Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/370

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

364


NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 a m -JI-LY, 1917.


they related to the remarkable work done by the Bacchante in the Adriatic.

Is it too much to hope that the whole of the MS. recently submitted to your corre- spondent F. H. S. may some day be pub- lished, not only complete as originally written, but also freely annotated by some acknowledged expert in the political history of Dalmatia and Montenegro ?

GEORGE H. HOSTE.

Ingoldisthorpe, Dawlish.

ENGLISH TRAVELLERS IN THE NETHER- LANDS (12 S. iii. 333). I cannot deal with this query as I should have wished, asI am far from my notes and books ; but your Dutch correspondent will find some references to travellers in the Netherlands in my notes on ' Seventeenth-Century Travel in Europe ' (11 S. xii. 42, 63, 81) and 'Contributions to the History of European Travel ' (12 S. i. 61, 101, 141, 261). Of the travellers mentioned by HEER JENSEN, Mr. Mon- tague's journey is described in his ' Delights of Holland,' 1696.

MALCOLM LETTS, Lieut.

" TALBOT GWYNNE " (12 S. iii. 272). Miss Josepha Heath Gulston, who adopted the above pseudonym, was the elder daughter of Joseph Gulston of 20 Grosvenor Square, and Derwydd, Carmarthenshire, which has been in the possession of that family for over 800 years. She was born on Feb. 23, 1811, died unmarried on Nov. 15, 1859, and is buried at Ambusley in Worcestershire. In addition to the books cited by J. J. H., she wrote ' The Life of Silas Barnstarke ' and the ' School for Dreamers.' She also contributed Various stories to magazines &c., under the pseudonym of " Dead Shot." Her portrait was painted by W. Dobson, R.A., and belongs to the present owner oi Derwydd, W. A. Stepney Gulston, her nephew. WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

THE GORVIN HUNT (12 S. iii. 299). This hunt took its name from Gorvin, which is now a mere farmhouse on Bursdon Moor, in the parish of Hart land, North Devon, but had been for five hundred years or so the seat of the Prust family, of whom several were members of Parliament and two in succession abbots of Hartland monastery. At the end of the seventeenth century the property passed into the possession of the Luttrell family of Hartland Abbey, who were succeeded by Paul Orchard and a son of the same name. It is to the latter that the foundation of the hunt is due, the position being more central for hunting


purposes than the Abbey itself. This Paul Orchard was born in 1739, and wa^ for many years colonel of the northern regiment of

ounty militia, and four times member of Parliament for Callington. The date of the foundation of the hunt is apparently in- dicated by an inscription, " HVNT : 1769," in raised lettering over the mantelpiece in what I believe was the original hall. To the right of this mantelpiece is a large cup- board for spirits, &c., in which the " Gorvin Hunt " glasses were probably kept, though, in later years at any rate, the hunt break- fasts were held at West Country Inn. Gorvin still retains relics of its antiquity,

uch as a granite window, granite gateposts, a large well for smuggled goods (formerly approached by an opening at the top of the stairs), a very large ancient barn, &c. A painting of Col. Orchard with three of his friends, all members of the Gorvin Hunt, is still preserved at Hartland Abbey. There was also a painting of the Gorvin Hunt, showing the master and members, with the huntsman holding up a fox, in a panel over the dining-room mantelpiece of the King's Arms Hotel in Hartland town, but that has now disappeared. Col. Orchard died without issue in 1812, when the hunt pre- sumably came to an end. The glasses were made with exceptionally heavy and strong stems and feet, with the object of preventing breakage when they were banged on the table after drinking the toast of " The

Gorvin Hunt." R p EARSE CHOPE.

AMERICANISMS (12 S. ii. 287, 334, 414, 496; iii. 35, 115, 313). I have read the articles on this subject with much interest, and would like to add a few comments from the point of view of a native American.

Referring to the first note by MR. JOHN LANE, I should like to speak of the word " purse " as a receptacle for coins. The word is in common use in Boston and New England, and I have supposed it to be so in the United States generally. I have several " coin-purses " which were in use by my grandparents or earlier, and almost every one carries to-day a purse for silver coins and calls it by that name. During our Civil War (1861-5) silver coins went out of circulation, what was known as " frac- tional currency " or " scrip " (an Ameri- canism ?) being substituted for them. In- stead of gold coins "bank-notes" or " bank-bills^" were used. With no coins in circulation, purses became useless, and their place, as MR. LANE says, was taken by " pocket-books," also very generally called