tained that it was all a pretence, and that no man could reduce dollars to francs on the nail of his thumb. I satisfied myself, however, that the calculation was actually made. May not this practice, which is by no means confined to the gallant Gascons, have something to do with the above expression, "the rule of thumb?"

The phrase, however, has taken a more extensive range. The last joint of the thumb having been considered equivalent in length to onetwelfth of the Roman, of the French, and also of the English foot, and therefore available as an inch measure, has often been so used, and is still occasionally employed in measuring cloth. Of course this is no very exact measurement; and hence it comes to pass that any rough calculation or estimate is said to be done by "rule of thumb." I was once told that the sub-contractors for railway excavations, in estimating the number of cart-loads before making their tenders, often calculated by "rule of thumb," thus dispensing with technicalities, and taking their chance of a few loads more or less.

When searching for information respecting any English phrase, especially if it is more than usually striking, facetious, or significant, look for it in Jamieson. The mode of making "thumb-brewed ale," instanced by your correspondent as prevailing in Yorkshire, very aptly illustrates the use of the thumb, in operating "without a precise formula." But for the phrase itself as now used, "the rule of thumb," we appear to be indebted to the Scottish language. To do any thing by rule of thoum is to do it nearly in the way of guess-work, or at hap-hazard. 'No rule so good as rule of thumb, if it hit;'-when a thing falls out to be right which we did at a venture." (Jamieson, Supplement; where see also "Rule-o'er-thoum," i.e., Rule o' the thumb.) THOMAS BOYS.

One of your correspondents says this refers to a practice of dipping the thumb in beer wort to test its degree of heat. I should like to know why anyone would dip his thumb in liquor for that purpose, if he had a finger. To find the meaning of the phrase there is no need to dip for it: I believe it will rather be found on the surface. Amongst country labourers, whose hands and fingers are enlarged by griping their tools at hard work, I have often seen the measure of length roughly taken (where no other means were at hand) in this way. Giles or Jim will very knowingly place his thumb close and firm on the surface of the thing to be measured, then his other thumb in front of the first, and so on alternately from one end to the other. "There," says he, "that's so many inches: my thumb will just cover an inch." "Rule of thumb" means, therefore, a rough meaBRAMBLE.

surement.

Replies to Minor Queries. Aneroid (2nd S. iv. 239.) — H. W.'s derivation of this word is almost as amusing as that of girkin from Jeremiah King. It is merely a scientific instrument, namely, a vacuum: from a, no, àńp, air, Greek compound to express the principle of the and eldos, form, with the usual v or n interposed in such compounds for the sake of euphony. The French is aneroïde. The upper lid of the instrument is made sufficiently thin to yield to atmospheric pressure over the vacuum, and according to that pressure motion is given to an index, whose divisions correspond to the scale of the ordinary barometer. It is much less fragile than the mercurial barometer, but its indications are less exact. It was invented in 1847 by M. Védy, not Vidil. See Bouillet, Dict. des Sciences.

Apropos of barometers, one of the best bonmots ever uttered was that of the late Earl of Leicester, who, when a lubberly farmer entered his dining-room, and accidentally smashed the barometer, exclaimed: "Well, gentlemen, I never saw the mercury so low before in any weather." ANDREW STEINMETZ.

St. Peter as a Trojan Hero (2nd S. iv. 249.) — In the passage quoted, Gibbon alludes to the system of Father Hardouin, a Jesuit, which he broached towards the end of the seventeenth century, in a pamphlet entitled De numis Herodiadum. He maintained the absurd and extravagant theory that in the thirteenth century there were very few books, merely the Vulgate, Pliny, the Georgics, the works of Cicero, and the satires and epistles of Horace. The Emperor Frederick II. formed the design to destroy the Christian religion, by disseminating all at once a multitude of books. He engaged for this purpose the Benedictines of Germany, Italy, France, and England; and all the authors, both profane and ecclesiastical, which we consider ancient, were the work of these monks. F. Hardouin was condemned by his superiors, and obliged to retract: he did so, but without really changing his absurd opinion.

