18 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°* S. Vn. Jau. 1. '59. 



Henry Family of Kildare (2"^ S. v. 486.) — 

 Can your correspondent Haud Immemor adduce 

 any evidence of the fact that the founder of the 

 Henry family of Straffan in the county of Kil- 

 dare, was coachman and subsequently steward of 

 Godwin Swift, Esq., temp. Charles II. ? Or is 

 there any evidence that Mr. Godwin Swift had 

 a coach at all, for a coach was a very scarce 

 thing at the period ? Then as to the situation of 

 steward, is there any evidence that Mr. Godwin 

 Swift at that time required one ? There is evi- 

 dence, however, that at the period alluded to by 

 Haud Immemor the father of the immortal Swift 

 held a situation of the kind, viz., steward to the 

 King's Inns, and that he was appointed thereto in 

 consequence of having been assistant steward for 

 five or six years previously. See the Works of 

 Swift, edited by Sir Walter Scott, Bart., second 

 edition, printed for Constable, Edinburgh, 1824, 

 vol. i. pages 9, 10.) I may observe also that 

 this Godwin Swift was uncle, not ancestor, to the 

 Dean of St. Patrick's. S. N. R. 



A Point in Heraldry (2"'^ S. vi, 459.) — David 

 Gam has evidently mistaken the sense in which 

 the word " adulterina" should be iinderstood in 

 the note he cites from Erasmus. It only means 

 false, and not adulterous in the sense of illegi- 

 timacy of persons. Metal upon metal, or colour 

 upon colour, is considered as false heraldry, ob- 

 viously from the indistinctness such a mode of 

 emblazoning arms would exhibit; it being one of 

 the first principles in heraldry that the heraldic 

 charges should be as distinctly seen as possible 

 upon the warrior's shield. The rule involved in 

 these remarks is laid down bj' most of the old 

 heralds in their writings. Nor does the previous 

 word " vitiosa " make this view of the case other- 

 wise, as it may be rendered in the milder signifi- 

 cation, faulty. There are some instances, both 

 in English and foreign heraldry, of metal upon 

 metal, or colour upon colour. The arms ascribed 

 to the city of Jerusalem is a case in which the 

 field is argent and the crosses, which compose 

 them, or. This at once disposes of any question 

 involving illegitimacy of personal descent. 



Thos. Wm. King, York Herald. 



College of Arms. 



The "^S. Brunsir (2"'' S. vi. 456.) mentioned 

 by your correspondent S. F. Ckeswell, is pro- 

 bably Dr. Samuel Brunsel, S. T. P., who was 

 Rector of Bingham, Notts, about the time re- 

 ferred to, died in 1687, aged 68, and was buried 

 at Bingham, as recorded on a large slab lying 

 within the altar-rails of the church. M. E. M. 



Pocket-handkerchief (2"'* S. vi. 481.) — The 

 component parts of this word are four, viz. pocket; 

 hand; her, cur, or cover, from couvre; chief, from 

 chef, head; that is, pocket-hand-cover-head, or 



pocket-hand-head-cover. Hence the transitions 

 that have taken place in the use of that article of 

 dress : first worn on the head, then carried in the 

 hand, and lastly in the pocket. The word mouchoir 

 is not the translation of it, unless de poche be 

 added : for the French have mouchoir de tete, mou- 

 choir de cou, as well as mouchoir de poche. In 

 fact, mouchoir has, like the other, deviated from 

 its original meaning. First confined to the use of 

 the nose, as the verb moucher implies, it has passed 

 from that organ to the head, from the head to the 

 neck, and from the neck to the pocket. 



G. DE Chaville. 

 Parkstone, Poole, Dorset. 



Eels from Horsehair (2°" S. vi. .322. 486.) — 

 This tradition, which must be totally incorrect in 

 the fact of the metamorphosis, has at least had the 

 merit of travelling " far north," and among juve- 

 niles long ago was held to be a positive truth. 

 The way that the experiment used then to be per- 

 formed was to put a number of short pieces of 

 horsehair into a good-sized crystal bottle, with 

 clear water, after some time to shake them up well, 

 and in appearance, when floating, they assumed a 

 kind of wambling or vermicular motion in the 

 fluid, as if alive, but having a mere imaginary re- 

 semblance to the evolutions of the eel. Another 

 tradition then prevailed : in wading through slimy 

 ponds to beware of what was called the " horse- 

 loch leech," which had such a fancy for human 

 blood, that, once adhering to the skin, it could not 

 again be removed ; and its property being to let 

 out as fast as it drew in, the victim was thus bled 

 to death. Certainly the belief made boys more 

 careful of their behaviour, but riper years un- 

 folded that this was no better than a bu-kow, or 

 bugbear of mothers, to frighten their " throuther 

 laddies " into propriety. A third tradition, in 

 fishing and catching a fresh-water eel : the sub- 

 stance was reckoned an abomination to be eaten ; 

 it was therefore duly skinned, and the skin with 

 a knot tied round above the calf of the leg, 

 which as long as worn prevented the leg being 

 broken. 



It is one of the advantages of being a reader of 

 " N. & Q." that it frequently revives things for- 

 gotten, and sets a-rumraaging in shelves and 

 presses for books, &c., which in other circumstan- 

 ces would remain for the moths to prey upon them. 



G.N. 



The supposed transformation of hoi'sehairs into 

 slender eels must have arisen from noticing what 

 may often be found in wet ditches and stagnant 

 pools. A keen observer may discover what ap- 

 pear to be long horsehairs ; they are, however, a 

 species of Annelides, distinguished as the Oordius 

 aquaticus, almost as fine as a hair, and brown, with 

 the ends rather black. I have taken them out of 

 the water, and examined them with a microscope, 



