328 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 205. 



on August 29, 166.5, Elizabeth, daughter of Francis 

 (Edward) Synge, Bishop of Cork. There were two 

 children of this marriage : Edward, born Oct. 7, 1671 

 (who died unmarried); and Barbara, born May 12, 

 3 672 ; she married John ClifFe, Esq., of Mulrankin, co. 

 Wexford, and had several children, of whom the eldest, 

 John, was grandfather of the present Anthony ClifFe of 

 Bellevue, co. Wexford, Esq." 



Edward Synge was Bishop of Cork from Dec. 

 1663 to his death in 1678. 



Sir George Carr appears to be the son of Wil- 

 liam Carr, the eldest son of James Carr of York- 

 fihire : see Harl. MS. 1487, 451. 



Sir Robert Meredith, father of Lady Carr, mar- 

 ried Anne, daughter of Sir William Upton, Clerk 

 of the Council in Ireland. 



Could any of your correspondents give any ac- 

 count of the family of either of them ? Y. S. M. 



Gravestone Inscription (Vol. viii., p. 268.). — 

 The gravestone inscription communicated by 

 Julia R. Bockett consists of the last four lines of 

 the ballad of " Death and the Lady " (see Dixon's 

 Ballads, by the Percy Society). They should 

 be: 



" The grave's the market-place where all men meet. 

 Both rich and poor, as well as small and great : 

 If life were merchandise that gold could buy. 

 The rich would live, the poor alone would die." 



In the introduction to Smith's edition of Hol- 

 bein's Dance of Death, the editor says : 



" The concluding lines have been converted into an 

 epitaph, to he found in most of our village churchyards." 



Of the truth of which assertion the churchyard 

 of Milton-next-Gravesend, in Kent, furnishes an 

 illustration, as I copied the lines from a stone 

 there some years ago. Being generally, I imagine, 

 quoted from memory, they do not appear to be 

 exactly similar in any two instances. 



S. Singleton. 

 Greenwich. 



" A Tub to theWhale" (Vol.viii., pp.220. 304.).— 

 I observe that a Querist, Pimlico, asks the origin 

 of the phrase to " throw a tub to the whale." I 

 think an explanation of this will be found in the 

 introduction to Swift's Tale of the Tub. I cannot 

 lay my hand on the passage, but it is to the effect 

 that sailors engaged in the Greenland fisheries 

 make it a practice to throw over-board a tub to a 

 wounded whale, to divert his attention from the 

 boat wliich contains his assailants. 



J. Emerson Tennekt. 



Hour-glasses in Pulpits (Vol. vil., p. 489. ; 

 Vol. viii., pp. 82. 209.). — Whilst turning over the 

 pages of Macaulay's History, I accidentally stum- 

 bled upon the following passage, which forms an 

 interesting addition to the Notes already col- 



lected in your pages. Speaking of Gilbert 

 Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, he says : 



" He was often interrupted by the deep hum of his 

 •audience ; and when, after preaching out the hour-glass, 

 which in those days was part of the furniture of the 

 pulpit, he held it in his hand, the congregation cla- 

 morously encouraged him to go on till the sand had 

 run off once more."-,- Macaulay's History, vol, ii. 

 p. 177. edit. 3., with a reference in a foot-note to 

 Speaker Onslow's Note on Burnet, i. 596. ; Johnson's 

 Life of Sprat. 



The hour-glass stand at St. Alban's, Wood 

 Street, appears to be a remarkable example : see 

 Sperling's Church Walks in Middlesex, p. 155., and 

 Allen's Lambeth, And in the report of the 

 meeting of the Archseological Association at Ro- 

 chester, in the Illustrated London News of the 6th 

 August, 1853, it is noted that in the church at 

 Cliff, " the pulpit has an hour-glass stand dated 

 1636 :" the date gives an additional interest to this 

 example. W. Spakrow Simpson. 



Slow-worm Superstition (Vol. viii., p. 33.). — 

 The slow-worm superstition, about which Toweb 

 inquires, and to whom I believe no answer has 

 been returned, is quite common in the North of 

 England. One of the many uses of " N. & Q." is 

 the abundant proof that supposed localisms are in 

 fact common to all England. I learn from the 

 same Number, p. 44., that in Devonshire a slater 

 is called a hellier. To hill, that is to cover, " hill 

 me up," i. e. caver me up, is as common in Lanca- 

 shire as in Wicliff's Bible. We have not, how- 

 ever, hellier or hillier for one whose business it is 

 to cover in a house. P. P. 



Sincere (Vol. viii., p. 195.). — I should be glad 

 if Mr. Ingleby would point out any authority for 

 the practice of the Roman potters to whicii he 

 refers. The only passage I can call to mind as 

 countenancing his derivation is Ilor. Ep. i. 2. 54. : 

 " Sincerum est nisi vas, quodcumque infundis, acescit.* 



in which there is no reason why sincerum should 

 not be simply sine cera, sine fuco, i. e. pure as 

 honey, free or freed from the wax, thence any- 

 thing pure. This derivation is supported also by 

 Donatus, adTer. Eun. i. 2. 97., and Noltenius, Lex. 

 Antibar. Cicero also, wlio chose his expressions 

 with great accuracy, employs sincerus as directly 

 opposed to fucatiis in his Dialogus de Amicit. 25. : 

 " Secernere omnia fucata et simulata a sinceris atque 

 veris." 



In the absence of positive proof on the other 

 side, I am inclined to think Mr. Trench is right. 



n. B. 



Boohs chained to Desks in Churches — Seven 

 Candlesticks (Vol. viii., pp.94. 206.).— In Mr, 

 Sperling's Chxirch Walks in Middlesex, it is noted 



