Replies to Minor Queries.
The Claymore (Vol. viii., p. 365.).—I believe there is no doubt that the true Scottish claymore is the heavy two-handed sword, examples of which are preserved at Dumbarton Castle, and at
Hawthornden, and respectively attributed to William Wallace, and to Robert the Bruce. The latter is a very remarkable specimen, the grip being formed either of the tusk of a walrus or of a small elephant, considerably curved; and the guard is constructed of two iron bars, terminated by trefoils, and intersecting each other at right angles. The blade is very ponderous, and shorter than usual in weapons of this description.
The claymore of modern times is a broadsword, double or single-edged, and provided with a basket hilt of form peculiar to Scotland, though the idea was probably derived from Spain. Swords with basket hilts were commonly used by the English cavalry in the reigns of Charles I. and II., but they are always of a different type from the Scotch, though affording as complete a protection to the hand. I possess some half-dozen examples, some from Gloucestershire, which are of the times of the civil wars. There are many swords said to have been the property of Oliver Cromwell; one is in the United Service Museum: all that I have seen are of this form.
W. J. Bernhard Smith.
Temple.
Temple Lands in Scotland (Vol. viii., p. 317.).—Your correspondent Abredonensis, upon a reference to the undernoted publications, will find many interesting particulars as to these lands, viz.:
1. "Templaria: Papers relative to the History, Privileges, and Possessions of the Scottish Knights Templars, and their Successors the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, &c. Edited by James Maidment. Sm. 4to. 1828-29."
2. "Abstract of the Charters and other Papers recorded in the Chartulary of Torphichen, from 1581 to 1596; with an Introductory Notice and Notes, by John Black Gracie. Sm. 4to. 1830."
3. "Notes of Charters, &c., by the Right Hon. Thomas Earl of Melrose, afterwards Earl of Haddington, to the Vassals of the Barony of Drem, from 1615 to 1627; with an Introductory Notice, by John Black Gracie. Sm. 4to. 1830."
4. "Fragmenta Scoto-Monastica: Memoir of what has been already done, and what Materials exist, towards the Formation of a Scottish Monasticon; to which are appended, Sundry New Instances of Goodly Matter, by a Delver in Antiquity (W. B. Turnbull). 8vo. 1842."
The "Introductory Notices" prefixed to Nos. 2. and 3. give full particulars of the various sales and purchases of the Superioritus, &c., by Mr. Gracie and others.
T. G. S.
Edinburgh.
Lewis and Sewell Families (Vol. viii., p. 388.).—Your correspondent may obtain, in respect to the Lewis family, much information in the Life and Correspondence of Matthew Gregory Lewis, two vols. 8vo., London, 1839, particularly at pp. 6. and 7. of vol. i. He will there find that Matthew Lewis, Esq., who was Deputy Secretary of War for twenty-six years, married Frances Sewell, youngest daughter of the Right Hon. Sir Thos. Sewell; that Lieut.-Gen. Whitelocke and Gen. Sir Thos. Brownrigg, G.C.B., married the other two daughters of Sir Thos. Sewell; and that Matthew Gregory Lewis, who wrote the Castle Spectre, &c., was son of Matthew Lewis, Esq., the Deputy Secretary of War.
With regard to the Sewell family. The Right Hon. Sir Thos. Sewell, who was Master of the Rolls for twenty years, died in 1784; and there is, I believe, a very correct account of his family connexions in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1784, p. 555. He died intestate, and his eldest son, Thos. Bailey Heath Sewell, succeeded to his estate of Ottershaw and the manors of Stannards and Fords in Chobham, Surrey. This gentleman was a magistrate for the county of Surrey; and in the spring of 1794, when this country was threatened by both foreign and domestic enemies, he became Lieut.-Col. of a regiment of Light Dragoons (fencibles), raised in Surrey (at Richmond) by George Lord Onslow, Lord-Lieut. of the county, in which he served six years, till the Government not requiring their services they were disbanded. Lieut.-Col. Sewell died in 1803, and was buried in the church at Chobham, where there is a monument to his memory. Of his family we have not farther knowledge than that he had a son, Thos. Bermingham Heath Sewell, who was a cornet in the 32nd Light Dragoons, and lieutenant in the 4th Dragoon Guards during the war of the French Revolution. The History and Antiquities of Surrey, by the Rev. Owen Manning and Wm. Bray, in three vols. folio, 1804, has in the third volume much concerning the Sewell family.
