Notes and Queries, Number 44, August 31, 1850

Notes and Queries, Number 44, August 31, 1850

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes & Queries, No. 44, Saturday, August
31, 1850, by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Notes & Queries, No. 44, Saturday, August 31, 1850 A Medium Of Inter-Communication For Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, Etc.
Author: Various
Release Date: September 10, 2004 [EBook #13426]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
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"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
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No. 44.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1850 [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.
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CONTENTS
NOTES:
Gravesend Boats 209 Notes on Cunningham's Handbook of London, by E.F. Rimbault 211 Devotional Tracts belonging to Queen Katherine Parr, by Dr. Charlton 212 Suggestions for cheap Books of Reference 213 Rib, why the first Woman formed from 213 Minor Notes:--Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper--Mistletoe on Oaks--Omnibuses--Havock--Schlegel on Church Property in England 214
QUERIES: P. Mathieu's Life of Sejanus 215 The Antiquity of Smoking 216 Sir Gregory Norton, Bart. 216 Minor Queries:--City Offices--Meaning of Harefinder--Saffron-bag--Bishop Berkley's successful Experiments--Unknown Portrait--Custom of selling Wives--Hepburn Crest and Motto--Concolinel--"One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church"--The Norfolk Dialect--Sir John Perrot--"Antiquitas s?culi juventus mundi" 216
REPLIES: Derivation of "News" 218 Replies to Minor Queries:--Swords worn in Public--Quarles' Pension--Franz von Sickingen--"Noll me tangere"--Dr. Bowring's Translations--Countess of Desmond--Yorkshire Dales--Sir Thomas Herbert's Memoirs--Alarum--Practice of Scalping among the Scythian's--Gospel Tree--Martinet--"Yote" or "Yeot"--Map of London--Woodcarving, Snow Hill--Waltheof--The Dodo--"Under the Rose"--Ergh, Er, or Argh--Royal Supporters--The Frog and the Crow of Ennow 218 MISCELLANEOUS:
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 222 Books and Odd Volumes Wanted 223 Notices to Correspondents 223 Advertisements 223
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NOTES
GRAVESEND BOATS.
While so much has been said of coaches, in the early numbers of "Notes and Queries" and elsewhere, very little notice has been taken of another mode of conveyance which has now become very important. I think it may amuse some of your readers to compare a modern Gravesend boat and passage with the account given by Daniel Defoe, in the year 1724: and as it is contained in what I believe to be one of his least known works, it may probably be new to most of them. In his _Great Law of Subordination_, after describing the malpractices of hackney coachmen, he proceeds:
"The next are the watermen; and, indeed, the insolence of these, though they are under some limitations too, is yet such at this time, that it stands in greater need than any other, of severe laws, and those laws being put in speedy execution.
"Some years ago, one of these very people being steersman of a passage-boat between London and Gravesend, drown'd three-and-fifty people at one time. The boat was bound from Gravesend to London, was very full of passengers and goods, and deep loaden. The wind blew very hard at south-west, which being against them, obliged them to turn to windward, so the seamen call it, when they tack from side to side, to make their voyage against the wind by the help of the tide.
"The passengers were exceedingly frighted when, in one tack stretching over the stream, in a place call'd Long-Reach, where the river is very broad, the waves broke in upon the boat, and not only wetted them all, but threw a great deal of water into the boat, and they all begg'd of the steersman or master not to venture again. He, sawey and impudent, mock'd them, ask'd some of the poor frighted women if they were afraid of going to the Devil; bid them say their prayers and the like, and then stood over again, as it were, in a jest. The storm continuing, he shipp'd a great deal of water that time also. By this time the rest of the watermen begun to perswade him, and told him, in short, that if he stood over again the boat would founder, for that she was a great deal the deeper for the water she had taken in, and one of them begg'd of him not to venture; he swore at the fellow, call'd him fool, bade him let him alone to his business, and he would warrant him; then used a vulgar sea-proverb, which such fellows have in their mouths, 'Blow Devil, the more wind, the better boat.'
"The fellow told him in so many words he would drown all the passengers, and before his face began to strip, and so did two more, that they might