2n* S. VII. April 30. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



365 



of Dr. Gosset, and " Gideon Gosset" his father's 

 brother. In Smith's History of the Parish of St. 

 Marylebone, published in 1833, may be found a list 

 of some of the persons to whom memorials have 

 been erected in this same cemetery (vide pp. 127. 

 131.). And I would recommend any of your 

 readers who may have relatives buried there to 

 pay a visit to the cemetery without delay. Many 

 of the tombs are in a deplorable state, but I must 

 only at present add the Gosset inscriptions : — 



1. " Here lie the remains of Mathew Gosset, Esq., one 

 of the Gentlemen of His Majesty's Band of Pensioners, 

 and well known for his superior skill in some of the 

 Polite Arts. He died the 27 of March, 1744, aged almost 

 sixty-one years. This tomb was erected by order of his 

 disconsolate Widow to the Memory of the tenderest of 

 Husbands, the sincerest of Friends, and the most humane 

 Benefactor to persons in Distress." 



2. "Here lies the Body of Mrs. Jane Ester, relict of 

 Mathew Gosset, Esq., with* whom she lived in the Hap- 

 piest uninterrupted Union during about Forty Years, and 

 left this world in firm hopes of a Blessed Immortality. 

 She died 28th May, 1748, aged 73." " 



3. " In Memory of Gideon Gosset, Esq., of this Parish, 

 who died 6 Aug. 1785, aged 78. Likewise Mrs. Ann 

 Gosset, his wife, who died 26 March, 1761, aged 56." 



4. " In this Vault lie the Mortal Remains of Isaac Gos- 

 set, Esq., who died Nov. 28, 1709, aged 87. Also, of his 

 only Son, the Eev. Isaac Gosset, D.D., F.R.S., who died 

 Dec. 12, 1812, aged 67." 



Anon. 



Houseling Cup (2°^ S. vii. 325.) — There was a 

 marked difference between the " hooselyng coppe" 

 and the "chalys" of the Melton Mowbray list of 

 church-plate, as Thos. North well images ; and 

 the use of the " houseling cup," both for commu- 

 nicants at church, and, when sick, at home, is 

 pointed out by Dr. Rock in his Church of Our 

 Fathers, iv. 170., &c. Litorgicus. 



The Old Countess of Desmond (2°^ S. vil. 313.) 

 — The following fact I can answer for, though its 

 details vary slightly from those of your corre- 

 spondent ^Y. S. G. On the 9th of March, 1833, 

 Campbell the poet passed the evening at the 

 house of one of my uncles. In the drawing-room 

 was a picture of the old Countess of Desmond, 

 who died in Holland in 1605, aged 140, from 

 which country the painting had been brought. 

 On looking at it, Mr. Campbell said that his grand- 

 father knew a gentleman who had seen Lady 

 Desmond ; and that she told that gentleman that 

 two years before the battle of Bosworth Field, she 

 danced with King Richard III., who was not 

 humpbacked, but a handsome man. The follow- 

 ing calculation will show the possibility of the 

 assertion. If Lady Desmond was 140 years old 

 in 1605, she must have been born in 1465. The 

 battle of Bosworth Field was fought in 1485 ; she 

 was, therefore, eighteen years old when she is said 

 to have danced with King Richard III. Mr. 

 Campbell's father was seventy years old at the 

 time of the poet's birth ; and his grandfather was 



seventy years old at the time of his father's birth. 

 In 1833, Mr. Campbell was about sixty. years old. 

 This leaves an interval of twenty-eight years be- 

 tween the elder Campbell's birth and Lady Des- 

 mond's death ; the same individual might thus 

 have easily known Lady Desmond, and yet lived 

 to see the elder Mr. Campbell of an age to under- 

 stand and retain such an anecdote. Hugo. 



"■ Pitch'hettled" (2°^ S. vii. 201.) — As the poet 

 Cowper has employed " pitch-kettled " in the 

 sense of puzzled, we may be permitted to inquire 

 how the expression passed into this meaning. 



" Pitch-kettled " (puzzled) stands closely con- 

 nected with " kittle-pitchering ; " and " kittle- 

 pitchering " appears to have derived its origin 

 from " tickle pitcher." 



1. "Tickle pitcher" is an old English phrase 

 for a toper, a drunkard. "Tickle pitcher. A 

 thirsty fellow, a sot." Grose. 



2. But a " tickler " is also a poser, a puzzle- 

 " Tickler, something to puzzle or perplex a per- 

 son. Sussex, Hants." Holloway. Moreover to our 

 English verb "to tickle" answers the Scotch v. "to 

 kittle;" and the Scotch adj. "kittle," which is 

 also provincial English, signifies not only ticklish 

 in a literal sense, but " difficult, puzzling." " Kit- 

 tle staps," difficult steps ; " a kittle question," a 

 nice, difficult, puzzling question. So " kittle 

 words" (Fergusson), and "kittle- the- cout," (puz- 

 zle the colt), a game. Hence may be traced the 

 transition from "tickle pitcher" to "kittle-picher- 

 ing." " Tickle " becomes " kittle ; " and '^ kittle- 

 pitchering," no longer referring to ebriety, signifies 

 a peculiar kind of puzzling. " Kittle-pitchering. 

 A jocular mode of effectually interrupting a trou- 

 blesome teller of long stories by frequent ques- 

 tions." Halliwell. Grose. 



3. From "kittle-pitchering" to "pitch-ket- 

 tled," still v/ith the idea of bewilderment or per- 

 plexity, the transition is obvious and easy. 



We must not, however, forget to remark that 

 "pitch-kettled," correctly viewed, conveys the 

 idea of bewilderment in excess. As " pitch-dark "" 

 is excessively dark, and " pitch-black " intensely 

 black, so "pitch-kettled" (or more properly 

 " pitch-kittled ") is excessively or intensely puz- 

 zled. Thomas Boys. 



'"Shizn" (2"^ S. vii. 45.)— This feminine of 

 hizn is not confined to Berkshire. About eighteen 

 years ago, the daughter of our then clergyman 

 here, the Rev. J. Hole, was in the vestry teach- 

 ing the poor children on a Sunday morning :^ a 

 child, five years old, had come with her sister with 

 something in her pinbefore. The young lady 

 looked at the contents, and said : " My dearj you 

 should not bring your playthings to church." The 

 child replied : " 'Taint mine, Ma'am, 'tis shizn." 



F. A. Careington. 



Ogbourne St. George, Wilts. 



