LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1889.

CONTENT S.-N° 163.

NOTES:-Precious Metals in the British Isles, 101—The Candlemas Bleeze, 103-English Canting Songs-Indictments against Gaming-Mrs. or Miss, 104-Dummy-Bears' Suicide -Epitaph on J. R. Green-St. Mark's-8loyd, 165-Fotheringay Castle-Folk-lore in the Azores-Wordsworth Blanket-Lip-bruit- Coaching Days'-Eyelashes suddenly becoming White, 106.

clay slates, as in the Snowdonian range, and traces of gold have been found in the toadstone of Derbyshire. A cobalt mine was also discovered at Gwenap, Cornwall, in 1754, and gold and silver have both been found at Helston and Endillion, in the last-mentioned county; antimony also at the latter place.

REPLIES:- The Ingoldsby Legends,' 109-Chains of StrawGenealogical, 110-"Dolce far niente"-Silvain-Mermaid Once a Week'-Touch, 111-T. Dray-Cromwell and Carlisle Cathedral-A Mayor's Title - Carbonari-Anson's Voyages, 112-Herrington Churchyard - Seringapatam, 113 The Fox and Vivian"-Death Warrant of Charles I. -Proverb-Arrant Scot"-Crabbe's Tales of the Hall,' 114-Frances Cromwell-Early English and Late GothicRelics of Charles L., 115-Comitatus Cereticus-Westgate The Termination "kon"-"Sneck posset"-T. Payne-T. Harrison-Society of Kabbalists, 116-Corfe Castle-Kissing under the Mistletoe-Sandal Gates-J. Rollos-Porchas, 117-Kissing-Sons of Edward III.-Iron Coffins-The Dominican Rule-Heraldic-' Christa Sangítá,' 118.

Kerry in 1755.

The Romans worked gold in Carmarthenshire, and the washings down of the Carnon Stream Mine, near Perran, "used to bring away many sorts of metal with curious bits of gold."

At Helmsdale, in Sutherlandshire, gold is said to have been worked in the granite (?) some years ago, and a piece weighing 26 oz. was found in Wicklow in 1795. In the papers of the Bannatyne Club (1825) is one on the 'Discoverie and Historie of Gold Mynes in Scotland, 1619.'

Camden mentions gold and silver mines in Cumberland, and a mine of silver in Flintshire. In the former county the finding of gold and silver intermixed with common ore gave rise to a lawsuit

claimant.

Notes.

PRECIOUS METALS IN THE BRITISH ISLES.

The question of royalties in connexion with goldmining industry in the British Isles having been lately (November 8) debated in Parliament, the following notes, gathered from time to time from miscellaneous sources, may not prove uninteresting, At all events, if added to, or otherwise enlarged upon, by the correspondents of 'N. & Q.,' they may possibly form the nucleus of a collection of valuable material bearing upon the question and its bibliography. I have not at hand the sources from which the extracts and condensed accounts were made, nor (except where stated) the references as to whence derived, so that a few errors of transcription may possibly occur. In other respects the whole may be taken as from fairly trustworthy

A paper concerning gold mines in Scotland also occurs in appendix 10 to the second part of 'Pennant's Tour in Scotland,' 1772; and in September, 1853, Mr. Calvert read a paper on the production of gold in the British Isles before the British Association, in which he stated that, from his own explorations and researches, he believed gold was to be found in forty counties in these islands, and over an area of 500 square miles. "The largest known nuggets hitherto were one of 3 lb. from Lanarkshire, and three of 2 lb. from there and Wicklow." He predicted the finding of gold fields in the clay slate of Canada.

With respect specially to gold, in Pollux Hill, near Silsoe, Beds,

"was discovered in 1700 a mine of gold, which, being immediately seized for the king, according to law, it was let to some persons who employed labourers and artificers to purify it";

but it was not found sufficient "to answer the expense."

In the same year another mine was discovered in a village called Taynton, on the northern borders of the Forest of Dean, of which a lease was granted to some refiners, who extracted gold from the ore; and Borlase, in the 'History of Cornwall,' relates that in 1753 several pieces of gold were found in what the miners call "stream tin."

In Wales, 5,300 oz. were produced near Dolgelly in 1863, and 720 oz. in 1875-8. This, I believe, refers only to the mines worked in the Mawddach Valley, where the present operations are being carried on.

In Scotland operations appear to have extended over a much longer period, particularly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and over a wide

area.

In 1511-13 James IV. had gold mines worked "in Crawfurd Muir, in the upper ward of Lanarkshire," a peculiarly sterile tract, scarcely any part of which is less than a thousand feet above the sea. In the royal accounts for those years there are payments to James Pettigrew, who seems to have been the chief of the enterprise; to Simon Northberge, the chief refiner; Andrew Ireland, the finer; and Gerald Essemer, a Dutchman, the "milter of the mine."

