Aug. 6. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



135 



close his third marriage, which certainly did not 

 take place sooner than 1662. Garlichithe. 



Whitaker's Ingenious Earl (Vol. viii., p. 9.). — 

 It was a frequent saying of Lord Stanhope's, that 

 he had taught law to the Lord Chancellor, and 

 divinity to the Bishops ; and this saying gave rise 

 to a caricature, where his lordship is seated acting 

 the schoolmaster with a rod in his hand. E. H. 



Are White Cats deaf f (Vol. vii., p. 331.).— 

 In looking up your Numbers for April, I observe 

 a Minor Query signed Shirley Hibberd, in 

 which your querist states that in all white cats 

 stupidity seemed to accompany the deafness, and 

 inquires whether any instance can be given of a 

 white cat possessing the function of hearing in 

 anything like perfection. 



I am myself possessed of a white cat which, at 

 the advanced age of upwards of seventeen years, 

 still retains its hearing to great perfection, and is 

 remarkably intelligent and devoted, more so than 

 cats are usually given credit for. Its affection for 

 persons is, indeed, more like that of a dog than of 

 a cat. It is a half-bred Persian cat, and its eyes 

 are perfectly blue, with round pupils, not elon- 

 gated as those of cats usually are. It occasionally 

 suffers from irritation in the ears, but this has 

 not at all resulted in deafness. H. 



Consecrated Roses (Vol. vii., pp. 407. 480. ; 

 Vol. viii., p. 38.). — From the communication of 

 P. P. P. it seems that the origin of the consecration 

 of the rose dates so far back as 1049, and was " en 

 reconnaissance " of a singular privilege granted to 

 the abbey of St. Croix. Can your correspondent 

 refer to any account of the origin of the conse- 

 cration or blessing of the sword, cap, or keys ? 



G. 



The Reformed Faith (Vol. vii., p. 359.). — I 

 must protest against this term being applied to 

 the system which Henry VIII. set up on his re- 

 jecting the papal supremacy, which on almost 

 every point but that one was pure Popery, and 

 for refusing to conform to which he burned Pro- 

 testants and Roman Catholics at the same pile. 

 It suited Cobbett (in his History of the Reform- 

 ation)^ and those controversialists who use him 

 as their text-book, to confound this system with 

 the doctrine of the existing Church of England, 

 but it is to be regretted that any inadvertence 

 should have caused the use of similar language in 

 your pages. J. S. Warden. 



Home-marhs (Vol. vii., p. 594.). — It appears 

 to me that the house-marks he alluded to may be 

 traced in what are called merchants' marks, still 

 employed in marking bales of wool, cotton, &c., and 

 which are found on tombstones in our old churches, 

 incised in the slab during the sixteenth and seven- 



teenth centuries, and which till lately puzzled the 

 heralds. They were borne by merchants who had 

 no arms. E. G. BAuiiASD. 



Trash (Vol. vii., p. 566.). — The late Mr. 

 Scatchard, of Morley, near Leeds, speaking in 

 Hone's Table Book of the Yorkshire custom of 

 trashing, or throwing an old shoe for luck over a 

 wedding party, says : 



"Although it is true that an old shoe is to this day 

 called ' a trash,' yet it did not, certainly, give the name 

 to the nuisance. To ' trash ' originally signified to 

 clog, encumber, or impede the progress of any one 

 (see Todd's Johnso/i) ; and, agreeably to this explana- 

 tion, we find the rope tied by sportsmen round the 

 necks of fleet pointers to tire them well, and check 

 their speed, is hereaboiits universally called ' trash 

 cord,' or ' dog trash.' A few miles distant from 

 Morley, west of Leeds, the • Boggart ' or ' Barguest,' 

 the Yorkshire Brownie is called by the people the 

 Gui-trash, or Ghei-trash, the usual description of which 

 is invariably that of a shaggy dog or other animal, en- 

 cumbered with a chain round its neck, which is heard 

 to rattle in its movements. I have heard the common 

 people in Yorkshire say, that they ' have been trashing 

 about all day ; ' using it in the sense of having had a 

 tiring walk or day's work. 



" East of Leeds the ' Boggart ' is called the Pad- 

 foot." 



G.P. 



Adamsoniana (Vol. vii., p. 500.). — Michel 

 Adanson (not Ada/nson), who has left his name to 

 the gigantic Baobab tree of Senegal (^Adansonia 

 digitata), and his memory to all who appreciate 

 the advantages of a natural classification of plants 

 — for which Jussieu was indebted to him — was 

 the son of a gentleman, who after firmly attaching 

 himself to tlie Stuarts, left Scotland and entered 

 the service of the Archbishop of Aix. The En- 

 cyclopcedia Britannica, and, I imagine, almost all 

 biographical dictionaries and similar works, con- 

 tain notices of him. His devoted life has deserved 

 a more lengthened chronicle. Seleucus. 



Your correspondent E. H. A., who inquires re- 

 specting the family of Michel Adanison, or Michael 

 Adamson, is informed that in France, the country 

 of his birth, the name is invariably written "Adan- 

 son;" while the author of Fanny of Caernarvon, or 

 the War of the Roses, is described as "John Adam- 

 son." Both names are pronounced alike in French; 

 but the difference of spelling would seem adverse 

 to the supposition that the family of the botanist 

 was of Scottish extraction. Henry H. Breen. 



St. Lucia. 



Portrait of Cromwell (Vol. viii., p. 55.). — The 

 portrait inquired after by Mr. Rix is at the 

 British Museum. Being placed over the cases in 

 the long gallery of natural history, it is extremely 

 difficult to be seen. John Bruce. 



