478 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»'i S. N» 60., Dec. 13. '56. 



Leaning Towers (2"'^ S. ii. 456.) — Under this 

 heading, C. says, " I should like to know more of 

 the crooked spires of Yarmouth and Chesterfield, 

 whether they were actually, or only apparently 

 crooked?" As regards Chesterfield spire I re- 

 member reading, some years ago, in an early 

 number of The Penny or Saturday Magazine, 

 neither of which I can refer to at present, an ac- 

 count of which I will give the substance. The 

 church at Chesterfield was built by a native of 

 that place, whose name and the date I forget ; and 

 he is reported to have actually lost a considerable 

 sum of money in building it. When he had com- 



Eleted it, the authorities of Chesterfield found he 

 ad not added a spire, but finished at the top of 

 the tower ; and as the builder and architect (both 

 one and the same person) refused to add a spire, 

 alleging his loss by the church, the corporation 

 took counsel of the Attorney-General ; who gave 

 his opinion that a spire was as much a part of a 

 church as the tower, and, consequently, the builder 

 must finish his contract by adding the spire. 

 Nothing daunted, the builder thus reasoned, " If 

 I must add a spire, there is nothing to say of what 

 material it is to be built, or on what plan." So 

 he erected the present remarkable spire, rising to 

 the altitude of 230 feet. This spire he constructed 

 of wood on geometrical principles, and produced 

 an optical illusion ; by which, from whatever point 

 it is viewed, it appears to be hanging over, ready 

 to fall on the observer's head. When the scaf- 

 folding was removed, and the spire first exposed 

 to view, the corporation were much alarmed, and 

 the people at first refused to go into the church . 

 In this dilemma, the authorities applied to the 

 builder to take it down, and they would pay him 

 handsomely ; but he replied, " that he had put it 

 up against his own wish, and by their compulsion ; 

 so, if they wanted it down again, they had better 

 set to work and pull it down themselves :" adding, 

 "that although they could not see its beauties, 

 the time would come when his ingenuity would be 

 appreciated." M. C. 



Bishop Butts (2"-^ S. ii. 17.) — I think E. D. B. 

 claims too early a date for the Butts family at 

 Shouldham Thorpe. I have consulted numerous 

 deeds and covert rolls, but do not find the name 

 earlier than Henry VIII. William Butts held his 

 first court for West Derham Abbey Manor in 

 Watlington, 32 H. 8., as "Firmarius Dni Regis;" 

 his son William Butts held his first court for 

 Shouldham Thorpe M., 11th Elizabeth, it being 

 before that in the Gawsels. I should be glad to 

 communicate with E. D. B. on the subject. 



G. H. D. 



Horse-talk (2"^ S. i. 335. 395.) — In Northum- 

 berland, the hint given by a carter to his horse 

 that he must mend his pace is heck, heck. 



Henry H. EiLEr. 



Family of Noyes (2"'^ S. ii. 169.) — The manor 

 of Blackswells was in Chessenbury, Whiteparish, 

 &c. I have since discovered that Joan, the wife 

 of William Noyes (of Ramsbury House), was 

 daughter and heiress of Nicholas Bacon of White- 

 parish, &c., whose will was proved at Doctors' 

 Commons, Nov. 3, 1599, and the estates in ques- 

 tion were her inheritance. (The fine passed in 

 1614 appears to have been to settle the title on 

 the conclusion of a Chancery suit with John Bacon 

 and Wm. Rynge.) 



William Noyes, I find, was brother of Peter 

 Noyes of Weyhill, and his son AVilliam was ajtat. 

 40 in 1632. Memor. 



A Packman's Stone (2"'^ S. i. 15. &c.) — 



" I'll tell you a tale of Jamie the packman, 

 Ye cou'd not but ken gleid * Jamie Cunningham, 

 As he was travelling within a mile of Tunningham, 

 He sat down at a fald-dyke for to ease his back, 

 'Twad bursten our mare to have carried his pack. 

 As he was rising to gang some miles farther, 

 He hitch 'd his pack o'er his left shoulder ; 

 The swing of the pack brought him to the ground 

 And choak'd him dead : the laird of the ground 

 On the very spot where his servants found him 

 Put up a stane with this memorandum : 



VVhate'er come of the pack. 



Spend ay the ither plack. 



And let ne'er j'our gear o'er gang you, 



Keep ay your back light, 



And your pack tight. 



And then it never will hang you." 



(Dialogue between the Tinklarian Doctor and 

 his Grandam, in a Collection of Scots Poems on 

 several Occasions, by the late Mr. Alexander Pen- 

 necuik, Gent, and others. Edinburgh, 1756.) 



G.N. 



Epitaph at Abinger (2"'»- S. ii. 306. 397.) — I 

 have met with an older version than either of 

 these ; it occurs in the graveyard of Barnwell 

 Priory, near Cambridge, over the remains of John 

 Holmes, who died Dec. 6, 1796, aged seventy-two 

 years. It differs from those given principally in 

 the first line, which runs : 



" My Sledge and Hammer lie reclin'd." 

 I also met with it, with some little variation, at 

 Carisbrook, in the Isle of Wight. J. Eastwood. 



Husbands authorised to beat their Wives (2"'' S. ii. 

 108. 219. 297. 359.) — The practice of husbands 

 correcting their wives seems to have been common 

 on the Continent as well as in England. In the 

 Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, and other works of the 

 period and later, we find that naughty wives were 

 corrected with the birch after the approved scho- 

 lastic fashion. In England, even, daughters of 

 marriageable age were whipped by their mothers, 

 so late as the time of Dr. Johnson, who is said to 

 have approved of the practice. T, 



* Squint-eyed. 