In 1526 James V. gave a company of Germans a grant of the mines of Scotland for forty-three years, and they are said to have "toiled laboriously at gold digging for many months in the surface of the alluvia of the moor, and obtained a considerable amount of gold.

In 1563-4 the queen granted to John Stewart, of Tarlaw, and his sons, licence "to win all kinds of metallic ore" from the country between Tay and Orkney. In the event of their finding gold or silver, "where none was ever found before," they had the same licence, paying one stone of ore for every ten won, and the arrangement to last for nine years, the first two of which were to be free.

In 1567 the Regent Murray granted licence to Cornelius de Voix, a Dutchman, for nineteen years to search for gold and silver in any part of Scotland; and he so far persuaded the Scots to " confederate," that they raised a stock of 5,000l. Scots (equal to about 4161. sterling), and worked the mines under royal privilege. He appears to have had "six score men at work in the valleys and dales." He employed "both lads and lasses, and the men and women who before went a-begging." He profited by their work, and "they lived well and contented." They sought for the metal by washing the detritus in the bottom of the valleys, and received a mark sterling for every ounce they realized.

One John Gibson survived so late as 1619 in the village of Crawford to relate how he had gathered gold in these valleys "in pieces like birds' eyes and birds' eggs, the best being found," he said, "in Glengaber Water, in Ettrick, which was sold to the Earl of Morton."

"Cornelius within the space of thirty days sent to the cunyie-house, Edinburgh, as much as eight pound weight of gold, a quantity which would now bring 4501. sterling."

The adventure was subsequently taken up by one Abraham Gray, a Dutchman, resident in England, "commonly called 'Greybeard,' from his having a beard which reached to his girdle." He hired country people at fourpence a day to wash the detritus round the Harlock Head for gold, some of which was presented by the Regent Morton to the French

king in the shape of a basin of natural gold filled with gold pieces, also the production of Scotland. In 1580 one Arnold Bronkhorst, a Fleming, and a group of adventurers worked gold mines in Lanarkshire, and one Nicholas Hilliard, goldsmith, of London, and miniature painter to Queen Elizabeth, is said to have belonged to the company.

1582-3. A contract was entered into between the king (James VI.) and one Eustachius Roche, "a Fleming and mediciner," whereby he was to be allowed to break the ground anywhere, and use timber from the royal forests in furthering the work, without molestation, for twenty-one years, on the sole condition that he "delivered for his Majesty's use for every 100 oz. of gold found 7 oz.," and "for all other metals (silver, copper, tin, and lead) 10 oz. for every 100 oz. found; and sell the remainder of the gold for the use of the state at 221. per ounce of utter fine gold, and of silver at 50s. the ounce." This must be, of course, Scots currency. (Privy Council Records.)

In 1596 an edict was issued to Robertson and Henderland forbidding them to continue selling their gold gotten in Crawfurd Muir to merchants for exportation, "but to bring it to the King's cunyie-house to be sold there at the accustomed price for the use of the state" (Privy Council Records).

In 1616 Stephen* Atkinson was licensed by the Privy Council" to search for gold, and the Saxeer, and Alumeer and the Salyneer stanes" in Crawfurd Muir, on conditions similar to the former grants; and in 1621 a similar licence was granted to a Dr. Hendlie ('Domestic Annals of Scotland').

During the eighteenth century there appears to have been a lull in gold seeking and finding in the North. In the Moffat Times, however, of July, 1859, it is stated that

"Mr. Griffin, a gentleman from Leamington, has this week passed through Moffat provided with all tools necessary for gold digging and washing, accompanied by two miners from Leadhills. The scenes of their explorations are to be the head of Moffat side and in the neighbourhood of St. Mary's Loch."

With regard to the finding of silver in England, the most interesting particulars are to be found in connexion with the well-known Combe Martin Mines, Devon. These are known to have been worked in or about 1300, in the reign of Edward L, and with great success during the French wars of his grandson and Henry V.

Circa 1587, in the reign of Elizabeth, a new lode was discovered here by Sir Beavis Bulmer, who was able to present Her Majesty with a cup made out of the ore. This cup, or one similar to it, was presented by the queen to W. Bouchier, Esq., of Bath, when lord of the manor, as appears by the inscription :

*This is elsewhere given as Samuel.

The waters 'gan to reare,

Dispersed I, in the earth did lye
Since all beginninge olde,

In place called Coombe, where Martyn longe
Had hydde me in his molde.

I did no service in the Earth,

And no man set me free,

Till Bulmer by his skille and charge
Did frame mee this to bee.

