296 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 93., Oct. 10. '57. 



any better right to the title of Mister (except a^ 

 a title of courtesy) than he had to that of Esquire ? 

 My little reading in such matters has been of a 

 desultory kind ; but I have somehow been brought 

 to believe that, according to ancient custom, the 

 title of Mister, or Master, used to be confined to 

 Justices, Masters of the Rolls, Masters in Chan- 

 cery, Chancellors of the Duchies, and even of the 

 Exchequer, King's Serjeants, and other civil ser- 

 vants ; to which may be added Master-graduates 

 at the Universities ; and (I think Mr. Hallam 

 says somewhere) knights-bannerets (?). At all 

 events, I conceive that, in the Middle Ages, 

 Master was as much a civil title as Sire and 

 Esquire were military titles ; and that Magistri 

 ranked in the state, as civil servants of the crown, 

 about on a par with knights who rendered mili- 

 tary service. Have any acts of the legislature, 

 in more modern times, placed the title of Mister, 

 as applied to the "gentleman," below that of 

 Esquire ? J. Sansom. 



As a companion story to those of Mr. Dixon, 

 take the following. About fifty or sixty years 

 ago a letter addressed to my father as " G. G., 

 Esquire," was refused to be taken in by one of the 

 maid- servants. When asked why she had refused 

 the letter, she said that she did not know that her 

 master was a squire, and therefore thought it was 

 not meant for him. Ever afterwards my father 

 used to say he wished people to address their 

 letters to him as mister, not esquire. M. D. 



Rhubarb first Introduced (2°* S. ii. 430.) — In 

 looking over " N. & Q." I see a notice of the time 

 when rhubarb was first introduced. In the last 

 edition of Rhind's Vegetable Kingdom it is said 

 that 



" Monk Rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum) is mentioned 

 by Tusser so early as 1573 as being cultivated in JCngland. 

 The (Rheum palmatam) true rhubarb as used in medi- 

 cine has long been imported from the Levant, though the 

 particular plant of which it was the root was not ascer- 

 tained until 1758, when it was first introduced and cul- 

 tivated in this country' b}' Dr. John Hope. The Hybrid 

 Rhubarb (Rheum hybridum) is a native of more northern 

 parts of Asia than the others ; it was first cultivated in 

 this country by Dr. Fothergill in 1778, but it did not 

 come into general use as a culinary vegetable till about 

 thirty years ago. In the Gardener's Magaziiie, Feb. 1829, 

 we find a notice of a plant of this species ; one leaf of 

 which being cut, with its petiole, was found to weigh 

 4 lbs. The circumference of the leaf, not including its 

 foot stalk, measured 21 feet 3 inches ; length of leaf, in- 

 cluding the petiole, 5 feet 2 inches, and length of petiolse 

 1 foot 4 inches." 



C. Vivian. 



First Sea- going Steamer (2°"^ S. iv. 214.) — I 

 saw in your publication of the 12th inst. a notice 

 of my answer to Explorator's inquiry for the 

 name of the first sea-going steamer, by J. Doran, 

 whose remarks appear to me to be wide away 

 from the purpose; especially those referring to 



Columbus and Anson, whose names I should 

 hardly have presumed to introduce in connexion 

 with the present subject, and whose great enter- 

 prises were undertaken in sailing vessels, the best 

 of their time, and not in steamers. As to Captain 

 Dodd, it was far from my intention to disparage 

 him, or his enterprise ; no one can better appre- 

 ciate both his "daring" and perseverance than I 

 do. I only excepted, and on just grounds, his 

 river-boat exploit from the question. I again 

 assert that the " St. Patrick," under my command, 

 was the first experiment, and was the leading 

 vessel in that career, inasmuch as she was built 

 expressly to run between Liverpool, Dublin, and 

 Bristol, and was the first " sea-going steamer " 

 that went down St. George's Channel into the 

 Atlantic. 



I may add that to her success the navigation of 

 the port of Liverpool is indebted for most im- 

 portant improvements ; for, as I before stated, it 

 led to the establishment of Her Majesty's Mail 

 Steam Packets between Liverpool and Dublin, 

 one of which I commanded for twenty years ; and 

 at the suggestion of myself and brother officers in 

 that service, the Rock lighthouse was erected, and 

 by us also the new channel was first discovered 

 and used. John P. Philipps, Lieut. R.jN". 



Grasmere. 



The Ocean Telegraph, its first Proposer (2°^ S. 

 iv. 7.) — The following extract from a letter on 

 file in the Treasury Department of the United 

 States, under date of August 10, 1843, written by 

 Samuel F. B. Morse to the Hon. John C. Spencer, 

 then Secretary of the Treasury, settles the dispute 

 as to who originated the idea of an oceanic tele- 

 graph : — 



" The practical inference from this law is, that a tele- 

 graphic communication on the electro-magnetic plan may 

 with certainty be established across the Atlantic Ocean.'' 



In a recent publication of the Ocean Telegraph 

 Company, Mr. Morse's claim as to being the pro- 

 poser of this undertaking is readily allowed, and 

 clearly established. My Query, which appeared 

 ante, p. 7., would therefore have been unnecessary, 

 had this statement been seen before its publica- 

 tion. William Winthrop. 



Malta. 



Riding the Hatch (2"'^ S. iv. 143.) — 'Tis well, 

 Mr. Editor, that now and then you should have a 

 correspondent who professes not to be deep in 

 learned lore, nor attempts to find very simple 

 things by search and research, in Saxon, Norman, 

 Latin, or Greek words for a clue to such as the 

 above. 



"Hatch" is the lower door when two doors 

 hang on the same post. I have often when a boy 

 ridden the hatch of a barn door, and It may be as 

 pleasant as " swinging on a gate all day ;" but if 



