Hand in Bishop Canning's Church.—In Bishop Canning's Church, Wilts, is a curious painting of a hand outstretched, and having on the fingers and thumb several inscriptions in abbreviated Latin. Can any correspondent tell me when and why this was placed in the church; and also the inscriptions which appear thereon?

Russell Gole.

"I put a spoke in his wheel."—What is the meaning of the phrase, "I put a spoke in his wheel?"

In April last, a petition was heard in the Rolls Court on the part of the trustees of Manchester New College, praying that they might be allowed to remove that institution to London; and a single trustee was heard against such removal. One of the friends of the college was on this occasion heard to remark, "the removal to London was going on very smoothly, and it would have been done by this time, if this one trustee had not put his spoke in the wheel:" meaning, that the conscientious scruple of this trustee was the sole impediment to the movement. Is this the customary and proper mode of using the phrase; and, if so, how can putting a spoke to a wheel impede its motion?

On the other hand, having heard some persons say that they had always understood the phrase to denote affording help to an undertaking, and confidently allege that this must be the older and more correct usage, for "what," say they, "is a wheel without spokes?" I inquired of an intelligent lady, of long American descent, in what way she had been accustomed to hear the phrase employed, and the answer was "Certainly as a help: we used to say to one who had anything in hand of difficult accomplishment, 'Do not be faint-hearted, I'll give you a spoke.'"

Dr. Johnson, in the folio edition of his Dictionary, 1755, after defining a spoke to be the "bar of a wheel that passes from the nave to the felly," cites:

G. K.

Sir W. Hewit.—At p. 159. of Mr. Thoms's recent edition of Pulleyn's Etymological Compendium, Sir W. Hewit, the father-in-law of Edward Osborne, who was destined to found the ducal family of Leeds, is said to have been "a pin-maker." Some other accounts state that he was a clothworker; others again, that he was a goldsmith. Which is correct; and what is the authority? And where may any pedigree of the Osborne family, previous to Edward, be seen?

H. T. Griffith.

Passage in Virgil.—Dr. Johnson, in his celebrated Letter to Lord Chesterfield, says, in reference to the hollowness of patronage: "The shepherd, in Virgil, grew at last acquainted with Love; and found him a native of the rocks." To what passage in Virgil does Johnson here refer, and what is the point intended to be conveyed?

R. Fitzsimons.

Dublin.

Fauntleroy.—In Binns' Anatomy of Sleep it is stated that a few years ago an affidavit was taken in an English court of justice, to the effect that Fauntleroy was still living in a town of the United States.

Can any of your correspondents refer me to the circumstance in question?

C. Clifton Barry.

Animal Prefixes, descriptive of Size and Quality.—Will somebody oblige me by pointing out in the modern languages any analogous instances to the Greek ??, English horse-radish, dog-rose, bull-finch, &c.?

C. Clifton Barry.

Punning Devices.—Sir John Cullum, in his Hist. of Hawsted, 1st edit. p. 114., says that the seal of Sir William Clopton, knight, t. Hen. VII., was "a ton, out of which issues some plant, perhaps a caltrop, which might be contracted to the first syllable of his name." This appears to be too violent a contraction. Can any of your readers suggest any other or closer analogy between the name and device?

Buriensis.

"Pinece with a stink."—In Archbishop Bramhall's Schism Guarded (written against Serjeant) there is a passage in which the above curious expression occurs, and of which I can find no satisfactory, nor indeed any explanation whatever. The passage is this (Works, vol. ii. p. 545., edit. Ox.):

"But when he is baffled in the cause, he hath a reserve,—that Venerable Bede, and Gildas, and Foxe in his Acts and Monuments, do brand the Britons for wicked men, making them 'as good as Atheists; of which gang if this Dinoth were one,' he 'will neither wish the Pope such friends, nor envy them to the Protestants.'

"What needeth this, when he hath got the worst of the cause, to defend himself like a pinece with a stink? We read no other character of Dinoth, but as of a pious, learned, and prudent man."

Can any of your readers furnish an explanation?

R. Blakiston.

Soiled Parchment Deeds.—Having in my possession some old and very dirty parchment deeds, and other records, now almost illegible from the accumulation of grease, &c., on the surface of the skins, I am desirous to know if there be any "royal road" to the cleansing and restoration of these otherwise enduring MSS.?

T. Hughes.

Chester.

Roger Wilbraham, Esq.'s Cheshire Collection.—Can any of your correspondents say where the original collection made by the above-named gentleman, or a copy of them, referred to in Dr. Foote Gower's Sketch of the Materials for a Cheshire History, may now be met with?

Cestriensis.

Cambridge and Ireland.—In the first volume of the Pictorial History of England, p. 270., it is stated that—

"Martin skins are mentioned in Domesday Book among the commodities brought by sea to Chester; and this appears from other authorities to have been one of the exports in ancient times from Ireland. Notices are also found of merchants from Ireland landing at Cambridge with cloths, and exposing their merchandise to sale."

The authority quoted for this statement is Turner, vol. iii. p. 113.

On referring to Turner's Anglo-Saxons, I find it stated:

"We read of merchants from Ireland landing at Cambridge with cloths, and exposing their merchandise to sale."

Mr. Turner refers to Gale, vol. ii. p. 482.