F. C. H.

Blue Coat Boys at Aldermen's Funerals (2nd S. iv. 128.)- May I be permitted to mention (in reference to my query on this subject) that an instance of the Blue Coat Boys singing psalms at under date November 22, 1720. He says: a funeral is recorded by Hearne in his Diary,

"About a fortnight or three weeks since died at London, the lady Holford, widow of sir William Holford, baronett. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Lewis, being the daughter of one Lewis, a coachman, of Stanton St. John's, near Oxford. Being a handsome, plump, jolly wench, one Mr. Harbin, who belonged to the custom house, and very rich, married her, and dying, all he had came to her. For tho' she had a son by him, who was gentleman commoner of Christ Church (and the only child, as I have been informed, she ever had), yet he died very

young, to her great grief. After this, sir William Holford married her, chiefly for her wealth (her beauty being then much decayed,) he being but poor himself, but dyed before her, and what he had came to his son, sir William Holford, who dyed not a year agoe, being bachellor of arts and fellow of New college, a rakish drunken sot, and would never acknowledge his mother in law, for which she allowed him nothing, and so he dyed poor. This woman dyed very rich, (in the 70th year or thereabouts of her age,) and hath left a vast deal to several charitable uses. She was buried on Thursday night, (Nov. 17.) in great state, in the church of St. Alhallows Stayning, near that of sir William, her late husband. The blew-coat boys belonging to Christ Hospital walked before the corps in procession, singing of psalms; and twentyseven clergymen attended at the funeral."

Hearne afterwards gives some particulars of the exhibitions left by Lady Holford for CharterHouse scholars at Oxford, and says that each of the twenty-seven clergymen attending her funeral received a legacy of ten pounds.

It will be observed that this funeral took place as much as twenty-six years after the production of the play by D'Urfey, in which the allusion to the custom, quoted by me, is found. Sir William Holford does not appear to have been an alderman of London, but it is probable that he and his lady were governors of Christ's Hospital.

W. H. HUSK. Degeneracy of the Human Race (2nd S. iv. 288.) -I have lately dug up in a barrow some Romans, known to be such by the coin in their mouths. They were of average height. And a few years ago I discovered in a barrow a perfect skeleton of what must have been an aboriginal Briton, and from circumstances thought to be nearly as early as the Christian era. He was about 5 ft. 10 in. or 5 ft. 11 in., but the bones prodigiously strong.

Ούτις.

"Fortune helps those who help themselves" (2nd S. iv. 292.) The Latin is, "Audaces fortuna juvat." Ούτις.

Esquire (2nd S. iv. 296.) We are altogether got out of order and place. If your correspondents remonstrate against the indiscriminate use of the word Esquire, allow me to protest against the practice, now become common, of tradesmen sending their compliments upon payment of their bills. Their customers will, I suppose, shortly be expected to send their respects and thanks for the favour of letting them have goods. And I should hardly dare to say this, if I were not OUTIS.

The Case of Edward Drewe (2nd S. iv. 255.) The Case of Edward Drewe, late Major in the 35th Regiment of Foot, is a pamphlet of 102 pages published by him at Exeter in 1782. It consists chiefly of Minutes of the Court-Martial held at St. Lucia on May 24, 1780, by the sentence of which he was cashiered. An Appendix comprises several letters and papers adduced by the late

Major in defence of his character, and among them is the letter of Lieutenant, afterwards General, Simcoe, now brought forwards. The freedom of the city of Exeter was presented to Captain Drewe on November 23, 1755, "for his late gallant behaviour in America." He was a native of that city, being the son of Edward Drewe, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, and died there on February 21, 1793, at the age of forty-two years. J. D. S.

High Borlace (2nd S. iv. 248.)- The meaning of these words, for thus they should be written, will be discovered by reference to the interesting extracts from the Diaries of Thomas Hearne, lately edited by Dr. Bliss.

The High Borlace appears to have been a select club at Oxford, at the annual meeting of which, held at the King's Head Tavern, a lady was chosen to be patroness of the society for the year ensuing. The brooch described in the Query is doubtless the badge of this high office. August 18. appears to have been the anniversary of the High Borlace, at which members were elected.

