Dec. 17. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



601 



Lion Yard, Shrewsbury, one morning at 6 o'clock, and 

 \ras at Islington at 7 o'clock the same evening, being 

 only 13 hours on the road." — T/ie Times, July 1 1, 1842. 



W. R. D. S. 



Birthplace of King Edioai'd V. (Vol. viii., 

 p. 4C8.). — 



"1471. In this year, the third day of November, 

 Queen Elizabeth, being, as before is said, in West- 

 minster Sanctuary, was lighted of a fair prince. And 

 within the said place the said child, without pomp, was 

 after christened, whose godfathers were the abbat and 

 prior of the said place, and the Lady Scrope god- 

 mother." — Fabian's Chronicle, p. 659., Lond. 1811. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Fuller, in his Wo7-thies, vol. ii. p. 414., says Ed- 

 ward, eldest son of Edward IV. and Elizabeth his 

 queen, was born in the sanctuary of Westminster, 

 K'ovember 4, 1471. A. 



Ringing Church Bells at Death (Vol. viii., 

 p. 55. &c.). — The custom of ringing the church 

 bell, as soon as might be convenient after the pass- 

 ing of a soul from its earthly prison-house, in the 

 manner described in " N. & Q.," existed ten years 

 ago in the parish of Rawmarsh, in the West Riding 

 of Yorkshire, and had existed there before I became 

 its rector, twenty-two years ago. First a brisk 

 peal was rung, if I mistake not, on one of the 

 lighter bells, which was raised and lowered ; then, 

 upon the same, or some other of the lighter bells, 

 the sex of the deceased was indicated by a given 

 number of distinct strokes, — I cannot with cer- 

 tainty recall the respective numbers ; lastly, the 

 tenor bell was made to declare the supposed age 

 of the deceased by as many strokes as had been 

 counted years. John James. 



What is the Origin of " Getting into a Scrape ? " 

 (Vol. viii., p. 292.). — It may have been, first, a 

 tumble in the mire ; by such a process many of us 

 in childhood have both literally and figuratively 

 " got into a scrape." Or, secondly, the expression 

 may have arisen from the use of the razor, where 

 to be shaved was regarded as an indignity, or 

 practised as a token of deep humiliation. D'Ar- 

 vieux mentions an Arab who, having received a 

 wound in his jaw, chose rather to hazard his life, 

 than allow the surgeon to take off his beard. 

 When Hanun had shaved off half the beards of 

 David's servants, " David sent to meet them, be- 

 cause they were greatly ashamed : and the king 

 said, ' Tarry at Jericho until your beards be 

 grown, and then return ' " (2 Sam. x. 4, 5.). The 

 expedient of shaving off the other half seems not 

 to have been thought on, though that would na- 

 turally have been resorted to, had not the in- 

 dignity of being rendered beardless appeared in- 

 tolerable. Under this figure the desolation of a 

 country is threatened. " In the same day shall 

 the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, by them 



beyond the river, even by the King of Assyria, 

 the head, and the hair of the feet, and it shall 

 consume the beard" (Isaiah vii. 20.). Again, as 

 a token of grief and humiliation: "Then Job 

 arose and rent his mantle, and shaved his beard," 

 &c. — " There came fourscore men, having their 

 heads shaven, and their clothes rent, and having 

 cut themselves," &c. (Jer. xli. 5.). Or, thirdly, 

 the allusion may be to the consequence of be- 

 coming infected with some loathsome cutaneous 

 disease. " So Satan smote Job with sore boils 

 from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he 

 took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal " 

 (Job ii. 7, 8.). J.W.T. 



Dewsbury. 



High Dutch and Low Dutch (Vol. viii., p. 478.). 

 — Nieder Deutsch, or rather Neder Duitsch, is the 

 proper name of the Dutch language ; at least it is 

 that which the people of Holland give to it. Low 

 German does not necessarily mean a vulgar patois.. 

 It is essentially as different a language from High 

 German, or rather more so, as Spanish is from 

 Portuguese. I believe German purists would 

 point out Holstein, Hanover, Brunswick (not 

 Dresden), as the places where German is most 

 classically spoken. I wish one of your German 

 (not Anglo-German) readers would set us right 

 on this point. The term Dutch, as applied to the 

 language of Holland as distinguished from that of 

 German, is a comparative modernism in English. 

 High Dutch and Low Dutch used to be the dis- 

 tinction ; and when Coverdale's Translation of the 

 Bible is said to have been " compared with the 

 Douche," German, and not what we now call 

 Dutch, is meant. Deutsch, in short, or Teutsch, 

 is the generic name for the language of the Teu- 

 tones, for whom Germani, or Ger-miinner, was . 

 not a national appellation, but one which merely 

 betokened their warlike character. E. C. H. 



Discovery of Planets (Vol. vii., p. 211.). — 

 I should wish to ask Mr. H. Walter, who has a 

 learned answer about the discovery of planets, 

 whether the idea which he there broaches of a lost 

 world where sin entered and for which mercy was 

 not found, be his own original invention, or 

 whether he is indebted to any one for it, and if 

 so, to whom ? Qu-iESTOK. 



Gloves at Fairs (Vol. viii., pp. 136.421.).— 

 This title has changed Into a question of the open 

 hand as an emblem of power. In addition to the 

 instances cited by your correspondents, the fol- 

 lowing may be mentioned. 



The Romans used the open hand as a standard. 



The Kings of Ulster adopted it as their peculiar 

 cognizance ; thence it was transferred to the 

 shield of the baronets created Knights of Ulster 

 by James I. ; to many of whose families recent 



