Apkil 15. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



351 



daughter (Miss Bingham) married Mr. Baring, 

 afterwards Lord Ashburton. I should be obliged 

 for information as follows : 



1. Through what descent was Anne Harrison 

 a descendant of the Regicide ? 



2. Is anything known of the Lowle family ? 

 Their arms were, " Sa., a hand grasping three 

 darts argent." T. Balch. 



Philadelphia. 



" Chair" or " Char'' 1 — I am desirous of ascer- 

 taining the meaning of this term, as occurring 

 frequently in the Cambridgeshire Fens. It is 

 variously spelt, chair, chaire, chare, or char. In 

 the Cambridgeshire dialect it may be remarked, 

 air or are is pronounced as " ar." Thus, upstairs, 

 bare, are " upstars," " bar." There is a Char Fen 

 at Stretham, laid down in Sir Jonah Moore's 

 Map (1663). There is also a Chare Fen at Cot- 

 tenham ; and at Littleport is a place called Lit- 

 tleport Chair. This last had the name at least as 

 early as Edward II.' s reign ; as in a description of 

 a neighbouring fen, not later than that date, one 

 boundary is " A le chaire per Himmingslode usque 

 Gualslode End." A friend who has searched the 

 documents in the Fen Office at Ely on this sub- 

 ject for me, has been unable to discover the least 

 clue to the meaning of the term. 



At Newcastle-on-Tyne, a narrow street or pas- 

 sage between houses is called a chare ; but there 

 is nothing narrow about Char Fen, which was 

 part of an open common. The course of the rivers 

 at Littleport may be imagined to form a rude 

 outline of a chair or seat ; but this does not apply 

 to the other instances in which the name occurs. 



There are numerous local names in the fens, of 

 which the history may be traced for some cen- 

 turies, deserving investigation. E. G. R. 



Aches. — I am aware that there is abundant 

 proof of " aches " being a dissyllable when Shak- 

 speare wrote, and long after ; but I wish to know 

 whether there is any rhyme earlier than that in 

 Butler, which fixes the pronunciation as artches. 



S.S. 



Leeming Hall. — There was formerly a mansion 

 somewhere between Liverpool and Preston, called 

 Leeming Hall. Can any of the correspondents of 

 ■ N. & Q." inform me if it still exits, and what is 

 the name of the present owner ? I should also be 

 glad to have some information respecting the 

 genealogy of the family of Leemings, who formerly 

 lived there, or to learn the name and residence of 

 some member of the family to whom I could 

 apply for such information. G. 



Caricature ; a Canterbury Tale. — Many facts 

 are recorded in the caricatures of the day, of 

 which there is no other account. The reference 

 of the following may be well known, but I should 



feel obliged by any of your correspondents ex- 

 plaining it. Fox, the Prince of Wales, and a 

 third figure (?), are in a boat pushing off from 

 shore, with Burke looking over a wall with a large 



bag in his hand. He says, " D me, Charley, 



don't leave me in the lurch ; " who replies, " Self- 

 preservation is the first law of nature." His 

 companions joining with " Push off, Charley, push 

 off." H. 



Perpetual Curates not represented in Convocation. 

 — In Lectures on Church Difficulties, by the Rev. 

 J. M. Neale, I find this statement : 



" Under the old regime rectors and vicars were alone, 

 generally speaking, allowed a vote in the election of 

 proctors, to the exclusion from that privilege of even 

 perpetual curates." — Lecture xi., p. 133. 



I believe that this is correct, and that the curates 

 spoken of as having their votes rejected in Day 

 versus Knewstubbs, were perpetual curates : but 

 can some of your correspondents confirm this view 

 by facts ? Wm. Fbasee. 



Tor-Mohun. 



Dr. Whichcote and Dorothy Jordan. — In the 

 preface to the edition of the plays of Wycherley 

 and others, edited by Mr. Leigh Hunt, the follow- 

 ing passage occurs : 



" The two best sermons we ever heard (and no dis- 

 paragement to many a good one from the pulpit) were 

 a sentence of Dr. Whichcote's against the multiplication 

 of things forbidden, and the honest, heart and soul 

 laugh of Dorothy Jordan." 



I feel rather curious to read a sentence which is 

 said to possess so much instruction. aavQos. 



Moral Philosophy. — What English writers have 

 treated of the obligation of oaths and promises, or 

 generally of moral philosophy, between the Re- 

 formation and the time of Bishop Sanderson ? 



HP. 



Shelley's " Prometheus Unbound." — Can any 

 of your correspondents, by conjecture or reference 

 to the original MS., elucidate the meaning of the 

 following passage, which occurs in Act II. Sc. 4. 

 of this extraordinary poem ? It sounds so sweetly 

 that one cannot but wish it were possible to un- 

 derstand it. 



" Asia. Who made that sense which, when the winds 



of spring 

 In rarest visitation, or the voice 

 Of one beloved heard in youth alone, 

 Fills the faint eyes with falling tears which dim 

 The radiant looks of unbewailing flowers, 

 And leaves this peopled world a solitude 

 When it returns no more ? " 



Shelley's mysticism is very often such as to 

 render him unintelligible to ordinary readers, but 

 it is combined here with a want of grammatical 