As the Reliquiæ Hearniana is already, as my friend Mr. Toovey informs me, a scarce book, I venture to transcribe the following extract relative to this subject:

"1733. August 22. On Saturday, Aug. 18, 1733, was the annual meeting, called the High Borlace, at the King's head tavern in Oxford, when miss Molly Wickham, of Garsington, was chosen lady patroness, in room of miss Stonhouse, that was lady patroness last year."

66

August 23. Dr. Leigh, master of Balliol coll., was of the High Borlace this year. This is the first time of a clergyman's being there."

"1734. August 20. Sunday (being the 18th) was the annual meeting of the High Borlase, but being the sabbath, the meeting was not held till yesterday, at the King's head tavern, as usual in Oxford, when the company was less than last year. They chose for their lady patroness miss Anne Cope, daughter of Sir Jonathan Cope of Bruem."

I should be glad to receive any farther information as to the constitution and objects of this society, and the source from which its title was

derived.

VEBNA.

Captain Cook, Godfather to his own Wife (2nd S. iv. 225.)-There is nothing violently improbable in the above circumstance, if the following facts are strictly correct. Captain Cook was born in 1728; about the year 1835 I attended a funeral in Cambridge, said to be that of Capt. Cook's widow. If this were so, she survived her famous husband fifty-six years; and as he was killed at the age of fifty-one, it would seem to indicate that she must have been a much younger person, and might well have been his godchild. A reference to the register of Great St. Andrew's Church in Cambridge, where the funeral took place, will determine her age.

CAMUL.

Hills of Shilston (2nd S. iv. 258.) —

"Sir Robert Hill, one of the Justices of the Common Pleas, temp. Henry IVth, Vth, and VIth. His son Robert Hill of Shilston, in Modbury parish, was High Sheriff of Devon, temp. Henry VIth, A.D. 1427. Hill's Court, Exeter, ancient seat of the family. Flor. A.D. 1460. R. R. Henry IVth. Tomb in Modbury Church, where is a curious acrostic epitaph, A.D. 1573, to Oliver Hill.". Genealogy in p. 365. Prince's Worthies of Devon, fol. edit. printed by S. Farley, Exeter, A.D. 1701.

Haldon House.

WM. COLLYNS.

"Tus

The Nine Gods (2nd S. iv. 249.)—According to the Etruscan theology, nine gods possessed the privilege of projecting the thunderbolt. corum litteræ novem deos emittere fulmina existimant."-Plin. N. H. ii. 53. It is conjectured by Müller, Etrusker, vol. ii. p. 84. that eight of these nine gods were Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Vejovis, Summanus, Vulcan, Saturn, and Mars. L.

These were the Novensiles of the Roman; the nine thunderers of the Etrurians: Juno, Minerva, Vulcan, Mars, Saturn, Hercules, Sumnanus, Vedius, Tinia being the chief deity.

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A. St. Ann's Wells (2nd S. iv. 216.) — F. C. H. is surely wrong in disconnecting St. Ann with wells. She is certainly the established saint of all sorts of thirst. How does he get over Shakspeare's

"Think'st thou because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale? Yes! by St. Anne; and ginger shall be hot i' the mouth too?"

resort of pilgrims, and persons afflicted with various maladies who sought relief from their ailment by the efficacy of its healing streams blessed by that beneficent saint, who was recognised in almost all parts of this country as the patroness of springs and wells possessing peculiar refreshing and restorative qualities."

Perhaps it may be urged that Mr. Bailey is unknown as a Hagiologist; but he gives evidence in this very place of having pursued his careful and curious researches as deeply into holy wells, as if he had expected to find truth really hid at the bottoms. After farther discourse concerning St. Anne's Well, he speaks of numerous other springs, of "The Lord's Well," "The Holy Well," and the "Lady Well" at Southwell, a place of wells, having a fourth (St. Catherine's Well) at the extremity of West Thorpe. There was another of these holy wells in Mr. Bailey's own churchyard at Basford. But the most famous well, after St. Anne's, in the whole county of Notts, was St. Catharine's Well at Newark; and certainly St. Catharine is a very well disposed saint likewise. SHOLTO MAcduff.

