2>"i S. No 93., Oct. 10. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



297 



your urchin companion who swings it wishes to 

 punish instead of amuse, he can do it eflFectually 

 hy keeping it going very fast: the rider will find 

 the hatch very hard to sit, and very difficult to 

 get off. Beamblb. 



Twenty years ago ridyig the hatch was a very 

 familiar expression in Cornwall. The county at 

 that time abounded with Dissenters, especially 

 Wesleyans and a sect called Bryanites, and the 

 phrase in question was applied to one of these who 

 had been guilty of any impropriety or moral of- 

 fence. In the part of the county to which I allude 

 the cottages had small extra doors or gates, about 

 three feet high, called hatches, the use of which 

 was to prevent the ingress of pigs or poultry, while 

 the door was kept open for the admission of liglit 

 and air. To the uninitiated it was supposed that 

 the offender was placed astride one of these, 

 which was then swung to and fro until he fell off, 

 and by'this ordeal it was determined whether he 

 should, or should not, be expelled the sect. If he 

 fell inward he was again received as a brother 

 elect ; if outward, he was regarded thenceforward 

 as a heathen and an alien. John Maclean. 



Hammersmith. 



I had long been accustomed to this phrase 

 among a sea-foring population, but the inquiry of 

 your learned and obliging correspondent, Me. 

 BoTS, has led me to question several residents of 

 the inland districts, who, I find, use it, and under- 

 stand it in a similar way. The narrowness of 

 Cornwall must be remembered, and its long ex- 

 tent of coast. 



It has been suggested to me by one acquainted 

 with the expression for the last fifty years, that it 

 is probably as old as Cromwellian days, and was 

 invented by the Cavaliers in ridicule of the sect- 

 aries, who, it was asserted, were accustomed to set 

 any member accused of impropriety of conduct to 

 ride the hatch, and, swinging it violently to and 

 fro, to consider his guilt or innocence settled ac- 

 cording as he fell outward or inward. This is, 

 however, only supposition. T. Q. C. 



Bodmin. 



Steer Family (2°"^ S. iv. 90. 219 ) —It may be 

 of interest to your correspondent W. St. to know 

 that one John Steer, M.A., an Englishman, was 

 appointed by the Crown to the Archdeaconry of 

 Emly in 1612, and at the same time he was made 

 Treasurer of Ardfert ; in 1615 he was Chancellor 

 of Limerick, 1617 Bishop of Kilfenora, and in 

 1621 translated to that of Ardfert. On his death, 

 which occurred in 1628, his brother William was 

 appointed to succeed him in this see. He had pre- 

 viously been Treasurer of Ardfert. In 1636 he 

 was presented by the Crown with the Archdea- 

 conries of Cork and Cloyne, with licence to hold 

 them in commendam of his see ; he died at Ard- 



fert, Jan. 21, 1637, and was buried in his own 

 cathedral. Bishop Ryder mentions one John 

 Steer (son of the Bishop of Ardfert) installed pre- 

 bendary of Dysert in the diocese of Killaloe, s^m- 

 dendi gratia, for three years, January 12, 1620. 

 (Vide Cotton's Fasti.) The seal of the first men- 

 tioned prelate is still in existence, and was en- 

 graved by the writer in the 3rd No. of a small 

 treatise on the Episcopal and Capitular Seals of 

 the Irish Cathedral Churches," &c. R. C. 



Cork. 



''Scarcity": ''Resentment''' (2"'> S. iv. 227.) — 

 Scarce, in the sense of "temperate," occurs in 

 Wiclif (Ecclus. xxxi. 20., " Slep of health (is) in 

 a scars man ; " LXX. ^vos vyieias ^m eprepcfi fj.erp'up. 

 Vulg., " Somnus sanitatis in homine parco" 

 Auth. Vers., " Sound sleep cometh of moderate 

 eating." See Richardson in voc. 



Scarcely = " temperately ; " Chaucer, Prol. to 

 Canterbury Tales, — 



" To maken him live hy his propro good 

 In honour detteles, but if he were wood, 

 Or live as scarsly as him list desire." 



V. 584-6. 



Tyrwhitt (Gloss, to Chaucer) refers to Rom. of 

 the Rose, v. 2329. 



Resentment, meaning "grateful sense" or "lively 

 sense," is amply illustrated by Richardson from 

 Barrow (vol. i., Serm. 4. and 6.) ; Cudworth (Z?*- 

 tell. System, p. 25.) ; and Bull (vol. i. Serm. 4.). 

 Nares quotes Jos. Walker, Hist, of Eucharist : 



" We need not now travel so far as Asia or Greece for 

 instances to inhaunse our due resentments of God's be- 

 nefits." 



J. Eastwood. 



A correspondent of Dr. Thos. Comber, after- 

 wards Dean of Durham, writing under date 

 May, 1681, subscribes himself, " Thy truly pity- 

 ing, and love-resenting friend and brother." (Vide 

 Comber's Life of Dean Comber, 1799, p. 139.) 

 Dean Trench (Study of Words, 2nd edit., 1852, 

 p. 32.), says : — 



" Barrow could speak of the good man as a faithful 

 'resenter' and requiter of benefits, of the duty of testify- 

 ing an afiectionate •resentment' of our obligations to 

 God." 



Not having Barrow's works at hand, 1 am un- 

 able to indicate the passage referred to by Trench. 



• Ache. 



Fore-Elders (2°* S. iv. 207.) — It requires a 

 person to have gained a very considerable know- 

 ledge of Richardson's Dictionary before pronounc- 

 ing after one search that any particular word has 

 been omitted; and that is one drawback to its 

 use. For instance, I have just met quite acci- 

 dentally with fore-elders (and sundry other words 

 that seemed to have been omitted), under the 

 word /ore in a quotation from Foxe. 



J, Eastwooi>. 



