Notes and Queries, Number 68, February 15, 1851 | Page 5

them ribbons of
blue.'"--Numb. xv. 38.
E. L. N.
"By Hook or by Crook."--The destruction caused by the Fire of London,
A.D. 1666, during which some 13,200 houses, &c., were burnt down,
in very many cases obliterated all the boundary-marks requisite to
determine the extent of land, and even the very sites occupied by
buildings, previously to this terrible visitation. When the rubbish was
removed, and the land cleared, the disputes and entangled claims of
those whose houses had been destroyed, both as to the position and
extent of their property, promised not only interminable occupation to
the courts of law, but made the far more serious evil of delaying the
rebuilding of the city, until these disputes were settled, inevitable.
Impelled by the necessity of coming to a more speedy settlement of
their respective claims than could be hoped for from legal process, it
was determined that the claims and interests of all persons concerned
should be referred to the judgment and decision of two of the most
experienced land-surveyors of that day,--men who had been thoroughly
acquainted with London previously to the fire; and in order to escape
from the numerous and vast evils which mere delay must occasion, that
the decision of these two arbitrators should be final and binding. The
surveyors appointed to determine the rights of the various claimants
were Mr. Hook and Mr. Crook, who by the justice of their decisions

gave general satisfaction to the interested parties, and by their speedy
determination of the different claims, permitted the rebuilding of the
city to proceed without the least delay. Hence arose the saying above
quoted, usually applied to the extrication of persons or things from a
difficulty. The above anecdote was told the other evening by an old
citizen upwards of eighty, by no means of an imaginative temperament.
J. D. S.
Putney, Feb. 1. 1851.
[We insert the above, as one of the many explanations which have been
given of this very popular phrase--although we believe the correct
origin to be the right of taking fire-bote by hook or by crook. See
NOTES AND QUERIES, Vol. i., pp. 281. and 405.]
Record of Existing Monuments.--I have some time since read your
remarks in Vol. iii., p. 14. of "NOTES AND QUERIES," on the Rev. J.
Hewett's Monumentarum of Exeter Cathedral, and intend in {117} a
short time to follow the advice you have there given to "superabundant
brass-rubbers," of copying the inscriptions in the churches and
churchyards of the hundred of Manley. The plan I intend to pursue is,
to copy in full every inscription of an earlier date than 1750; also, all
more modern ones which are in any way remarkable as relating to
distinguished persons, or containing any peculiarity worthy of note.
The rest I shall reduce into a tabular form.
The inscriptions of each church I shall arrange chronologically, and
form an alphabetical index to each inscription in the hundred.
By this means I flatter myself a great mass of valuable matter may be
accumulated, a transcript of which may not be entirely unworthy of a
place on the shelves of the British Museum.
I have taken the liberty of informing you of my intention, and beg that
if you can suggest to me any plan which is better calculated for the
purpose than the one I have described, you will do so.

Would it not be possible, if a few persons in each county were to begin
to copy the inscriptions on the plan that I have described, that in
process of time a copy of every inscription in every church in England
might be ready for reference in our national library?
Perhaps you will have the goodness, if you know of any one who like
myself is about to undertake the task of copying inscriptions in his own
neighbourhood, to inform me, that I may communicate with him, so
that, if possible, our plans may be in unison.
EDW. PEACOCK, JUN.
Bottesford Moors, Messingham, Kirton Lindsey.
[We trust the example set by Mr. Hewett, and now about to be followed
by our correspondent, is destined to find many imitators.]
* * * * *
Queries.
FIVE QUERIES AND NOTES ON BOOKS, MEN, AND AUTHORS.
1. Newburgh Hamilton.--Can any of your readers inform me who
Newburgh Hamilton was? He wrote two pieces in my library, viz. (1.)
Petticoat Plotter, a farce in two acts; acted at Drury Lane and Lincoln's
Inn Fields, London, 1720, 12mo. This has been mutilated by Henry
Ward, a York comedian, and actually printed by him as his own
production, in the collection of plays and poems going under his name,
published in 1745, 8vo., a copy of which I purchased at Nassau's sale,
many years since. (2.) The Doating Lovers, or the Libertine Tamed, a
comedy