r
S. I. MAR. 19, '98.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
229
Elizabeth Percy. Can any of your corre-
- pondents inform me to what branch of the
Nicholson family he belonged ? I find them n Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmore- and, North Yorkshire, and North Lancashire. Che family tradition would point to Cumber- and, but the marriage with Percy would ather point to Northumberland. I should >e glad also to know who was the Lady ' ;abeth Percy. ISAAC W. WARD.
jlfast.
- KATHERINE KINRADE." Can any one tell
ne whether this incident, as recorded in Hall Maine's ' Little Manx Nation ' (p. 95), is his- torically correct, and, if so, refer me to any authentic sources of verification 1 The pathetic story is too severe a reflection on Bishop "Wilson to let it pass unchallenged.
J. B. S.
'THE BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON. I have heard it more than once asserted
- hat the "Islington " of this well-known ballad
s a village in Norfolk, not very far from Cing's Lynn. What, if any, is the authority for this statement ; and are there valid reasons for not identifying the place with the better- known Islington, which now forms part of the London district ? C. S. JERRAM.
Oxford.
[See 5 th S. iii. 289; xii. 408, 513.]
16TH LIGHT DRAGOONS. "What were the various stations of this regiment between 1760 and 1800 ? BERMUDA.
" MASCOT." The 'Century Dictionary' says that mascot is French. I do not find it, however, in Littre's four folios, nor yet in his fifth supplementary volume. What is its etymology 1 It was the name of the steamer in which I sailed eleven years ago from Havana to Florida. JAMES D. BUTLER.
REFERENCE SOUGHT. In one of Wilkie Ceiling's novels there is an amusing descrip- tion of the Lord Mayor of London, contrast- ing his official pomp with his social and political insignificance. Will any one supply the reference ? ANTI-TURTLE.
POEM AND AUTHOR WANTED. Will some readers of ' N. & Q.' tell me where I can find a certain short poem whose first two lines are as follows 1
Behold this ruin, 'twas a skull, Once of ethereal spirit full. Is the author of these lines known ?
DALLAS GLOVER. Kansas, U.S.
[See 7 th S. xii. 481 ; 8 th S. i. 96 ; ii. 193.]
HEBERFIELD AND THE BANK OF
ENGLAND. (8 th S. xii. 504 ; 9 th S. i. 97, 173.)
SLENDER BILLY, like Shylock, Haidee's father, and other well-known members of the pre- datory class, had a daughter, who is the heroine of an unfinished poem called ' The Fields of Tothill.' This fragment, written in the manner of ' Beppo,' though declared by the author to have been composed before that " clever, rambling little story " appeared, will be found in a work entitled ' The Fancy : a Selection from the Poetical Remains of the late Peter Corcoran, of Gray's Inn, Student at Law,' Taylor & Hessey, 1820. According to the prefatory memoir, Mr. Corcoran was born in 1794 at Shrewsbury, which he describes in rather unflattering terms, calling it "a town not very celebrated for men either of talent or genius, but proverbial for the
Eride and arrogance of its inhabitants, and )r the excellence of its cakes." As Corcoran left Shrewsbury at a very early age, he was probably a better judge of the confectionery for which the town is famed than of the character of the inhabitants, and his state- ments on the subject must be accepted with more than the usual grain of salt. At the age of seven he was sent to Shrewsbury School, of which he has left a striking little silhouette as it existed in the days of Dr. Butler. On leaving school he went to Oxford, and subsequently entered himself of Gray's Inn, where he cultivated the muses with great vehemence. It is, of course, known that ' The Fancy ' was written by John Hamilton Reynolds, the friend of Keats and brother-in- law of Hood, and the memoir of Corcoran doubtless embodies many of Reynolds's own experiences. Like his hero, Reynolds was a Salopian by birth, having been born at Shrewsbury in 1796. In 1803, when, like Corcoran, he was seven years old, he entered Shrewsbury School, his name coming second among the entrances of that year.* In 1806 bis family moved to London, and it is remark- able that so forcible a picture of school life as lie has depicted could remain in the memory of a boy of ten.
Slender Billy also figures in a classical work of fiction known as 'Handley Cross.' The reader is introduced to his dog-fighting establishment at p. 173, and his subsequent
- This fact does not seem to have been known to
he writer of Reynolds's memoir in the * Diet. Nat. Biog.'
