Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/430

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354


NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XIL OCT. so, im


There is another Spanish ad- jective roano, meaning that which conies from Rouen, Rouenese ; and, as the cele- brated breed of Percheron horses came originally from Perche, situated between Normandy and Maine, the late Canon Taylor's suggestion that the colour was named after the Rouen horses impresses one strongly with its verisimilitude. As the prevailing colour of horses is bay, the two significations of Span, roano, sorrel and Rouenese, would naturally become amal- gamated in the one word, which would readily be taken over by the other European languages, including English. I notice that Prof. Skeat in his ' Etymological Dictionary ' rejects Taylor's proposed etymology as lacking in proof. Span, roano, sorrel, is probably a variant spelling of ruano.

N. W. HILL. New York.

REV. BROOKE HECKSTALL (10 S. xii. 247). I have to acknowledge a debt of gratitude owing to MB. HECKSTALL-SMITH for his kind reply to my query, communicated to me direct. At the same time I should like to remark that if any other correspondent can furnish me with information, I trust he will not consider himself precluded from doing so. WILLIAM McMuRRAY.

HEREDITARY HERB-STREWER TO THE ROYAL FAMILY (10 S. xii. 289). In ' Magnse Britannise Notitia : or, The Present State of Great-Britain,' by J o lm Chamberlayne, " The Two and Twentieth Edition of the South Part call'd England, and First of the North Part call'd Scotland," 1708, is a list of ' The Queen's [Queen Anne's] officers and Servants in Ordinary above-Stairs, under the Lord Chamberlain,' pp. 608-14. They occupy many columns, and in nearly every case the holders of the offices are given, till at the end, without any names of holders, appear

' Moletaker.

' Strewer of Herbs.

' Card-Maker.

' Yeoman Arras-worker.

' Taylor to the Great Wardrobe.

' Shipwright and Barge-builder.

' Mathematical Instrument Maker.

' Embroiderer.

' Cabinet-maker.

' Operator for the Teeth.

' Comedians, 4.

  • Serjeant Skinner.

'Tuner of the Organs/'

The above are under " Other Servants to the Queen."

In 'The Royal Kalendar for the year

1809,' p. 128, of that part which contains


the King, the House of Peers, &c., and ends with the colony of Sierra Lione, is a list of " Tradesmen " (in the Lord Chamberlain's Department of the King's Household). There are thirty-nine offices or trades, of which some are held by several persons, e.g. :

"Locksmiths, John Hanson and son, George Davis, M. Bidwell.

"Locksmith at Kensington Palace and Hyde Park, Joshua Worsley.

"Printers, Cha. Eyre, And. Strahan, M.P., and John Reeves, F.R.S. esqrs."

Towards the end are :

"Pencil-makers, Jn. Middleton & Son.

"Rat-Killer, John Mitchell.

" Herb-strewer, Miss M. Rayner, 24Z.

"Master of the Barges, Richard Roberts, lOOf. a Year.

"Distiller, Charles Bedell."

No salaries appear in this list of " Trades- men," except those of the Herb-strewer and the Master of the Barges.

Possibly the duty of the herb-strewer was to strew herbs in the palaces, as they used to be strewn in the Old Bailey and such places as disinfectants. Compare Dickens's ' Tale of Two Cities,' chap. ii.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

'The Annual Register, 1821,' p. 356, in giving an account of the coronation of George IV., has the order of the procession from Westminster Hall to the Abbey, com- mencing with

"The King's Herb Woman, Miss Fellowes with her six Maids, Miss Garth, Miss Collier, Miss Ramsbottom, Miss Hill, Miss Daniel, arid Miss Walker, strewing the way with Herbs. All these ladies were splendidly dressed in white. Miss Fellowes wore, in addition, a scarlet mantle, trimmed with gold lace."

The procession moved from Westminster Hall at 35 minutes before 10, and " very soon afterwards Miss Fellowes, the King's herb-woman, and her six maids, were seen scatter- ing flowers on the blue cloth with which the centre of the platform was carpeted."

R. J. FYNMORE. Sandgate, Kent.

ROBERT CROZIER, MANCHESTER ARTIST (10 S. xii. 308). This excellent artist and amiable man was born at Blackburn in 1815, but spent most of his life at Manchester, where he died on 6 Feb., 1891.

His son George Crozier, himself an artist of ability, resides at Bolton-le-Sands, Cam- forth. His elder daughter Anne, also an artist, died at Manchester on 22 September last.

Robert Crozier is commemorated in Black- burn by his portrait in stained glass being placed in a window in the School Board