I do not know to what work Mr. Turner refers, unless to Gale's Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores Veteres; on examining this I can find no passage at the page and volume indicated, on the subject.

Can any of your readers state where it is to be found? It appears remarkable that the merchants from Ireland should land at the inland town of Cambridge, and it seems a probable conjecture that Cambridge is a mistake for Cambria.

William of Malmesbury speaks of a commerce between Ireland and the neighbourhood of Chester, and it seems much more probable that the merchants of Ireland landed in Wales than in Cambridge.

John Thrupp.

Derivation of Celt.—What is the proper derivation of the word celt, as applied to certain weapons of antiquity? A good authority, in Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, p. 351., obtains the term from—

"Celtes, an old Latin word for a chisel, probably derived from cÆlo, to engrave."

Mr. Wright (The Celt, Roman, and Saxon, p. 73.) says that Hearne first applied the word to such implements in bronze, believing them to be "Roman celtes or chisels;" and that—

"Subsequent writers, ascribing these instruments to the Britons, have retained the name, forgetting its origin, and have applied it indiscriminately, not only to other implements of bronze, but even to the analogous instruments of stone."

And he objects to the term "as too generally implying that things to which it is applied are Celtic." On the other hand, Dr. Wilson (Prehistoric Annals, p. 129.) prefers to retain the word, inasmuch as the Welsh etymologists, Owen and Spurrell, furnish an ancient Cambro-British word celt, a flint stone. M. Worsaae (Primeval Antiq., p. 26.) confines the term to those instruments of bronze which have a hollow socket to receive a wooden handle; the other forms being called paalstabs on the Continent. It seems clear that there is no connexion between this word and the name of the nation (CeltÆ); but its true origin may perhaps be elicited by a little discussion in the pages of "N. & Q."

C. R. M.

Ancient Superstition against the King of England entering or even beholding the Town of Leicester.—The existence of a superstition to this effect is recorded in Rishanger's Chronicle, and also, as I am informed, in that of Thomas Wikes; but this I have not at present an opportunity of consulting.

Rishanger's words are:

"Rex [Henricus III.] autem, capta Norhamptun., Leycestr. tendens, in ea hospitatus est, quam nullus regni prÆter eum etiam videre, prohibentibus quibusdam superstitiose, prÆsumpsit."—P. 26.

It is also mentioned by Matthew of Westminster. (Vide Bohn's edition, vol. ii. p. 412.) The statement, that no king before Henry III. had entered the town, is however incorrect, as William the Conqueror and King John are instances to the contrary.

Can any of your correspondents explain the origin of this superstition, or favour me with any farther notices respecting it?

It is not unworthy of observation that very many of the royal personages who have visited Leicester, have been either unfortunate in their lives, or have met with tragical deaths.

We may, however, hope, for the credit of the town, that their misfortunes may be attributed to other causes, rather than to their presence within its time-hallowed walls.

Wm. Kelly.

Leicester.

Burton.—Is there any family of this name who can make out a descent from, or connexion with, a Mr. John Burton, alderman of Doncaster, who died 1718?

C. J.

The Camera Lucida.—I should feel much obliged to any reader of "N. & Q." who would be kind enough to answer the following questions, and refer me to any work treating of the handling and management of the Camera Lucida. I have one made by King of Bristol, and purchased about thirty years ago: it draws out, like a telescope, in three pieces, each six inches long; and at full length will give a picture of the dimensions of twenty inches by twelve. The upper piece is marked from above downwards, thus: at two inches below the lens, "2;" at an inch below that point, "3;" at half an inch lower, "4;" at half an inch lower still, "5;" half an inch below the point "5," a "7" is marked; and half an inch below the "7," there is a "10;" at seven-eighths below this last, "D" is marked. What reference have these nicely graduated points to the distance of an object from the instrument? Do the figures merely determine the size of the picture to be taken? How is one to be guided in their use and application to practice?

Caret.

Francis Moore.—Francis Moore was born at Bakewell about the year 1592, and was Proctor of Lichfield Cathedral at the time of the Great Rebellion. I am anxious to know who were his parents, and what their place of abode.

Edward Peacock.

Bottesford Moors, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

Waugh, Bishop of Carlisle.—What were the family arms of Dr. John Waugh, Bishop of Carlisle, who died October 29, 1734? Was he of a Scotch family, and are any of his descendants now living?

Rufus.

Palace at Enfield.—We read that there was formerly a royal palace at Enfield in Middlesex, ten miles north from London; and one room still remains in its original state. Can you, or any of your subscribers, inform me whereabouts in the town it is situated? Also, the date of erection of the church?

Hazelwood.

"Solamen miseris," &c.—Please to state in what author is the following line? No one knows.

"Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris."

A Constant Reader.

Soke Mills.—Correspondents are requested to communicate the names of "Soke" or Manorial Mills, to which the suit is still enforced.

S. M.

Second Wife of Mallet.—The second wife of Mallet was Lucy Elstob, a Yorkshire lady, daughter of a steward of the Earl of Carlisle. Can any of your readers inform me at what place in Yorkshire her father resided, and where the marriage with Mallet in 1742 took place? She survived her husband, and lived to the age of eighty years. Where did she die, and what family did Mallet leave by his two wives?

F.

Leamington.