Mae. 12. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



261 



in England? The most recent instance men- 

 tioned by Brand was at Kingston-upon-Thames, 

 in 1745. In Leicester, however (and probably 

 elsewhere), the practice continued to a much later 

 period, as appears by the following entry in our 

 municipal accounts for the year 1768-69 : 



" Paid Mr. Elliott for a cuckstool by order of Hall, 

 27." 



I have been informed by an octogenarian in- 

 habitant of this town, that he recollects, when a 

 boy, seeing the cucking-stool placed, as a mark 

 of disgrace, against the residence of a notorious 

 scold ; and the fact of this use of it here at so 

 comparatively recent a period has been confirmed 

 by another aged person, so that this practice pro- 

 bably obtained for some years after the punish- 

 ment by immersion, or exposure upon the cucking- 

 stool, had fallen into desuetude. 



Did a similar use of the instrument prevail in 

 other places about the same period ? 



I may mention that an ancient cucking-stool is 

 still preserved in our town-hall. Leicesteiensis. 



Grafts and the Parent Tree. — Is there any 

 ground for a belief that is said to prevail among 

 horticulturists, that the graft perishes when the 

 parent tree decays ? J. P. 



Birmingham. 



Conway Family. — Is it true that Sir William 

 Konias (founder of the Conway family) was Lord 

 High Constable of England under William the 

 Conqueror ? The Welsh pedigrees in the British 

 Museum assert as much, and that he married 

 Isabel, daughter of Baldwin, Earl of Blois ; but it 

 does not appear that there was a Count of Blois of 

 that name. Ursula. 



Salt. — Dugdale, in his Antiquities of War- 

 wickshire, p. 294., speaking of the town of Lea- 

 mington, says : 



" All that is further observable touching this place 

 is, that nigh to the east end of the church there is a 

 spring of salt water (not above a stone's throw from 

 the river Leaine), whereof the inhabitants make much 

 use for seasoning of meat." 



Was salt a scarce article in the midland counties 

 in those days ? 



When and where was the first salt-mine esta- 

 blished in England ? Erica. 



Geological Query.~Ca,n any of your geological 

 readers inform me what is the imagined reason 

 that there is no increase of temperature in Scan- 

 dinavia (as there is everywhere else) in descending 

 into mines ? M ^^ i^ 



Wandering Jew. — I am anxious to learn the 

 authority on which this celebrated myth rests. I 

 am aware of the passage in John's Gospel (xxi. 21, 



22, 23.), but I cannot think that there is no other 

 foundation for such an extraordinary belief. Per- 

 haps on the continent some legend may exist. My 

 object in inquiring is to discover whether Eugene 

 Sue's Wandering Jew is purely a fictitious charac- 

 ter, or whether he had any, and, if any, what 

 authority or tradition on which to found it. 



Tee Bee* 



Frescheville Family/. — In what work may be 

 found the tradition, that the heir of the family of 

 the House of Frescheville never dies in his bed ? 



The Wednesday Club. — Can any of the readers 

 of "N. & Q." refer me to any notice of this club, 

 which existed about a century back in the city of 

 London ? Charles Reed. 



Paternoster Row. 



Oratories. — In a parish in the county of Essex 

 there is a pretty little brick chapel, or "oratory," 

 as it is called there, with a priest's house attached 

 at the west end, of about the thirteenth century ; 

 the length of both chapel and house being thirty 

 feet, and the width fifteen. There is 'also a field 

 called " Priest's Close," which was probably the 

 endowment. 



Can any of your correspondents inform me if 

 there are many such places of worship in England, . 

 and, if so, to mention some, and where any accounts 

 of them may be found ? 



«^t is quite clear that this oratory had no con- 

 nexion with the parish church, being a mile dis- 

 tant, and seems more likely to have been erected 

 and endowed for the purpose of having mass cele- 

 brated there for the repose of the founder's soul ? 



M. F. D. 



Arms of De Tumeham. — Can any of your readers 

 inform me what were the armorial bearings of Sir 

 Stephen de Turneham, who in the year 1192 was 

 employed by Richard I. to escort his queen Beren- 

 garia from Acre to Naples ? The writer would 

 also be glad to obtain any particulars of the family 

 and history of this brave knight, who seems to 

 have possessed the entire confidence of his sove- 

 reign, the redoubtable " Cceur de Lion." Probably 

 he belonged to the same family as Michael de 

 Turneham, the owner of estates at Brockley, near 

 Deptford, and at Begeham (the modern Bayham), 

 on the borders of Sussex, in the reign of Henry II., 

 whose nephew, Sir Robert de Turneham, appears 

 to have been distinguished in the Crusade under 

 Richard I. Might not Stephen and Robert be 

 brothers ? Did they leave descendants ? And, if 

 so, when did the family become extinct ? Was it 

 this Robert de Turneham whose wife was Joanna 

 Fossard, who, about the year 1200, founded the 

 Priory of Grosmont, near Whitby, in Yorkshire ? 



