338 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 232. 



folk lore (query lure) was, and I believe still is, in 

 full force in the south of Ireland, and probably 

 elsewhere. X. S. M. 



Cambridge Mathematical Questions (Vol. ix., 

 p. 35.). — These are so far put forth " by au- 

 thority " as the publication in the Cambridge Ca- 

 lendar, and the two local newspapers goes ; a 

 collection of the Senate House Papers for " Ho- 

 nours" from 1838 to 1849, has also been pub- 

 lished, arranged according to subjects, by Rev. 

 A. H. Frost, M.A., of St. John's College. 



P. J. F. Gantillon. 



Lichfield Bower or Wappenschau (Vol. ix., 

 p. 242.). — In answer to Mb. Lamont's question, 

 I have to inform him that in this city a similar 

 wappenschau, or exhibition of arms, has been an- 

 nually maintained, with a short intermission, from 

 time immemorial. The Court of Array held on 

 Whit Monday was anciently commenced, accord- 

 ing to Pitt, by the high constables of this city, 

 attended by ten men with firelocks, and adorned 

 with ribbons, preceded by eight morris-dancers, 

 and a clown fantastically dressed, escorting the 

 sheriff, town clerk, and bailiffs from the Guildhall 

 to the Bower at Greenhill, temporarily erected for 

 their reception, where the names of all the house- 

 holders and others of the twenty-one wards of the 

 city were called to do suit and service to " the 

 court of review of men and arms." The dozener, 

 or petty constable of each ward, was summoned 

 to attend, who with a flag joined the procession 

 through his ward, when a volley was fired over 

 every house in it, and the procession was regaled 

 by the inhabitants with refreshments. Those in- 

 habitants who, on such summons, proceeded to 

 the Bower, were regaled with a cold collation. 

 Those who did not attend (for the names of each 

 ward were called over) were fined one penny each. 

 The twenty-one wards require a long day for this 

 purpose, and it is concluded by a procession to 

 the market-place, where the town clerk informs 

 them that the firm allegiance of their ancestors 

 had obtained grants to their city of valuable 

 charters and immunities, and advises them to con- 

 tinue in the same course. The dozeners then 

 deposit their flags under the belfry in the adjacent 

 church of St. Mary's. This ceremony still con- 

 tinues, with the exception of the armed men and 

 the firing. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



Anecdote of George IV. (Vol. ix., p. 244.). — 

 In the letter supposed to be written by the late 

 Prince of Wales when a child, I observe these 

 words : " which I have stolen from the old woman 

 (the queen)." I think it more probable that the 

 writer refers to Mrs. Schwellenberg, an old Ger- 

 man lady, who came over with the late queen as 

 a confidential domestic, and who would have such 



articles under her keeping. (See Diary of Madame 

 DArblay.) The transaction is a notable instance 

 of the prince's forethought and liberality at an 

 early age. W. H. 



Pedigree to the Time of Alfred (Vol. viii., p. 586. ; 

 Vol. ix., p. 233.). — I beg to inform your cor- 

 respondent S. D. that she will find a very inte- 

 resting notice of the Wapshot family in Chertsey 

 and its Neighbourhood, by Mrs. S. C. Hall, 1853. 



Geo. Bish Webb. 



Tortoiseshell Tom-cat (Vol. v., p. 465.; Vol. vii., 

 p. 271.). — I have certainly heard of tortoiseshell 

 tom-cats ; but never having seen one, I cannot 

 affirm that any such exist. The fact of their 

 rarity is undoubted ; but I should like to be in- 

 formed by W. Pi., or any other person who has 

 paid particular attention to the natural history of 

 this useful and much calumniated domestic animal, 

 whether yellow female cats are not quite as un- 

 common as tortoiseshell males ? 



HoNOBE DE MABEVIELE. 



Guernsey. 



ffli&ztWimtawl. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



The new edition of Mr. Smee's valuable little work 

 on The Eye in Health and Disease, is one to which 

 we desire to direct the attention of all our readers, for 

 the subject is one of great importance, and more espe- 

 cially to reading men. Mr. Smee has obviously de- 

 voted great attention to the various derangements to 

 which this hardly-worked yet beautifully-delicate organ 

 is liable ; and his remarks cannot fail to prove of great 

 service to those who require the assistance either of the 

 oculist or the optician. To our photographic readers, 

 the present reprint will be of especial interest for the 

 very able paper " On the Stereoscope and Binocular Per- 

 spective," which is appended to it. 



The Homeric Design of the Shield of Achilles, by 

 William Watkiss Lloyd. A dissertation on a subject 

 immortalised by the poetry of Homer and the sculp- 

 ture of Flaxman, which will well repay our classical 

 readers for the time spent in its perusal. 



Architectural Botany, setting forth the Geometrical 

 Distribution of Foliage, Flowers, Fruits, fyc. — a sepa- 

 rately published extract from Mr. W. P. Griffith's 

 Ancient Gothic Churches — is a farther endeavour on the 

 part of the author to direct attention to the laws by 

 which vegetable productions were created and imitated 

 by the early architects, and thereby to contribute to 

 securing greater beauty and precision on the part of 

 their successors to the decoration of churches. 



Books Received. — Gibbon's Decline and Fall of 

 the Roman Empire, with Notes by Milman and Guizot, 

 edited by Dr. William Smith. The second volume of 

 this handsome edition, forming part of Murray's British 

 Classics, extends from the reign of Claudius to Julian's 

 victories in Gaul. — The Archaologia Cambrensis, New 



