ashley Palmer, great - grandaunt of the pre- sent possessor.

The miniature named in the will may be a replica, or it may be the portrait of another George Fleetwood. If it be still in existence, perhaps the present owner would give in- formation as to how it came into his posses- sion, and a pedigree of the branch of the