2»'i S. No lie, Mar. 20. '58.1 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



233 



Jean Barrusta Cravet, aged 110; Michael Klawelkin, a 

 Russian peasant, aged 127 years, 10 months, and 11 days ; 

 Madame Marie-Therfese Lhotlier, widow, died at the hos- 

 pital of Genlis, at the age of 101 years, 5 months, and 8 

 days ; Madame, the widow Billanband, died at Geneva, 

 aged 107 years ; Dewid Renney died, aged 102 years, pa- 

 triarch of Millomachia ; Madame the widow Belso died, 

 aged 103 years ; Hamed Delal Maure died, aged 112 years ; 

 Dame Fleury died at Eppesauvage, at the age of 110 

 years; Madame Guichard died at Avignon, aged 105 

 j'ears. Widow D^chan died at Bordeaux, aged 100 years ; 

 Elizabeth Goldizen died, aged 118 years; Widow Pons 

 died, aged 103 years; Gerard Dekker died at Arupeine, 

 aged 105 years- Rose Pasquier died at the age of 101 

 years. She had been a servant in the same family from 

 1777. The list of centenarians is far from being ex- 

 hausted. There were at least a dozen more who died last 

 year, who far exceeded the age of 100, who were thirty 

 years of age at least at the time of the first revolution. 

 They have died and made no sign interesting to their 

 survivors." 



CUTHBERT BeDE. 



American Folk-Lore : " All Talk and no Cider." 

 — This expression is applied to persons whose 

 performances fall far short of their promises. It 

 is said to have originated in Bucks county, Penn- 

 sylvania, at a party assembled to drink cider, at 

 which one of the guests thought that too much 

 time was wasted in preliminary conversation. 



Uneda. 



The Twenty-second of February. — I think the 

 following paragraph from the Glasgow Daily Mail 

 is worth inserting in " N. & Q.," as it shows that 

 February 22. has been a very important day in 

 the annals of the political world for the last few 

 years. 



" Curious coincidences A celebrated Roman was told 



to beware of the Ides of March ; and our own statesmen 

 should be equally cautious respecting the 22d of February, 

 which has been of late j'ears singularly fatal to the go- 

 vernments of this country. On the 22d of February, 

 1851, Lord John Russell was defeated on Locke King's 

 motion, and resigned. On the 22d of February, 1852, 

 Lord John Russell's administration was finally broken up. 

 On the 22d of February, 1855, Lord Palmerston's admini- 

 stration was broken up by the retirement of the Peelites ; 

 and on the 22d of February', 1858, Lord Palmerston's 

 second administration finally resigned, in consequence of 

 the vote of censure convej'ed by Milner Gibson's motion." 



Edward CHARiiES Davies. 



^\xtviti. 



GHOST STORIES. 



There is, in several ordinary collections of 

 ghost stories, an account of a Lady Beresford 

 who received a spiritual visit from an Earl of 

 Tyrone, and had a black mark made by him on 

 her wrist as a proof of the reality of the visita- 

 tion. Can any one tell where this story first ap- 

 peared, and what foundation there is for it ? It 

 is said to be fully believed in by the Beresford 

 family, and Lady Betty Cobb of Bath is cited as 



being conversant with the circumstances, having 

 been the confidante of Lady Beresford on her 

 death-bed. If this Lady Betty was the wife of 

 Thomas Cobb, Esq. (son of the Archbishop of 

 Dublin), and married to him in 1755, she could 

 not have been the confidante of the ghost-seeress, 

 or concerned in her history, as the circumstances 

 of the tale will only suit the wife of Sir Tristram 

 Beresford — a lady who died in 1713 — the grand- 

 mother, indeed, of Lady Betty Cobb. Perhaps 

 some reader of " N. & Q.,'" in the confidence of 

 the Beresford family can clear up these difficul- 

 ties, and say what grounds there are for the story, 

 and whether the black ribbon which the lady is 

 said to have worn round her scathed wrist is still 

 preserved ? 



Another story, often printed, affirms the appear- 

 ance of a young man named Coynyard, at the 

 moment of his death in England, to a brother, a 

 young officer, and a brother-officer of his, Sir 

 John Sherbroke, as they were sitting one after- 

 noon in the apartment of the former in America. 

 Can any reader of " N. & Q." say if this story 

 rests on any foundation of fact, who were the 

 persons named, and where the story first ap- 

 peared ? 



The murder of a pedlar in Assynt, Sutherland- 

 shire, about thirty years ago, was discovered by a 

 man who stated that the information was com- 

 municated to him in a dream. Where is any 

 detailed account of this affair to be found ? 



Candidus. 



ORIGIN OF THE PASSPORT STSTEM. 



Can any of your correspondents inform me in 

 what year began the practice of requiring pass- 

 ports, not only on entering a foreign port in time 

 of war, and for safe conduct through an enemy's 

 country, but for natives, as well as foreigners, in 

 passing from one town to another ? 



I am fully aware that the practice of pro- 

 hibiting the exit of any subject without royal 

 permission existed even in this country from a 

 very early period. It is alluded to in Hall's 

 Chronicle as in practice during the reign of Ed- 

 ward IV. It was generally acted upon, and with 

 great strictness, in the reign of Elizabeth and 

 James I. ; and I do not knowr when it ceased : 

 certainly not until after the Protectorate. _ But 

 I can find in no books of reference to which I 

 have access, and from no friend whom I have con- 

 sulted, any account of the time when the present 

 system began on the Continent. I believe there 

 is no mention of it in Roman Law; at least I 

 have seen no allusion to it in Roman History, nor 

 in that of the Grecian states. I do not find that 

 the passport laws in England — except in the 

 case of aliens during war — ever affected indi- 

 viduals travelling within the realm. I have been 



