2» d S. IX. Jan. 28. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



73 



rived from a schoolboy's merry shout on the 

 arrival of tbe holidays, " Let's singe old Rose and 

 burn libellos," — meaning, " let us singe the mas- 

 ter's wig, and burn our books : " this, of course, 

 would only apply when the master's name was 

 Rose. These expressions, so widely spread 

 through the length and breadth of England, cer- 

 tainly had an origin in something. I shall like to 

 receive others than those I have thus — only half 

 in earnest — ascribed to them. Pishey Thompson. 

 Stoke Newington. 



Nathaniel Ward (1 st S. ix. 517.; 2 nd S. v. 

 319. ; viii. 46. 76.) — Since writing our former 

 letter respecting the loyal rector of Staindrop, our 

 attention has been drawn to the circumstance 

 that your correspondent Socius Dunelm (2 Dd S. 

 v. 319.) attributes to him the address prefixed to 

 Samuel Ward's Jethro's Justice of Peace, 1627. 

 We take it, however, to be clear that that address 

 was written by another Nathaniel Ward, who was 

 of Emmanuel College; B.A. 1599, M.A. 1603. He 

 was preacher at S. James's, Duke Place, London ; 

 afterwards beneficed in Essex, and died 1653. 

 As to him see Brook's Lives of the Puritans, iii. 

 182. C. H. & Thompson Cooper. 



Cambridge. 



Family of Constantine (2 nd S. viii. 531.) — 

 I conceive that your querist J. F. C. alludes to a 

 family whose pedigree, &c, is given in Hutchins' 

 Dorset, to which work 1 would refer him for full 

 particulars. 



William Constantine of Merly was born 1612 ; 

 educated and reader at the Middle Temple ; was 

 Recorder of Dorchester and Poole, and knighted 

 1668. His son Harry (by his first marriage) was 

 born 1642, and died 1712, having sold Merly to 

 — Ash of — , county Wilts, who in 1752 disposed 

 of it to Ralph Willett, proprietor of a large estate 

 at St. Christophers, W. I. 



Monuments of the Constantine family are to be 

 seen in the minster church of Wimborne. 



Hutchins' History and Antiquities of the County 

 of Dorset was originally published in 1774, a new 

 edition of which is about to be brought out by 

 Mr. Shipp, bookseller, Blandford, who would be 

 glad to receive corrections and additions from au- 

 thentic sources. Willett L. Adte. 



Merly House, Dorset. 



King James's Hounds (2 nd S. viii. 494.) — Per- 

 sons unaccustomed to old manuscripts are very apt 

 to mistake the contraction •£ for an e, and conse- 

 quently to read hoiunde for "howndes," as is twice 

 done in the extracts from the churchwardens' ac- 

 counts of Bray here printed. It is also necessary 

 to the uninitiated to explain that prepte means 

 "precept:" precepts were issued by the justices, 

 at the motion of the royal purveyors, to furnish 

 the king's and the prince's hounds with their re- 

 quisite provender. J. G. N. 



Longevity of Clerical Incumbents (2 nd S. 

 ix. 8.) — Besides the instance of clerical longevity 

 given by your correspondent in the case of the 

 Rev. John Lewis, late rector of Ingatestone in 

 the county of Essex, other instances can be given 

 occurring in the same county, and not very 

 far from Ingatestone. The parish of Stondon 

 Massey, distant about six miles from Ingatestone, 

 affords a remarkable instance, as it had only two 

 rectors during a period of 106 years, viz., the 

 Rev. Thomas Smith, who was presented to the 

 living in 1735, and died in 1791, when he was 

 succeeded by the Rev. John Oldham, who died 

 in 1841. Apropos to this subject is the following 

 extract from the volume of the Gentleman's Mag- 

 azine for 1791 : — 



" On January 19th, 1791, died the Rev. Thomas Smith, 

 Rector of Stondon Massey, Essex. He was one of the 

 five rectors of the five adjoining parishes, whose united 

 ages amounted to more than four hundred years. The 

 others were Harris ofUrensted, Henshaw of High Ongar, 

 Salisbury of Moreton, Kippax of Doddinghurst." 



At the present day, the parish of Kelvedon 

 Hatch, in the same county, has only had three 

 rectors in a century, viz. the Rev. John Cookson, 

 who was presented to the living in 1760 ; he died 

 in 1798, and was succeeded by the Rev. Ambrose 

 Serle, on whose death, in 1832, the Rev. John 

 Banister, the present highly esteemed and uni- 

 versally respected rector, was inducted into the 



livins 



A Subscriber. 



The Electric Telegraph half a Century 

 ago (2 nd S. ix. 26.)— In reply to A. A., I beg to 



say that, putting aside the anticipations of the 

 electric telegraph, which were numerous and 

 curious, Stephen Gray, a pensioner of the Charter 

 House in 1729, made electric signals through a 

 wire 765 feet long, suspended by silk threads. 

 Franklin's experiments (1748) and those of Ca- 

 vallo (1770) left electric telegraphy where they 

 found it. The first instrument that can be called 

 a telegraph was made by Mr. J. R. Sharpe, of 

 Doe Hill, near Alfreton, in 1813. This employed 

 the newly discovered voltaic electricity ; and thus 

 forms an epoch in the art of electric telegraphy. 

 M. Soemmering, also, in 1814, made a voltaic 

 electric telegraph. In the mean time, however, 

 the experiments of Mr. Ronalds, near Hammer- 

 smith, had been commenced ; and in 1816, that 

 gentleman constructed his telegraph, which was 

 a most simple and ingenious contrivance, but con- 

 tained one element of failure, for long distances, 

 viz. the employment of frictional electricity. To 

 him, however, belongs the merit of some of the 

 mechanical details adopted in modern telegraphs.* 

 He was, I believe, the uncle of Dr. Donaldson of 

 Cambridge. Clammild. 



Athen.-cum Club. 



* See Descriptions of an Electric Telegraph, and of 

 some other Electrical Apparatus. 8vo. London. 1823. 



