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

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.]
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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 in five acts; acted in Lincoln's Inn Fields. It is dedicated to the Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon, whose "elegant taste and nice judgment in the most polite entertainments of the age," as well as her "piercing wit," are eulogised. Accident gave me a copy of Mr. Hamilton's book-plate, which consists of the crest and motto of the ducal race of Hamilton in a very curious framework,--the top being a row of music-books, whilst the sides and bottom are decorated with musical instruments, indicative, probably, of the tastes of Mr. Hamilton.
2. The Children's Petition.--I have also a very extraordinary little