Another cup, weighing 137 oz., was made of the same silver, and presented by Elizabeth to Sir R. Martin, Lord Mayor of London. It bore these lines:

In Martyn's Coombe long lay I hydd
Obscured, deprest with grossest soyle,
Debaséd much with mixéd lead

Till Bulmer came, whose skille and toyle
Refined me so pure and cleane,

As richer nowhere els is seene.

These mines were tried again in 1813. In 1835 the works were opened without success, and they were closed in 1848. The smelting-house was erected in 1845.

Ecton Copper Mine, in Staffordshire, was at one time rich in the ore, as was also Crennes Mine, in Anglesea; whilst the value of silver produced by the lead mines of Col. Beaumont, in Northumberland and Durham, was not less than 4,000l. per

annum.

Scotland again comes to the front with this precious metal :

"On the west of Linlithgow there is a place called Silver Mill, where there was a silver mine. Silver was taken from it and coined at Linlithgow during the reign of one of the Scottish kings......Some of the groat pieces so coined are to be found in the cabinets of the curious. .The mine and tract adjoining is now the property of the Earl of Hopetoun," Prisons of Mary, Queen of Scots.'

Some, at least, of the "Eccles silver pennies found in 1864, and evidently minted at Edinburgh, were no doubt of Scottish silver. They are of William I. ("The Lion") of Scotland.

May 8, 1608. "This day commenced an unfortunate adventure of the king [James I.] for obtaining silver in certain mines at Helderstone, in the county of Linlithgow. Some years before a collier named Sandy Maund, wandering about the burn sides in that district, chanced to pick up a stone containing veins of clear metal, which proved to be silver."

This he was advised to submit to Sir Beavis Bulmer at Leadhills, who was engaged gold seeking there. The consequence was that some very hopeful masses of ore were found, and

"a commission was appointed by the king, with the consent of Sir Thomas Hamilton, his Majesty's Advocate, the proprietor of the ground, for making a search for silver ore with a view of trying it at the mint."

In January, 1608, thirty-eight barrels of ore, weighing in all 20,220 lb., were packed and sent to the Tower of London. This ore is said to have

given "24 oz. of silver to every hundredweight," and some double the quantity. Samuel Atkinson, who was engaged working the mine, tells how "on some days he won as much silver as was worth 1001. The shaft, indeed, received the name of 'God's Blessing.' A result so favourable aroused the king's cupidity, and, advised by Hamilton, he purchased "God's Blessing" for 5,000l., and worked it at the public expense. Bulmer was its governor. A mill for refining the metal was established at 46 on the water Leith, and others, with workshops, running out of Linlithgow Loch." No substantial success, however, appears to have resulted.

The same mine was granted to Sir William Alexander, Thomas Foulis, and Paulo Pinto, a Portuguese, in 1613, "on condition of their paying a tenth of the refined ore to the crown." The scene of these mining operations is still to be found to the east of Cairn-apple Hill, four miles south of Linlithgow, and a neighbouring excavation for limestone is named from it the "Silver Mine Quarry." Many further particulars respecting these mines will be found in Chambers's 'Domestic Annals of Scotland,' and in extracts given from the Privy Council Records. It seems also that silver was discovered in Ireland as early as 1294.

There appears little doubt from the foregoing imperfect collection of notes that Mr. Calvert's surmise that the precious metals are to be found scattered in varying quantity over a large portion of the British Isles, and that their presence is not confined to Wales is correct; whilst in these days of closer scientific knowledge of the subject and of improved machinery and methods for winning the metals, Dr. Clark's belief, as expressed in the House, that if easy royalties were fixed and licenses for prospecting issued, a great deal of gold and silver would be found "all over the United Kingdom," would be realized. R. W. HACKWOOD.

THE CANDLEMAS BLEEZE.-Saturday, Feb. 2, was Candlemas Day. I am reminded thereby of an old custom that I should be glad to have recorded in 'N. & Q.' My father, sometime Governor and Captain General of the colony of Sierra Leone, was born about 1804. As a very small child he attended a parish school in the 'Redgauntlet' country, hard by the Solway. It was then the custom, as I have been informed, on Candlemas Day for every scholar to carry, as an offering to the schoolmaster, a gift of peats, varying in number according to the distance to be traversed and the strength of the pupil. This duty was known by the name of the "Candlemas bleeze" (i. e., blaze). Any one acquainted with the incomparable nature of the peats from the Lochar Moss

that terror to English troops and sanctuary for Border reivers-cut from a jetty soil as black as ink and smooth and soft as butter, and, when dried

in the sun, the thin slices approaching coal in hardness, will understand what a welcome addition to the master's winter store of fuel was thus pleasantly provided.

