NOTES AND QUERIES.

Evening Star, Issue 7337, 8 October 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

NOTES AND QUERIES.

A Polite Hint.—An elegantly-dressed young lady recently entered a railway carriage iu P.iris where there wore three or four gentlemen, one of whom was lighting a cigar. Observing her, with the characteristic politeness of a Frenchman, he asked her if smoking would incommode her. She replied: "I do not know, sir; no gentleman has ever smoked iu my presence." Book of Sports.—Tho name popularly civen to a Declaration issued by King Jame3the First in 1618 to signify his pleasure that on Sunday, after divine service, no lawful recreation should be barred to his good people, which should not tend to the breach of the laws of his kingdom and the canons of his church. The sports specified were dancing, archery, leaping, vaulting, May-games, Whitsunales, morrice-dances, and the setting up of May-poles. Discontent having arisen in Lancashire from the suppression of the people's usual recreations, was the occasion of this proclamation. Although the Declaration was ordered to be read in the parish churches, it was not enforced, and the King's design was allowed to drop. Tho republication of this Declaration in 1633, and enforcing with great severity the reading of it by tho clergy in their churches, excited a degree of indignation contributing not a little to the downfall of Charles the First and Archbishop Laud. Bully-boy.—This curious phrase often appears in American newspapers, and is thought to be indigenous to that country. It is, however, an old English saying, as the following quotation from ' Deuteromelia,' etc., published in London, 1609, will show: We be three poor mariners. Newly oom i from the seas; We spend oure lines in jeopardy Whiles others Hue at ease. Shall we goe daunce tho round, the rouni, And shall we goe daunca the round, And ha that ia a bully boy Come pledge me ou the ground. B.uibokough Castle, one of the oldest in Britain, having, according to the Saxon chronicle, been erected by Ida, the first Saxon king of Northumbria, and appears to have been a royal residence for long after. On its site A<»ricola is said to have built a Roman fortress. Daring the wars of the Rosea it was the scene of several conflicts, and so hatttered and destroyed that it has not again been used as a fortress. In the time of Queen Elizabeth its governor wa3 Sir John Foster, in whose family it continued till 1715, when it was bought by Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, who left it, with other property, for benevolent purposes. Its restoration and conversion to its present charitable uses were chiefly carried out by one of the trustees, the Rev. Dr Sharpe, who bsqueithed to it his library. The income, about L 9.000, is expended in providing a market for the sale of provisions to the poor at prime cost; a dispensary for gratis advice and medicine to the sick ; funds for maintaining and educating poor children of the district; lifeboats and apartments for shipwrecked sailors ; also a constant patrol, during stormy nights, for eight miles along the coast, and other beneficent purposes. Opposite to Bamborough Castle are the Farn Isles, where the heroine Grace Darling and her father resided, who saved the crew on that memorable occasion of great peril and courage when the Forfarshire steamer was lost in 1838.

Coldstream Guards.--A regiment in the Foot Guards, or Household Brigade. It is the oldest corps in the British Army, except the First Foot. General Moak raised this corps in 1660 at Coldstream (a border town in Berwickshire), which was called at first Monk's Regiment; but when Parliament consented to give a brigade of guards to Charles the Second, this corps, under the name of Coldstream Guards, was included in it.

Caper, to skip about in a frolicsome manner, is derived from the Latin caper, a float, in allusion to the habit of that animal of suddenly jumping about without any apparent reason or object.

Feather ik hi.s Cap.—ln the 'Lansdowne M.S.,' 775, fol. 149, in the British Museum, is a description of Hungary, anno. 1599, in which it is stated that "It bath been an ancient custom among them that none should wear a feather but he who had killed a Turk."

Jack Cade.—He was leader of an insurrection which broke out in Kent, 1450. With fifteen to twenty thousand armed men of Kent, Cade marched to London and encamped on Blackheath, whence he kept up a correspondence with the citizens, many of whom were favorable to his enterprise. The Court sent to inquire why the good men of Kent had left their homes. Cade, in a paper entitled ' The Complaint of the Commons of Kent,' replied that the people were robbed of their goods for the King's use ; that mean and corrupt persons, who plundered and oppressed the commons, filled the high offices of Court ; that misgovernment had banished justice and prosperity from tho land ; and that the men of Kent were especially ill-treated and over-taxed. He issued another paper called the 'Requests by the Captain of the Great Assembly in Kent,' an answer to which was sent in the form of an army before which Cade retreated to Sevenoaks, where he defeated a detachment sent against him. The Royal army now objected to fight against their countrymen, and the Court made some concessions. Cade entered London, where strict order was kept for two days. But he forced the Judges to pass sentence upon Lord Saye, one of the King's hated favorites, whose head was immediately cut off. A promise of pardon now sowed dissension among Cade's followers, who dispersed, and a price was set upon his head, whereupon he fled, but was followed and killed. His head was stuck upon London Bridge as a terror to traitors.

Kill.—An Irish word, signifying a church or cemetery, which is used as a prefix to tho names of many places in Ireland. —' Encyclo. Lond.'

Marquis or Marquess (from marquis, French; marchio, Latin; margrave, German). —One of the second order of nobility, next in order to a duke. The first marquis was Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, whom Richard 11., in the year 1386, made Marquis of Dublin. The first and last woman who was created a marquess was the Lady Ann Bolein, and then the spelling marqttm seems to have been considered a feminine term. The general style of a marquis is "most high and mighty prince," and he is styled by the Sovereign "our trusty and entirely beloved cousin." His title is "most honorable," and his sons, by courtesy, are styled lords, and his daughters ladies.— Wharton. . " Married by the Glove. This curious custom is quite common in Holland, and it is caused by the fact that of their eligible young men, after having finished their education in the schools of the I Fatherland, depart for Dutch India to engage in some lucrative commercial enterprise or to accept a position in the colonial Bervice. The scarcity of marriageable white women in that clime induces the would-be husband to write to a friend in Holland, enclosing his wish for a wife. The friend selects a willing young lady, generally with a substantial dot, and otherwise conforming closely to the specifications of the letter. A photograph of the favored one is enclosed in tho return epistle. After the lapse of a few months a soiled left-hand glove, with a power of attorney, is received from the far-away bachelor. The friend in Holland marries the selected bride in precisely the same manner as if he were the actual groom, and the young wife departs in the next India mail steamer to bring happiness and prosperity to tho lonely one in the fast East. A marriage of this description is as binding as if the bridegroom were present, and never is repudiated. If either party to the glove-marriage should die before meeting in India, the survivor would share the property of deceased in accordance with the laws. Reflections after a DuEL.-On the way home after his duel with O'Connell, in a hackney coach, Lord Alvan ey said: ••What a clumsy fellow O'Connell must be to miss such a fat fellow as I am. He ought to practice at a haystack and get his hand in * WhenthecarriagedrovenptoAlvanley s door ho gave the coachman a sovereign. Jarvie was profuse in his thanks, and said •'lt's a great deal for only having taken your Lo&hip to Wimbledon " ."No, my Jood man," said Alvanley, " I give it you, not for taking me, but for bringing me back."