138 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'>'» S. VII. Feb. 12. '59. 



that Frederick the Second, when he besieged Millan, 

 stam^d leather for currant. And there is a tradition 

 that in the confused state of the Barons' warre, the like 

 was used in England, j'et I never saw any of them." (6th 

 impression, by Phillpot, 4to. 1657, p, 179.) 



Ache. 



Lareovers for Meddlers (2"'> S. vi. 481.) —The 

 reply given to H. B.'s Query is hardly correct. 

 The expression as used in Derbyshire is "ia^- 

 houds for meddlers." When a child is " meddling " 

 with anything it ought not, and becomes trouble- 

 some by asking and " bothering" as to its use or 

 " what it is," it is immediately told it is a " lay- 

 houd for meddlers" — which simply means a lay- 

 hold^ — a something which shall lay hold of those 

 who meddle with it. It is intended to frighten 

 the children, and deter them from meddling with 

 things which don't concern them. 



Llbwblltnn Jewitt, F.S.A. 



Derby. 



Oysters (2""^ S. vii. 29. 77.) — The Querist who 

 wants information on oysters would do well to 

 read a paper on that subject which appeared in 

 the October number of the Irisli Quarterly Re- 

 view for 1857. Having read this popular and 

 interesting paper with both pleasure and profit, 

 I would earnestly recommend its perusal to any- 

 one who desires to be informed on the subject of 

 oysters. A Gourmet. 



William Whately (2°« S. vii. 69.) — S. B. will 

 find a very interesting account of this popular 

 man in Clarke's Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, 

 4to. 1634, p. 929., with his portrait. I once had 

 a copy of his Carecloth or treatise of the cumbers 

 of marriage, which was destroyed by a lady lest it 

 should frighten young men from entering upon 

 those terrible cumbers. He was a powerful 

 preacher — the Spurgeon of his day. Consult 

 also Brooks' Puritans, ii. 436. George Offor. 



Ballad of Sir John le Spring (2"^ S. iii. 254). 

 — Mr. Robert S. Salmon says he is not able to 

 answer the question whether this ballad was the 

 composition of Robert Surtees, the historian of 

 Durham. In the Memoir of Mr. Surtees by 

 George Taylor, Esq., prefixed to the fourth volume 

 of his History, that ballad will be found ; and among 

 the poetry by Mr. Surtees attached to the second 

 edition of the Memoir (as reprinted for the Sur- 

 tees Society in 1852) there is another copy, 

 selected from several in Mr. Surtees's handwrit- 

 ing, by the editor, the late Rev. Dr. Raine, as that 

 which had apparently received its author's latest 

 touches. J. G. N. 



Sledby Wodhouse in Bollond (2°* S. vi. 433.) — 

 Sledby is probably Slaidburn or Sladeburne, a 



1>arish in the West Riding of Yorkshire ; and Bol- 

 ond is probably the ancient forest of Bowland 

 (sometimes spelt BoUand), situated in. the said 

 parish of Slaidburn. W. H. W. T. 



Eighteen Convicts hanged at one Time. — The 

 bona fides of your aged correspondent, J. N., is so 

 apparent, that I have been wishful to discover the 

 occasion on which he had witnessed at the Old 

 Bailey the execution of nineteen criminals, whose 

 offence he supposed was participation in the riots 

 of 1780. (See " N. & Q.," 2»'> S. vi. 243.) The 

 recently published volume of Horace Walpole's 

 Letters furnishes a clue which probably guides us 

 to the occurrence in question. Walpole, in a let- 

 ter to the Countess of Ossory, dated February 1, 

 1787, alluding to women, says : — 



" How much ready wit they have! I can give you an 

 instance, Madam, that I heard last night. After the late 

 execution of eighteen malefactors, a female was hawking 

 an account of them, but called them nineteen, A gentle- 

 man said to her, ' Why do you say nineteen ? there were 

 but eighteen hanged.' She replied, ' Sir, I did not know you 

 had been reprieved ! '" — The Letters of Horace Walpole, 

 Cunningham's edition, vol. ix. p. 92. 



On reference to the periodicals of the time I 

 find the fact to be, as is stated, that on January 9, 

 1787, no fewer than eighteen convicts were hanged 

 at the Old Bailey ; and, farther, that eight days 

 afterwards, on January 17, another batch of nine- 

 teen received sentence of death ; of whom, how- 

 ever, only a majority were executed. 



Now, the circumstances of the number nineteen 

 being "cast" for death so soon after the actual 

 execution of the eighteen, and of the numbers 

 being confused within a fortnight of the occur- 

 rence, as Walpole's letter shows, and also that 

 this appears to have been the only occasion on 

 which so many persons were legally "done to 

 death," induce me to think this execution is what 

 was dwelling on J. N.'s memory when he for- 

 warded his communication to " N. & Q." 



All the sufferers were men, and for the most 

 part young. No particular atrocity appears to 

 have characterised their offences. Nine were bur- 

 glars, six were ordinary thieves, and three were 

 horsestealers. At the present day not one of these 

 criminals would have had the punishment of death 

 awarded him. Robert S. Salmon. 



Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



Rising of the Lights (2°'^ S. vi. 522. ; vii. 58.)— 

 This complaint is neither of Dorsetshire nor Berk- 

 shire, but is as well known in the bills of mortality 

 as Chrisomes, Headmouldshot, Jawfallen, Stop- 

 ping of the Stomach, Swinepox, Tissick, Purples, 

 Starved at Nurse, or any other now disused name 

 of a disorder, unintelligible, intelligible, or too in- 

 telligible. It was very respectable, taking one 

 out of 70 or 80 of those who died in 1657 and 

 adjoining years, but not one out of 10,000 in 1757 

 and thereabouts : the reason being, most likely, 

 that the cases were referred to other disorders as 

 knowledge of disorders advanced. John Graunt, 

 in his well known Observations, connects it with 

 Rickets and Stopping in the Stomach, as the three 



