Majesty's school inspectors expect to find stored in the brains of bird-scaring boys before they will give a Government grant that shall satisfy the ratepayers. As the chairman of a Board School in a purely agricultural district, I can speak feelingly on the subject. But at the end of my first two years the new school, built in Stretton by the generosity of Lord Aveland, was ready for us, and while we were debating on what pension we could give to Mr. Joseph Spring he had another, and fatal, attack of paralysis. So I ceased to attend school at the "Ram Jam." the neighbourhood. Tom Cribb had slept a little further on, at the "Blue Bull." Their fight was recorded in a sculptured bas-relief, coloured to the life, in front of one of the cottages in Stretton. Not only was the inn much too small to receive and entertain a plethora of visitors for the night, but there was not the slightest probability that they would there wish to break their journey. Further on was the "Blue Bull," just mentioned, a poor place, and the "Black Bull," an important hostelry, with good accommodation and extensive stables, now the property of Robert Heathcote, Esq., of Manton, and a capital hunting-box; and in the Stamford direction, half a mile from the "Ram Jam," was the well-known and spacious Greetham Inn," sometimes marked on maps as "The Oak." It still bears its name of "inn,” though it has long ceased to be so, and its projecting bar-parlour, with the archway under which the coaches used to drive, disappeared some years ago. It is now a farm-house, and, with the "Ram Jam," is the property of G. H. Finch, Esq., M.P., Burleyon-the-Hill. On the first Monday in November the first meet of the Cottesmore hounds for the season is always held at the "Greetham Inn," and it is a well-known and popular fixture. There are also inns at Colsterworth, and with the famous hotels at Stamford and Grantham it is not probable that those who had not stayed the night at "The Haycock," at Wansford, would push on to stop at the "Greetham Inn," much more at the "Ram Jam." The real origin of the name took me several years to discover. I have often seen in print (elsewhere than on p. 92) the explanation that it was called the "Ram Jam" because, being a favourite inn, people flocked to it until it was choke-full, or rammed with guests. It is evident that those who believe in this wild idea have never seen the inn. It is of the shabbiest type, one room deep, and only a first floor over the ground floor. I know all its rooms upstairs and downstairs, and it was barely large enough to accommodate the Spring family. A drover may have occasionally got a night's lodging there, or Wombwell's man in advance to buy old, worn-out horses for feeding time at the menagerie. It usually passed along the North Road from Stamford to Colsterworth and Grantham on the day before "London Sunday," for which annual event Joseph Spring had to give the previous week's holiday to the Stretton scholars, as his sister wanted to prepare the club-room for the expected guests and the show folk, who stayed there The chief fame of both these inns consisted in half an hour or so to rest themselves and their the fact that they were about eight miles from horses. The elephants and camels had their lunch Stamford, and that the forty-four four-horse in the open air in front of the "Ram Jam," to the coaches that went to and fro daily from London to great enjoyment of the onlookers, who flocked York here changed horses, half of them at the thither from all the neighbouring villages. Years Ram Jam," and half at the "Greetham Inn." ago many of the shows used to stay over the Satur- An old man who had been ostler at that time told day on the broad stretches of green sward on either me that there were four night mails, and that as side of the road near to the "Ram Jam "; but this soon as they had got off the up mail they had to had ceased in 1871, and they all went on to Colster- make ready for the down mail. It will be reworth, there to open for the afternoon and even-membered that Nicholas Nickleby had not a very ing, and to make their way on to Grantham on "London Sunday." As to the origin of the phrase, I never could get nearer to it than this-that all these grand sights and shows were supposed to come from London. When Mr. Herbert Ingram established his famous illustrated paper he called it the London News, because he found from his own Lincolnshire experience that the country people believed all news to travel from the great metropolis. I never heard of but one eminent personage who