2'"» S. X. Oct. 20. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



319 



WirE-BEATEKS AND THE SkIMMINGTON (2"** S. 



X. 185. 258.)— In Hudibras, Part II., Canto 2., J. 

 H. Van LennepwUI find the description of some- 

 thing very like his Thier-jagen. In England, 

 however, as W. C. observes, this kind of exhibi- 

 tion was not reserved exclusively for the punish- 

 ment of wife-beaters. Recourse was had to it 

 in other cases of conjugal delinquency, such, for 

 instance, as infidelity in the husband, or the wife 

 wearing the breeches. 



I must, however, observe that there is in HudU 

 bras one peculiar element that I do not find in the 

 Thier-jagen, — a woman and a man sitting astride 

 back to back on a horse, the woman from time 

 to time belabouring the man over her shoulder 

 with a ladle or skimming-dish. In Hogarth's 

 Prints from Hudibras there is an illustration of 

 this scene, entitled, " Hudibras encounters the 

 Skimmington." In Somersetshire I have more 

 than once witnessed the same sort of procession, 

 and it there tised to be called " Riding Skim- 

 micking." — I have not heard of anything of the 

 sort of late yeiars. If not already obsolete, the 

 practice will pi'obably ere long give way before 

 the civilisation that we are so proud of, one cha- 

 racteristic feature of which is, that, while it leaves 

 ample scope to skulking vice, it suppresses every 

 demonstration that can jar upon the nerves of 

 the fastidious. P. S. C. 



Dedications to the Deity (2"** S. x. 217. 

 258.) — I may add to the numerous instances al- 

 ready given one from a book entitled CEconomia 

 Moralis Clericorum, Louvain, 1653, 12mo. which 

 contains, in Leonine verse, a variety of sound in- 

 junctions to priests who have female servants in 

 their family, and to such of them as may have 

 temptations to intemperance, &c. The dedication 

 in question is as follows : — 



" Auctor se suaque 

 Omnia 

 DEO O. M. 

 Dicat, Conse- 

 cratque. 

 Quid autem habes quod non accepisti? 

 1 Cor. 4. ergo. 

 Soli Deo honor et gloria. 1 Tim. 1. 

 Qui mihi dictavit, sacro qui numine favit, 

 Hocce pocma meo, consecro, meque Deo. 

 Me Deus exaudi, tibi do, non dogmata laudi 

 Post vitro stamen. Te mihi confer, Amen.' 



West Derby. 



X. 



Bkacton (2"^ S. X. 208. 256.) — Henry de 

 Bracton was one of the Justices in Eyre for Not- 

 tingham and Derby in 29 Edw. HI. Also, for 

 Northumberland, Westmorland, Cumberland, and 

 Lancaster in 30 Edw. III. 



He would be called " Justlciarius in itinere," or 

 " Justlciarius " simply. 



It does not appear that ho was a Judge of either 

 Bench — King's Bench, or Common Bench. J. G. 



Duke of Newcastle's Family (2°* S. x. 229.) 

 —That good street " Clinton Place," New York, 

 was so called in respect to Governor Clinton, a 

 genuine Knickerbocker, and one of the worthiest 

 men of his generation. 



Such descent is honour enough, without re- 

 sorting to the new "notion" of connexion with a 

 " Newcastle." The old governor built on granite ; 

 some of his successors build " castles in the air." 



The land on which Clinton Place was built 

 came through the family of Lord Southampton. I 

 have seen the deeds. R. L. 



Witty Classical Quotations (2"'* S. x. 178., 

 &c.) — 



" Bossuet would not join his young companions, and 

 flew to his solitary task, while the classical boys avenged 

 themselves by a schoolboj''s villanous pun : applying to 

 Bossuet Virgil's bos sueius aratro — the ox daily toiling 

 in the plough." — From The Literary Character, by I. 

 D'lsraeli. 



Anon. 



Sir Ralph Abercromby (2°^ S. x. 191.) — In 

 Alison's History of Europe (Library edit.), v. 139., 

 it is stated that he was born in 1743, and refers 

 to Chalmers's Scottish Biography, i. 5, 6., and 

 Biographic Universelle, i. 77. In Knight's Eng. 

 Cyclopaedia, 1738 is given as the year of his birth. 

 In the Penny Cyclopadia the year 1738 is also 

 given. Thus it becomes more obscure than be- 

 fore, but I am inclined to think the last named 

 date the right one, viz. 1738. K. W. 



The following is an extract from the register of 

 his baptism : — 



"A.D. 1734, October 26th, Bap. Ralph, lawful son to 

 George Abercromby, younger, of Tullibody, and IMary 

 Dundas his lady," 



as given by Mr. Anderson in his Scottish Nation, 

 vol. i. p. 4. R. W. Dixon. 



Seaton-Carew, co. Durham. 



Per Cent (2"'» S. x, 177. 216.) — There has 

 long been a similar usage In algebra : 3 -^ 7 means 

 the fraction f . Now suppose 3 per cent denoted, 

 as It may be, by 3 -^ 100, anyone who remembers 

 that in percentage 100 is always the denominator, 

 may be content with 3 -5-. The commercial arith- 

 metician is apt to write any fra<ftion with an 

 oblique line of separation, and the dot becomes 

 open when the pen is not to be taken off". This 

 is ray conjecture about the matter. Perhaps some 

 one fancied that opening the dots would also sug- 

 gest the two ciphers in 100. How old is this 

 usage ? A. De Morgan. 



The Hogarth Family (2"'' S. ix. 445. ; x. 258.) 

 A family of this name has been long resident in 

 Abei'deen ; and I saw lately in a newspaper the 

 name of a member of the family as a subscriber to 

 a monument, either about to be erected or re- 

 stored, in honour of the great comic painter, 

 William Hogarth. John Macray. 



