As very many, if not all, the instances mentioned in "N. & Q." of those who have reached a very advanced age, were people of humble origin, may we not now refer to those of noble birth? To commence the list, I would name Sir Ralph de Vernon, "who is said to have lived to the age of one hundred and fifty, and thence generally was called the Old Liver." My authority is, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, edit. 1848, p. 1009.
W. W.
Malta.
"Nugget" (Vol. viii., pp. 375. 481.).—A note from Mundy's Our Antipodes:
"The word nugget, among farmers, signifies a small compact beast, a runt: among gold-miners a lump, in contradistinction to the scale or dust-gold."
Clericus Rusticus.
The fifth Lord Byron (Vol. ix., p. 18.).—I believe it to be an acknowledged fact, that an old man's memory is generally good of events of years past and gone: and as an octogenarian I am not afraid to state that, from the discussions on the subject, I feel myself perfectly correct as to the main point of my observations (Vol. viii., p. 2.), viz. the error committed in the limitation of the ultimate reversion of the estate; but as to the secondary point to which Mr. Warden alludes, I may perhaps be in error in placing it on the settlement of the son, inasmuch as the effect would be the same if it occurred in the settlement of the father; and Mr. Warden's observations leave an inference that the mistake may have there occurred; as, in such case, if the error had been discovered,—and by any altercation the son had refused to correct the mistake, which he could and ought to have consented to, after the failure of his own issue,—this alone, between two hasty tempers, would have been sufficient cause of quarrel, without reference to the question of marrying an own cousin, which is often very justly objectionable.
Wm. S. Hesleden.
Wapple, or Whapple-way (Vol. ix., p. 125.).—This name is common in the south, and means a bridle-way, or road in which carriages cannot pass. In Sussex these ways are usually short cuts through fields and woods, from one road or place to another. (See Halliwell's Dictionary, and Cooper's Sussex Glossary.) The derivation is not given by either writer.
D.