tarried a night at the "Ram Jam," and that was the prizefighter Molyneux the Black, who slept there on the night previous to his defeat at Thistleton Gap at the fists of the redoubtable English champion Tom Cribb-a contest that was attended by all the aristocracy, gentry, and magistrates of 66 pleasant experience of this coach ride. When we got our new school at Stretton, I set on foot penny readings," and when I read that passage I took the liberty to introduce an interpolation descriptive of the immediate neighbourhood-the stoppage of the coach at the "Ram Jam," and the opportunity thereby seized by Mr. Whackford Squeers to get down and "stretch his legs." It was only Dickens-and-water, but was accepted as the genuine article. I doubt if Mr. Squeers called for "ram jam," which was not "a famous ale," like to that subsequently sold by Messrs. Goding, as mentioned by MR. G. LAMBERT (p. 92). It was a spirit, or rather a liqueur, sold in small bottles by the landlord of the "Winchilsea Arms." It was his own invention, and the secret died with him. He had lived long in India as an officer's servant, and had there obtained the secret of his liqueur, for which he coined the Indian-sounding title " ram jam. He sold it to passing travellers, just in the same way that Cooper Thornhill sold his new cheese to those who went by "The Bell," at Stilton, or slept there (as did Byron), buying a Stilton cheese as a matter of course. Byron's cheese was sent to John Murray. From the sale of the liqueur the small wayside public-house got to be known as the "Ram Jam" instead of the "Winchilsea Arms," though the latter title appeared on the sign up to September, 1878. I am sorry to say that the landlord's name has slipped my memory, and I am far away from my notes on the subject; but he seems to have accumulated property, and his spacious family tomb (of the tea-caddy shape) is immediately in front of the south porch of Stretton Church. In the parish register he is complimented by the word "Gent." placed after his name in the list of burials. It was somewhere about his time, or immediately after it, that the "Ram Jam" seems to have borne a doubtful reputation. I have been told many cock-and-bull stories concerning wealthy travellers who had stopped there, and had never been seen again. One day, when a hedge was being removed and a steep bank levelled in Lord Aveland's allotments, immediately in front of the "Ram Jam," the diggers came upon a heap of human bones. I was forthwith sent for, and went to the spot. "There, sir," said one of the diggers; "I've often told you of the murders as used to be done here, but you never believed me. What do you say to these bones?" As a matter of course, the "Ram Jam" was also connected with Dick Turpin and his fabulous ride. The story of the clever thief, quoted by ST. SWITHIN (p. 92), boring two holes in a barrel, and getting the landlord to ram and jam his fingers into the apertures, can be made ingeniously to fit in to this subject; but as it is a very common story, told of many inns in many counties, it may be dismissed from notice. All these stories speak of the landlord going down into the cellar, and it is but natural to suppose that the cellar was in its usual place. But it is a curious fact that the "Ram Jam" never had an underground cellar, but, as in the case of the cottages in its vicinity, the ground floor did not cover any receptacle for beer. Whatever was sold in the way of beer and spirits was stored in a small room to the right of the entrance, of which locked-up room Miss Spring kept the key. Some years since one of the specials of the Daily Telegraph enlivened the columns of his paper by the account of a walking tour, or "tramp.' His description of the scenery and surroundings between Grantham and Stretton was ludicrously incorrect, as also was his imaginary conversation with Miss Spring at the "Ram Jam," with the incident of her going down into the cellar to draw his beer. She begged me to contradict all that he had said concerning the "Ram Jam," and I wrote to the paper, where my letter never appeared, though the contradiction was given in the Grantham Journal. CUTHBERT BEDE. HENRY MARTYN.