238 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"'i S. N" 38., Sept. 20. '50, 



The Great Heat (2"^ S. ii. 131.)— Your cor- 

 respondent Kakl has been misinformed as to the 

 year of the great heat, which occurred in 1826, 

 thirty^ not twenty, years ago. Though I cannot 

 furnish him with details as to the number of 

 weeks during which no rain fell, I can fully con- 

 firm what he has heard stated regarding the con- 

 dition of the crops in that memorable year. The 

 heat of this year, though of extraordinary inten- 

 sity while it lasted, was trifling in duration, com- 

 pared to that of 1826. In the west of Scotland, 

 where I then resided, the pastures and cereal 

 crops were literally burnt up. So short were the 

 corn-stalks, and so thinly scattered, that the 

 sickle was in most places useless. Some had 

 recourse to the expedient mentioned by your 

 correspondent, of plucking the stalks, others used 

 the scythe. The bulk of the crops was in many 

 cases almost incredibly small. I remember one 

 wheat field of two or three acres which yielded 

 one miserable scurvy-looking stack. In 1836 the 

 contrast was as complete as can well be Imagined. 

 It Is as memorable as the former year, but for the 

 very opposite reason. Returning northwards from 

 Derbyshire In a pretty smart fall of snow on 

 October 20, I was struck with the amount of corn, 

 nearly or quite green, which was still standing 

 between Buxton and Liverpool. Much of It stood 

 till It rotted, or was cut down near Christmas, to 

 be used as bedding for cattle, or converted into 

 manure. I have for many years been In the habit 

 of referring to 1826 and 1836, as exemplifying 

 the extremes of our changeable climate. 



A.P. S. 



Imp, used for progeny (P' S. vIII. 443.623. ; Ix. 

 113.527.) — To the instances already given by 

 your correspondents may be added the following 

 from Bishop Parkhurst's Letter to the Norwich 

 Aldermen, justifying his rejection of the Puritan, 

 Robert Harrison, as being an unfit person for the 

 mastership of the free-school at Aylsham : 



" Being for mine own part, in respect of my place, as 

 also for duty and discharge of my conscience, bound to 

 have a special care of the youth of the diocese, as tlie 

 imps that by God's grace may succeed us, by good bring- 

 ing up, and become worthy in the common-wealth, I 

 cannot be easily persuaded to admit Mr. Harrison to any 

 such charge over them." — Strype's Annals of Reforma- 

 tion, an. 1573, ch. 29, vol. iii. p. 434. ed. Oxon., 1824. 



J. Sansom. 



DicKs Hatband (2"* S. II. 189.) — The various 

 qualities of this hatband are alluded to In different 

 adages in several parts of the country. Thus in 

 Pembrokeshire (see p. 189.) it is noted for its 

 being tight. In Cheshire (see Wllbraham's Che- 

 shire, Glossary, p. 32.) we have " As fine as Dick's 

 hatband ; " and It is added " this must be very 

 local." In Lincolnshire, anything ridiculously 

 comical is said to be " As queer as Dick's hat- 

 band," and this explanation is added, " which 



went nine times round and would not tie." Mr. 

 Halllwell says, Dictionary of Archaisms, &e., 

 " Dick's hatband Is said to have been made of 

 sand," and that "It has afforded many a com- 

 parison." I know nothing about the person to 

 whom this famous hatband belonged. I have 

 made a collection of more than twelve hundred 

 provincialisms, local adages, proverbs, comparisons, 

 &c., used In the Fen district of Lincolnshire, which 

 will be enumerated in my History of Boston, now 

 on the point of publication ; and shall be glad of 

 tlie assistance of your readers in their elucidation. 



Pjsiiey Thompson. 

 Stoke Newington. 



Forensic Wit (2"'^ S. ii. 168.) — Jekyll's couplet 

 on the " tough old jade " is, I think it will be 

 found, not correctly quoted. It has often been 

 printed, and was recently again brought into 

 notice in consequence of appearing in Moore's 

 Memoirs and Diary, edited by Lord John Russell. 

 I have always before seen the lines thus given, 

 and without any Italics — (Garrow being the 

 counsel and not Serjeant Pell) : — 



" Garrow forbear ! That tough old jade, 

 Can never prove a tender made." 



A Hermit at Hampstead. 



Door-head Inscriptions (2""* S. I. 519.) — Many 

 characteristic and interesting citations under the 

 above title having appeared at different times in 

 your columns, your Insertion of the following jcjio: 

 d'esprit, on seeing the words " Domus ultima" 

 affixed to the vault belonging to the Dukes of 

 Richmond in Chichester Cathedral, may gratify 

 some of your readers : 



" Did he, who thus inscribed the wall, 

 Not read, or not believe St. Paul, 

 Who says there is, where'er it stands, 

 Another house not made with hands? 

 Or may we gather from these words. 

 That house is not a house of lords ? " 



N. L. T. 



Inscription over the door of Dinton Church, 

 Bucks : — 



^ " Premia pro meritis siquis despet habenda 

 Audiat hie precepta sibique sit retinenda." fj* 



F. C. H. 



House Inscriptions (2""^ S. ii. 26.) — 



"In the Eddystone Lighthouse, on the course of 

 granite under tli'e ceiling in the upper store-room, is the 

 following verse from the 127th Psalm, wrought in by a 

 pick: 



" ' Except the Lord build the House, 

 They labour in vain that build it.' " * 



— Brayley's Graphic Illustrator, Lond. 1834, p. 394. 



C. W. L. 



Foreign English (1" S. vlli. 137.) — Passing 

 through Rouen some years since, I saw the follow- 



♦ These two lines are in small capitals. 