"Cattorum canimus certamina clara canumque, Calliope concede chelyn; clariæque Camœnæ Condite cum cytharis celso condigna cothurno Carmina certantes canibus committite cattos, Commemorate canum casus casusque catorum, Cumprimis causas certamina cuncta creantes."

board or committee can be entitled to two votes, unless specially provided for by an act of parliament or the registered rules of a society. The ordinary duty of a chairman is not to be a partisan, but to collect and declare the number of votes for and against any motion, and if they are equal he may either declare the motion to be "not carried," or, if he did not vote, he may do that which no other member, who may have refrained from voting when the question was put, can do, he may then vote and thus give the casting vote. The guardians under the Poor Laws, and Boards of Works under the Metropolitan Act, have special

clauses:

"And in case there be an equal number of votes upon any question, the chairman presiding at the meeting shall have a second or casting vote."

I cannot imagine why such a clause is inserted, if in ordinary cases any chairman is entitled to this unjust privilege. G. OFFOR. Hackney.

I have been present on several occasions when this question has been discussed, and with one exception it has invariably been decided in favour of the chairman's double vote, it being generally considered that the fact of his being in the chair did not deprive him of the right, as a member, of expressing his opinion on any subject which came under discussion. In the cases to which I allude, the chairman has been appointed only for the meeting; when there is a permanent chairman, there might be some reason for not giving him a double vote.

In the case of the exception to which I have referred, the chairman was specially excluded by the rules from voting, except when the numbers were equal; but the rule was not long since altered, to make the practice harmonise with that of other societies. G. S.

Whipping of Women (1st S. v. vi., passim.) – The last woman who is said to have been publicly whipped in Scotland was Mary Douglas, in the summer of 1793; and the last man who is known to have been executed in chains was Andrew Marshall. He suffered for the crime of murder and highway robbery in October 1769; and the people were so much annoyed at the manner of his execution, that, without the knowledge or consent of the authorities, they quickly took down the body, and had it decently buried. W. W.

supposes to be by another hand, appears in the work. WILLIAM KELLY.

Leicester.

Sand-eels (2nd S. iv. 249.)-Sand-eels are just as different from whitebait, as common eels from carp. The sand-eel is a long fish with a round body, in shape like an eel, and with a bright silvery coat, and it takes its name from its habitat being in the sand on the sea shore, in which it lives, after the tide has retired. I should place it in the same class as eels, lamperns, and lampreys.

The whitebait is entirely different in all respects; it is about the size of a minnow, and of a similar shape; swims in the water of the Thames, and I think in some other rivers; and is, I believe, equally incapable either of burrowing or living in the sand after the reflux of the tide. It has been doubted whether the whitebait be a distinct species, or the young fry of a larger fish; but I believe it is now considered to be clear that it is a distinct species. I once saw a whitebait, which my fishmonger told me was of very extraordinary size; it was perhaps four inches long, and so like a fish common in the Trent and other rivers, called a bleak, that I think it would have required the one to be laid by the side of the other to see the difference. The whitebait takes its name from its very white appearance. C. S. GREAVES.

"It" for "its" or "his" (1st S. viii. 254.; x. 235. &c.) - The earliest instance as yet adduced in your pages of the above usage is A.D. 1598. I have just met with the following in Udal's Erasmus, printed A.D. 1548:

"For loue and deuocion towardes god also hath it infancie, and it hath it commyng forewarde in growthe of age."— Luke, fol. 81. rev.

"The euangelicall simplicitie hath a politique cast of it own too.". Ib. fol. 161.

Female Sextons (1st S. xi. 414.) — Your correspondent, who is in search of female sextons, may meet with one at each of the undermentioned city churches:

1. S. Mary, B. V., Aldermanbury; sextoness, Mrs. Crook.

2. S. Laurence Jewry, King Street; sextoness, E. Worley.

3. S. Michael, Wood Street; sextoness, Mrs. Stapleton. MERCATOR, A.B.

"I live for those who love me" (2nd S. iii. 448.) -MARIE STUART will find these lines published, set to music by their author (A. W. Pelzer), by D'Alcorn, Rathbone Place, Oxford Street.

R. W. HACKWOOD.