2'>*S. VIII. Nov. 26. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUEIUES. 



433 



instances of directly opposite sentiments being 

 thus inculcated ? and, in such cases, was that 

 which was not first adopted taken from personal 

 antagonism in feudal times, or now of politics ? 



Cross-bow. 



Bell-ringers. — In the work by the Rev. W. C. 

 Liikis on Church Bells I find the following in- 

 scription from a bell, p. 88. : " I was given by the 

 Society of Northern Youths in 1672, and recast 

 by the Sherwood Youths in 1771." Where can I 

 find an account of these societies ? G. W. M. 



Widoios Cap. — What is the origin and the 

 date of the introduction of that strange piece of 

 costume, the widow's cap ? An answer is re- 

 quested in order to throw light on the date of a 

 portrait. A. A. 



Poets' Comer. 



Pepys's Diary : Curious Prayer. — Can you give 

 me any clue to the meaning of the following pas- 

 sage in Pepys's Diary, under date Sept. 23, 1660 ? 

 I mean, of course, so far as relates to the peculiar 

 expression recorded : — 



" Before Sermon I laughed at the reader, who, in his 

 pra3^er, desires of God that he would imprint His words 

 on the thumbs of our right hands, and on the right great 

 toes of our right feet." 



R. W. Hackwood. 



Death Warrants. — I am desirous of knowing 

 when the custom of signing death warrants by the 

 sovereign, if it ever existed, ceased; what was the 

 course pursued in obtaining the signature, and 

 what was the last occasion on which a warrant for 

 the execution of a criminal was signed by the 

 sovereign ? A Statist. 



Robert Clay of Derbyshire. /— Can any of your 

 correspondents residing in Derbyshire inform me 

 at what place in that county Robert Clay, eldest 

 son of Robert Clay, formerly of Sheffield, was 

 born ? His father was a lead merchant, owning 

 several shares of lead mines and coal pits in and 

 about Derbyshire and Yorkshire, and removed 

 from Chesterfield to Shefiield about the last ten 

 years of the seventeenth century, and died at the 

 latter place in 1737, aged 71. His mother's maiden 

 name was Hannah Slator of Chesterfield. Robert, 

 their only child, was born somewhere in Derby- 

 shire, A.D. 1688, removed to Philadelphia, Penn., 

 in 1707-8, married Ann Curtis of Delaware in 

 1710, and was lost at sea in 1717, leaving two 

 sons, Slator, ancestor of the late Hon. Henry Clay 

 of Ashland, Kentucky, and Thomas, who emigrated 

 to North Carolina, and died about the year 1744. 

 Pebrot Fenton, Proctor- 

 Doctors* Commons. 



Walley Chamberlain Oiilton, — This gentleman 

 was author of several dramas, a History of the 

 London Theatres^ &c., &c. Can any of your readers 



give me the date of his death ? He was living 

 about 1820? Z. A. 



^{nor <aucr(ci toftib ^wiiatxi. 



" Lord Harry " and a " 2'oMc/tffr." — A neigh- 

 bour of mine, in describing a narrow escape that 

 somebody had experienced, made use of the ex- 

 pression, " By the Lord Harry, Sir, it was as near 

 as a toucher ! " Can any reader of "N. & Q." tell 

 me, first, who Lord Harry is ; and, secondly, how 

 near a toucher may be ? Mark Astony Lower. 



Lewes. 



[ May not the " Lord Harry " be an equivalent to " Old 

 Harry," a name which needs no explanation? Supposing 

 the theory lately propounded in our pages to be correct 

 (that the horns, tails, and cloven feet, vernacularly attri- 

 buted to the evil one, are due to the Greek satyri or 

 Eoman fauni, p. 387.), we aie disposed to think that 

 OM Harry was originally Old Hairy. The satyrs were 

 said to have hair like goats; and "hayre" or "haire" 

 especially' signified in old English a garment made of 

 goats' hair. On this supposition. Old Harry or Old 

 Hairy would have some affinity to Old Shock, formerly 

 the name of a demon that haunted the road-sides. Shock, 

 a head of rough hair, a rough-haired dog. The term 

 " Lord " maj' be applied derisively ; or it may allude to 

 1 Cor. iv. 4., where the evil one is termed " the god of 

 this world" (" Deus hujus sseculi," Vitlg.) 



We regard "toucher" as here equivalent to " touch," 

 e.g. "it was a near touch," i. e. a narrow escape. " Touch,' ' 

 contact without collision; the nearest thing possible to 

 an actual smash. We understand also that " toucher" is 

 used to express a narrow escape from being shot ; for in- 

 stance, when a bullet passes through the coat-sleeve, bat 

 not through the arm — " That was a toucher." We can- 

 not pretend to define the exact force of toucher in the 

 expression cited by our correspondent, without knowing 

 what was the nature of the narrow escape experienced. 

 Our present impression is that the term was originally 

 nautical. " Touch the wind " was an old command to 

 the helmsman to bring the ship as near the wind as pos- 

 sible — " serrer le vent ;" and when the ship was brought so 

 near the wind that her sails began to shake, they were 

 said to "touch." "Touch and go" was when a ship 

 under sail just touched the bottom, without grounding. 

 (Falconer.) The verb toucher was used nautically by 

 the French in a similar sense — " frapper en passant;" 

 and as they have also toucher, a noun (the sense of touch, 

 the act of touching), this may be the origin of our 

 toucher. The French use of the verb is as old as 1529: 

 " Nostre nef, la Pensee, fut mise en rade honnestement, 

 sans toucher ; mais le Sacre toucha." (Jal.) Cf. also the 

 Yankee phrase, "This is no touch to it," i. e. does not 

 come near it, cannot be compared to it.] 



Etymology of Scripture Local Names. — Have 

 any of the travellers in Palestine who have pub- 

 lished accounts of that country, investigated the 

 fitness of the etymologies usually proposed (such 

 as those of Gesenius or those in Simonis Onomas- 

 ticon) to the rivers, mountains, &c. ? For in- 

 stance, has any traveller told us whether the 

 Kishon is a winding stream ? the Arnon a noisy 

 one ? or the Pharpar a rapid one ? Is the Kidron 

 a turbid stream, such as Western nations would 

 call Rio Negro or Blackwater ? I mention these 