D. N.
Pharaoh's Ring (Vol. viii., p. 416.).—The mention of the ring conferred on, or confided to, Joseph by the Pharaoh of Egypt, as stated in Genesis xli. 42., reminds me of a ring being shown to me some years ago, which was believed by its then possessor to be the identical ring, or at all events a signet ring of the very Pharaoh who promoted Joseph to the chief office in his kingdom.
It was a ring of pure gold, running through a hole in a massive wedge of gold, about the size, as far as I recollect, of a moderate-sized walnut. On one of its faces was cut the hieroglyphic (inclosed as usual with the names of Egyptian kings in an oval), as I was assured, of the king, the friend of Joseph, as was generally supposed by the readers of hieroglyphics: I pretend to no knowledge of them myself.
The possessor of the ring, who showed it to me, was Mr. Sams, one of the Society of Friends, a bookseller at Darlington. Since railroads have
whirled me past that town, I have lost my means of periodical communication with him. He had, not long before I saw him last, returned from the Holy Land, where he assured me he had visited every spot that could be identified mentioned in the New Testament. He had also been some time in Egypt, and had brought home a great quantity of Egyptian antiquities. The lesser ones he had in the first floor of a carver and gilder's in Great Queen Street, between the Freemason's Tavern and Lincoln's Inn Fields. He was then anxious that these should be bought for the British Museum, and I think that at his request I wrote to the Earl of Aberdeen to mention this, and that the answer was that there was already so large a collection in the Museum, that more, as they must most of them be duplicates, would be of no use.
What has become of them I know not. I was told that a number of his larger antiquities, stone and marble, were for some time placed on Waterloo Bridge, that being a very quiet place, where people might view them without interruption. I did not happen to be in London that season, and therefore did not see them.
J. Ss.
[The whole of Mr. Sams's collection of Egyptian antiquities were bought by Joseph Mayer, Esq, F.S.A., of Liverpool, about two years ago, to add to his previous assemblage of similar monuments, and are placed by him, with a very valuable collection of mediæval antiquities, in the Egyptian Museum, 8. Colquitt Street, Liverpool. The small charge of sixpence for each visit opens the entire collection to the public; but it is a lamentable fact, that the curiosity or patriotism of the inhabitants does not cover Mr. Mayer's expenses by a large annual amount.]
"Could we with ink," &c. (Vol. iii., pp. 127. 180. 257. 422.).—Have not those correspondents who have answered this Query overlooked the concluding verse of the gospel according to St. John, of which it appears to me that the lines in question are an amplification without improvement? Mahomet, it is well known, imitated many parts of the Bible in the Koran.
E. G. R.
"Populus vult decipi" (Vol. vii., p. 578.; Vol. viii, p. 65.).—As an illustration of this expression the following anecdote is given. When my father was about thirteen years old, being in London he was, on one occasion in company with Dr. Wolcot (Peter Pindar), who, calling him to him, laid his hand on his head, and said, "My little boy, I want you to remember one thing as long as you live—the people of this world love to be cheated."
Uneda.
Philadelphia.
Red Hair (Vol. vii., p. 616.; Vol. viii., p. 86.).—It is frequently stated that the Turks are admirers of red hair. I have lately met with a somewhat different account, namely, that the Turks consider red-haired persons who are fat as "first-rate" people, but those who are lean as the very reverse.
