36 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 220. 



Anne of Geierstcin ? Was Sir Walter Scott justi- 

 fied in saying, " the manners and beauty of Anne 

 •of Geiei'stein attracted as much admiration at the 

 English Court as formerly in the Swiss Chalet ?" 



Master of the Nails. — It appears from the His- 

 torical Register, January, 1717, "Mr. Hill was 

 appointed Master of all the Nails at Chatham 

 Dock." Can any of your readers favour me by 

 stating the nature of the above office ? W. D. H. 



Nattochiis and Calchanti. — A few days smce an 

 ancient charter was laid before me containing a 

 grant of lands in the county of Norfolk, of the 

 date 1333 (temp. Edw. II.), in which the follow- 

 ing words are made use of : 



" Cu' omnib; g s nis t natthocouks adjacentib; " &c. 



In a later portion of the grant this word is spelt 

 natthociis. Probably some of your learned readers 

 can throw some light on what is meant by the 

 words granis et nattochiis as being appurtenant to 

 marsh lands. 



In a grant I have also now before me of Queen 

 Elizabeth — 



" Decimas, calchanti, liquor, mineral, metal," &c. 



are given to the grantee for a term of twenty-one 

 years : probably your readers can also enlighten 

 my ignorance of the term calchanti ; the other 

 words are obvious. If any authorities are to be 

 met with, probably in the answers to these queries 

 your correspondents will have the goodness to 

 cite them. F. S. A. 



" Ned o' the Todding." — May I beg, through 

 the medium of your excellent publication, to ask 

 if any of your correspondents can inform me in 

 which of our English authors I may find some 

 lines headed " Ned o' the Todding ? " W. T. 



Bridget Cromwell and Fleetwood. — Can you 

 inform me whether Bridget, daughter of Oliver 

 Cromwell, who was first married in 1651 to Ireton, 

 Lord Deputy of Ireland (and had by him a large 

 family), and secondly, to General Fleetwood, had 

 any family by the latter ? 



And, if" so, what were the Christian names of 

 the children (Fleetwood) ? 



A New Subscriber of 1854. 



[Noble, in his Memoirs of the House of Cromwell, 

 vol. ii. p. 369., says, " It is most probable that Fleet- 

 wood had issue by his second wife Bridget, especially 

 as he mentions that she was in an increasing way in 

 several of his letters, written in 1654 and 1655. It is 

 highly probable Mr. Charles Fleetwood, who was 

 buried at Stoke Newington, May 14, 1676, was his 

 son by the Protector's daughter, as perhaps was Ellen 



Fleetwood, buried in the same place in a velvet coffin, 

 July 23, 1731 ; if so, she must have been, at the time 

 of her death, upwards of seventy years of age."] 



Culet. — In my bills from Christ Church, Ox- 

 ford, there is a charge of sixpence every term for 

 culet. What is this ? B. B. I. 



[In old time there was a collection made every year 

 for the doctors, masters, and beadles, and this was 

 called collecta or culet : the latter word is now used for 

 a' customary fee paid to the beadles. " I suppose," 

 says Hearne, " that when this was gathered for the 

 doctors and masters it was only for such doctors and 

 masters as taught arid read to scholars, of which sort 

 there was a vast number in old time, and such a col- 

 lection was therefore made, that they might proceed 

 with the more alacrity, and that their dignity might 

 be better supported." — Appendix to Hist. Rob. de Aves- 

 bury.~\ 



3ftcplt'e£. 



THE ASTEROIDS OR RECENTLY DISCOVERED LESSER 

 PLANETS. 



(Vol. vii., p. 211. ; Vol. viii., p. 601.) 



Qujestor has asked me a question to which I 

 will not refuse a reply. If he thinks that the 

 breaking up of a planetary world is a mere fancy, 

 he may consult Sir John Herschel's Astronomy, 

 § 434., in Lardner's series, ed. 1833, in which the 

 supposition was treated as doubtful, and farther 

 discoveries were declared requisite for its con- 

 firmation ; and Professor Mitchell's Discoveries 

 of Modern Astronomy, Lond. 1850, pp. 163 — 171., 

 where such discoveries are detailed, and the pro- 

 gress of the proof is narrated and explained. It 

 may be briefly stated as follows : — In the last cen- 

 tury, Professor Bode discovered the construction 

 of a regular series of numbers, in coincidence 

 with which the distances of all the known planets 

 from the sun had been arranged by their Creator, 

 saving one exception. Calling the earth's solar 

 distance 10, the next numbers in the series are 

 16, 28, 52. The distances answering to 16 and 

 52, on this scale, are respectively occupied by the 

 planets Mars and Jupiter ; but the position of 28 

 seemed unoccupied. It was not likely that the 

 Creator should have left the methodical order of 

 his work incomplete. A few patient observers 

 agreed, therefore, to divide amongst themselves 

 that part of the heavens which a planet revolving 

 at the vacant distance might be expected to tra- 

 verse ; and that each should keep up a continuous 

 examination of the portion assigned to him. And 

 the result was the discovery by Piazzi, in 1801, 

 of a planet revolving at the expected solar dis- 

 tance, but so minute that the elder Herschel com- 

 puted its diameter to be no more than 163 miles. 

 The discovery of a second by Olbers, in the fol- 



