308 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. No 42., Oct. 18. '56. 



many villagers in different parts of the kingdom are still 

 spell-bound by the same prejudices which, centuries back, 

 and even before the reformation, fettered the minds of 

 their uninstructed ancestors. A minister, largely aided 

 by the Home Missionary Society, writes, in one of his 

 quarterly communications : ■> 



" ' Last night as I was returning home, after preaching 

 at Brilley Common, my companions desired me to look at 

 a large stone, near the high road, and about three hundred 

 yards from the church (Brilley, Herefordshire); they 

 said that every corpse buried at that church is carried 

 round that stone before its interment. They said that 

 without going round the stone the dead person could not go 

 to heaven! Under this conviction, one of the men that 

 was talking with me caused his mother to be carried 

 round the stone, before taking her to be buried. " 



Brilley stone is eighty yards from the entry to 

 the churchyard : it was formerly a cross, but by 

 some accident it was broken in the middle some 

 years since. The people used to carry the corpse 



THBEE TIMES BOUND IT, but that CUStom is HOW 



dropt. 



A few burials of late have taken place without 

 going round the stone, but in general the dead are 

 still carried round it ; and the common opinion, 

 as before stated, is, that the dead cannot go to 

 heaven without this ceremony being performed. 



Can any of your correspondents inform me if 

 the stone is still in being, and this curious burial 

 custom retained ? and what its origin ? 



J. B. Whitborne. 



. Celtic Element in the English LangvMge. — Will 

 you, or some of your learned correspondents, 

 kindly inform me whether there are any, and 

 what, works on this subject? Eden Warwick. 

 Birmingham. 



James Baird of Chesterhall, was Clerk of the 

 Wardrobe to Queen Anne. He was a son of 



Baird of Newbyth, and married a daughter 



of Watson of Bilton Park, Yorkshire. I 



am very anxious to know what family he left, 

 and to learn any particulars of his descend* 

 ants. I will also feel very grateful for any par- 

 ticulars respecting the office of Clerk of the 

 .Wardrobe. He was connected, I understand, 

 with the Exchequer in Scotland ; so perhaps his 

 duties as clerk may have been carried on in Edin- 

 burgh. Sigma Theta. 



Roive, Serjeant-at-Laic. — Harl., 1174. (p. 89.), 

 gives John Rowe, of Rowe Place, serjeant-at-law, 

 and adds that he sold Rowe Combe (or Place) in 

 the 23rd year of Henry VIH. Lysons {Magna 

 Britannia, vol. vi. pt. i. p. ccxiii. ), on the au- 

 thority of Sir William Pole, mentions William 

 Rowe, Esq., among " the persons of very good 

 .family formerly residing in Totnes;" and adds, 

 "his son John, who was serjeant-at-law in the 

 reign of Henry VIII., raari-ied the heiress of Barn- 

 house of Kingston." I am aware of difficulties in 

 th© way of reconciling the supposition, but I have 



a strong suspicion that the two above-named ser- 

 jeants-at-law were the same person. I therefore 

 venture to ask, if you, or any correspondent, are 

 aware whether there is any reliable list of Ser- 

 jeants ? and, if so, whether there were two John 

 Rowes (or Roes, for the name is spelt very vari- 

 ously), Serjeants in the reign of Henry VIII. ? 



Tee Bee. 



" Pikemonger" — Among the recorded bene- 

 factors to the parish of St. Edward, Cambridge, 

 occurs the name of one Ellis, a " Pikemonger." 

 What was this good man's calling ? It may he he 

 was a maker of the weapon so called, the manu- 

 facture of which in our own times has been so ex- 

 tensively . revived in Ireland; but I am rather 

 inclined to think he followed the more peaceful 

 trade of a fishmonger, making the pike, perhaps, 

 his principal fish. It is well known that Cam- 

 bridgeshire has always been celebrated for these 

 voracious " river sharks " ; and when, in the six- 

 teenth and seventeenth centuries, the sovereign or 

 other distinguished persons visited Cambridge, 

 the mayor and corporation generally presented 

 them with a pike. (Vide Cooper's Annals.) Even 

 now the rivers which flow through our fens, and 

 the mighty drains which run into them, probably 

 produce these fish greater both in size and quantity 

 than any other waters in Britain. I shall be glad 

 to know if any of your readers can confirm this 

 idea of the avocation of a " pikemonger." 



NoBEis Deck. 

 Cambridge. 



" London Directory." — James Brown, an En- 

 glish traveller and scholar, wrote The Directory, 

 or List of Principal Traders in London, 1732. 

 He gave it to one Henry Kent, a printer in Finch 

 Lane, Cornhill ; who published it from year to 

 year, and acquired by it a fortune, with which he 

 purchased an estate. None of these Directories 

 appear to exist in the British Museum, nor in the 

 Library of the London Corporation. As it would 

 be interesting to compare one of them (especially 

 the one of 1732) with the present corpulent Lon- 

 don Directory, any of your correspondents who 

 can give information where this one, or any of the 

 others can be seen, will oblige K. J. 



The Duke of Monmouth's Mother was Lucy 

 Walters, 6therwise Barlow, a Pembrokeshire 

 woman. There was a family named Barlow set- 

 tled at Slebech, in that county, from Henry VIII.'s 

 reign till somewhat recent times, of which the 

 representative was created a baronet in 1677. 

 Was she of that family ? It would oblige me to 

 be informed of her parents' names, date of birth, 

 and place in pedigree. Tee Bee. 



London Watchmakers of former Times. — I 

 have a very ancient silver watch, which has been 



