418 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd S. No 73., May 23. '57. 



being at the time Dr. Wordsworth's book ap- 

 peared a Fellow of St. John's, wrote it, and 

 placed it on the screen at Trinity. A. T. L. 



Eatiiig Lead (2"'» S. iil. 347.) — Forty-five 

 years ago, in the summer of 1812, I was wrecked 

 going to the Indian station in H. M. S, the " Old 

 Volage." We were far to the S.W., and found 

 shelter on a barren island. After consuming all 

 our provisions, some marines tore up their cart- 

 ridges and chewed the bullets. I cannot say they 

 derived any benefit. Shortly after our provisions 

 failed we were rescued by the French frigate 

 " Merlin," 74, Captain Dupont, sent to Brest, and 

 then liberated and sent to England. Any old 

 messmate of the " Old Volage " can testify to the 

 truth of this. Vice-Admiral. 



N.B. Many old comrades may recognise me by 

 this title. 



Lead of course could never have been employed 

 as an article oP food, but the practice of chewing 

 it, in order to increase the secretion of saliva, and 

 to mitigate thereby in some degree the pangs of 

 thirst, has been often adopted. 



"W. J. Bebnhabi) Smith. 



Curious Customs in Cathedrals (2""* S. iii. 330.) 

 — It is the representatives of the family of Vava- 

 sour, CO. York, who are said to have " the right of 

 riding on horseback into the nave of York Ca- 

 thedral," and " allowed to do so " because their 

 ancestor granted freedom of carriage through his 

 land for stone used in the building of that church. 

 I am not in a position to say " if the strange pri- 

 vilege has been exercised latterly," or, indeed, if 

 at all. Thoresby says somewhere in his Ducatus 

 (but I cannot find the page, and the index is at 

 fault), that the right was conferred in considera- 

 tion of the gift of the stone, but Dr. Whitaker, in 

 a note at p. 239., proves by documentary evidence 

 that the stone was not given. R. W. Dixon. 



Seaton Carew, co. Dmiiam. 



Womanly Heels : " Po7ierse en chapines" (2"'' S. 

 iii. 307.) — The chapines, in Spanish, were a kind 

 of clog or overshoe, supposed at one time to be 

 more properly the dress of married ladies. Hence 

 the phrase '■'■poner en chapines,^' used actively (" to 

 put in clogs or overshoes"), means to espouse a 

 woman, to marry. The same phrase used in the 

 middle form, but with a passive signification, 

 '■'■ ponerse en chapines" ("to be put in clogs or 

 overshoes,") applies to the woman, and means to 

 he ma7-ried. Usually, however, it is applied, per- 

 haps invidiously, in cases where the bride is raised 

 by the alliance to a higher position in society. Is 

 not something similar meant by the not very flat- 

 tering phrase in our own language, "a cat in 

 pattens ? " 



"Ponerse en chapines^' is also applied to any 

 individual who, without merit or qualifications, is 



advanced or raised to honour : for instance, where, 

 in the public service, an unworthy person is pro- 

 moted through interest over the heads of the meri- 

 torious, which I suppose sometimes happens — in 

 Spain. 



The chapines sometimes had high heels, for the 

 purpose of increasing the wearer's apparent sta- 

 ture. So that "ponerse en chapines " is in a mea- 

 sure equivalent to the English expression " to be 

 set on stilts." 



What has been ofl'ered may possibly throw some 

 light on the phrase " womanly heels." Perhaps 

 the querist will have the kindness to state where 

 it occurs. 



It may be allowable to add, that the Spanish 

 idea of regarding a particular kind of clogs or 

 overshoes as proper to married women, may throw 

 some light upon the term " shoeing-horn," as em- 

 ployed in Kent. " Shoeing-horn," says Halliwell, 

 " is anything which helps to draw something on, an 

 inducement." In Kent, when a lass has a fancy 

 for a lad, and attempts to attract his attention by 

 encouraging another, it is said of that other, " she 

 wants to make a shoeing-horn of him ;" in other 

 words, she wishes, through his instrumentality, 

 "ponerse en chapines" Thomas Boys. 



"Johnny the Bear" (2°'» S. iii. 348.) —In reply 

 to this Query I beg to say, that about a quarter 

 of a century since an eminent physician flourished 

 who declared ruthless war against tight lacing, 

 &c. as regards ladies, and overfeeding, &c. as re- 

 gards gentlemen. His opinions were given in a 

 plain unmistakeable manner — the right word (al- 

 though sometimes a strong one) in the right place. 

 The name of this gentleman was John Abernethy, 

 which some terrified dandy no doubt anagram- 

 matised into "Johnny the Bear," in revenge for 

 the fright and the dose the physician had given 

 him. J. L. 



O seri studiorum ! John Abernethy. C. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



Had Oliver CromwelVs Letters and Speeches, with Eluci- 

 dations, been edited by a Frenchman, he would doubtless 

 have described the work as " Cromwell painted by him- 

 self," and there would have been considerable propriety 

 in so designating it; for although Mr. Carlyle has 

 mounted the picture in a goodly framework of appro- 

 priate and most characteristic illustration, the picture is , 

 by the great Master himself; and these three volumes 

 present us with a wondrous portrait, vigorous in outline, 

 deep and broad in its shadows, of Oliver Cromwell, His 

 Highness the Protector. The third volume, which has 

 just been issued, completes the new edition of this valu- 

 able contribution to our history, and which is made yet 

 more valuable and useful by a full and well prepared 

 Index. 



The new volume just issued (the fifth) of Lord Camp- 

 bell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors arid Ktepers of the 