-A few facts about this learned and zealous man, now too little remembered, may be worth noting. The life was published just sixty-one years ago-" Memoir of the Rev. Henry Martyn, B.D., late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Chaplain to Hon. East India Company. Ninth Edition. London, J. Hatchard & Son, No. 187, Piccadilly, 1828." Like many other men eminent in various ways— such as Sir Humphry Davy, Bishop Colenso, and the late R. S. Hawker-Henry Martyn was a Cornishman, born at Truro, where a stately cathedral now testifies to the faith, on Feb. 18, 1781. His father, John Martyn, had originally been a working miner in the Gwenap mines, but rose in life by his own energy, and became chief clerk to Mr. Daniel, a Truro merchant. Young Henry, when between seven and eight years of age, was placed at the Truro Grammar School, of which the Rev. Cornelius Cardew was head master, at Midsummer, 1788. Martyn was a studious boy, but much bullied at school. In the autumn of 1795 he stood for a vacant scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the natives of the two dioceses of Winchester and Exeter (in virtue of the fact that the co-founders of C.C.C. Oxon., were Bishop Richard Foxe, of Winchester, and his friend Bishop Hugh Oldham, of Exeter) then, and up to 1853, having preference to scholarships, with right, subject to due approval, of subsequent succession to C.C.C. fellowships. While awaiting the result Martyn, through the interest of a Mr. Cole, sub-rector, lodged at Exeter College, not at Corpus. But for some reason Martyn was not elected to a Corpus scholarship, and therefore we cannot count him, as we can Hooker, Pocock (the Orientalist), General Oglethorpe (founder of Georgia), Dr. Arnold, the Rev. John Keble, and others, among the distinguished alumni of that society; also John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, who was first at Merton College, and was afterwards elected a scholar of Corpus Christi, Aug. 19, 1539. On Oct. 20 of the same year Jewel took the degree of "Bachelor of Arts, with great and general applause" (cf. Prince's 'Worthies of Devon, p. 528 of edition of 1810, and John Britton's History of Salisbury Cathedral,' Lond., 1814, pp. 42-3). I should have added another C.C.C. alumnus, the illustrious Bishop Henry Phillpotts, of Exeter. Martyn seems not to have regretted his failure at C.C.C., for he says in his Journal' that he was thankful that he failed to gain admission there, or at Oxford at all, since "the profligate acquaint ance I had there......would have introduced me to a scene of debauchery, into which I must in all probability, from my extreme youth, have sunk for ever." The picture is probably exaggerated; but, anyhow, life was coarser and more sensual then at both universities than, happily, it is now (ib., 288). Later in life this excellent man (who died, after his Indian work, a confessor, if not strictly a martyr, in Armenia, and whose zeal and sanctity were so appreciated that he was spontaneously given the funeral honours usually reserved for Armenian archbishops) proved that an enthusiast need not be also a bigot. He is claimed by the Evangelicals; but this is what Martyn himself says of the Roman Catholics, writing from Bankipore, in India, to the Rev. Dr. Corrie, on July 11, 1808:"The [Roman] Catholics in the regiment are 1,000 strong, and disposed to be malicious; they respect me, however, and cannot help thinking that I have been taught by Roman Catholics, or have been in some way connected with them. Certainly there is infinitely better discipline in the Romish Church than in ours, and if ever I am to be the pastor of native Christians, I should endeavour to govern with equal strictness." Martyn was ordained priest in March, 1805, at St. James's Chapel Royal, London. H. DE B. H. BOOK BOUND IN HUMAN SKIN.-In addition the specimens of binding in human skin that have already been registered in these columns, I beg leave to report a copy of Tegg's edition of Milton's 'Works,' 1852, formerly in the library of the late Ralph Sanders, Esq., of Exeter, and now in the Albert Memorial Museum of that city, which contains the following inscription: This Book is bound with a part of the skin of George Cudmore, who with Sarah Dunn were committed to the Devon County Gaol on the 30th of October, 1829, by Francis Kingdon, Esq., Coroner, for murdering and poisoning Grace Cudmore, his wife, in the Parish of Roborough, on the 14th day of October, 1829. Tried at the Lent Assizes, March, 1830. Judge-Sir John B. Bosenquet [ Bosanquet]. Under-Sheriff-H. M. Ellicombe, Esq. The inside cover contains the armorial book-plate of Mr. Sanders and a bookseller's ticket, "Sold by W. Clifford, Bookseller, &c., Exeter." The skin is "dressed" white, and looks something like pigskin in grain and texture. The culprit who furnished the material was a rat-catcher, about thirty years of age, short in stature, and humpbacked. He