M. E.
Philadelphia.
"Land of Green Ginger" (Vol. viii., p. 227.).—The authority which I am able to afford Mr. Richardson is simply the tradition of the place, which I had so frequently heard that I could scarcely doubt the truth of it; this I intended to be deduced, when I said I did not recollect that the local histories gave any derivation, and that it was the one "generally received by the inhabitants."
To any mind the solution brought forward by Mr. Buckton (Vol. viii., p. 303.) carries the greatest amount of probability with it of any yet proposed; and should any of your correspondents have the opportunity of looking through the unpublished history of Hull by the Rev. De la Pryme, "collected out of all the records, charters, deeds, mayors' letters, &c. of the said town," and now placed amongst the Lansdowne MSS. in the British Museum, I am inclined to think it is very likely it would be substantiated.
In Mr. Frost's valuable work on the town, which by the way proves it to have been "a place of opulence and note at a period long anterior to the date assigned to its existence by historians," he differs materially from Mr. Richardson, in considering that Hollar's plate was "engraved about the year 1630," not in 1640 as he states. There is also another which appeared between the time of Hollar and Gent, in Meisner's Libellus novus politicus emblematicus Civitatum, published in 1638, which though not "remarkable for accuracy of design," is well worthy of notice. It bears the title "Hull in Engellandt," and also the following curious inscriptions, which I copy for the interest of your readers:
"Carcer nonnunquam firmum propugnaculum. Noctua clausa manet in carcere firmo; Insidias volucrum vetat enim cavea."
"Wann die Eull eingesperret ist,
Schadet ihr nicht der Feinde list,
Der Kefig ist ihr nicht unnütz,
Sondern gibt wieder ihr Feind schütz."
These lines refer to a curious engraving on the left side of the plan, representing an owl imprisoned in a cage with a quantity of birds about, endeavouring to assail it.
R. W. Elliot.
Clifton.
"I put a spoke in his wheel" (Vol. viii., p. 351.).—Does not this phrase mean simply interference, either for good or evil? I fancy the metaphor is really derived from putting the bars, or spokes, into a capstan or some such machine. A number
of persons being employed, another puts his spoke in, and assists or hinders them as he pleases. Can a stick be considered a spoke before it is put into its place, in the nave of the wheel at least? We often hear the observation, "Then I put in my spoke," &c. in the relation of an animated discussion. May I venture to suggest a pun on the preterite of the verb to speak?
G. William Skyring.
Pagoda (Vol. viii., p. 401.).—May not the word pagoda be a corruption of the Sanscrit word "Bhagovata," sacred?
Bishop of Brechin.
Dundee.
Passage in Virgil (Vol. viii., p. 270.).—On this part of Johnson's letter, Mr. Croker observes:
"I confess I do not see the object, nor indeed the meaning, of this allusion."
The allusion is to Eclogue viii. 43.:
"Nunc scio, quid sit Amor: duris in cotibus illum
Aut Tmarus, aut Rhodope, aut extremi Garamantes,
Nec generis nostri puerum nec sanguinis, edunt."
As the shepherd in Virgil had found Love to be not the gentle being he expected, but of a savage race—"a native of the rocks"—so had Johnson found a patron to be "one who looked with unconcern on a man struggling for life," instead of a friend to render assistance.
Supposing Johnson's estimate of Lord Chesterfield's conduct to be correct, I cannot help thinking the allusion to be eminently happy.
J. Kelway.
To speak in Lutestring (Vol. viii., p. 202.).—Lutestring, or lustring, is a particular kind of silk, and so is taffeta; and thus the phrase may be explained by Shakspeare's Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. 8.:
"Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise."
Junius intended to ridicule such kind of affectation by persons who were, or ought to have been, grave senators.
J. Kelway.
Dog Latin (Vol. viii., p. 218.).—A facetious friend, alluding particularly to law Latin with its curious abbreviations, says that it is so called because it is cur-tailed!
