Chapter L: M. M. R

_Mary, Daughter of King James I. of Scotland._--This princess is stated to have been married to the Count de Boucquan, son of the Lord of Campoere in Zealand, and she had at least one son, born 1451: any information as to her husband's family, her own death, &c. is requested; for all notitia of our royal princesses are interesting.

A. S. A.

Wuzzeerabad.

_Hibernicis Hibernior._--Whence, and what the proper form of this proverbial expression?

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.

_The Cucking-stool, when last used._--Can any of the correspondents of "N. & Q." inform me of the latest period at which this instrument of punishment for scolds is recorded to have been used {261} in England? The most recent instance mentioned by Brand was at Kingston-upon-Thames, in 1745. In Leicester, however (and probably elsewhere), the practice continued to a much later period, as appears by the following entry in our municipal accounts for the year 1768-69:

"Paid Mr. Elliott for a cuckstool by order of Hall, 2l."

I have been informed by an octogenarian inhabitant of this town, that he recollects, when a boy, seeing the cucking-stool placed, as a mark of disgrace, against the residence of a notorious scold; and the fact of this use of it here at so comparatively recent a period has been confirmed by another aged person, so that this practice probably obtained for some years after the punishment by immersion, or exposure upon the cucking-stool, had fallen into desuetude.

Did a similar use of the instrument prevail in other places about the same period?

I may mention that an ancient cucking-stool is still preserved in our town-hall.

LEICESTRIENSIS.

_Grafts and the Parent Tree._--Is there any ground for a belief that is said to prevail among horticulturists, that the graft perishes when the parent tree decays?

J. P.

Birmingham.

_Conway Family._--Is it true that Sir William Konias (founder of the Conway family) was Lord High Constable of England under William the Conqueror? The Welsh pedigrees in the British Museum assert as much, and that he married Isabel, daughter of Baldwin, Earl of Blois; but it does not appear that there was a Count of Blois of that name.

URSULA.

_Salt._--Dugdale, in his _Antiquities of Warwickshire_, p. 294., speaking of the town of Leamington, says:

"All that is further observable touching this place is, that nigh to
the east end of the church there is a spring of salt water (not above a
stone's throw from the river Leame), _whereof the inhabitants make much
use for seasoning of meat_."

Was salt a scarce article in the midland counties in those days?

When and where was the first salt-mine established in England?

ERICA.

_Geological Query._--Can any of your geological readers inform me what is the _imagined_ reason that there is no increase of temperature in Scandinavia (as there is everywhere else) in descending into mines?

M--A L.

_Wandering Jew._--I am anxious to learn the authority on which this celebrated myth rests. I am aware of the passage in John's Gospel (xxi. 21, 22, 23.), but I cannot think that there is no other foundation for such an extraordinary belief. Perhaps on the continent some legend may exist. My object in inquiring is to discover whether Eugène Sue's _Wandering Jew_ is purely a fictitious character, or whether he had any, and, if any, what authority or tradition on which to found it.

TEE BEE.

_Frescheville Family._--In what work may be found the tradition, that the heir of the family of the House of Frescheville never dies in his bed?

F. K.

_The Wednesday Club._--Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." refer me to any notice of this club, which existed about a century back in the city of London?

CHARLES REED.

Paternoster Row.

_Oratories._--In a parish in the county of Essex there is a pretty little brick chapel, or "oratory," as it is called there, with a priest's house attached at the west end, of about the thirteenth century; the length of both chapel and house being thirty feet, and the width fifteen. There is also a field called "Priest's Close," which was probably the endowment.

Can any of your correspondents inform me if there are many such places of worship in England, and, if so, to mention some, and where any accounts of them may be found?

It is quite clear that this oratory had no connexion with the parish church, being a mile distant, and seems more likely to have been erected and endowed for the purpose of having mass celebrated there for the repose of the founder's soul?