478 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2oii S. X. Dec. 15. '60. 



known whether the figure seen by the Baron in 

 the column of vapour resembled himself? Whe- 

 ther the external air was very damp ? and whether 

 there had recently, or ever, been a fire in the 

 stove in front of which the ghost appeared ? It 

 seems to have kept the line between the Baron 

 and the fireplace, and the doorway was in a line 

 also. As a faggot is mentioned, I suppose the 

 fireplace in the saloon was an open one. Although 

 unskilled in such matters, I venture to ofier this 

 hint, feeling very strongly that it is not reverent 

 to refer to supernatural agency anything that can 

 be solved by natural causes ; and my reason tells 

 me that the similarity of these two visitations is 

 strong evidence against their being supernatural ; 

 while we have the testimony of the tourists, &c., 

 on the Brocken, the gentleman at Bonchurch, 

 UUoa on Pichincha, and the host of Scotch " se- 

 cond-sight " seers as to such effects in the open 

 air. Then why may not the same have occurred 

 in a column of fog descending a damp chimney ? 



Mb. Swifte's case is more difficult to account 

 for, particularly as regards the sentinel ; still, I 

 think, if one case can be solved the other may, the 

 clue once given. 



One word as to the Baron's " electric shocks." 

 Can these be accounted for by atmospheric causes ? 

 His frame seems not to have been in a healthy 

 state, as he could not sleep. Were they not sim- 

 ply those twitchings of the muscles, or prickings 

 in the veins, which are not uncommon in ailing 

 persons ? We know how a state of semi-sleep 

 magnifies every sound and feeling, and hence I 

 think the truth of the Baron's " electric shocks " 

 may be doubted. F. C. B. 



Scarlett Family (2"*^ S. ix. 196.) — I beg to 

 offer Genealogist the following gleanings : — Os- 

 bert Pratt, son of Edw. Pratt, Esq., of Hockwold 

 (ancestor of the Pratts of Ryston Hall, Norfolk), 

 married the eldest daughter and heiress of Thos. 

 Scarlett, Esq., but died without issue in 1650. 

 (Vide Burke's Commonei's), Sir George Ston- 

 house, 4th baronet of Radley, " married Mrs. 

 Anne Scarlett, of an ancient family hut no fortune." 

 From this ensued one of those " strange episodes" 

 in family history, of which (the pages of) our 

 journalists sometimes speak ; for the 3rd baronet 

 (father of the above Sir George) "surrendered 

 his father's patent of creation, and had a new one 

 granted him . . . with remainder to his 2nd and 

 3rd sons, intending to exclude thereby his first 

 son George ; who, however, claimed and enjoyed 

 the title." His son succeeded him, and had no 

 less than sixteen children, only two of whom sur- 

 vived him, a son and daughter ; the former of 

 whom succeeded, and dying unmarried, the title 

 became extinct. The succession has been con- 

 tinued under the second patent, which, but for 



the circumstances above narrated, would never 

 have been obtained. Debrett, whose account I 

 have followed, differs from Wotton, who gives 

 only the succession under the later patent, adding 

 the particulars of the disinheriting by way of 

 parenthesis. Henry W. S. Taylor. 



Brawn (2°'» S. x. 429-) — A slight knowledge 

 of the natural history of the pig would have dis- 

 pelled the absurd notion of the process detailed 

 by your correspondent J. E. T, for producing the 

 " rich and glutinous gristle " of brawn. This sub- 

 stance, which is semi-transparent, is sometimes 

 called " lantern," from its similarity to the horn 

 used in lanterns ; and consists, in fact, merely of 

 that portion of the skin of the boar or brawn (as 

 the male pig is commonly called) which covers 

 the sides of the body, and which nature has in- 

 creased to a considerable thickness, as a " shield " 

 to protect the vital parts from the tusks of an ad- 

 versary. The boar pig alone is provided with 

 this "shield," and from the boar alone is "brawn" 

 (properly so called) made. In brawn-making this 

 shield is placed round the inside of a cylindrical 

 mould, and the middle filled up with the meat and 

 fat properly prepared. It is then subjected to 

 many hours' boiling, after which it becomes a 

 collar of brawn. The town of Shrewsbury has 

 long been famous for the manufacture of brawn, 

 and has furnished the royal Christifaas table during 

 the present and many preceding reigns. W. H. 



Shrewsbury. 



The story mentioned by your correspondent I 

 believe to be a simple myth. There are alto- 

 gether only two or three makers of the brawn in 

 question. By far the largest quantity is manu- 

 foctured by Mr. Ruse of Bardfield in Essex, about 

 eight or nine miles from Braintree. "The rich 

 and glutinous gristle in which the brawn is en- 

 veloped " is simply the very thick skin which is 

 formed across the shoulders of two-year-old boar 

 pigs. After being removed with much care, it is 

 partially dissolved by the heat to which it is sub- 

 jected in the process of making the brawn. 



I speak with some degree of confidence, as it 

 has been my pleasure to stay in Mr. Ruse's house 

 during the brawn-making season. W. F. R. 



Foreign Names or Playing Cards (2'"^ S. x. 

 449.) — I am unable to give the desired informa- 

 tion about playing-cards (except that an Hun- 

 garian tells me he knows of but one kind — 

 Diamonds, &c. — called by his countrymen Car- 

 ten) ; but the concluding Query of Mr. Taylor 

 may be thus explained: — The review was probably 

 one which appeared in the Edinburgh Review for 

 October last on the 2nd edit, of Prof. Max Miil- 

 ler's History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature. 



Dyaus (from the root div or di/u, " to shine,") 

 is a Sanskrit word, and means " the sky," which 



