June 29. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



71 



might be obtained as ta the place where that ring 

 is at present preserved, and whether there would 

 be any possibility of the I'amily recovering it by 

 purchase or otherwise. \V. G. Teev£i.yan. 



Duntrune, near Dundee. 



The Kilkenny Cats. — I would feel obliged if 

 any of your correspondents could give me informa- 

 tion as to the first, or any early, published allusion 

 to the strange tale, modernly become proverbial, of 

 the ferocity of the cats of Kilkenny. The story 

 generally told is, that two of those animals fought 

 in a sawpit with such ferocious determination that 

 when the battle was over nothing could be found 

 remaining of either combatant except his tail, — 

 the marvellous inference to be drawn therefrom 

 being, of course, that they had devoured each 

 other. This ludicrous anecdote has, no doubt, 

 been generally looked upon as an absurdity of the 

 Joe Miller class ; but this I conceive to be a mis- 

 take. I have not the least doubt that the story of 

 the mutual destruction of the contending cats was 

 an allegory designed to typify the utter ruin to 

 which centuries of litigation and embroilment on 

 the subject of conflicting rights and privileges 

 tended to reduce the respective exchequers of the 

 rival municipal bodies of Kilkenny and Irishtown, 

 — separate corporations existing within the liberties 

 of one city, and the boundaries of whose respective 

 jurisdiction had never been marked out or defined 

 by an authority to which either was willing to bow. 

 Their struggles for precedency, and for the main- 

 tenance of alleged rights invaded, commenced 

 A. D. 1377. (see Rot. Claus. 51 Ed. UI. 76.), and 

 were carried on with truly feline fierceness and 

 implacability till the end of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, when it may fairly be considered that they 

 had mutually devoured each other to the very tail, 

 as we find their property all mortgaged, and see 

 them each passing by-laws that their respective 

 officers should be content with the dignity of their 

 station, and forego all liope of salary till the suit at 

 law with the other " pretended corporation" should 

 be terminated, and the incumbrances thereby 

 caused removed with the vanquishment of tlie 

 enemy. Those who have taken the story of the 

 Kilkenny cats in its literal sense have done grie- 

 vous injustice to the character of the grimalkins of 

 the "I'aire cittie," who are really quite as demure 

 and quietly disposed a race of tabbies as it is in the 

 nature of any such animals to be. 



John G. A. Pkim. 

 Kilkenny. 



Robert de Welle. — Can any of your correspond- 

 ents inform me of what fiunily was Robert de 

 Welle, who married Matihla, one of the co-heirs 

 of Thomas de Clare, and in 1.5th Edward H. re- 

 ceived seisin of possessions in Irclanil, and a 

 medicty of the Seneschulship of the Forest of 



Essex in her right? (Rottd. Original., Record 

 Commission, pp. 266, 277.) And how came the 

 Irish title of Earon Welles into the family of Knox ? 

 Again, where can I meet with a song called the 

 Derby Kani, very popular in my school-boy days, 

 but of which I recollect only one stanza, — 

 " The man that killed the ram. Sir, 

 Was up to his knees in blood ; 

 The boy that held the bucket, Sir, 

 Was carried away in the flood." 



I fancy it had an electioneering origin. H.W. 



Lady Slingsby. — Among many of the plays 

 temp. Car. li, the name of " The Lady Slingsby" 

 occurs in the list of performers composing the 

 dramatis persona. Who was this Lady Slingsby ? 



T, 



God save the Queen. — Can any correspondent 

 state the reason of the recent discontinuance of 

 this brief but solemn and scriptural ejaculation, 

 at the close of royal proclamations, letters, &c., 

 read during the service of the Church ? J. H. M. 



Meaning of Steyne — Origin of Adur. — Can 

 any of your correspondents give the derivation of 

 the word " Steyne," as used at Brighton, for in- 

 stance? or the origin of the name "Adur," a small 

 river running into the sea, at Shoreham ? F. 



Col. Lilhurn. — Who was the author of a book 

 called Lieut.- Colonel John Lilburn tryed and cast, 

 or his Case and Craft discovered, ^c, ^'c, published 

 by authority, 1653? V. S, W. E. 



French Verses. — ^Will one of your readers kindly 

 inform me from what French poet the two fol- 

 lowing stanzas are taken ? 



" La Mort a des rigueurs a nulle autre pareilles. 

 On a beau la, prier, 

 La cruelle, qu'elle est, se bouche les oieilles, 

 I^t nous laisse crier. 

 " Le pauvre en sa cabane, que le chaume couvre, 

 Est sujet a ses lois ; 

 Et la garde qui veille aux barrieres du Louvre 

 N'en defend pas les rois." 



E. R. C. B. 



Our World. — I once heard a lady repeat the 

 following pithy lines, and shall be glad if any of 

 your readers can tell me who is the author, and 

 where they first appeared. 



" 'Tis a very good world to live in — 

 To lend, and to spend, and to give in : 

 15iit to beg, or to borrow, or ask for one's own, 

 'Tls the very worst world that ever was known." 



D. V. S. 

 Home, April 29. 



Poi-son's Imposition. — When Porson was a,i 

 Cambridgi", his tutor lent him a pound to buy 

 books, which he spent in getting drunk at a ta- 



