188 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2-i S. IX. Mar. 10. '60. 



well to explain here a few of the disabilities 

 under which aliens labour. Aliens are incapable 

 of taking by descent or inheriting; and since they 

 have no inheritable blood in them, they can have 

 no heirs. At common law, too, aliens could not 

 be the channels of descent, but by 11 & 12 Will. 

 III. c. 6. all persons, being natural-born subjects 

 of the sovereign, may inherit and make their titles 

 by descent from any of their ancestors, lineal or 

 collateral, although their father or mother, or 

 other ancestor, by, from, through, or under whom 

 they derive their pedigrees were born out of the 

 King's allegiance. This statute is modified by 

 25 Geo. II. c. 39., which provides (hat no right of 

 inheritance shall accrue by virtue of the last- 

 mentioned statute to any persons whatsoever, 

 unless they are in being, and capable of taking 

 as heirs at the death of the person last seized. 

 In case, however, lands shall descend to the 

 daughter of an alien, such descent shall be set 

 aside in favour of a posthumous or after-born 

 brother ; or the estate shall be divided with an 

 after-born sister or after-born sisters, according 

 to the usual rule of descents by the common law. 

 By section 5 of the statute of Victoria referred to 

 above, an alien, being the subject of a friendly 

 state, may hold any lands, houses, or other tene- 

 ments, for the purpose of occupation by him or 

 his servants, or for the purpose of any business, 

 trade, or manufacture, for a term not exceeding 

 twenty-one years, as fully as if he were a natural- 

 bom subject, except as to the right to vote at the 

 election of members of parliament. J. A. Pn. 



Archiepiscopal Mitres and Hats (2 nd S. ix. 

 67.) — May not the custom of adorning the mitres 

 of archbishops with a ducal coronet have taken its 

 rise from the circumstance that the tiara of the 

 Pope is ornamented with three coronets, while 

 that of the Patriarchs is similarly decorated with 

 two. The next grade (Archbishops) would seem 

 naturally entitled to one. 



I have, however, never seen the arms of any 

 foreign ecclesiastic timbred with a mitre rising 

 from a coronet, though a coronet is by no means 

 uncommonly placed above the shield and under 

 the hat. 



In the description of the external ornaments of 

 the arms of the French archbishops given in Simon's 

 Armorial General de V Empire Francois, I find 

 they were to be »' surmontes d'un chapeau rouge 

 a larges bords avec des cordons de soie de uieuie 

 couleur." Is there a mistake here, or did Napo- 

 leon really arrogate to himself the right to deco- 

 rate his archbishops with the red hat of a cardinal, 

 instead of the green one properly belonging to 

 their rank? J. W. 



" Keck-handed" (2 nd S. viii. 483.) — There is 

 a word in Irish signifying left-handed, in which 

 perhaps A. A. may find the origin of this expres- 



sion. The word to which I refer, if spelled in 

 English as it is pronounced, would look something 

 like " Kehogue." The Irish family name of 

 " Keogh " may have something to do with this. 

 How is the name of " Ehud," the left-handed 

 judge (mentioned in Judg. iii. 15.) spelt in He- 

 brew ? * C. Le Poer Kennedy. 

 St. Albans. 



Burial in a sitting Posture (2 nd S. ix. 44. 94. 

 131.) — I remember the funeral of a native Afri- 

 can named Yarrow, which took place at George- 

 town, adjacent to the city of Washington, in the 

 United States, about twenty-five years ago. The 

 deceased was very old (more than 120 years of 

 age), and had been brought direct from Africa 

 nearly a century before. Yarrow had evidently 

 been a person of importance in his native country. 

 He spoke and wrote Arabic fluently and readily, 

 and was a Mahometan in his religious faith. He 

 was buried, at his own urgent request, in a sitting 

 posture. 



One or two of the ex-royal family of Oude 

 were, I think, buried in a similar posture in Paris, 

 a very few yeats ago. Pishev Thompson. 



Stoke Xewington. 



Songs and Poems (2 nd S. ix. 123.) — I have a 

 little book, answering Ai.oysius's description in 

 every respect but the extent of paging : mine 

 having "Finis" upon p. 156., where an "Epitaph 

 to a late Ordinary of Newgate" ends. The half- 

 title is, Delicia Poeticce ; or, Parnassus Display d, 

 8fc. The full title, Mirth Diverts all Care ; being 

 Excellent New Songs, conposed by the most Sele- 

 brated [sic] Wits of the Age, on Divers Subjects, viz. 

 (here follow a list of the leading pieces, twenty- 

 five in number,) with many more rare Songs 

 ivorlhy of the Reader's Esteem. London : printed 

 and sold by the Booksellers of London and West- 

 minster, 1715. The running title throughout, 

 " Songs and Poems, &c." The book perfect, an- 

 swering to the table of contents ; Preface four 

 pages, signed "Philomusus." J. 0. 



Gumption (2 nd S. ix. 125.)— Mr. S. Pegge, in 

 his Supplement to Grose, gives — " Gumtion, un- 

 derstanding, contrivance. He has no gumtion, i.e. 

 he sets about it awkwardly — Kent. From gawm." 

 Under the last word he gives — " Gawn well now, 

 i.e. take heed. Yet a great gawming fellow means 

 also awkward and lubberly —North." " Gawm- 

 less, stupid, awkward, lubberly." In this sugges- 

 tion we seem to have the "better" derivation that 

 shall " set aside the -whole" of those offered in the 

 Editorial answer. Is "gumptious" ever used? 



The word gumption reminds me of bumptious, 

 for which I have long sought a satisfactory deri- 

 vation. Some time ago I met with a note by the 

 Rev. If. Christmas to this effect : " At the TJni- 



[* Ehud in Hebrew is TinX.] 



