Farrant's Anthem.—From what source did Farrant take the words of his well-known anthem, "Lord, for thy tender mercies' sake?"

C. F. S.

Ascension Day Custom.—What is the origin of the custom which still obtains in St. Magnus and other city churches, of presenting the clergy with ribbons, cakes, and silk staylaces on Ascension Day?

C. F. S.

Sawbridge and Knight's Numismatic Collections.—In Snelling's tract on Pattern Pieces for English Gold and Silver Coins (1769), p. 45., it is stated, in the description of a gold Coin of Elizabeth, that it is "unique, formerly in the collection of Thomas Sawbridge, Esq., but at present in the collection of Thomas Knight, Esq., who purchased the whole cabinet."—Can any of your readers inform me who this Mr. Knight was, and whether his collection is still in existence; or if it was dispersed, when, and in what manner? I am not aware of any sale catalogue under his name.

J. B. B.

"The spire whose silent finger points to heaven."—I have met with, and sometimes quoted, this line. Who is its author, and in what poem does it occur?

J. W. T.

Dewsbury.

Lord Fairfax.—In the Peerage of Scotland I find this entry:

"Fairfax, Baron, Charles Snowdon Fairfax, 1627, Baron Fairfax, of Cameron; suc. his grandfather, Thomas, ninth baron, 1846. His lordship resides at Woodburne, in Maryland, United States."

Fairfax is not a Scotch name. And I can find no trace of any person of that family taking a part in Scotch affairs. Cameron is, I suppose, the parish of that name in the east of Fife.

I wish to ask, 1st. For what services, or under what circumstances, the barony was created?

2ndly. When did the family cease to possess land or other property in Scotland, if they ever held any?

3rdly. Is the present peer a citizen or subject of the United States? If so, is he known and addressed as Lord Fairfax, or how?

4thly. Has he, or has any of his ancestors, since the recognition of the United States as a nation, ever used or applied for permission to exercise the functions of a peer of Scotland, e.g. in the election of representative peers?

5thly. If he be a subject of the United States, and have taken, expressly or by implication, the oath of citizenship (which pointedly renounces allegiance to our sovereign), how is it that his name is retained on the roll of a body whose first duty it is to guard the throne, and whose existence is a denial of the first proposition in the constitution of his country?

Perhaps Uneda, W. W., or some other of your Philadelphia correspondents, will be good enough to notice the third of these Queries.

W. H. M.

Tailless Cats.—A writer in the New York Literary World of Feb. 7, 1852, makes mention of a breed of cats destitute of tails, which are found in the Isle of Man. Perhaps some generous Manx correspondent will say whether this is a fact or a Jonathan.

Shirley Hibberd.

Saltcellar.—Can any of your readers gainsay that in saltcellar the cellar is a mere corruption of saliÈre? A list of compound words of Saxon and French origin might be curious.

H. F. B.

Arms and Motto granted to Col. William Carlos.—Can any reader of "N. & Q." give the date of the grant of arms to Col. William Carlos (who assisted Charles II. to conceal himself in the "Royal Oak," after the battle of Worcester), and specify the exact terms of the grant?

.

Naval Atrocities.—In the article on "Wounds," in the Encyc. Brit., 4th edition, published 1810, the author, after mentioning the necessity of a surgeon's being cautious in pronouncing on the character of any wound, adds that "this is particularly necessary on board ship, where, as soon as any man is pronounced by the surgeon to be mortally wounded, he is forthwith, while still living and conscious, thrown overboard," or words to this effect, as I quote from memory. That such horrid barbarity was not practised in 1810, it is needless to say; and if it had been usual at any previous period, Smollett and other writers who have exposed with unsparing hand all the defects in the naval system of their day, would have scarcely left this unnoticed when they attack much slighter abuses. If such a thing ever occurred, even in the worst of times, it must have been an isolated case. I have not met elsewhere with any allusion to this passage, or the atrocity recorded in it, and would be glad of more information on the subject.

J. S. Warden.

Turlehydes.—During the great famine in Ireland land in 1331, it is said that—

"The people in their distress met with an unexpected and providential relief. For about the 24th June, a prodigious number of large sea fish, called turlehydes, were brought into the bay of Dublin, and cast on shore at the mouth of the river Dodder. They were from thirty to forty feet long, and so bulky that two tall men placed one on each side of the fish could not see one another."—The History and Antiquities of the City of Dublin from the Earliest Accounts, by Walter Harris, 1766, p. 265.

This account is compiled from several records of the time, some of which still exist. As the term turlehydes is not known to Irish scholars, can any of the readers of "N. & Q." say what precise animal is meant by it, or give any derivation or reference for the term?

U. U.

Dublin.

Foreign Orders—Queen of Bohemia.—It is well known that in some foreign Orders the decorations thereof are conferred upon ladies. Can any of your correspondents inform me whether the Order of the Annunciation of Sardinia, formerly the Order of the Ducal House of Savoy, at any time conferred its decorations upon ladies; and whether the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Queen of Bohemia, ever had the decoration of any foreign order conferred upon her? In a portrait of her she is represented with a star or badge upon the upper part of the left arm.

S. E. G.

Pickard Family.—Is the Pickard, or Picard, family, a branch of which is located in Yorkshire, of Norman origin? If so, who were the first settlers in England; and also in what county are they most numerous?

One of the Family.

Bradford.

Irish Chieftains.—Some account of the following, Historical Reminiscences of O'Byrnes, O'Tooles, O'Kavanaghs, and other Irish Chieftains, privately printed, 1843, is requested by

John Martin.

Woburn Abbey.

General Braddock.—Can any of your readers furnish me with information relative to this officer? His disastrous expedition against Fort Du Quesne, and its details, are well known; but I should like to know something more of his previous history. Walpole gives an anecdote or two of him, and mentions that he had been Governor of Gibraltar. I think too he was of Irish extraction. Is there no portrait or engraving of Braddock in existence?

Serviens.