J. Kelway.
Longevity (Vol. viii., p. 113.).—I recollect seeing an old sailor in the town of Larne, county Antrim, Ireland, in the year 1826-27, of the name of Philip Lake, aged 110, who was said to have been a cabin boy in Lord Anson's vessel, in one of his voyages. If any of your correspondents can furnish the registry of his death it would be interesting.
Fras. Crossley.
Mary Simondson, familiarly known as "Aunt Polly," died recently at her cottage near Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, at the advanced age of 126 years.
M. E.
Philadelphia.
Definition of a Proverb (Vol. viii., p. 243.)—C. M. Ingleby inquires the source of the following definition of proverb, viz. "The wisdom of many, and the wit of one."
"To Lord John Russell are we indebted for that admirable definition of a proverb: 'The wisdom,' &c."—See Notes to Rogers's Italy, 1848.
The date is added since, in an edition of 1842; this remark makes no part of the note on the line, "If but a sinew vibrate," &c.
Q. T.
Ireland a bastinadoed Elephant (Vol. viii., p. 366.).—I venture to suggest whether this expression may not be something more than a bull, as
Polonius.
Ennui (Vol. vii., p. 478.; Vol. viii., p. 377.).—The meaning of this admirable word is best gleaned from its root, viz. nuit. It is somewhat equivalent to the Greek ἀγρυπνία, and signifies the sense of weariness with doing nothing. It gives the lie to the dolce far niente: vide Ps. cxxx. 6., and Job vii. 3, 4. Ennui is closely allied to our annoy or annoyance, through noceo, noxa, and their probable root nox, νὺξ. It is precisely equivalent to the Latin tædium, which may be derived from tæda, which in the plural means a torch, and through that word may have a side reference to night, the tædarum horæ: cf. Ps. xci. 5. The subject is worthy of strict inquiry on the part of comparative philologists.
C. Mansfield Ingleby.
Birmingham.
Belle Sauvage (Vol. viii., p. 388.).—Your Philadelphian correspondent asks whether Blue Bell, Blue Anchor, &c., are corruptions of some other emblem, such as that which in London transformed La Belle Sauvage into the Bell Savage.
This is not the fact. The Bell Savage on Ludgate Hill was originally kept by one Isabella Savage. A cotemporary historian, writing of one of the leaders in a rebellion in the days of Queen
Mary, says, "He then sat down upon a stone opposite to Bell Savage's Inn."
James Edmeston.
Homerton.
History of York (Vol. viii., p. 125.).—There is a History of York, published in 1785 by Wilson and Spence, described to be an abridgment of Drake, which is in three volumes, and may be a later edition of the same work to which Mr. Elliot alludes.
F. T. M.
86. Cannon Street.
Encore (Vol. viii., p. 387.).—If A. A. knows the meaning of "this French word" I am a little surprised at his Query. Perhaps he means to ask why a French word should be used? It probably was first used at concerts and operas (ancora in Italian), where the performers and even the performances were foreign, and so became the fashion. Pope says:
"To the same notes thy sons shall hum or snore,
And all thy yawning daughters cry encore."
It was not, I think, in use so early as Shakspeare's time, who makes Bottom anticipate that "the Duke shall say, Let him roar again, let him roar again," where the jingle of "encore" would have been obvious. It is somewhat curious that where we use the French word encore, the French audiences use the Latin word "bis."
C.
"Hauling over the Coals" (Vol. viii., p. 125.).—This saying I conceive to have arisen from the custom prevalent in olden times, when every Baron was supreme in his own castle, of extracting money from the unfortunate Jews who happened to fall into his power, by means of torture. The most usual modus operandi seems to have been roasting the victims over a slow fire. Every one remembers the treatment of Isaac of York by Front-de-Bœuf, so vividly described in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. Although the practice has long been numbered amongst the things that were, the fact of its having once obtained is handed down to posterity in this saying, as when any one is taken to task for his shortcomings he is hauled over the coals.