made especial prayer that his accomplice, Dunn, might be detained in gaol for the purpose of seeing him executed, which request seems to have been granted (though by what authority is not stated); and she was accordingly brought out, with a number of female convicts, into the prison yard, where she "This exceedingly popular burlesque, the precursor of a long line of similar entertainments, was first produced at the Haymarket Theatre, August 7th, 1810. The Author, Mr. William Barnes Rhodes, rests his reputation as a contributor to the stage entirely on this production, for he wrote no other, and the celebrity that it immediately acquired must be attributed as much to the novelty of the treatment and the exertions of the original actors as to its intrinsic merits. It is still frequently performed, and the opportunity it gives the actors for displaying a fund of drollery, apart from the lines they have to utter, has rendered it a favourite piece for private as well as public representation. It will give as much pleasure in the reading as many pieces of far higher pretensions." SALOPE. (See 7th S. vii. 140.)—The Editor, in his 'Notices to Correspondents,' seems to have misapprehended my note. I meant to convey that the Shropshire or Salopian lady, mistaken for a French aristocrat, said that she was born in or came from Salop, a place the mob was ignorant of; but, taking her answer literally, they burst out into laughter, and finally released her. The anecdote is quite authentic. The name of the lady might be readily ascertained in this county by inquiring among old inhabitants. C. H. DRINKWATER. [If the mob did not understand the supposed aristopoint of the story.] crat to use the vulgar term salope, we fail to see the FALSTAFF AND WYCLIF.-That Falstaff was at one time of his life a diligent singer of anthems we all know, but that he studied Wyclif's sermons in MS., and possibly went to Vienna for the purpose, is a new fact in his biography and a fresh claim on the respect of his admirers. Yet I believe that no earlier source for his characteristic remark about his "tallow" in 'Merry Wives,' V. v. 16, had been pointed out till Mr. F. D. Matthew spotted it a few days ago in the first proof of vol. iv. of Prof. Loserth's edition of Wyclif's 'Latin Sermons' for the Wyclif Society, p. 10, 1. 2. Our reformer is speaking of eight sets of "religious," the black and the white monks, the black and the white canons, and the four orders of mendicant friars and the money they draw out of England. He then says of them, "Ista autem octo faciunt regnum Anglie mingere sepum [sebum] suum." Who shall say that Falstaff did not read Wyclif and inspire Shakspere, or toe-tap him the information from the spirit-world? F. J. F. "To LISTER."-In some daily paper, either on or about Dec. 12, 1888 (in my note-book it is the Daily News of Dec. 12, but this is incorrect), I met with the expression "to lister a ship." I did not note the context, and so can now form no idea as to the meaning. I do not find the expression in any dictionary, and therefore send it to N. & Q.' F. CHANCE. Sydenham Hill. · BURNSIDE FAMILY.-Can any of your readers give me information concerning the family of a certain Robert Burnside, who was born at Glasgow in or about the year 1777? Was he related to the American Burnsides? He probably had a brother, as there is known to have been a Thomas Burnside, who was a cousin of his daughter's, resident in Glasgow in (about) 1820. We believe that an uncle of this Robert Burnside did settle in America, or that his immediate ancestors came from there. His crest was a crescent argent. A daughter of a Lieut.-Col. Burnside was married in 1813 to Col. Sir J. E. Thackwell. H. BURNSIDE. 39, Montserrat Road, Putney, S.W. DOUGLAS.-Was Lord James Douglas slain at Teba in 1328, when the Spaniards deserted him? I have read a splendid anecdote about his gallantry on the occasion. He was bearing the heart of the royal Bruce, in a silver box that he wore around his neck, to the Holy Land. He, finding himself deserted, flung the glorious relic before him into the thickest of the fray, crying, Pass first into the fight as thou wast wont to do,'Tis Douglas follows in thy train to die. The box was treasured at Jaen till, in the Spanish Revolution, 1848 (?), the reformers and patriots stole it. His own heart, in a silver box, is still preserved in the cemetery of the Douglas family. C. A. WARD. Walthamstow. 'HARVEY DUFF' AND 'THE PEELER AND THE GOAT.'