2'xJ S. No 111., Feb. 13. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



139 



antiquaries of tbe day) to know that Lord Dun- 

 drennan's library brought in 1851 the sum of 

 2396Z. 5s. I may also add that his well-known 

 contemporaries' (Lords Cockburn and Rutherford) 

 libraries sold, the former, in 1854, for 1962Z. 7*. 6d., 

 the latter, in 1855, for 6886/. Os. 6d. 



The sums at which known bibliomaniacs' -libra- 

 ries have been sold may be curious. I append 

 three : — 



£ s. d. 



Isaac Keed's - 4,386 19 6 in 1807. 



P. A. Hanrott's - 22,425 7 6 in 1833. 



' J. W. K. Eyton's - 2,693 15 6 in 1848. 



I have got various other catalogues priced and 

 named, but no addition given. S. Wmson. 



Culter (2"'* S. v. 67.) — It seems extremely 

 improbable, besides being contrary to analogy, 

 that cnlter should have anything to do with terra ; 

 for it stands in the same position with magister, 

 ace. magistrum, and the neuter substantives plaus- 

 trum, lustrum, &c. Besides, what does it mean ? 

 A knife, or the part of the plough that cuts the 

 earth. And colo appears to be connected with 

 the Greek KoXa-KToi, cut. The simplest equivalent 

 would then be cutter; and how near the Latin 

 form it is. Tau. 



Hitchin. 



The English Militia (2"^ S. v. 74.) — The 

 Wiltshire militia was one of the regiments that 

 went to Ireland in 1798, but whether it was 

 under the command of Thomas Earl of Ailes- 

 bury, K. T., who, as Baron Bruce, had been ap- 

 pointed colonel on its first enrolment in August, 

 1758, or whether he bad then been succeeded by 

 Henry, first Earl of Carnarvon, I do not recol- 

 lect. The latter nobleman held the command to 

 the time of his death in 1811, when the regiment 

 was given to Charles Lord Bruce, son of the Earl 

 of Ailesbury, who was still living. Patonce. 



Michael Scott (2"'* S. iv. 332. 441.) — In addi- 

 tion to the communication of T. G. S. your cor- 

 respondent B. will find a Life of Michael Scott 

 in a volume entitled The Eminent Men of Fife, by 

 James Bruce, Edinburgh, 1846. 12mo. 



S. Wmson. 



Grammar Schools, their Usages and Traditions 

 (2"" S. V. 99.) — It was a custom at a King Ed- 

 ward's Grammar School in^ Craven, when 1 was 

 there fourteen or sixteen years ago, to provide, 

 every 26th day of March, a large quantity of the 

 best Turkey figs and a bun for each boy. After the 

 annual recitations, &c., the latter were distributed, 

 and the figs, showered about in handfuls by one 

 of the masters, were scrambled for by the boys 

 within the school. The sum thus applied was, I 

 believe, left originally to encourage cock-fighting. 



A. E. 



Great Events from small Causes (2"^ S. passim.') 

 — The following extract from Lacon, or Many 

 Things in Few Words, by the Rev. C. C. Colton, may 

 form another link in the chain of causes and events 

 already recorded in the pages of " N. & Q." : — 



" In the complicated and marvellous machinery of 

 circumstances, it is absolutely impossible to decide Avhat 

 would have happened, as to some events, if the slightest 

 disturbance had taken place in the march of those that 

 preceded them. We may observe a little dirty wheel of 

 brass, spinning round upon its greasy axle, and the result 

 is, that in another apartment, many yards distant from 

 it, a beautiful piece of silk issues from a loom, rivalling 

 in its hues the tints of the rainbow : there are mj'riads of 

 events in our lives, the distance between which was much 

 greater than that between this wheel and the ribbon, but 

 where the connection has been much more close. If a 

 private country gentleman in Cheshire, about the year 

 1730, had not been overturned in his carriage, it is ex- 

 tremely probable that America, instead of being a free 

 republic at this moment, would have continued a depen- 

 dent colony of England. This country gentleman hap-- 

 pened to be Augustus Washington, Esquire, who was 

 thus accidentally thrown into the company of a lady who 

 afterwards became his wife, who emigrated with him to 

 America, and in the j^ear 1732, at Virginia, became the 

 envied mother of George Washington the Great." 



. Query, Upon what authority is this anecdote 

 related ? John Payin Phillips. 



Parish Registers (P' S. x. 337.) — The follow- 

 ing are copied from the registers of Great Staugh- 

 ton parish in Huntingdonshire : — 



" 1571. Sepiilta fuit M'argareta pigrina barbata Ido die 

 Januarij. 



" 1591. Sepultus Matheus Stookes dim Bedellus Can- 

 tabrigiiB, die 18° Noveb. 



" 1G18. Sepulta Jana Poole anicula, 20 die Januarij. 



" Lucj' Cosen, widdow, was married to Jo. Cosen 

 (brother to her former husband) the 15"' daie of Decem- 

 ber, 1G59, at St. Neots, by the mj-nister of the towne, and 

 at seaven of the clocke in the nighte." 



Joseph Rix. 



St. Xeot's. 



Jewish Rahbis (jl'"^ S. v. 109.)— -Your corre- 

 spondent Tyeo will find the fullest information as 

 to the Jewish Rabbis and their writings in the 

 learned work of Johan-Bern de Rossi, intitled 

 Dizionario storico degli Autori Ebrei e delle loro 

 Opere, Parma, nella reale stamperia, 2 torn., in 

 8vo., 1802. William II. Mokley. 



Football at Westminster : Paid Sandbij (2"'^ S. v. 

 69.) — In your number for January 30, your cor- 

 respondent J. II. L. requests information respect- 

 ing a drawing by Paul Sandby, which he supposes 

 repi'esents the Westminster boys playing at foot- 

 ball in St. James's Park. From his account of 

 the drawing, and my own acquaintance with the 

 artist's works, I am inclined to think that the 

 drawing referred to is a view of the Eton boys, in 

 the playing fields near the College there, as Paul 

 Sandby was a frequent resident at Windsor, and 

 devoted his talents especially to sketches in that 

 neighbourhood. If your correspondent docs not 



