422 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2-* s. vi. i5i., Nov. 20. 



'68. 



Silkworm Gut (2"" S. vi. 373.) — Your Querist 

 ■will find an account of the mode of preparing silk- 

 worm gut in Ure's Dictionary of Arts. This work 

 is so easily accessible that I do not think your 

 valuable pages should be occupied by an extract 

 from it, Wm. M'Cbee. 



Electric Telegraph foretold (2°'' S. vi. 359).— 

 J. de L. asks " who performed the experiment 

 with the wire four 'miles in length?" referred to 

 in Notes to Assist the Memory^ 1819. The allu- 

 sion is probably to Dr. Watson's seventh experi- 

 ment at Shooter's Hill, on August 5, 1748. See 



" An Account of the Experiments made by some Gen- 

 tlemen of the Royal Societj' in order to discover whether 

 the Electrical Power would be sensible at great Dis- 

 tances," 8vo. London, 1748. 



The longest wire, however, used by Dr. Watson 

 was only 12,276 feet, so that the entire circuit 

 was a little over 4^ miles. The celebrated ex- 

 periment of Francis Ronalds made at Hammer- 

 smith in 1816 was with a wire of rather more 

 than eight miles. See Descriptions of an Electric 

 Telegraph, and of some other Electrical Apparatus, 

 8vo. London. 1823. For a tolerably complete 

 outline of the history of electric telegraphy, see 

 an article in the Saturday Review for August 14 

 ultimo. C. Mansfield Inglebt. 



Birmingham. 



La Martiniere (1" S. xii. 453. ; 2°'^ S. v. 137.) — 



" James and Mrs. Schilling walked to the Martinifere 

 this morning, Sir Colin's head-quarters for the day. 

 They thought they might discover some debris of our 

 property scattered about, but not a vestige of anything 

 was to be seen, not even the leaf of a book lying about. 

 The clearance has been most complete ; there has been 

 nothing left of the Martiniere but the bare walls ; every 

 bit of woodwork, such as doors and window-frames, has 

 been carried otf. The beautiful marble pavement has all 

 been dug up, and the place is quite a ruin ; no trace of 

 course of the dear horses, or carriage, or harp to be found. 

 General Martin's tomb has been broken to fragments, and 

 his old bones dug up and scattei'ed to the winds." — Lady's 

 Diary of the Siege of Lucknow, p. 169. Nov. 23, 1857. 



E. H. A. 

 Penhill (2"* S. vi. 328.) — Pe?j or Penn, in the 

 old British tongue meant "top of a mountain," as 

 in Pe«dle Hill, Penigent, &c. Penhill is therefore 

 in reality one of the numerous instances of names 

 of places made up of two or more words, each 

 signifying the same thing, but in the language of 

 successive occupiers the latter syllable or syllables 

 being added to explain the foregoing ; e.g. a, Saxon 

 word added to a British, with perhaps a Danish or 

 Norman termination to that. Your correspordent 

 should have favoured us with his version oi the 

 story he wishes to have corrected. J. Eastwood. 



Millicent in Ireland (2"'' S. v. 170.)— Millicent 

 is in the county Kildare. You will find mention 

 made of it (P' S. i. 418.) in the note relative to 

 Sterne's Koran. , J. S. C. 



Parodies on Scott and Byron (2°'^ S. vi. 206.) — 

 Robert Orde Fenwick, author of The Goblin 

 Groom, was eldest son of Richard Fenwick of 

 Lemington, parish of Edlingham, Northumber- 

 land. He served in a cavalry regiment for some 

 years, lived afterwards in France, subsequently at 

 Bath, where he died some years ago, and is buried 

 in Lansdown Cemetery, Bath. Vryan Rheged. 



Blondeau (2"* S. vi. 346.)— I think I can mend 

 H. C. H.'s genealogy of the Blondeau family, al- 

 though I am unable to go farther into the subject. 



" William Neville Blondeau, son of Lewis Augustus 

 and Denise, was born in St. James's Palace, 27th Dec. 

 1741, and was baptized there 14 Jan. 1741-2." 



Mr. Blondeau, the father, lived for some years 

 after the birth of this son, and had farther issue, 

 viz. : — 



" Lewis George Blondeau, son of Lewis Augustus and 

 Denise, born 5th April, 1744, baptized May 2nd ; " and 

 " Frederick Blondeau, son of Louis Augustus, Esq., and 

 Denise, born in St. James's Palace, 17th Marc!), 1740, 

 baptized May 5th." 



The eldest son, William Neville Blondeau, was 

 married, 7th Jan. 1765, to Elizabeth, a daughter, 

 under age, of Ctesar Hawkins, Esq. 



The above information is taken from notes ex- 

 tracted a few years ago by a friend from the Re- 

 gisters of St. James's Church, Piccadilly. 



Patonce. 



Nursery Literature {2^^ S. vi. 373.) — In addi- 

 tion to the books on this interesting subject quoted 

 by A Subscriber, I would refer him to the fol- 

 lowing, An Essay on the Archceology of our Popular 

 Ph7-ases and Nursery lihymes, by John Bellenden 

 Ker, Esq., in 2 vols., published by Longmans at 

 12*. It is a book in which a great deal of inter- 

 esting matter is mixed up with many imaginative 

 derivations, but nevertheless contains much valu- 

 able information. There is also a very little work 

 on the Popular Rhymes of Scotland, by Robert 

 Chambers, Esq., which will afford A Subscriber 

 much information. Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A. 



Derby. 



Volksreime und Volkslieder in Anhalt- Dessau, 

 von Eduard Fiedler, 8°, 208 pages, Dessau, 1847, 

 2s. Qd., contains a critical examination of the con- 

 nexion of English and German nursery rhymes. 



Seven Sleipeks. 



" The Proposal" (2"'' S. iv. 473. ; v. 38.)--Two 

 only of the three young ladies whose portraits are 

 painted in Harlow's picture bearing this name are 

 the daughters of the late Wm. Pearce, Esq., of 10. 

 Whitehall Place, viz. 3Irs. Blunt (the one in pro- 

 file to the right), and Lady Dymohe (the centre 

 head) ; the third portrait being that of Mrs. 

 Blomfield, the widow of the late Bishop of Lon- 

 don, but who, at the time the picture was painted, 

 was Miss Cox. W. M. T. 