John P. Stilwell.
Dorking.
The Words "Cash" and "Mob" (Vol. viii., p. 386.).—Mr. Fox was right: mob is not genuine English—teste Dean Swift! A lady who was well known to Swift used to say that the greatest scrape she ever got into with him was by using the word mob. "Why do you say that?" he exclaimed in a passion; "never let me hear you say that again!" "Why, sir," she asked, "what am I to say?" "The rabble, to be sure," answered he. (Sir W. Scott's Works of Swift, vol. ix.) The word appears to have been introduced about the commencement of the eighteenth century, by a process to which we owe many other and similar barbarisms—"beauties introduced to supply the want of wit, sense, humour, and learning." In a paper of The Tatler, No. 230., much in the spirit, and possibly from the pen, of Swift, complaint is made of the "abbreviations and elisions" which had recently been introduced, and a humorous example of them is given. By these, the author adds,
"Consonants of most obdurate sound are joined together without one softening vowel to intervene; and all this only to make one syllable of two, directly contrary to the example of the Greeks and Romans, and a natural tendency towards relapsing into barbarity. And this is still more visible in the next refinement, which consists in pronouncing the first syllable in a word that has many, and dismissing the rest. Thus we cram one syllable and cut off the rest, as the owl fattened her mice after she had bit off their legs to prevent their running away; and if ours be the same reason for maiming our words, it will certainly answer the end, for I am sure no other nation will desire to borrow them."
I have only to add (see Blackwood's Magazine, vol. ii., 1842) that "mob is mobile."
Cash appears to be from the French caisse, a chest, cash.
J. W. Thomas.
Dewsbury.
Cash is from the French caisse, the moneychest where specie was kept. So caissier became "cashier," and specie "cash."
Mob, Swift tells us (Polite Conversation, Introd.), is a contraction for mobile.
Clericus Rusticus has not, I fear, Johnson's Dictionary, where both these derivations are given.
C.
Ampers &. (Vol. ii., pp. 230. 284.; Vol. viii. passim).—Mr. Ingleby may well ask what "and-per-se-and" can mean. The fact is, this is itself a corruption. In old spelling-books, after the twenty-six letters it was customary to print the two following symbols with their explanations
&c. et cetera.
& (per se), and.
Children were taught to read the above "et-cee, et cetera" and "et-per-se, and." Such, at least, was the case in a Dublin school, some ninety years ago, where my informant, now many years deceased, was educated. As se was not there pronounced like cee, but like say, there was no danger of confounding the two names. In England, where a different pronunciation of the Latin word prevailed, such confusion would be apt to occur; and hence, probably, English teachers substituted and for et; from which, in course of time, the other corruptions mentioned by Mr. Lower were developed.
E. H. D. D.
The Keate Family, of the Hoo, Herts (Vol. viii., p. 293.).—The following account is taken from Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Lond. 1841:
"William Keate of Hagbourne, in Berkshire, left five sons. The second son, Ralph Keate of Whaddon, in Wiltshire, married Anne, daughter of John Clarke, Esq., of Ardington, in Berkshire, and had with other issue Gilbert Keate, Esq., of London, who married, first, John, daughter of Niclolas Turbervile, Esq. of Crediton, in Devon, and, secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of William Armstrong, Esq., of Remston, Notts, and by her had another son, Jonathan Keate, Esq., of the Hoo, in the county of Hertford, which estate he acquired with his first wife, Susannah daughter of William, and sister and heir of Thomas Hoo, of the Hoo and Kimpton, both in Hertfordshire. Mr. Keate was created a baronet by King Charles II., 12th June, 1660. Sir Jonathan was sheriff of the county of Hertford, 17 Charles II., and knight of the same shire in Parliament, in the thirtieth of the same reign. By his first wife he had issue, Gilbert Hoo, his heir, Jonathan, Susan, Elizabeth: all died sine prole. He married, secondly, Susanna, daughter of John Orlebar, citizen of London, but by her had no issue. He died 17th September, 1700. The baronetcy became extinct in the person of Sir William Keate, D.D., who died 6th March, 1757."
