208 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. US, 



upon the subject. He probably writes from per- 

 sonal knowledge, I from inference. J. R. (Cork.) 



Lady Barbara Mowhray and Elizabeth Curie 

 (Vol. v., p. 517.). — Of these two ladies, so loyally 

 attached to their unfortunate mistress Queen 

 Mnry of Scotland, your correspondent Nhrsl is 

 desirous of obtaining some authentic information. 

 Of Lady Barbara I am not at present enabled to 

 furnish any particulars ; but of the Curie family 

 I may perhaps afford a clue to the inquiry of 

 Nhksi., from documents in my possession relating 

 to the settlement of the estate of St. Katharine's 

 Hall, commonly known as St. Kattern's, Somerset, 

 wliich in 1594, 36th Eliz., was the property of 

 William Blanchard, from whom it descended to 

 Henry Blanchard ; who, in October, 1690, married 

 Querinah Curie, and in 1748 the estate passed to 

 Querinah, the heir of the Blanchard family, and 

 then the wife of Thomas Parry, of St. Katharine's 

 Hall. They had issue John Parry, M.A., Hector 

 of Sturmer, co. Essex; Querinah, who married 

 AV. Milles Cobb, of Ringwood ; and Elizabeth, 

 who married Henry Knight, of Bath. 



Tlie Blanchard and Curie families were staunch 

 adherents of the royal cause during the civil wars, 

 and I have evidence of the esteem entertained by 

 King Cliarles for the then owner of St. Kattern's 

 just%efore the battle of Lansdowne. I am also in 

 possession of a portrait of Querinah Curie, painted 

 by Sir Peter Lely. 



I have jiiven these minute particulars in order 

 to aiford Nhrsl a means of prosecuting his in- 

 quiries through other channels that may present 

 themselves, and I feel fully persuaded that a per- 

 fect genealogy of the Curie, and also of the Blan- 

 chard families, would amply repay a diligent and 

 careful investigation. J. P. A. Knight. 



Aylestone, Leicestershire. 



Parallel Passages (Vol. vi., p. 123.).— P. C. S. S. 

 owns that he is too dull to perceive any parallelisvi 

 between the Cromwellian complexion of Sylla and 

 the "cream-smothered strawberries" of the young 

 lady's mouth, as described in the Lrish song. He 

 woiild be glad if a precise reference to the j)assages 

 in Mrs. Gray's Etruria, in which allusion is made 

 to the mulberry tincture of Sylla's face, as he has 

 vainly sought for it through both volumes of that 

 ingenious and imaginative work. But in Plu- 

 tarch's Life of Sylla there is a passage which nn- 

 iloubtedly furnished the parallelism which Mb. 

 H. L. Temple has detected : 



" Kal rwv 'A(li\vr](ri yetpvpicrroiy iireax^^^^ """'^ *'^ rovro 

 TTOi-ijcras, 



P. C. S. s. 



Flemish Words in Wales (YoV vi., p. 151.). 

 — I am neither an ethnologist nor an etymologist, 



and in my more candid moments I am not quite 

 without fear that I may have an unreasonable 

 suspicion of those who are. At all events, I do 

 not believe all that they tell me, especially about 

 the local use of words. For instance, I believe 

 that one of the words given at p. 152. as '■'■quite 

 peculiar" to certain colonies established m Pem- 

 brokeshire and Glamorganshire, belongs equally 

 to Somersetshire. When I lived in that county, I 

 heard a story of what was said to have occurred 

 at a trial on the Western Circuit, which may illus- 

 trate the matter, and was in substance as follows : 

 Counsel (to witness). Well then, you saw so 

 and so ? 



Witness. No, zur, a coud'n zee nothing. 

 Counsel. Could not see when you were close 

 by ? Why could not you see ? 

 Witness. 'Cans of the pV???, zur. 

 Counsel. Oh ! (rather posed) indeed — 

 Judge (after a pause, to Counsel). Mr. ■ — -, 

 do you know what the witness means by " pdm .'' 



Counsel. No, my Lud, I do not recollect to 

 have met with the word in the whole course of 

 my reading. ^ ^ ■ 



Judge (to witness). My good man, what is 

 "pilm?" 



Witness. Mucksadroud, your honour. 

 How much information the Court and counsel 

 gained from the explanation, I do not take upon 

 me to say ; but I think it indicates that "muck^^ 

 or " mucks," in a state of dryness or " drought, 

 may become pilm over a wider extent of country 

 than your correspondent supposes. As to the 

 ori</m' of the word, of course Dr. Dry-as-dust 

 would be the best authority. I do not venture 

 to give an opinion myself. -N- "' 



Pickigni (Vol. vi., pp. 75. 160.). — F. A.'s « old 

 dictionary " is Cole's, which contains the explan- 

 ation he gives, and which is substantially the same 

 as Blount's. The word itself is a misspelling of 

 Picquigny, a town in Picardy, where was ti-ea- 

 cherously murdered at a conference William 

 Lon^^ue Espee, Duke of Normandy, and where 

 was "held the celebrated congress between Louis 

 XL and our Edward IV. Its position near the 

 frontier made it of importance in the early Avars 

 between France on the one hand, and the Flemings 

 and Bourguinons on the other. The shibboleth, 

 no doubtt consisted in a double peculiarity of 

 French pronunciation, included in the word qu for 

 k, and the gn mouille as it is termed, which can- 

 not be exactly expressed by letters, but is most 

 nearly represented by ni, as grogmrd, a grumbler, 

 is pronounced groniard. C. 



Large Families: Mrs. Honeijwood.— The fol- 

 lowing Note respecting the progeny of Mrs. Maiy 

 Honeywood, I obtained from a Kentisli paper, 

 probably the ensuing number to that from which 



