208 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 99. 



O yes ! " Little does lie think that he is speaking 

 French. F. W. J. 



jHtiior CSucitcJ). 



151. Quotation from Bacon. — In Lord Camp- 

 bell's Life of Lord Bacon {Lives of the Lord 

 Chanceliors, vol. ii. p. 314.) he gives an extract 

 from Lord Bacon's speech in the House of Com- 

 mons, on his proposed bill for " Suppressing Abuses 

 in Weights and Measures." In the following sen- 

 tence there is a word which seems to require 

 explanation : 



" The fault of using false weights and measures is 

 grown so intolerable and common, tliat if you would 

 build churches you shall not need for battlements and 

 halls, other than false weights of lead and brass." 



The use of lead for the battlements of churches 

 seems obvious enough : but what can halls mean, 

 unless it be a misprint for bells, for which brass 

 would be required ? Pjjregrinus. 



152. Carmagnoles. — Can any of your readers 

 tell me the exact meaning of the Carmagnoles of 

 the French llevolution ? Is the " Marseillaise" a 

 Carmagnole song ? If the word be derived from 

 Carmagnuola in Piedmont, what is the story of its 

 origin Y W. B. II. 



153. The Use of Tohacco hy the Elizabethan 

 Ladies. — In An Introduction to English Antiquities, 

 by James Eccleston, B.A., 8vo. 1847, p. 306., the 

 author, speaking of the ladies of the reigu of 

 Elizabeth, has the following passage ; 



" It is with regret we add, that their teeth were at 

 this time generally black and rotten, a defect which 

 foreigners attributed to their inordinate love for sugar, 

 but which may, perliaps, be quite as reasonably ascribed 

 to their frequent habit of taking the Nicotian weed to 

 excess." 



Does the author mean to insinuate by the above, 

 that the Elizabethan ladies indulged in the 

 "filthy weed" by " smoaking" or "chewing?" 

 I have always understood that the " Nicotian 

 weed" Tvhitened the teeth rather thau blackened 

 them, but should be glad to be enlightened upon 

 the subject by some of your scientific readers. 



Edward F. Rimbault. 



154. Covines (Vol. iii., p. 477.). — Remember- 

 ing to have seen it stated by one of your corre- 

 spondents, that witches or sorcerers were formerly 

 divided into classes or companies of twelve, called 

 covines, I should feel obliged by a reference to the 

 authorities from which this statement is derived. 

 They were not alleged at the time. A. N. 



155. Story referred to by Jeremy Taylor. — 

 Jeremy Taylor {Duct. Dubit., book iii. chap. ii. 

 rule 5. quffist. 2.) states: 



" The Greek that denied the deposltmn of his friend, 

 and offered to swear at the altar that he had restored it 



already, did not preserve his conscience and his oath 

 by desiring his friend to hold the staff in which he had 

 secretly conveyed the money. It is true, he delivered 

 it into his hand, desiring that he would hold it till lie 

 had sworn ; but that artifice was a plain cosenage, and 

 it was prettily discovered. For the injured person, in 

 indignation at the perjury, smote the staff upon the 

 ground, and broke it, and espied the money." 



"Whence is the above incident derived ? A Tr. 



156. Plant in Texas. — I shall be glad to learn 

 the scientific name of the plant to which the fol- 

 lowing extract from the Athenaum (1847, p. 210.) 

 refers : — 



" It is a well-known fact that in the vast prairies of 

 Texas a little plant is always to be found which, under 

 all circumstances of climate, changes of weatlier, rain, 

 frost, or sunsliine, invariably turns its leaves and flowers 

 to the north," &c 



■an 



157. Discount. — Can any of your readers inform 

 me how discount originated, and where first made 

 use of.'' James C. 



158. Sacre Cheveux. — The motto of the arms 

 of the family of Halifax of Chadacre in Suffolk, 

 and of Lombard Street, is — 



" Sacre Chetoux." 



It does not seem to bear allusion to the crest, 

 a griffin, nor to any of the charges in the coat, 

 which I do not at the moment accurately remem- 

 ber. If you will enlighten me as to the meaning 

 and origin of the motto, I shall be obliged. S. A. 



159. " Mad as a March Hare" — In Mr. M.ny- 

 hew's very interesting work, London Labour and 

 the Lotidon Poor, Part x.xxiii. p. 112., a collector of 

 hareskins, in giving an account of his calling, says: 



" Hareskins is in — leastways I c'lects them — from 

 September to the end of March, wlien hares, they says, 

 goes mad." 



Perhaps tbe allusion to the well-known saying, 

 " as mad as a March hare," on this occasion was 

 made without the collector of hareskins being 

 aware of the existence of such a saying. Is any- 

 thing known of its origin ? I imagine that Mr. 

 Mayhew's work will bring many such sayings to 

 light. L. L. L. 



160. Ve7-min, Payments for Destniction of and 

 Ancient Names. — Can you afford me any informa- 

 tion as to the authority (act of parliament, or 

 otherwise,) by which cluirchw.ardens in old times 

 paid sums of money for the destruction of vermin 

 in the several parishes in England ; and by what 

 process of reasoning, animals now deemed inno- 

 cuous were then thought to merit so rigorous an 

 extirpation ? 



In some old volumes of churchwardens' ac- 

 counts to which I have access, I find names which 

 it is impossible to associate with any description 



