2*» S. IX. .Tax. 28. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



63 



" Walk your Chalks." — This is a vulgarism 

 which I have heard addressed to one whose com- 

 pany is no longer desired, and who is expected to 

 depart from your presence eo instanii. Has the 

 expression originated as follows ? It appears from 

 Mr. Riley's Liber Albus, lately printed, Introduc- 

 tion, p. Iviii., that there anciently existed in 

 London a custom for the marshal and serjeant- 

 ehamberlain of the royal households, when in 

 want of lodgings for the royal retinue and de- 

 pendents, to send a billet (biletnm) and seize arbi- 

 trarily the best houses and mansions of the locality, 

 turning out the inhabitants, and marking the 

 house so selected with chalk. From this probably 

 arose a saying, urbane, " You must now please 

 fo walk out, for your house is chalked;" breviter, 

 "you must walk, you're chalked;" breti.ssime, 

 " walk your chalks." C. J. 



Malsh. — A Huntingdonshire woman called the 

 damp, moist weather that we had at the close of 

 last year, as " very malsh weather." She farther 

 explained this species of weather to be " very 

 unliving." Is this word " malsh," — used in a 

 fen country, and, as I find, not peculiar to the 

 women from whose lips I first heard it — a cor- 

 ruption of " rnarisk," a fen word much used by 

 Tennyson ? e. g. : — 



" The cluster'd niarish-mosses crept." 

 " And far through the marish green and still." 

 " And the silvery marish flowers that throng." 



CuTHBERT BeI>E. 



The a-Becket Familt. — Apropos of Mr. 

 Robertson's recent history of Thomas a Becket, 

 the following may be worth noting. A certain 

 Italian Marquis who was still alive six months 

 back, told* me about eight years ago that his 

 mother had been the last descendant of the 

 noble Pisan family of Minabekti, and that the 

 origin of this family was, that after the death of 

 S. Thomas of Canterbury, a younger brother ran 

 away from England and settled at Pisa ; that he 

 called himself Becket minor, which in due course 

 was transformed into the name given above. I 

 am pretty certain, though the name does not 

 figure in " Murray," that there is a monument to 

 some member or members of the family in Sa. 

 Maria Novella. W. H. 



Lord Nelson ani> Lady Hamilton. — Anec- 

 dotes of this really great man, when coupled with 

 " the taint, that, like another Dalilah, she cast 

 upon the brave man whom she ensnared by her 

 wiles," cannot be of the same value as those bear- 

 ing on his great achievements : but the following 

 is brought to memory by some extracts from The 

 lyiartj and Correspondence of the lo/r Jtigii Hon. 

 Qeorge Ho.sc, \v., ami may be eon-idored farther 

 objectionable, as corroborating that infatuation 

 which is the only stain on his otherwise unblem- 

 ished reputation. 



After the battle of the Nile, a large medal by 

 Kuchler, commemorative of the victory, and beau- 

 tifully set in crystal, was presented to Lord 

 Nelson : on receiving it, he immediately presented 

 it to Lady Hamilton, saying, "this is yours by 

 undoubted right." It is well" known he nourished 

 the belief that it was through her influence with 

 the Queen of Naples he was enabled to encounter 

 the French ileet. 



A full description of this medal is unnecessary ; 

 but it is of gold, with an attempt to represent the 

 setting sun, the position of the fleets, with a me- 

 dallion likeness of the hero. H. D'Aveney. 



eaum'esi. 



Radicals in European Languages. — What 

 number (nearly) of the radical words of any of the 

 principal languages of Europe (especially Greek, 

 Latin, and Anglo-Saxon) are connected in origin 

 with Sanscrit roots? and what proportion does 

 the number of radicals so connected in any lan- 

 guage bear to the whole number of radicals in that 

 language ? J. V. F. 



Dublin. 



Church Chests. — I should be much obliged 

 to any of the learned correspondents of "N. & 

 Q." who would refer me to any treatise on church 

 chests, or inform me where I could find any ac- 

 count of these interesting and often beautifully 

 decorated remnants of bye-gone times. 



John P. Boilbau. 



Ketteringham Park, Wymondham. 



Rifle Pits. — These have been said to have 

 been first brought into use at Sebastopol, but in 

 the account of the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (Penin- 

 sidar Campaigns, vol. ii. p. 321.) which was un- 

 dertaken by Regnier in June, 1810, the author 

 describes the planting of a battery of forty-six 

 guns, and says "by this, and by riflemen stationed 

 in pits, the fire of the garrison was kept down, and 

 the sap was pushed to the glacis." So that rifle- 

 pits appear to have been in use half a century ago. 

 Is there any earlier notice of thein ? A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



Classical Claqueurs at Theatres. — A very 

 high authority, speaking of Percennius, who was 

 the ringleader of the formidable revolt of the Pan- 

 nonian Legions in the time of Tiberius (a. d. 14), 

 and was afterwards put to death by order of 

 Drusus, says that he had been originally em- 

 ployed in theatres to applaud or to hiss ; but 

 Bring to Taeiius {Arm, i. 16. &c), I find he 

 merely calls him '• dux olim theatralium opera- 

 rum," which I suppose would answer to some- 

 thing like our stage manager. Is there any other 

 authority for representing this Percennius as, 



