2" d S. IX. Jan. 21. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



53 



Cutting one's Stick : Tebms used bv Prin- 

 ters (2 nd S. viii. 478.) — May not this phrase, 

 which does not mean abrogating a covenant, or 

 cutting the connection with anybody, but simply 

 going away, be rather derived from an expression 

 very commonly used in printing offices ? A com- 

 positor who wants a holiday, or a little recreation, 

 will say, " Well, I am tired of this. I shall cut 

 the stick (i. e. the composing-stick) for to-day, 

 and go and take a walk." I have been told the 

 phrase " in the wrong box " is derived from the 

 compositor's expression when he finds a letter in 

 the wrong place ; and that "to mind your p's and 

 q's" comes from the same source, these letters 

 being so like each other, and so liable to be mis- 

 taken the one for the other by young compositors, 

 who have not got quite used to read letters the 

 reverse way. 



May I venture to add, — 



" An old-fashioned saying is often in use, 

 Bidding people ' to look to their P's and their Q's ; ' 

 A better example we now-a-days find, 

 'Tis our N's and our Q's we are careful to mind." 



A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



The illustration given by Sib J. Emerson 

 Tennent (p. .478.) from Zechariah, of the "cutting 

 one's stick " being symbolical of the abrogation of 

 a friendly covenant, or the disruption of family 

 bonds, reminds me of the provisions in the Salic 

 Law ; and the forms there laid down for a person 

 who desired to repudiate all connection with his 

 kinsmen : — 



" LXIII. De eo qui se de parentilla tollere vult. 



" 1. Si quis de parentilla tollere se voluerit, in mallo 

 ante tunginum aut centenarium ambulet, et ibi quatuor 

 fustes ulnbios super caput suum frangat, et Mas quatuor 

 partes in mallo jactare debet, et ibi dicere, ut et de jura- 

 mento, et de hcereditate, et de tota illorum se ratione toltat. 



"2. Et si postea aliquis de parentibus suis aut moritur, 

 aut occiditur, nihil ad eum de ejus haereditate, vel de 

 compositione pertineat. 



"3. Si autem ille occiditur, aut moritur, compositio aut 

 htereditas ejus non ad bajredes ejus, sed ad fiscum per- 

 tineat, aut cui fiscus dare voluerit." 



W. B. Mac Cabe. 



Heraldic Drawings and Engravings (2 nd S. 

 viii. 471.) — We are told by that careful antiquary, 

 Mr. J. R. Plancbc, in his Pursuivant of Arms, 

 1852, p. 20., that the mode of indicating the tinc- 

 tures in engraving is said to be the invention of 

 an Italian, Padre Silvestre de Petra Sancta ; the 

 earliest instance of its use in England being the 

 death-warrant of King Charles I., to which the 

 seals of the subscribing parties are represented as 

 attached. 



Gules seems to be represented by perpendicular 

 lines, as blood running down; azure, by horizontal 

 lines, as a level expanse of blue water; vert, by 

 diagonal lines, as indicating a green hill ; sable, 

 by the cross lines, as darkness. Ache. 



Three Churchwardens (2 nd S. viii. 146.) — At 

 Attleborough, Norfolk, three churchwardens are 

 chosen annually, and there is evidence that the 

 custom existed as far back as 1617. It appears 

 from the fourth bell at S. John Maddermarket, 

 Norwich, that in 1765 there were three church- 

 wardens. I cannot say whether such is the case 

 now. At S. Michael- at- Thorn, in the same city, 

 there are, I believe, three. At S. Michael Cos- 

 lany (also in Norwich) forty years ago, I am 

 told there were three. But this would appear to 

 have been unusual, for when they presented them- 

 selves to be sworn, the Archdeacon (Bathurst) 

 jocosely exclaimed, " Any more churchwardens 

 for S. Michael Coslany, gentlemen, any more ?" 



ExTRANEUS. 



Cabal (1" S. iv. 443. &c.)— I think I can furnish 

 as early an instance as any of those adduced by 

 your correspondents of the use of this word : 

 being employed in a sort of Spy^bpok (MS.) 

 about the year 1663. 



" Needham (Marchmonf) practises physic in S' Thomas 

 Apostles, holds no great cabal with the disaffected, though 

 much courted to it ; is not very zealous, only despairs of 

 grace from the king." 



Macaulay, in History of England, says that 

 " during some years the word cabal was popu- 

 larly used as synonymous with cabinet," and con- 

 siders the appellation as applied to the ministry of 

 1671 only a " whimsical coincidence." Cl. Hopper. 



Geering (l rt S. viii. 340.) — Henry Geering, 

 late of St. Margaret's, Isle of Thanet, Kent, and 

 afterwards of Dublin, Gent., died intestate, and 

 administration was granted to Richard Geering, 

 of Dublin, his brother, 26 April, 1694, by the 

 Court of Prerogative in Ireland. Can any cor- 

 respondent from the Isle of Thanet supply me 

 with information respecting this Henry Geering 

 or his family ? Perhaps some memorial of them 

 appears in the parish register of St. Margaret's. 



Y. S. M. 



Hildeslet's Poetical Miscellanies (2 nd S. 

 viii. 472.) — In the church of Wyton, or Witton, 

 Huntingdonshire, is a monument to the memory 

 of Mark Hildesley, M.A., who is stated to have 

 been for sixteen years rector of that and the. ad- 

 joining parish (Houghton). He died April 28th, 

 1726, aged fifty-eight, and the monument was 

 erected by " M. H. Filius Defuncti natu Maxi- 

 mus." B. 



Discovery of Gunpowder Plot bt the Magic 

 Mirror (2 nd S. viii. 369.) — I have an imperfect 

 copy of the Prayer Book with this plate, of a 

 much later date than that alluded to at p. 369. 

 The title-page and some leaves are gone ; but the 

 Order in Council of 1760 for the use of the usual 

 prayers is in it ; and the prayers mention King 

 George III., Queen Charlotte, and George Prince 

 of W ales. • S. (). 



