154 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. N" 86., Aug. 22. '57. 



As the story is one of tbe legends of Leicester, 

 and the extract adds information to the stock 

 already known, I may be permitted to say a word 

 or two on the subject. 



*► It is quite certain a bedstead has been ex- 

 hibited in Leicester, for many years, as that on 

 which Richard III. slept ; for in certain verses on 

 " Penny Sights and Exhibitions in the reign of 

 James the First," prefixed to Master Tom Co- 

 ryate's Crudities, and published in 1611*, "King 

 Richard's bed-sted in Leyster " is included in the 

 catalogue. 



Whether the bedstead now or lately preserved 

 at a mansion in the neighbourhood of Leicester, is 

 that which was exhibited in the reign of James I., 

 I cannot undertake to say ; nor whether the story 

 about the discovery of the gold is true : but there 

 can be no doubt about the murder of the landlady 

 of the Blue Boar, Mrs. Clark, for in compiling the 

 materials of a History of Leicester, published in 

 the year 1849, I found among the town papers the 

 manuscript depositions of the witnesses who bore 

 testimony against the murderers, with all the par- 

 ticulars of the affair. The details will be found 

 in that history at pp. 327, 328, 329, and 330. It 

 will prove a curious, and by no means uninstruc- 

 tive, process, to compare the ancient tradition with 

 the written record, in this instance ; as it will show 

 the proverbial tendency of rumour and legend to 

 exaggerate facts and circumstances. The murder 

 was committed in the year 1605, not 1613 ; and 

 one man was hanged, and one woman burned to 

 death for the offence — not one woman and seven 

 men, as stated by Sir Roger Twysden. 



The question yet remains doubtful whether the 

 bedstead on which Richard III. slept was ever 

 exhibited, and also whether he ever concealed gold 

 in any bedstead. That he lodged in the Blue 

 Boar, which inn was taken down about twenty 

 years ago, I think is sufiiciently established ; but 

 beyond this fact it does not appear to me safe to 

 go on this head in the way of historical affirmation. 



James Thompson. 

 Chronicle Office, Leicester. 



ETGGES AND WHARPOOLES. 

 (2"* S. iv. 30.) 



The word which is spelt " Wharpooles," in your 

 correspondent's citation from Grafton's Abridge- 

 ment (ed. 1571), respecting " great fishes " caught 

 in the Thames, is " Whyrpooles " in the edition of 

 1570, and " Whirpooles" in that of 1572. 



Foreign writers of the middle ages speak of the 

 " Whirle-pool," the " Horlepoole," the " Whyrle- 

 pole," the " Whorpoul," &c., as the English name 

 of a great fish ; and some mention is to be found 



• See " N. & Q.," vol. viii. pp. 558, 559. 



in English writers of the same period. Wil- 

 lughby, in his Hist. Piscium, edited by Ray, 1686, 

 states that the Physeter of Rondelitius is a Whirle- 

 pool (p. 41 .). Elyot writes in his Latin Dictionary, 

 " Bal^na, a greatte fishe, which I suppose to be 

 a Thurlepoll." Palsgrave, " Whirlpole, a fisshe, 

 chaudron de mer." 



From foreign writers, the first passage that 

 claims citation is that in Gesner (Icon. Animal. 

 1560), because it apparently refers to the identical 

 occurrence chronicled by Grafton, as cited in " N. 

 & Q.," namely, the extraordinary capture of 

 "great fishes" in the Thames (1551). Gesner 

 writes : 



" Pistris aut Physeter horribile genus cetorum. Angli 

 quidam eruditi Physeterem interpretantur a Whyrlepole, 

 alii scribunt Whirlepoole, alii Horlepole. Non ita pridcm 

 tres hujus generis in Thamesi iluvio Angliaj captos esse, 

 Joan. Caius indicavit. Ego physeterem multo majorem 

 puto, quam qui fluvios intrare possit, nisi prima aetate 

 forsan."— P. 170. 



Dr. Caius addressed to Gesner a memoir on 

 rare fishes, which is in print. But the above ap- 

 pears to have been a private communication. So 

 also does the following, which Gesner cites as 

 coming from " Gulielmus Turnerus," in whose 

 published works I can find nothing on the subject : 



" Physeterem nostri vocant a Whorpoul, qui, licet por- 

 tentosifi magnitudinis, ad Balaense tamen magnitudinem 

 nunquam accedit. Hujus generis aliquando vidi." — 

 Gesner, Icon, Animal., p. 170. 



See also the Fischhuch, which is Gesner in a 

 German dress (1563), and gives the English 

 names Whyrlepole, Whirlepole, and Horlepole 

 (p. 100. verso). And conf. Brisson, Regne Ani- 

 mal, 1756, "ie Souffleur, Delphinus penna in 

 dorso nulla, Physeter. Les Allemands I'appellent 

 Sprutzwal, Wetterwal ; les Anglais Whirle-pool." 

 P. 374-5. 



With regard to the French term "Chaudron de 

 mer," which Palsgrave gives for "Whirpole, a 

 fisshe," hints may be found in Dufresne (voce 

 cauderid), and in Bescherelle (voce calderon). 

 But the expression does not appear to have ever 

 been in general use among French writers. 



In the absence of any certain information re- 

 specting the other class of " great fishes " called 

 " I^ygS^^v' ^' ™^y ^® allowable to hazard a con- 

 jecture, that the Rygge was no other than the 

 Monodon vulgaris (common Narwhal), or else the 

 Monodon microcephalus. 



A cow in Scotland is called a riggie, if she have 

 a stripe running along the back from the nape to 

 the tail ; she is then said to be riggit or rigged, 

 from rig, the back, in Swedish rygg, or rijgg. 

 Now the M. vulgaris or Narwhal is described as 

 rigged, that is, as having a prominent ridge on the 

 back extending all the way from the tail to the 

 blow -holes on the nape. So also is the M. micro- 

 cephalus, which comes farther south, and therefore 

 was all the more likely to find its way into the 



