Feb. 22. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



143 



or daughter had died. The knight seeing his habita- 

 tion reduced to so small a compass, and himself in a 

 manner shut out of his own house, upon the death of 

 his mother ordered all the apartments to be flung open, 

 and exorcised by his chaplain, who lay in every room 

 one after another, and by that means dissipated the 

 fears which had so long reigned in the family." 



The practice of shutting up rooms in which 

 members of the family had died was retained up 

 to the end of the last century. I learn from a 

 friend that, in a country house in the south of 

 England, his mother's apartment, consisting of a 

 sitting-room, bed-room, and dressing-room, was 

 closed at her death in 1775. Tiie room in which 

 his grandfather had died in 1760 was likewise 

 closed. These four rooms were kept locked up, 

 with the shutters shut, till the year 1793, when 

 the ne.xt owner came into possession, who opened 

 them, and caused them to be again used. Pro- 

 bably other cases of the same sort may be known 

 to your correspondents, as having occurred in the 

 last century ; but the custom appears to be now 

 extinct. L. 



Standfast" s Cordial Comfo?-ts. — I have lately 

 procured a copy of an interesting book, entitled 



" A Little Handful of Cordial Comforts : scattered 

 throughout several Answers to Sixteen Questions and 

 Objections following. By Richard Standfast, !\I. A., 

 Rector of Christ Cluirch in Bristol, and Chaplain in 

 Ordinary to King Charles II. Sixth Edition. Bristol, 

 1764. 18mo. pp. 94." 



Can any of your readers give me further parti- 

 culars of Mr. Standfast, or tell me where to find 

 them ? In what year was the work first published ? 

 It was reprinted in Bristol in 1764. "for Mr. 

 Standfast Smith, apothecarj', great-grandson of 

 the author." Has any later edition appeared ? 



Abhba. 



"Predeceased" and '■'■Designed." — J. Dennis- 

 toun, in his Memoirs of the Dukes of Urhino, ii. 

 p. 239., says — 



" His friend the cardinal had lately predeceased 

 him." 



Can any of your readers give me an instance 

 from any one of our stamlard classical authors of 

 a verb active " to decease " ? 



The same author uses the word designed several 

 times in the sense of designated. I should be glad 

 of a few authorities for the use of the word in this 

 sense. W. A. 



Lddtf Fights at Atherton. — A poem, published 

 in 1643, in honour of the King's successes in the 

 West, has the following reference to a circumstance 

 connected with Fairfax's retreat at Atherton 

 Moor : 



" When none but lady staid to fight." 



I should be glad to learn to what this refers, 

 and whether or not the real story formed the basis 

 of De Foe's account of the fighting lady at Thame, 



laid about the same period, viz. the early part of 

 the year 1643. James Watlen. 



Sketches of Civil War Garrisons, Sj-c. — During 

 the civil war, sketches and drawings were, no 

 doubt, made of the lines drawn about divers gar- 

 risons. Some few of these have from time to time 

 appeared as woodcuts : but I have a suspicion that 

 several remain only in MS. still. If any of your 

 rea<lers can direct me to any collection of them in 

 the British Museum or Oxford, they would shorten 

 a search that has long been made in vain. 



James Waylen. 



" Jurat ? crede minus ;" Epigram. — Can any of 

 your learned readers inform me by whom the 

 following epigram was written ? I lately heard it 

 applied, in conversation, to the Jesuits; but I 

 think it is of some antiquity : — 



" Jurat ? crede minus : non jurat ? credere noli : 

 Jurat, non jurat? hostis ab hoste cave." 



F. R. R. 



Meaning of Gulls. — AA'^hat is the origin of the 

 word " gulls," as applied in Wensleydale (North 

 York) to hasty-pudding, which is a mixture of 

 oatmeal and milk or water boiled? D. 2. 



The Family of Don. — Can any of your corre- 

 spondents furnish me with information regarding 

 the family of Don, of Pitfiehie, near Moiiymusk, 

 Aberdeenshire ; or trace how they were connected 

 with the Dons of Newton Don, Roxburghshire ? 



A. A. 



Abridge. 



Wages in the last Century. — I should like to 

 have any particulars of the price of labour at 

 various periods in the last century, especially the 

 wages of domestic servants. May I be permitted 

 to mention that I am collecting anecdotes of the 

 manners and custom.';, social and domestic, of our 

 grandflvthers, and should be much obliged for any 

 curious particulars of their ways of living, their 

 modes of travelling, or any peculiarities of their 

 daily life ? I am anxious to form a museum of 

 the characteristic curiositits of the century ; its 

 superstitions, its habits, and its diversions. 



A. A. 



Abridge. 



Woman, Lines on. — Can any of your corres- 

 pondents inform me who was the author of the 

 ibllowinjj lines : — 



She was 



But words would fail to tell her worth : think 

 What a woman ought to be. 

 And she was that." 



They are to be found on several tombstones 

 throughout the country. Scrutator. 



