2nd §, No 24., June 14. °56.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
471 
5. English Colony. — When at Kiel an intel- 
ligent Pole, a fur merchant of Altona, who had 
resided several years in America, told me that 
having occasion, in the course of his business, to 
visit the islands off the west coast of Slesvig, he 
was surprised, on coming to Nordstrand, to find 
that all the inhabitants, some 2000 in number, 
talked English, and that they were all descended 
from one settler and his family. Is anything 
known of these colonists? I regretted not being 
able to visit the island; it would be interesting to 
learn their history. 
6. The Hoe. — This is a Note, not a Query. 
Some of your readers may have been puzzled, as 
I am not ashamed to confess I formerly was, as to 
the origin of the word Hoe, a well-known charm- 
ing promenade at Plymouth; but when at Ham- 
burg, meeting with Elbe Hohe and Alster Hohe, 
I at once saw it was German, simply meaning 
height. Joun J. A. Boase. 
Alverton Vean, Penzance. 
fHinor Queries. 
Writers who have been bribed to Silence.— Many 
curious particulars have been furnished in the 
pages of “ N. & Q.” of books which have been 
burnt, and also of books which have been sup- 
pressed. There is another chapter of literary 
history, or literary mystery, which remains to be 
written; namely, that of the writers who have 
been bribed to silence. For instance, the noto- 
rious John Cleland (by some believed to be the 
son of Pope’s William Cleland) is said to have re- 
ceived a pension of 100/. a-year from the Govern- 
ment on condition of his not writing any further 
books like his Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure : 
and at the beginning of the present century, a 
writer named Gilliland, after certain publications 
of a satirical and very personal character, is said 
to have had his future silence purchased by no 
less a sum than 4007. per annum. Perhaps some 
readers of “N. & Q.” may think this subject worth 
pursuing. Can any of them furnish particulars as 
to the life, and writings, and pension of this Gilli- 
land ? W. B.S. 
Adrian Beverland.—In the Life of this well- 
known classical commentator, in the English Bio- 
graphical Dictionaries, reference is made to a Life 
of him in German, but no particulars are given as 
to the author of it, or as to where and when it 
was published ; neither is there mention made of 
it in Gttinger'’s Bibliographie Biogruphique. Can 
any of the readers of uN, & Q.” give the precise 
title of the work in question, and say where a 
copy may be seen? N. D. 
Secret Service Money. — When was the vote 
for secret service first introduced into the Sup- 
plies? Are there any documents extant which 
contain particulars of payments under this head 
—say from the time of the accession of Wil- 
liam III. ? S. M. 
Heybridge Whitsunday Custom. — Heybridge 
Church, near Maldon, Essex, was on Whitsunday 
strewn with rushes, and round the pews, in holes 
made apparently for the purpose, were placed 
small twigs just budding. What is the origin or 
meaning of this? and does the practice exist else- 
where ? F. N. 
Special Report from Committee of House of 
Commons in 1719.— Can any reader of “N. & 
Q.” tell me where I can find a copy of this Re- 
port? Its full title is as follows: 
“The Special Report from the Committee appointed to 
Inquire into, and Examine the several Subscriptions for 
Fisheries, Insurances, Annuities for Lives, and all other 
Projects carryed on by Subscription, in and about the 
Cities of London and Westminster ; and to Inquire into 
all Undertakings for purchasing Joint-Stocks, or Obsolete 
Charters: London, printed for Jacob Tonson, Timothy 
Goodwin, Bernard Lintot, and William Taylor, 1720.” 
The Committee appears to have been appointed 
by the House of Commons on Monday, Feb. 22, 
1719. The only copy which I have seen is im- 
perfect, and unfortunately just at the very par 
which I am desirous of seeing. N.E. 
“ Swang:” Samecast et Samcast, of Land. — 
Will any of your learned readers please to give 
me the etymology of the word swang, which, in 
Robinson’s Glossary of Yorkshire Words, is de- 
scribed as ‘‘a low-lying grassy place liable to be 
flooded.” And in Grose’s and Pegge’s Provincial 
Glossary, “a fresh piece of green swarth, lying in 
a bottom, among arable and barren land—a 
dool ;” which is thus described in their Glossary : 
“A long narrow green in a ploughed field, with 
ploughed land on each side of it; a broad balk, perhaps 
a dale or valley, because, when standing corn grows on 
both sides of it, it appears like a valley.” 
I do not find the above word in any other 
Glossary than Robinson’s and Grose’s and Pegge’s. 
In old maps of moors or commons in the North 
Riding of Yorkshire, the word or name frequently 
occurs, but always with a prefix, as, White Cross 
Swang on one of the moors in the township of 
Moorsholme, near Guisbro. 
Samcast or Samecast of land, I have met with 
in ancient surrenders of copyhold land ; but what 
quantity of land it ‘contains, I have in vain en- 
deavoured to ascertain. Fras. Mewsurn. 
Darlington. 
Poniatowshi Gems.—Where may be found some 
account of these gems, respecting the sale of which 
we find communications in 1S. v. 30. 65. 140. 
190. ? P. J. F. Gantitron. 
