2nd s. N» 84., Aug. 8. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIEB. 



113 



WARPING. 



(2"'J S. iv. 92.) 



The most ancient example of warping carried 

 on upon a larji;e scale is that of Egypt, which has 

 been under scientific control for ages, and is now 

 directed by a French engineer. (Warburton's 

 Crescent and Cross.) There is, I believe, little or 

 no warping artificially carried on from the Trent 

 or Ilumber, but it is a most important means of 

 raising and fertilising the low and waste land on 

 both sides of the Ouse, towards its junction with 

 the Huraber. The Trent is almost free from de- 

 posit, whilst the Ouse is occasionally so muddy 

 that, to use an expression of the boatmen who 

 navigate it, " you may almost cut it with a knife." 

 A like phenomenon is observed in the Missouri 

 and Mississippi, the one river bright and clear, 

 being free from impurity, the other clouded with 

 the elements of fertility. The excessive quantity 

 of deposit brought by the Ouse has supplied land 

 to the Earl of Yarborough's estate (respecting 

 which there is a curious case in the law books), 

 and to Sunk Island, within the Humber, besides 

 almost blocking up that wide estuary itself (ex- 

 cept by the forcing of a deep and varying chan- 

 nel), so as to render it nearly unnavigalale for 

 large vessels, with the exception of an interval of 

 three or four hours, during the rising and falling 

 tide. The soil formed in the basin of the Ouse by 

 warping is sown with flax, the most exhausting of 

 crops, and it produces some of the best potatoes 

 with which the London market is supplied. In 

 addition to the references already given (2""^ S. iv. 

 92.), add Arthur Young's Farmers^ Calendar, 

 p. 394. ; British Husbandry, U. K S., I p. 467. 

 By this process, land near the Ouse has been 

 raised from six to sixteen inches in one summer ; 

 and land purchased at 111. per acre, Avarped at a 

 cost of 12/. the acre, has been raised to 701. per 

 acre in value. An eminent engineer once in- 

 formed me that the deposits on land warped from 

 the Thames speedily lost its fertility. The land 

 warped near the Ouse requires management to 

 preserve its productive energies. It spontaneously 

 produces clover. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



3Reijlt0^ to :^titar <jaueri«!. 



Thorn of St. Albans (2"^ S. iii. 509.) — Your 

 correspondent, who inquires as to these arms, will 

 find at p. 47 b., vol. 1041, Harl. MS., that they 

 were borne by Robert Thorne, whose will was 

 proved 32nd Hen. VI., a.d. 1458. There is a long 

 pedigree attached : it is an old Saxon name ! 



M.D. 



Ludlow the Regicide (2°'» S. iii. 146. 236. 435.) 

 — I have at last had an opportunity, and with 

 some little difficulty have copied the following in- 



scription on the slab referred to by me before, as 

 belonging to the Ludlow family : 



" Here lieth the bodv 



of ANN LUDLOWE 



the Daughter of 



THOMAS LUDLOWE 



Esq" who died 



the 2'"' of Dec- 



Anno Dom. 16—." 



The stone is a very soft sandstone, I ihiitk of 

 the Bath kind, and as it lies close in front of the 

 entrance within the communion-rails, from the 

 frequent passing, many of the words are much 

 worn away ; so that I was obliged to use my 

 fingers to trace them. The date of the year has 

 only the figure 1 visible, but I fancied I could 

 trace a 6 as the next ; and the village clerk tells 

 me, when the slab was replaced at the restoration 

 of the church, about ten or twelve years ago, that 

 it bore the date 1667. There is a vault which was 

 formerly used by the Ludlows under the com- 

 munion-table. I have searched the register of 

 burials, but can only find one of a Ludlow in 

 1667, viz. " Mary, y" Daughter of Francis Lud- 

 low, Gent., was buried June 16'^ 1667." I think 

 the other is of more recent date. IIenki. 



The ''Essay on Woman'" (2"'^ S. iv. 21.) — 

 The printer who stole the copy of this work was 

 in the employ of Horace Walpole, and did a 

 similar service for him. See Walpuliana, vol. i. 

 p. 124. The London Chronicle, August 14, 1778, 

 announces the worthy's death: 



"Lately died at his lodgings in Norwich, aged 56, 

 Michael Curry, printer, well known for his information 

 against the printer and publisher of the Essay on Woman." 



H. G. D. 



Dark or Darhe Family (2°'^ S. Iv. 30.) — The 

 following is the article on this family name in my 

 forthcoming "Dictionary of Surnames :" 



" Darke or Dark. This name, which is not uncom- 

 mon in the W. of England, is probably identical with the 

 De Arcis of Domesdaj'- Book. William d'Arques, or De 

 Arcis, was lord of Folkestone, co. Kent. temp. William L, 

 having settled in England after the Norman Conquest. 

 His ancestors were vicomtes of Arques, now a bourg and 

 castle, four or five miles from Dieppe in Normandy. — Sta- 

 pleton on the Barony of Wm. of Arques, in Canterbury 

 Report of Brit. Archseolog. Association, p. 166." 



Mabk Antony Lower. 



Lewes. 



West Country Cob (2"'^ S. iv. 65.) — This mode 

 of building is very general throughout Devon, but 

 it is not confined to that county. 



In 1832, I drew up an article on the subject 

 for Mr. Loudon's Encyclopcedia of Cottage Archi- 

 tecture; and in the Quarterly, for April, 1837, is 

 a most clever and amusing paper about it. I 

 have neither at hand, but I suspect Me. Boys will 

 find much there to interest him. 



H. T. Ellacombe. 



