2"* S. VIII. Oct. 8. *59.^ 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



293 



William Kennedy, author of Fitful Fancies 

 (1826), — a volume containing the admirable buc- 

 caneer lyric, " Ned Bolton." Are the dates and 

 places of his birth and death, or any other parti- 

 culars of him, ascertainable ? I believe he was 

 sometime British Consul in Texas. A. 



[See "N. & Q." 2"'i S. i. 113. 163. 183. 342. 400.] 



Minav &uetiti taitfj ^niiotx^. 

 The Pope's Title. — When a man is elected 

 Pope, is the choice of the name by which he is 

 designated and known, such as Adi-ian, Pius, &c., 

 arbitrary on his part, and can he choose any name 

 he likes ? If so, when did the custom first arise, 

 and why ? W. O. W. 



[John XII., A.D. 956, was the first Pope who changed 

 his name. " His former name," saj's Moreri, " was Octa- 

 vianus, and he assumed the name of John, either in me- 

 morj' of John XI., his uncle, or because some flatterers 

 used to say to him, what the Holy Scripture says of the 

 forerunner of Christ, ' That there was a man sent from 

 God whose name was John.' Be it what it will, since 

 that time, the Popes have, for the most part, altered their 

 names." Others, however, state that Sergius IV. (a.d. 

 1009) was the first who assumed another name, owing to 

 his surname being Os Ford, or Swine's- snout. Cf. 

 Bower's History of the Popes, v. 104. 145, ed. 1761.] 



Mrs. Grundy. — Will some kind correspondent 

 or the editor explain who the above personage is 

 or was. Being apparently of equal fame with 

 Madames Gamp and Harris, an old subscriber 

 would be glad to learn something of her. G. C. 



[In Tom Morton's clever comedy. Speed the Plough, the 

 first scene of the first act opens with a view of a farm 

 house, where Farmer Ashfield is discovered at a table 

 with his jug and pipe, holding the following colloquy 

 with his wife, Dame Ashfield, who figures in a riding 

 dress with a basket under her arm : — 



" Ashfield. Well, Dame, welcome whoam. What news 

 does thee bring vrom market ? 



Dame. What news, husband? What I always told 

 you ; that Farmer Grundy's wheat brought five shillings 

 a quarter more than ours did. 



Ash. All the better vor he. 



Dame. Ah ! the sun seems to shine on purpose for him. 



Ash. Gome, come, missus, as thee has not the grace to 

 thank God for prosperous times, dan't thee grumble when 

 thej' be unkindly a bit. 



Dame. And I assure you, Dame Grundy's butter was 

 quite the crack of the market. 



Ash. Be quiet, woolye ? aleways ding, dinging Dame 

 Grundy into my ears — What will Mrs. Grundy zay? 

 What will Mrs. Grundy think ? Canst thee be quiet, let 

 ur alone, and behave thyself pratty." 



The phrase "What will Mrs. Grundy say?" has been 

 frequently applied to Dr. Stanley Lees Giffard, late editor 

 of the Morning Herald and The Standard (ob. Nov. 6, 

 1858), who for his sympathies and antipathies in politics 

 was a man after Dr. Johnson's own heart.] 



The Ballet in England. — I wish to know the 

 date of the introduction of the modern hallet upon 

 the English stage. I have somewhere read (but 

 cannot now find the passage) that, on its first re- 



presentation, many of the audience quitted the 

 theatre in (real or pretended) disgust ; and that 

 for some time the ballet was classed among the 

 indelicacies of the season. Ellesmere, in the new 

 Series of Friends in Council, amusingly tells how 

 his grandmother turned her back upon the "wicked 

 performance." Cuthbert Bede. 



[In the History of Shrewsbury, by Owen and Blakeway, 

 ii. 152., it is stated, that "tradition saj's that John 

 Weaver of Shrewsbury was the first introducer of ballets, 

 which he terms ' scenical dancing,' i. e. a representation 

 of some historical incident by graceful motions." At the 

 end of his work, Mimes and Pantomimes, 8vo., 1728, 

 Weaver has given "A List of the Modern Entertain- 

 ments that have been exhibited on the English stage, 

 where the representation and story was carried on by 

 dancing, action and motion only." The first in his list is 

 The Tavern Bilkers, composed by Mr. Weaver, and per- 

 formed in Drury Lane in 1702.] 



Cricket. — From a poem "upon a printer that 

 exposed him by printing a piece of his grossly 

 mangled and faulty," in 2'Ae Works of John Old- 

 hant, together with his Remains, London, 1684 : — 



" Thou who with spurious nonsense durst profane 

 The genuine issue of a poet's brain, 

 May'st thou hereafter never deal in verse, Y 



But what hoarse bell- men in their walks rehearse, >- 

 Or Smithfield audience sung on Crickets hears." J 



Can any of your readers tell me what Crickets 

 means ? The earliest notice of the game of 

 Cricket I have yet found is in Edward Philips's 

 Mysteries of Love and Eloquence, 1685. 



The Authob of " Twenty Years in the 

 Church." 

 Bath. 



[In the passage quoted from Oldham, the word cricket 

 means a low stool with four legs. Cartwright, in his 

 Lady Errant, 1651, uses the word in the same sense: 



" Mach. And what'l j'ou do, when you are seated in 

 The throne, to win your subjects love, Philenis ? 



" Phil. I'l stand upon a cricket, and there make 

 Fluent orations to 'em ; call 'em trusty 

 And well-beloved, loyall, and true subjects."] 



Cracknells. — Can anyone give the origin of the 

 term of " cracknells," applied to the biscuits pe- 

 culiar to the Isle of Wight, if not to Cowes itself? 



S. K. K. 

 [The word cracknel, Fr. craquelin, meaning a hard 

 brittle cake, is not peculiar to the Isle of Wight. Kitto 

 says, that " the word nikkuddim, translated cracknels in 

 1 Kings xiv. 3., doubtless means some kind of small cake 

 or biscuit ; and, as the word suggests the idea of some- 

 thing spotted, Harmer fairly enough conjectures that they 

 were some such sort of biscuit, sprinkled with seeds, as 

 are still much used in the East." The cakes of this name 

 were not unknown to Spenser (^Shepherd's Calendar, Jan.) : 

 " Albee my love he seek with daily suit, 

 His clownish gifts and curtsies I disdain. 

 His, kids, his cracknels, and his early fruit." 



Swift, also, could boast that 

 " I have in store a pint or two of wine. 

 Some cracknels, and the remnant of a chine." 



A Town Eclogue, 1710.] 