Ἁλιεύς
Hour-glasses (Vol. viii., p. 454.).—In the church of Wiggenhall, St. Mary the Virgin, the iron frame of an hour-glass, affixed to a wooden stand, immediately opposite the pulpit, still remains.
W. B. D.
An iron hour-glass stand still remains near the pulpit in the church of Ashby-Folville, in this county (Leicester). It is fixed to the wall containing the staircase to the rood-loft.
In the old church of Anstey, recently pulled down and rebuilt, was an ancient hour-glass stand, consisting of a pillar of oak, about four feet high, the top of which is surmounted by a light framework of wood for the reception of the hour-glass. This specimen is preserved in the museum of this town.
William Kelly.
Marriage of Cousins (Vol. viii., p. 387.).—If there is any foundation for such a statement as is contained in the Query of J. P. relative to the marriage of cousins, it consists rather in the marriage of first cousins once removed than of second cousins. It will be seen that the latter relationship belongs to the same generation, but it is not so with the former, which partakes more of the nature of uncle and aunt with nephew and niece.
W. Sloane Sloane-Evans.
Cornworthy Vicarage, Totnes.
There is no legal foundation for the statement that marriage with a second cousin is valid, and with a first cousin invalid. The following quotation from Burn's Ecc. Law by Phill., vol. ii. p. 449., will probably be considered to explain the matter:
"By the civil law first cousins are allowed to marry, but by the canon law both first and second cousins (in order to make dispensations more frequent and necessary) are prohibited; therefore, when it is vulgarly said that first cousins may marry, but second cousins cannot, probably this arose by confounding these two laws, for first cousins may marry by the civil law, and second cousins cannot by the canon law."
J. G.
Exon.
Waugh, Bishop of Carlisle (Vol. viii., p. 271.), was the son of Thomas and Margaret Waugh, of Appleby, in Westmoreland; born there 2nd February, 1655; educated at Appleby school; matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford, 4th of April, 1679; took his degree of M.A. the 7th of July, 1687; and elected Fellow on the 18th of January following. He married Elizabeth, widow of the Rev. Mr. Fiddes, rector of Bridewell, in Oxford, who was the only surviving child of John Machen, Esq., of ——, in the county of Oxford, by whom he left son, John Waugh, afterwards chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle.
Karleolensis.
Marriage Service (Vol. viii., p. 150.).—I have been many years in holy orders, and have always received the fee together with the ring on the Prayer Book, as directed in the Rubric. The ring I return to the bridegroom to place upon the bride's finger; the fee (or offering) I deposit in the offertory basin, held for that purpose by the clerk, and on going to the chancel (the marriage taking place in the body of the church) lay it on the altar. Note.—In the parish in which I first ministered, the marriages had always been commenced in the body of the church, as directed; in the second parish in which I ministered, that custom had only been broken by the present incumbent a few years since.
A Rector.
I have seen the Rubric carried out in this particular, in St. Mary's Church, Kidderminster.
Cuthbert Bede, B.A.
Hoby, Family of (Vol. viii., p. 243.).—In answer to Mr. J. B. Whitborne, I beg to state that the Rev. Sir Philip Hoby, Baronet, was in the early part of the last century chancellor of the archdiocese of Dublin. He was an intimate friend of Archbishop Cobbe, and there is a picture of him in canonicals at Newbridge, co. Dublin.
T. C.
Cambridge Graduates (Vol. viii., p. 365.).—Your correspondent will find a list of B.A.'s of Cambridge University from the years 1500 to 1717 in Add. MS. 5885., British Museum.
Glaius.
