Chapter L: M. M. R

_Mulciber._--Who was Mulciber, immortalised (!) in Garth's _Dispensary_ (ed. 1699, p. 65.) as "the Mayor Bromicham?" My copy contains on the fly-leaf a MS. key to all the names save this.

R. C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

_Captain Booth of Stockport_ (Vol. vi., p. 340.).--As yet, no reply to this Query has been elicited; but as it is a subject of some interest to both Lancashire and Cheshire men, I should like to ascertain from JAYTEE in what collection he met with the MS. copy of Captain Booth's _Ordinary of Arms_? Its existence does not appear to have been known to any of our Cheshire or Lancashire historians; for in none of their works do I find any mention of such an individual as Capt. Booth of Stockport. Sir Peter Leycester, in his _Antiquities of Bucklow Hundred_, Cheshire, repeatedly acknowledges the assistance rendered him by John Booth of Twanbow's _Book of Pedigrees_; but this gentleman appears merely to have collected for Cheshire, and not for Lancashire. Sir George Booth, afterwards Lord Delamere, is the only _Captain_ Booth I have met with in my limited sphere of historical research; and I am not aware that he ever indulged much in genealogical study.

T. HUGHES.

Chester.

"_A saint in crape._"--

"A saint in crepe is twice a saint in lawn."

Whence this line?

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.

_French Abbes._--What was the precise ecclesiastical and social _status_ of a French Abbe before the Revolution?

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

_What Day is it at our Antipodes?_--Perhaps you can give me a satisfactory answer to the following question, a reply to which I have not yet been able to procure.

I write this at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, July 12; at our Antipodes it is, of course, 11 a.m.: but is it 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 12, or on Wednesday, July 13? And whichever it is, what is the reason for its being so? for it seems to me that the solution of the question must be perfectly arbitrary.

H.

"_Spendthrift._"--In Lord John Russell's _Memorials of Charles James Fox_, vol. i. p. 43., there is a letter addressed to Mr. Richard Fitzpatrick, in which Mr. Fox asks "if he was in England when Lord Carlisle's _Spendthrift_ came out." And at the foot of the same page there is a note in which it is stated that this "was probably some periodical paper of 1767."

My object in writing the above is for the purpose of asking what publication the _Spendthrift_ really was, and where it can be purchased or seen?

W. W.

Malta.

_Second Growth of Grass._--The second growth of grass is known by different names in different localities. In some it is called _fog_, in others _after-math_ and _after-grass_. The former name is common about Uxbridge, and the latter about Stoke Pogis, in Buckinghamshire. In Hertfordshire it is {103} called _hugga-mabuff_; I am not certain that this is the correct spelling of the name, never having seen it either in writing or print. In Leicestershire and Cambridgeshire the name _eddish_ prevails, I am told, and hence _eddish cheese_, made from the milk of cows which have grazed _eddish_. Can any of your correspondents add to the above names, or throw a light upon their origin?

R. W. F.

Bath.

_The Laird of Brodie._--Can any of your correspondents explain what James V. of Scotland means in his celebrated ballad when he says:

"I thocht you were a gentleman,
At least the Laird of Brodie."

According to the literal meaning, it would seem that the Laird of Brodie was something less than a gentleman? Could his majesty intend to satirise the alleged royal descent of Brodie from Bruidhie, the son of Billi, king of the Picts (see James' _Critical Essay_), by insinuating that the "Picts" and their descendants were not entitled to be ranked as "Generosi?"