Probably this was about the last of an ancient custom; for in looking over, many years ago, some old accounts of the expenses connected with my father's education, there occurs an item of money paid to the schoolmaster "in lieu of the Candlemas bleeze."

I have heard of a similar contribution being made to the parish schoolmaster in other parts of Scotland, where peat was not so common nor so good. It took the form of an offering of candles. I am sorry I can give no date for this latter instance of the survival of what was probably a custom dating from early Popish days.

ALEX. FERGUSSON, Lieut.-Col.

Lennox Street, Edinburgh.

ENGLISH CANTING SONGS.-W. Harrison Ainsworth, in his preface to 'Rookwood,' claims to have done more than his predecessors in having written a purely flash song-viz., " Nix, my dolly, pals, fake away"-of which he says:

"The great and peculiar merit consists in its being utterly incomprehensible to the uninformed understanding, while its meaning must be perfectly clear and perspicuous to the practised patterer of Romany or Pedlar's French."

But he claims too much, since there is a canting
song in the first part of "The English Rogue:
Described in the Life of Meriton Latroon, a Witty
Extravagant. Being a Compleat History of the
most Eminent Cheats of Both Sexes. London,
Printed for Henry Marsh, at the Princes Arms in
Chancery Lane, 1665," reprinted by Chatto &
Windus, 1874, p. 45, beginning thus :-

Bing out bien Morts, and toure, and toure,
Bing out bien Morts, and toure;

For all your Duds are bing'd awast'
The bien Coves hath the loure.h

I met a Dell,' I viewed her well,
She was benship to my watch;
So she and I did stall, and cloy,'
Whatever we could catch.

This Doxie Dell can cut bien whids,"
And wap fell for a win";
And prig and cloy so benshiply,

All the Deusea-vile° within.

And so on in the same elegant style, which renders Ainsworth's famous "Nix, my dolly," in comparison, "less than nothing and vanity." This curious and far from edifying work consists of four parts, which were written by Richard Head and Francis Kirkman, the latter a voluminous

b Bien, good, or well. Morts, women. Duds, goods. A wast wasted, h Loure, money. Dell, wench. Stall? conceal. 1 Cloy, steal. speak well to tell lies cleverly. Deusea-vile, the country.

• Bing, to go. a Toure, to look out. lost. Cove, man. Benship, very well. m Cut bien whids, to a Win, a penny.

233, Cambridge Street, Glasgow.

INDICTMENTS AGAINST GAMING DURING THE COMMONWEALTH.—

"18 February, 1650/1.-Information, laid by William Lippiatt before Justices of the Peace assembled in S.P. at Hicks Hall in St. John's street Co. Midd. on the said day, against Thomas Leich feild late of the parish of St. James Clerkenwell, for keeping in the said parish a common gaming house for dice, tables, and cardes, and a certain unlawful game called Shovegroate alias Slidethrift, and a bowling alley, and a certain unlawful game called Ninepins alias Cloiscailes, against the form of the statute.-S.P.R., 18 February, 1650/1."

N. B. In the informations of this period against keepers of gaming-houses shovegroate and ninepins are usually described with these aliases of slidethrift and cloiscailes.

"14 March, 1653/4.-Recognizances, taken before Richard Powell, Esq', J.P., of Timothy Thorner, of Andrew's, Holborne, gentleman, in the sum of forty pounds, and of John Thorner, of Barnard's Inn, London, gentle

man, and Emma Thorner, of Andrew's, Holborne, singleappearance of the said Timothy Thorner at the next woman, in the sum of twenty pounds each; For the G.S.P. for Middlesex, 'to answer to Anthony Hynde, of London, baker, for cheating him by the new way called the Trepan.' Also, similar Recognizances, taken on the same day, for the appearance of Brace Wallwin, of Gyles the same Anthony Hynde 'for cheating him by the new in the feeldes, barber, at the same G.S.P., to answer to way called the Trepan.'

Both the above recognizances are copied from the 'Middlesex County Records,' vol. iii., edited by Mr. J. C. Jeaffreson. S.P. stands for Session of Peace; S. P. R., Session of Peace Roll; and G.S.P., General Session of Peace.

What was the unlawful game of Shovegroate or Slidethrift; and the new way of cheating called "trepan"?-and I have heard of ninepins, but not cloiscailes. W. BETHELL.

Rise, E. Yorks.

MRS. OR MISS.-It is stated on p. 505 of the last volume that "Mrs." was a common appellation of unmarried ladies in the days of Alexander Pope. This witness is true; nor are we ignorant that the alternative appellation, Miss," was originally no better than it should be. Miss," however, has long since passed from the ranks of vice to those of virtue, and now reigns there, sternly triumphant. Yea, and so completely hath she triumphed that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, her rival "Mrs." is among unmarried ladies no longer used at all. Looking