"I own I like not," &c. (Vol. viii., p. 366.).—The lines—
"I own like not Johnson's turgid style," &c.
are by Peter Pindar, whose works I have not, and so cannot give an exact reference. The extract containing them will be found in Chambers' Cyclopædia of English Literature, vol. ii. p. 298.
P. J. F. Gantillon, B.A.
"Topsy Turvy" (Vol. viii., p. 385.).—This is ludicrously derived, in Roland Cashel, p. 104., from top side t'other way.
P. J. F. Gantillon, B.A.
"When the Maggot bites" (Vol. viii., pp. 244. 304. 353.).—Another illustration of this phrase may be found in Swift (Introduction to Tale of a Tub):
"The two principal qualifications (says he) of a fanatic preacher are, his inward light, and his head full of maggots; and the two different fates of his writings are to be burnt or worm-eaten."
The word maggot is sometimes used for the whim or crotchet itself; thus Butler:
"To reconcile our late dissenters,
Our brethren though by different venters;
Unite them and their different maggots,
As long and short sticks are in faggots."—Hudibras, part III. canto 2.
So also it is used by Samuel Wesley (father of the founder of the Methodists) in his rare and facetious volume entitled Maggots, or Poems on several Subjects never before handled, 12mo., 1685.
William Bates.
Birmingham.
"Salus populi," &c. (Vol. viii., p. 410.).—The saying "Salus populi supreme lex" is borrowed from the model law of Cicero, in his treatise de Legibus, III. 3. It is made one of the duties of the consuls, the supreme magistrates, to regard the safety of the state as their highest rule of conduct:
"Regio imperio duo sunto; iique præeundo, judicando, consulendo Prætores, Judices, Consules appellantor. Militiæ summum jus habento, nemini parento: ollis salus populi suprema lex esto."
The allusion appears to be to the formula used by the senate for conferring supreme power on the consuls in cases of emergency: "Dare operam, ne quid respublica detrimenti caperet." (See Sallust, Bell. Cat. c. 29.)
L.
Aristotle regards the safety of the citizens as the great end of law (see his Ethics, b. I. ch. 4.); and Cicero (de Finibus, lib. ii. c. 5.) lays down a similar principle.
B. H. C.
Theodoro Paleologus (Vol. viii., p. 408.).—The inscription referred to was printed in Archæologia, vol. xviii., and with some account of the Paleologi to which a Querist was referred in "N. & Q.," Vol. v., p. 280. (see also pp. 173. 357.). It is astonishing how much will be found in that "Californian mine," if the most excellent indices of the several volumes are only consulted. Your correspondent could in the present case have pointed out the errors of the inscription already in print had the indices to "N. & Q." attracted him.
J.
Worm in Books (Vol. viii., p. 412).—In reply to Alethes I beg to acquaint him that I have tried various means for destroying the worm in old books and MSS., and the most effectual has been the chips of Russia leather; indeed, in but one instance have I known them fail.
Newburiensis.
The Porter Family (Vol. viii., p. 364.).—1. The reason of the word Agincourt being placed above the inscription in Bristol Cathedral is, that the Porter family were descendants of Sir William Porter who fought at Agincourt.
2. Charles Lempriere Porter was the son of Dr. Porter.
3. This family was descended from Endymion Porter of classic and loyal memory.[[3]]
J. R. W.
Bristol.
Footnote 3:[(return)]
[The biographical notices of Endymion Porter are extremely scanty. Can our correspondent furnish any particulars respecting him?—Ed.]
Buckle (Vol. viii., p. 304.).—This word is in common use by the artizans who work upon sheet-iron, to denote the curl which a sheet of iron acquires in passing through a pair of rollers. The word has been derived from the French boucle, a curl. The shoe-buckle has got its name from its curved form. In the days in which every man in this country, who was in easy circumstances, wore a wig, it was well known that to put a wig in buckle, meant to arrange its curls in due form.
