414 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 264. 



king's warrants " (Illustrations of British History, 

 vol. i. pp. 3, 4.), dated according to Lodge in 1515, 

 but probably rather earlier, we find mention of 

 " gone stones of stone," " gone stones of iron," 

 " gone stones of lead ; " the quantity of the former, 

 however, greatly exceeding those of the latter 

 description. From "stone" being used as the 

 generic name for a cannon-ball, it is evident that 

 up to this time at least the ball was made of stone, 

 whilst it is for the same reason doubtful whether 

 the words " stones for guns " always mean what we 

 understand by stones. W. Denton. 



" JEZjffi and Maria'\ (Vol. x., p. 263.). — It may 

 be of little interest to J. M. to mention that in 

 relation to the authorship of this pamphlet, I have 

 made inquiry of a gentleman now ^eighty-five 

 years of age, who in political life was well aware 

 of most of the circumstances of the year 1792, 

 and also of another intelligent gentleman, the son 

 of one of those " patriots " who suffered the penalty 

 of banishment ; either of whom never heard of the 

 production. One who I am sure could have an- 

 swered the question is dead about thirty years 

 ago. He was a mine of information on such 

 liberal points, and in his early life, when a student 

 at the University of Glasgow, was with two or 

 three others expelled for his having been thought 

 in certain quarters rather unceremoniously to 

 have insisted upon a royal commission of visitation 

 to Alma Mater. I possess a number of curious 

 documents connected with some of the political 

 occurrences of those times, which have descended 

 to me from my father, who was a member of one 

 of the societies for parliamentary reform in 1792, 

 under the denomination of " The Associated 

 Friends of the Constitution and of the People," 

 with which Thomas Muir, of Huntershill, was 

 concerned, and for whom the reformers of that 

 period entertained such afiection, that they had 

 a fine engraving executed by Holloway, of his 

 bust by Banks, which is still cherished. In none 

 of the documents referred to (printed and in MS.) 

 do I find any traces of the pamphlet, or hint 

 otherwise bearing on the subject. If my opinion 

 be worth anything, I think there is a probability 

 of its having been written by Thomas Muir him- 

 self I have a book which belonged to his library, 

 entitled Les Crimes des Rois de France, published 

 at Paris in the heat of the revolutionary commo- 

 tions, on the fly-leaf of which I long since made a 

 note of some verses that he had inscribed on a 

 book presented by him to the Antonian Monks of 

 St. Sebastian, dated 23rd July, 1794, where the 

 ship had touched on her voyage out to the place 

 of his banishment. In these verses is the same 

 quotation from Virgil, " Et nos patrife fines," &c., 

 as appears on the title-page of Elim and Maria, 

 which is at least a striking coincidence. These 

 names may, I think, be considered fictitious, or 



something known may have been couched under 

 them in the incidents of the period now lost. 

 Perhaps " Elim " was used figuratively in respect 

 to the place recommended to the emigrants as 

 being a good settlement for them, and is the same 

 name as that place at which the oppressed Israelites 

 encamped in the AVilderness, with its "twelve 

 fountains of waters and threescore and ten palm- 

 trees." 



Other tracts, fatherless and motherless babes, 

 kind of political Martin Mar-prelates, were also 

 about that time clandestinely printed and circu- 

 lated in Glasgow, such as Fragments on Human 

 Debasement, and The Origin of Kings, both 

 poetical. G. N. 



Glasgow. 



Longfellow (Vol. ix., p. 424.). — My suggested 

 derivation was purely conjectural, but I think 

 very probable. Tallboy is a name on which I 

 will not presume to speculate, never having seen 

 it before. There is an old baronial patronymic 

 not unlike it, Talboys; which is, I believe, of 

 Norman origin, and of kindred meaning to th'e 

 English Woodman, and Forester or Forster 

 (Tai7Ze-&ozs=cut-wood). W. P. Stokee. 



Olney, Bucks. 



Artificial Ice (Vol. x., p. 290.). — The material 

 for skating upon, to which J. P. O. alludes, was 

 not frozen water, but a saponaceous substance 

 laid down in blocks. When cut up by the skates, 

 the surface was restored by rolling it with hot 

 iron cylinders. W. J. Bernhabd Smith. 



Temple. 



Inscriptions on Bells (Vol. x., p. 255.), — May I 

 be allowed to correct the Note of an anonymous 

 contributor as to the bells in Tiverton tower. 

 Perhaps he has never examined them, but took 

 his account from some local history. I was in the 

 tower last year, and I read the bells thus : 



1. W. E. « Glory to God ifl the highest, 1737." 



2. Do. " And on earth peace, 1737." 



3. Do. " Good will towards men, 1737." 



4. Do. " Prosperity to all our benefactors, 1737." 



5. " Wm. Evans of Chepstowe cast us all, 1737." 



6. " Thomas Bilbie of Colompton fecit, 1791." 



7. «W. E., 1737. Mr. Thos. Anstey, Mr. Clement 

 Govett, Churchwardens." 



8. Do. " 1737. Mr. John Owen, Churchwarden, and 

 George Osmond, Esq., Mayor, 1736." 



If Anon, will take the trouble to wend his way 

 into a few of our old towers, he will see many 

 similar legends. H. T. Ellacombe. 



Clyst St. George. 



Words used in Cornwall (Vol, x., p. 300.). — 



Cheem. German, keimen, to sprout. 

 Clopp. French, eclope, lamed of one foot. 

 Drinff. German, dringen, to squeeze, 



' i. 1 II. F. B. 



