NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 

 roR 



IITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



** "Wlien found, make a note of." — Caftaik Cuttlx. 



No. 205.] 



Saturday, October 1. 1853. 



f Price Fourpence. 



t Stamped Edition, S^i* 



■Notes : — 



CONTENTS. 



The Groaning-board, a Story of the Days of Charles II., 

 by Dr. E. F. Uimbault ----- 



The Etymology of the Word " Awkward " - - 



Inedited Poem — "The Deceitfulness of Love," by 



Chris. Roberts --..-. 



Bale MSS., referred to in Tanner's " Bibliotheca 



Britannico-Hibernica," by Sir F. Madden 

 Charles Fox and Gibbon . - - . _ 



Samuel Williams ------ 



Shakspeare Correspondence, by Samuel Hickson, &c. . 



Minor Notes :— Doings of the Calf's Head Club — 

 Epitaph by Wordsworth — Tailor's "Cabbage" — 

 Misquotations — The Ducking Stool — Watch-paper 

 Inscription ...... 



JUERIES : — 



Birthplace of Gen. Monk, by F. Kyffin Lenthall 



Minor Queries: — Harmony of the Four Gospels — 

 The Noel Family — Council of Trent — Roman 

 Catholic Patriarchs — The "Temple Lands" in 

 Scotland — Cottons of Fowey — Draught or Draft 

 of Air — Admiral Sir Thomas Tyddeman — Pedigree 

 Indices — Apparition of the White Lady — Rundle- 

 stone — Tottenham — Duval Family — Noses of the 

 Descendants of John of Gaunt — General Wall — 

 John Daniel and Sir Ambrose Nicholas Salter — 

 Edward Bysshe — President Bradshaw and John 

 Milton - - - - 



Page 



309 

 310 



Minor Queries with Answers : 

 " Namby-pamby " 



■ Ket the Tanner - 



Miscellaneous : — 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted 

 Notices to Correspondents 

 :Advertisements 



316 



Editions of Books of Common Prayer, by the Rev. 



Thomas Lathbury,&c. ----- 318 



The Crescent, by J. W. Thomas - - - - 319 



Seals of the Borough of Great Yarmouth - - 321 



Moon Superstitions, by J. N. Iladcliffe and G.William 



Skyring - - - - _ ' - - 321 



Latin Riddle, by the Rev. Robert Gibbings - - 32-2 



"Hurrah !" by Sir J. E. Tennent and J. Sansom - 323 



Photographic Correspondence : — Process for Print- 

 ing on Albumenized Paper - - - - 324 



llEPLiEs to Minor Queries: — Anderson's Rnval Ge- 

 nealogies—Thomas Wright of Durham— Weather 

 Tredictions — Bacon's Essays: Bullaces — Nixon the 

 Prophet — Parochial Libraries — " Ampers and," &c. 



— The .Arms of De Sissonne — St. Patrick's Purga- 

 tory — Sir George Carr — Gravestone Inscription — 



-"A Tub to the Whale"— Hour-glasses in Pulpits 



— Slow-worm Superstition — Sincere — Books chained 

 Xo Desks in Churches: Seven Candlesticks — D. 

 Ferrand : Frencli Patois ~ Wood of the Cross — 

 Ladies' Arms in a Lozenge — Burial in unconsecrated 

 ■Ground — Table-turning — " Well's a fret" —Tenet 



for Tenent --_-_- 



320 



- 330 



- 330 



- 331 



ToL. VIII. — No. 205. 



THE GROANING -BO AKD, A STORY OF THE DATS OP 

 CHARLES II. 



The Englisli public has ever been distinguished 

 by an enormous amount of gullibility. 



*' Ha ha, ha ha ! this world doth pass 

 Most merrily I'll be sworn ; 

 For many an honest Indian ass 

 Goes for an unicorn." , 



So sung old Thomas Weelkes in the year 1608, 

 and so echo we in the year 1853! What 

 with "spirit-rapping," "table-moving," "Chelsea 

 ghosts," " Aztec children," &c., we shall soon, if 

 we go on at the same rate, get the reputation of 

 being past all cure. 



In looking over, the other day, a volume in the 

 Museum, marked MS. Sloane 958., I noticed the 

 following hand-bill pasted on the first page : 



" At the sign of the Wool-sack, in Newgate Market, 

 is to be seen a strange and wonderful thing, which is an 

 elm board, being touched with a hot iron, doth express 

 itself as if it were a man dying with groans, and trem- 

 bling, to the great admiration of all the hearers. It 

 hath been presented before the king and his nobles, 

 and hath given great satisfaction. Fivat Sex." 



At the top of the bill is the king's arms, and the 

 letters C. R., and in an old hand is written the 

 date 1682. On the same page is an autograph of 

 the original possessor of the volume, " Ex libris 

 Jo. Coniers, Londini, pharmacopol, 1673." 



In turning to Malcolm (^Anecdotes of the Man- 

 ners and Customs of London, 4to. 1811, p. 427.), 

 we find the following elucidation of tjiis mysterious 

 exhibition : 



" One of the most curious and ingenious amuse- 

 ments ever offered to the publick ear was contrived in 

 the year 1682, when an elm plank was exhibited to the 

 king and the credulous of London, which being touched 

 by a hot iron, invariably produced a sound resembling 

 deep groans. This sensible, and very irritable board, 

 received numbers of noble visitors ; and other boards, 

 sympathising with their afflicted brother, demonstrated 

 how much affected they might be by similar means. 

 The publicans in different parts of the city immediately 

 applied ignited metal to all the woodwork of their 

 bouses, in hopes of finding sensitive timber ; but I do 



