Minor Queries with Answers.
Siller Gun of Dumfries.—Can any of your readers tell me the history of the "Siller Gun of Dundee" [Dumfries], and give me an account of the annual shooting for it?
O. L. R. G.
[The Siller gun of Dumfries is a small silver tube, like the barrel of a pistol, but derives great importance from its being the gift of James VI., that monarch having ordained it as a prize to the best marksman among the corporations of Dumfries. The contest was, by royal authority, licensed to take place every year; but in consequence of the trouble and expense attending it, the custom has not been so frequently observed. Whenever the festival was appointed, the 4th of June, during the long reign of George III., was invariably chosen for that purpose, being his majesty's birthday. The institution itself may be regarded as a memorial of the Waponshaw, or showing of arms, the shooting at butts and bowmarks, and other military and gymnastic sports, introduced by our ancestors to keep alive, by competition and prizes, the martial ardour and heroic spirit of the people. In archery, the usual prize to the best shooter was a silver arrow: at Dumfries the contest was transferred to fire-arms. See the preface to the Siller Gun, a poem in five cantos, by John Mayne, 1836.]
Margery Trussell.—Margery, daughter and coheiress of Roger Trussell, of Macclesfield, married Edmund de Downes (of the old Cheshire family of Downes of Taxall, Shrigley, &c.) in the fourth year of Edward II. Query, What arms did she bear? and were the Trussells of Macclesfield of the same family as that which, in consequence of a marriage with an heiress of Mainwaring, settled at Warmineham, in the reign of Edward III., and whose heiress, in later times, married a De Vere, Earl of Oxford?
W. Sneyd.
Denton.
[In the Harleian MS. 4031. fol. 170. is a long and curious pedigree of the Trussells and their intermarriage with the Mainwarings, in the person of Sir William Trussell, Lord of Cubbleston, with Maud, daughter and heiress of Sir Warren Mainwaring. The arms are: Argent a fret gu. bezanté for Trussell. The same arms are found on the window of the church of Warmineham in Cheshire. These would consequently be the arms of Margery, daughter of Roger Trussell. The arms originally were: Argent a cross formée flory gu.; but changed on the marriage of Sir William Trussell of Mershton, co. Northampton, with Rose, daughter and heiress to William Pantolph, Lord of Cubbleston, who bore, Argent a fret gu. bezanté.]
Caves at Settle, Yorkshire.—Being engaged on antiquarian investigations, I have found it necessary to refer to some discoveries made in the caves at Settle in Yorkshire, of which my friends in that county have spoken. Now, I cannot find any printed account. I have referred to all the works on the county antiquities, and particularly to Mr. Phillips's book lately published (which professes to describe local antiquities), but in vain. I cannot find any notice of them. It is very likely some one of your better-informed readers may be able to assist me.
Brigantia.
Battersea.
[See two letters by Charles Roach Smith and Joseph Jackson in Archæologia, vol. xxix. p. 384., on the "Roman Remains discovered in the Caves near Settle in Yorkshire." Our correspondent has perhaps consulted the following work:—A Tour to the Caves in the Environs of Ingleborough and Settle, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 8vo. 1781.]
The Morrow of a Feast.—It appears from the papers, that the presentation of the civic functionaries to the Cursitor Baron at Westminster, took place on Sept. 30. Pray is this the morrow of St. Michael, as commonly supposed? Does not the analogy of "Morrow of All Souls" (certainly the same day as All Souls Day, i.e. Nov. 2) point out that the Morrow of St. Michael is the 29th, i.e. Michaelmas Day. That morrow was anciently equivalent to morning, we may infer from the following passages:
"Upon a morrow tide."—Gower, Conf. Am., b. iii.
"Tho' when appeared the third morrow bright,
Upon the waves," &c.
Spenser's Fairy Queen, II. xii. 2.
"Good morrow."—Passim.
R. H.
[Is not our correspondent confounding the morrow of All Saints, which the 2nd of November certainly is, with the morrow of All Souls? Sir H. Nicolas, in his most useful Chronology of History, says most distinctly:—"The morrow of a feast is the day following. Thus, the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula is the 1st of August, and the morrow of that feast is consequently the 2nd of August."—P. 99.]
Hotchpot.—Will you kindly tell me what is the derivation of the local term hotchpot, and when it was first used?
M. G. B.
[The origin of this phrase is involved in some obscurity. Jacob, in his Law Dictionary, speaks of it as "from the French," and his definition is verbatim that given in The Termes of the Law (ed. 1598), with a very slight addition. Blackstone (book ii. cap. 12.) says, "which term I shall explain in the very words of Littleton: 'It seemeth that this word hotchpot is in English a pudding; for in a pudding is not commonly just one thing alone, but one thing with other things together.' By this housewifely metaphor our ancestors meant to inform us that the lands, both those given in frankmarriage, and those descending in fee-simple, should be mixed and blended together, and then divided in equal portions among all the daughters.">[
High and Low Dutch.—Is there any essential difference between High and Low Dutch; and if there be any, to which set do the Dutchmen at the Cape of Good Hope belong?
S. C. P.
[High and Low Dutch are vulgarisms to express the German and the Dutch languages, which those nations themselves call, for the German Deutsch, for the Dutch Holländisch. The latter is the language which the Dutch colonists of the Cape carried with them, when that colony was conquered by them from the Portuguese; and has for its base the German as spoken before Martin Luther's translation of the Bible made the dialect of Upper Saxony the written language of the entire German empire.]
"A Wilderness of Monkeys."—Would you kindly inform me where the expression is to be found: "I would not do such or such a thing for a wilderness of monkeys?"
C. A.
Ripley.
["Tubal. One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey.
"Shylock. Out upon her! Thou torturest me,
"Tubal: it was my turquoise; I had it of Leah, when I was a bachelor: I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkies."—Merchant of Venice, Act III. Sc. 1.]
Splitting Paper.—Could any of your readers give the receipt for splitting paper, say a bank-note? In no book can I find it, but I believe that it is known by many.
H. C.
Liverpool.
[Paste the paper which is to be split between two pieces of calico; and, when thoroughly dry, tear them asunder. The paper will split, and, when the calico is wetted, is easily removed from it.]
The Devil on Two Sticks in England.—Who is the author of a work, entitled as under?
"The Devil upon Two Sticks in England; being a Continuation of Le Diable Boiteux of Le Sage. London: printed at the Logographic Press, and sold by T. Walter, No. 169. Piccadilly; and W. Richardson, under the Royal Exchange, 1790."
It is a work of very considerable merit, an imitation in style and manner of Le Sage, but original in its matter. It is published in six volumes 8vo.
William Newman.
[William Coombe, Esq., the memorable author of The Diaboliad, and The Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque.]