94 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Aug. 4. 1855. 



the latest, perhaps the last figure the string was 

 made to assume, and we used to believe it was 

 so called because it was only big enough to hold 

 a kitten. Cratch is a word still in common use in 

 the very sense given by Johnson and Maunder. 

 Your horse eats his corn out of the manger and 

 his hay out of the cratch above it. There is also 

 the movable cratch from which cattle eat hay in 

 the field or straw-yard, a rude representation of 

 which is often seen in pictures of the Nativity. 



P.P. 



Bennefs ^^ Paraphrase" (Vol. xii., p. 10.). — 

 In Exeter Cathedral one of the lay vicars assists 

 the officiating priest in chanting the Litany. The 

 lay-vicars are cantores, or singing men, and before 

 the Reformation were in holy orders, which no 

 doubt accounts for the practice not only at Exeter, 

 but in other cathedral and collegiate churches. 



J. G. 



Exon. 



Forlorn (Vol. viii., p. 569.). — In the following 

 extracts from a letter from Oliver Cromwell to 

 Lenthall the Speaker, published in the Chetham 

 Society's Civil War Tracts, p. 259., &c., the word 

 seems used merely to signify an advanced body of 

 troops. "Hope" is not added at all, and Mb. 

 Wilde's view is corroborated. 



"Having intelligence that the enemy was drawing 

 together from all his out-quarters, we drew out a forlorn 

 of about 200 horse and 400 foot." 



" Our forlorn of horse marched within a mile of where 

 the enemy was drawn up." 



" The forlorn of horse held dispute with them until our 

 forlorn of foot came up and we had opportunity to bring 

 up our whole army." 



" And therefore advancing with our forlorn and putting 

 the rest of our army into as good a posture as we could, 

 we advanced upon them." 



P.P. 



Seventy-seven (Vol. xi., p. 61. ; Vol. xii., p. 35.). 

 — Though W. T. M. dates from the end of the 

 world in space, I cannot permit him to know so 

 much about its end in time, as to affirm that the 

 reply can never again be given. A man born a.d. 

 2777, may surely make it in 2854. And farther, 

 there is nothing singular in the interval being 

 122 years; 111 and 11 make 122. 



Of my own age I may say something which will 

 not be predicable at equal intervals. I was x 

 years old in the year of grace xXx. I will say 

 so much as, that I do not mean I was 6 years old 

 in A.D. 36 nor 7 in a.d. 49. I dare say Professor 

 De Morgan, or some of your mathematical corre- 

 spondents, will be able to find my age. M. 



List 'of Stone Crosses (Vol. xi., p. 506.). — 

 The site of every way-side cross in the kingdom, 

 of which any remains exist, is noticed in the Ord- 

 nance maps, in a different type from the names of 

 places. The scale is six inches to the mile, and 



No. 301.] 



each sheet represents a district of four miles by 

 about six. The sheet which contains the town of 

 Preston has either seven or eight pedestals of 

 crosses noted ; the next sheet southward has six- 

 teen. That containing the town of Chorley has 

 seven. Thus a complete list for all England 

 would require neither talent nor research ; taut it 

 would involve much labour and some expense. 



P.P. 



Lady Jane Home : Lord Robert Kerr (Vol. xii., 

 p. 46.). — Lord Robert Kerr, second son of 

 William, third Marquis of Lothian, fell at the 

 battle of Culloden, April 17, 1746, on the side 

 of the crown, against Prince Charles Edward 

 (Knight's History of England, vol. iv. p. 538.). 

 Lady Jane Home, eldest daughter of Charles, 

 sixtli Earl of Home, married Patrick Lord Pol- 

 warth. Mackenzie Walcott, M. A. 



Anonymous Hymns (Vol. xii., p. 11.). — I can 

 help C. H. H. W. to one more name, that of Hart, 

 as the author of No. 5. in his list. 



No. 3., I believe, is wrongly quoted. I think it 

 should be " When, His salvation bringing." 



N. H. L. R. 



Almanacs of 1849 and 1855 (Vol. xii., p. 19.). 



— I should have mentioned that 1860 does not 

 agree with 1849 till the intercalary day is past. 

 The omission arose from my being accustomed to 

 the old plan of taking for the almanac of leap- 

 year the corresponding, or most nearly corre- 

 sponding, almanac of a common year,_ subject to 

 alterations to be made by the user of it, in Janu- 

 ary and February. 



It is also correct, according to the old plan, to 

 say that 1849 and 1855 do not take the same al- 

 manac. The almanac new and full moons do not 

 agree : and these were essential parts of the al- 

 manac. 



The almanac writer and the astronomer con- 

 sider the intercalary day as coming between the 

 two years, and the subsequent alterations in 

 January and February as allowances for a bun- 

 gling piece of adherence to antiquity. And this 

 is much the easiest way of learning the almanac. 



It is fated that the " Epitaph on an Infant " 

 (p. 49.) shall not appear corrrectly in your pages. 

 The last stop is a note of interrogation instead of 

 exclamation. M. 



" The Man in the Iron Mask" (Vol. xi., p. 504.). 



— In reply to the inquiry for information about 

 "The Man in the Iron Mask," I beg to refer 

 QuiESTOR to the account by A. Dumas, which con- 

 tains all the explanations hazarded by every dif- 

 ferent writer on the subject, and often thoroughly 

 refuting the rubbish propagated by Delort, fixes 

 on the only probable solution of the mystery. 

 The opinions of the different speculators are given 

 with their names, therefore Qu.s:stor will have aa 



