476 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 85. 



and preserved in the Chetham family, at Castleton 

 Hall, as great curiosities. 



In the following year, the present James was 

 born, as appears from the following entry on the 

 back of the same old Bible : 



" Jaraes, the son of William and Elizabeth Horrocks 

 of Bradshaw Chapel, was born March 14tb, 1744." 



He will therefore complete his hundredth year on 

 the 14th of next March. He was born in a 

 house near Bradshaw Chapel, which has long since 

 been removed. He was about twenty-seven years 

 old when an uncle left him a small estate in 

 Harwood, called Hill End ; and soon after he 

 married, we believe in 1773, and by that marriage 

 had eight children. AVilliam, the son of James 

 and Margaret Horrocks, was born February 21, 

 1776; Margaret, March 31, 1778; John, August 

 11, 1781 ; Simon, Dec. 23, 1783 ; Matty, June 28, 

 1786; James, Jan. 13, 1789; Sarah, Sept. 22, 

 1791 ; and Betty, Jan. 8, 1794. 



Of these, the only survivors are Margaret, an^ed 

 sixty-five, the wife of John Haslam, with whom the 

 old man now i-esides ; and Betty, the youngest, aged 

 forty-nine, who is married, and has four children. 



The old man was only eleven years old when 

 his father died, and has no recollection of hearing 

 him mention any remarkable event occurrin<T in 

 his lifetime. 



On asking the old man how he came into pos- 

 session of the portraits of his flxther and mother, 

 he stated, that, some years ago, he saw in the 

 newspapers a sale advertised of the property at 

 Castleton Hall, and went there before the day to 

 inquire after the portraits, with the view of pur- 

 chasing them before the sale. The servants at 

 the hall admitted him, and he found they were 

 not there. He then went to the house of the 

 steward, and found he was not at home ; he, how- 

 ever, left a niessage, desiring that the steward 

 would send him word if there was any probability 

 of his being able to purchase the portraits. Ac- 

 cordingly, the steward sent him word that they 

 had been removed, with the family portraits, to 

 the residence of a lady near Manchester, where he 

 might have the satisfaction of seeing them. The 

 old man cannot remember either the name or the 

 address of the lady. However, he went to the 

 place, in company with a friend, and saw the lady, 

 who treated him with the greatest kindness. She 

 showed him the portraits, and was so much plersed 

 with the desire he manifested to purchase them, 

 that she said, if she could be certain that he was 

 the heir, she would make him a present of them, 

 as his filial affection did him gi-eat honour. His 

 friend assured her that he was the only child of 

 his mother by William Horrocks, and she then 

 gave them to him, although she parted with them 

 with regret, as she had no other paintings that 

 attracted so much attention. His recollection of 



the circumstances are so perfect, that he remem- 

 bers offering a gratuity to the servants for packing 

 the portraits, which the lady would not allow them 

 to receive. 



As an instance of the health and vigour of this 

 remarkable old man, it may be mentioned, that 

 ten years ago, in the winter of 1832-3, he attended 

 at Newton, to vote for Lord Molyneux, then a 

 candidate for South Lancashire. He was then in 

 his ninetieth year. He walked from Harwood to 

 Bolton, a distance of three miles. From thence 

 he went to Newton by the railway; and, having 

 voted, he by some means missed the train, and 

 walked to Bolton, a distance of fifteen miles. On 

 arriving there he took some refreshment, and 

 again set out for Harwood, and accomplished the 

 distance of twenty -one miles in the day, in the 

 depth of winter. — Alanchester Guardian, Aug. 19, 

 1843. 



Miliar ^oUi. 



On a Passage in Sedley. — There is a couplet in 

 Sir Ciiarles Sedley's poems, which is quoted as 

 follows in a work in my possession : 

 " Let fouls the name of loyalty divide : 

 Wise men and Gods are on the strongest side." 



Does the context require the word "divide?" or 

 is it a misprint for "deride?" Of course, the 

 latter word would completely alter the sense, but 

 it seems to me that it would make it more con- 

 sistent with truth. The word " divide " supposes 

 loyalty to be characteristic of fools, and f)laces the 

 Gods in antagonism to that sentiment ; while the 

 word " deride " restores them to their natural 

 position. Henky H. Bbeen. 



St. Lucia, April, 1851. 



On a Passage in Romeo and Juliet. — In the en- 

 counter between Mercutio and Tybalt (Act III. 

 Sc. L), in which Mercutio is killed, he addresses 

 T^ibalt tauntingly thus : — 



" Good king of cats, &c., will you pluck your 

 sword out of his pilcher by the ears? Make haste, lest 

 mine be about your ears ere it be out." 



The first quarto has scabbard, all the later editions 

 have pilcher, a word occurring nowhere else. 

 There has been a vain attempt to make pilcher 

 signify a leathern sheath, because a pilch was a 

 garment of leather or pelt. To me it is quite evi- 

 dent ihAt pilcher is a mere typogra[)hical error for 

 pitcher, which, in this jocose, bantering speech, 

 Mercutio substitutes for scabbard, else why are 

 the ears mentioned? The poet was familiar with 

 the proverb " Pitchers have ears," of which he has 

 elsewhere twice availed himself. The ears, as 

 every one knows, are the handles, -which have since 

 been called the lugs. Shakspeare would hardly 

 have substituted a word of his own creation for 

 scabbard; but jntcher was suggested by the play 