-Can any of your readers help me to the words of these popular Irish ballads? The copies I have are obviously incomplete. H. HALLIDAY SPARLING. PUPPETS: COAL-WOOD.-The overseers' account book of Wakes Colne, Essex, under the year 1692, has this entry: "Paid for a hundred of pupets and 3 qrt. of a load of wood laid in for Hannah Knight 1. 9. 0." What are "pupets"? Perhaps some kind of faggot. For the year before the same Hannah Knight is allowed "2 loades of wood and a stack of coalewood," which cost 11. 10s.; and the year after "2 Load of Wood and 5 Quarters of Stackwood" at 11. 15. In 1690 occurs, "Paid for halfe a hund of tits for mary beets 0. 5. 0.” short faggots." I can find no explanation of "pupHalliwell's 'Dictionary' gives "Tit-faggots, small, pets." "Coal-wood" sounds like brushwood, such as was used as kindling matter in charcoal burning, and seems to be a convertible term with stack wood. Will any one who has studied the subject throw light on these terms? CECIL DEEDES. CONSTANTINE SIMONIDES.-Many years ago a little work was published, 'A Biographical Memoir of Constantine Simonides,' by Charles Stewart (London). The book is apparently scarce, as after BATTLE OF Kellinghausen.-Can any reader of 'N. & Q.' refer me to a more detailed account of the battle of Kellinghausen (July 16, 1761) than that give by Gen. Hamilton, in his ' History of the Grenadier Guards? G. W. REDWAY. COFFEE-HOUSE SIGN OR TITLE.-Where was "The Salopian" coffee-house, referred to in a trial in 1776, situate in London? I have searched in vain Larwood and Hotten's 'Signboards' and the 'London Directory' for 1775, 1777, and 1778. 1776 was not accessible. NEMO. Temple. SOPHY DAWS.-What became of Sophy Daws, her large fortune and estate ? SUBURBAN. BAFFLES.-In the 'Life of John Clare,' by Frederick Martin, 1865, p. 112, the peasant poet is described as feeling "painfully uncomfortable in his threadbare suit of labourer's clothes, patched top and bottom, with leather baffles and gaiters to match." Pray, what are baffles? The word is not to be found in Dr. Murray's New English Dictionary,' nor does it seem to have been known, with such a sense as would suit the passage quoted, to Grose, Halliwell, or Nares. Clare was a North Northamptonshire man; does baffle occur in the dialect of that district, or is it an invention of the biographer? JULIAN MARSHALL. Puritan, says: "Like Fleetwood, he cried in the bitterness of his soul that God had hid his face from him." To what circumstance in Fleetwood's life do these words refer? A. FELS. Hamburg. SEAGRAVE.-Can any one tell me how old the lordship of Seagrave, in North Leicestershire, is, and through what families it has passed? HISTORICUS. STUART EXHIBITION.-On the back of the silver case containing a miniature of Charles I., painted by Samuel Cooper, and signed S. C., there is the following inscription: Presented to P. G. W. Wickham Nov 5th 1744. It is curious that whilst the donor's name is given in full, only the initial letters of the recipient's name are given. The date is also interesting. I should be grateful for any suggestions as to who P. G. may have been-some one of importance, I should imagine, judging by the excellence of the miniature. W. M. C. 'LORD DERWENTWATER'S FAREWELL.'-Who is the author of 'Lord Derwentwater's Farewell,' beginning " Farewell to pleasant Dilston Hall." It is ascribed to Allan Cunningham. MAC ROBERT. Hastings. TREVELYAN.-I have not the advantage of personal acquaintance with any one of this name, but I have sometimes heard those who have pronounce it exactly as spelt, Trevelyan. I think, however, that as a boy I heard it called Trevilyan, which may perhaps be a shortening of Treve-lyan. I should like to know which is the more approved pronunciation, or that used by families bearing the name. JOHN W. BONE. [The name is pronounced ad libitum Trevelyan or Trevilian-never Trevelyan.] "POSSESSION IS NINE POINTS OF THE LAW."—— Lord Justice Bowen lately cited this as a proverb in the appeal in the Warminster pew case. What is the origin of it? I am aware of the corresponding expression, "Possession is eleven points of the law, and they say there are but twelve," in Ray and Swift; such phrases as "In pari causa possessor potior haberi debet" (Paulus, in L. xvii. 128), or "Sine possessione præscriptio non prowell as the notices in some former volumes of cedit" (Bonif. viii., in Sext. v. xii. reg. iii.); as N. & Q.' I have not Warren nor Broome by me. Hazlitt has, "Possession is nine points of the law" (English Proverbs,' p. 331, Lond., 1882), and so has Bohn ('Handbook of Proverbs,' p. 475, Lond., 1855). Clarke, in his 'Parcemo |