332 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 51. 



other unexpected memorable occurrence, lias taken 

 place. 



But this is not the only "pleasant conceit" of 

 which the " merrie monarch " is said to have 

 delivered himself during his visit to Iloghton 

 Tower. On the way from Preston his attention 

 was attracted by a Imge boulder stone which lay 

 in the roadside, and was still in existence not a 

 century aizo. " O' my saul," cried he, " that meikle 

 stane would build a bra' chappin block for my 

 Lord Provost. Stop ! there be letters thereon : 

 imto what purport ?" Several voices recited the 

 inscription : — 



" Turn me o'ce, an Pie tel thcc phiine." 



" Then turn it owcr," said the monarch ; and a 

 long and laborious toil brought to light the follow- 

 ing satisfactory intelligence : — 



" Hot porritch makes hard cake soft. 

 So tome me o'er ar/aine." 



" My saul," said the king, " ye shall gang roun' 

 to yere place again : these country gowks mauna 

 ken the riddle without the labour." As a natural 

 consequence, Sir Richard Hoghton's " great com- 

 panie" would require a correspond' igly great 

 quantity of provisions ; and ,the tradition in tlie 

 locality is, that the stibsequent poverty of the 

 family was owing to the enormous expenses in- 

 cuiTcd under this head ; the following character- 

 istic anecdote being usually cited in confirmation 

 of the current opinion. During one of the hunt- 

 ing excui'sions the king is said to have left his 

 attendants for a short tune, in order to examine a 

 numerous herd of horned cattle then grazing in 

 what are now termed the " Bullock Pastures," 

 most of which had probably been provided for the 

 occasion. A day or two afterwards, being hunting 

 in the same locality, he made inquiry respecting 

 the cattle, and was told, in no good-humoured way, 

 by a herdsman unacquainted with his person, that 

 they were all gone to feast the beastly king and his 

 gluttonous company. " By my saul," exclaimed 

 the king, as he left the herdsman, " then 'tis e'en 

 time for me to gang too : " and accordingly, on the 

 following morning, he set out for Lathoni House. 



In conclusion, allow me to ask the correspon- 

 dents to the " Notes and Queries," what is 

 meant by " dancing the Huckle?; Tom Bedlo, and 

 the Cowp Justice of Peace f" 



T. T. Wilkinson. 



Burnley, Lancashire, Sept. 21. 1850. 



Sirloin. — In Nichols's Progresses of King James 

 the First, vol. iii. p. 401., is the following note : — 



" There is a laughable tradition, still generally cur- 

 rent in Lancashlic, that our knight-making nionai-ch, 

 finding, it is presumed, no undubbed man worthy of 

 the chivalrio order, knighted at the banquet in Hoghton 

 Tower, in the warmth of his honour-bestowing libe- 

 rality, a loin of beef, the part ever since called the sir- 



loiti. Those who would credit this story have the au- 

 thority of Dr. Johnson to support them, among whose 

 explanations of the word sir in his dictionary, is that it 

 is 'a title given to the loin of beef, which one of our 

 kings knighted in a fit of good humour.' ' Surloin,' 

 says Dr. Pegge ( Gent. Mag., vol. liv. p. 485. ), ' is, I con- 

 ceive, if not knighted by King James as is reported, 

 compounded of the French sur, upon, and the English 

 loin, for the sake of euphony, our particles not easily 

 submitting to composition. In proof of this, the piece 

 of beef so called grows upon the loin, and behind the 

 small ribs of the animal.' Dr. Pegge is probably right, 

 and )'et the king, if lie did not give the sirloin its name, 

 might, notwithstanding, have indulged in a pun on the 

 already coined word, the etymology of which was 

 then, as now, as little regarded as the thing signified is 

 well approved." 



John J. Dredge. 



Sirloin. — Whence then comes the epigram — 



" Our second Charles, of fame facete. 

 On loin of beef did dine. 

 He held his sword pleased o'er the meat, 

 ' Rise up thou famed sir-loin !'" 



Was not a loin of pork part of James the First's 

 proposed banquet for the devil ? K.I. P. B. T. 



KIOTS OF rONDON. 



The reminiscences of your correspondent Senex 

 concerning the riots of London in the last century 

 form an interesting addition to the records of those 

 troubled times ; but in all these matters correct- 

 ness as to dates and facts iire of immense im- 

 portance. The omission of a date, or the narration 

 of events out of their proper sequence, will some- 

 times create vast and most mischievous confusion 

 in the mind of the reader. Tlius, from the order 

 in which Senex has stated his reminiscences, a 

 reader unacquainted with the events of the time 

 will be likely to assume that the " attack on the 

 King's Bench prison" and " the death of Allen " 

 arose out of, and formed part and parcel of, the 

 Gordon riots of 1780, instead of one of the Wilkes 

 tumults of 1768. By the way, if Senex was " per- 

 sonally either an actor or spectator" in this out- 

 break, he fully establishes his claim to the signa- 

 ture he adopts. I quite agree with him that 

 monumental inscriptions are not always remark- 

 able for their truth, and that the one in this case 

 may possibly be somewhat tinged with popular 

 prejudice or strong parental feeling; but, at all 

 events, there can be but little doubt that poor 

 Allen, whether guilty or innocent, was shot by a 

 soldier of the Scotch regiment, be his name what 

 it may ; and further, the deed was not the effect of 

 a random shot fired upon the mob, — for the young 

 man was chased into a cow-house, and shot by his 

 pursuer, away from the scene of conflict. 



