Dec. 22. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



499 



Richard Sprignell of Coppenthorpe, co. York, 

 Bart. Abraham died before his father, and left 

 issue, William, who succeeded to his grandfather's 

 estates, George, second son, Michael, third son, 

 and Gideon, fourth son. Of William I know 

 nothing further; but it is not at all improbable 

 that he received the honour of knighthood, and 

 was the " Sir William " mentioned by A. H. as of 

 Sharsted, &c. George, a London merchant, mar- 

 ried to a daughter of Sir Thomas Allen, of Finch- 

 ley, was, with his pregnant wife and all their 

 family, burnt to death in their house in Lothbury. 

 A. H. will find a larger account of the De 

 Launes in the Gentleman s Magazine for Novem- 

 ber, 1847, from which the above sketch is chiefly 

 made. 5o» ^5-X//, i^ Patoncb. 



National Education and Reformation (Vol. xii., 

 pp. 244, 374.). — Your correspondent will find in 

 National Education in Europe, by Henry Barnard, 

 LL.D., published in Hartford, Conn., U. S., an 

 account of the educational systems of the principal 

 states of Europe. A similar work is announced, 

 by the same author, on the systems of the States 

 of the American Union, but it is not yet published. 

 In the British American provinces. Upper Canada 

 has taken the lead, and has a splendid system of 

 Normal, grammar, and common school education, 

 reports of which, and of education in Lower 

 Canada, and the other provinces (so far as I can 

 obtain copies), I will send in a week or two ; and 

 in the mean time would refer Mb. Whitakeb 

 to Mr. Tremenheere's Notes on Public Subjects in 

 the United States and Canada, and to the Hon. 

 Captain Murray's Lands of the Slave and the Free, 

 in which he will find much valuable and correct 

 information. 



The Rev. Dr. Ryerson, the educational officer 

 for Upper Canada, and the founder of her educa- 

 tional system, is at present in London or Paris, 

 on business of his department, and will, I am sure, 

 be happy to furnish your correspondent with 

 documents or information on the subject of edu- 

 cation in the United States and British provinces. 



Thomas Hodgins. 

 Toronto. 



Curious Custom., Sfc. (Vol. xii., p. 406.). — The 

 following extract from one of the most amusing 

 autobiographies ever written, seems to show that 

 the curious custom inquired about by Mb. Gan- 

 TiLLON, is not peculiar to the purchase of lands, or 

 to Germany or Berkshire, but was used elsewhere 

 by parents on trivial occasions to sharpen their 

 children's wits and memories : 



" When I Avas about five years of age, my father hap- 

 pened to be in a little room in which thej' had been 

 washing, and where there was a good oak fire burning ; 

 with a fiddle in his hand he sang and played near the 

 fire, the weather being exceedingly cold. Looking into 

 the fire, he saw a little animal resembling a lizard, which 



No. 321.], 



lived and enjoyed itself in the hottest flames. Instantly 

 perceiving what it was, he called for my sister, and after 

 he had shown us the creature, he gave me a box on the 

 ear. I fell a-crying, while he, soothing me with his 

 caresses, said, ' My dear child, I don't give you that blow 

 for any fault you have committed, but that you may re- 

 member that the little lizard which you see in the fire is 

 a salamander — a creature which no one that I have heard 

 of ever beheld before." — Life of Benvenuto Cellini, cap. i. 



J. R. M., M.A. 



The ''Right'' and ''Left" Hand (Vol. xii., 

 p. 404.). — Pending the more valuable explana- 

 tions of professional men, to whom Hebmes ad- 

 dresses his Query on the subject, the following 

 remarks of an obscure writer may appear to merit 

 transcription : 



" That men naturally make use of the right (hand), 

 and that the use of the other is a digression or aberration 

 from that way which Nature generally intendeth ; though 

 it is preferred before the other in almost all parts of the 

 world, yet, in submission to future information, we are 

 unsatisfied to great dubitation. 



" For, did it arise from a constant root in Nature, we 

 might expect the same in other animals, wherein we can 

 discover no complying account. 



" Again, were it so, why have they not the same dif- 

 ference in their senses, which we find equal on both sides ? 

 As for their dextral activity, it proceeds only from the 

 more use." — A Memorial for the Learned, by J. D., 12mo., 

 London, 1686. 



Sir Charles Bell discusses this question in his 

 Bridgwater Treatise. I have not the volume at 

 hand for reference ; but remember that his remarks 

 are to the effect, that a distinction exists not only 

 in the hands and arms, but the whole body ; and 

 that the vital force, or constitutional energy, as 

 well as the muscular power, is greater on the 

 right than the left side, which latter is more sub- 

 ject to the attacks of disease. He concludes, there- 

 fore, that the preference of the right to the left 

 hand is a provision of Nature for the convenience 

 of man, and the result of some peculiarity of 

 physical conformation. Wilmam Bates. 



Birmingham. 



Lestowye (Vol. xii., p. 428.). — Estouere, or, 

 with the article, Testouere, as Du Cange defines the 

 word in his French Glossary, is a necessary main- 

 tenance, "ce que lui est necessaire ;" and he refers 

 to the latinized word estoverium, in his mediaeval 

 Latin Glossary, which he also interprets as " sus- 

 tentatio rationabilis." Matthew of Paris em- 

 ploys this antiquated term in the same sense: 

 " Vidua, post mortem mariti, habeat rationabile 

 estouerium, i. e., let the widow, after her husband's 

 death, have reasonable sustenance (Hist., 256. 

 53.). " Vox forensis, pro victu et vestitu (says 

 tlie glossary prefixed to his Works), "k Gallico 

 estouere, fovere." And this is the probable im- 

 port of the word in the epitaph quoted by L. A. 

 B. W. ; which supposition is strengthened by the 

 context. Chables Hook. 