"When Hopkins dies, a thousand lights attend
The wretch, who living sav'd a candle's end:
Should'ring God's altar a vile image stands,
Belies his features, nay, extends his hands;
That live-long wig which Gorgon's self might own,
Eternal buckle takes in Parian stone."—Pope, Moral Essays, Epistle III.
N. W. S.
The "Forlorn Hope" (Vol. viii., p. 411.).—This is no quotation; but the expression arose in the army from its leader or captain, who, being often a disappointed man, or one indifferent to consequences, now ran the "forlorn hope" either of ending his days or obtaining a tomb in Westminster Abbey. From the captain, after a time, the term descended to all the little gallant band. In no part of our community will you find such
meaning expressions (often very slang ones) used as in the army. A lady, without hearing anything to shock "ears polite," might listen to the talk of a mess table, and be unable to understand clearly in what the conversation consisted. "He is gone to the bad"—meaning, he is ruined. "A wigging from the office" (a very favourite expression)—a reprimand from the colonel. "Wigging" naturally arising from tearing the hair in anger or sorrow, and the office of course substituting the place from whence it comes for the person who sent it. Besides may others, quæ nunc, &c.
A Dragoon.
Nightingale and Thorn (Vol. iv., p. 175., &c.).—
"If I had but a pottle of sack, like a sharp prickle,
To knock my nose against when I am nodding,
I should sing like a nightingale."—Fletcher, The Lover's Progress, Act III. Sc. 2.
W. J. Bernhard Smith.
Temple.
Burial in Unconsecrated Ground (Vol. vi., p. 448.; Vol. viii., p. 43.).—The following curious entry occurs in the parish register of Pimperne, Dorset:
"Anno 1627. Vicesimo quinto Octobris.
"Peregrinus quidam tempore pestes in communi campo mortuus eodem loco quo inventus sepultus."
There was a pestilence in England in 1625. In 1628 sixteen thousand persons died of the plague at Lyons.
W. E.
I do not know whether the case recorded in London Labour and the London Poor, vol. i. p. 411.—by the way, is that work ever to be completed, and how far has it gone?—of a man buried at the top of a house at Foot's Cray, in Kent, has been noticed by any correspondent.
P. J. F. Gantillon, B.A.
Sangaree (Vol. iii., p. 141.).—I take it that the word ought to be spelled sansgris, being derived from the French words sans, without, and gris, tipsy, meaning a beverage that would not make tipsy. I have been a good deal in the French island of Martinique, and they use the term frequently in this sense as applied to a beverage made of white wine ("Vin de Grave"), syrup, water, and nutmeg with a small piece of fresh lime-skin hanging over the edge of the glass. A native of Martinique gave me this as the derivation of the word. The beverage ought not to be stirred after the nutmeg is put in it, as the fastidious say it would spoil the flavour.
T. B.
Point of Etiquette (Vol. viii., p. 386.).—The title Miss, without the Christian name, belongs to the eldest unmarried daughter of the representative of the family only. If he have lost his own children, his brother is heir presumptive merely to the family honours; and can neither assume nor give to his daughter the titles to which they are only expectants. The matter becomes evident, if you test the rule by a peerage instead of a squirage. Even the eldest daughter of a baronet or landed gentleman loses her title of Miss, when her brother succeeds to the representation, provided he have a daughter to claim the title.
P. P.
Etymology of "Monk" and "Till," &c. (Vol. viii., pp. 291. 409.).—Will you allow me one word on these two cases? Monk is manifestly a Greek formative from μονος, and denotes a solitaire.
The proposed derivation of till, from to-while, is not new; but still clearly mistaken, inasmuch as the word till is found in Scotch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and others of the family. A word thus compounded would be of less general use. Besides which, to-while would scarcely produce such a form as till; it would rather change the t into an aspirate, which would appear as th.
B. H. C.
Forrell (Vol. vii., p. 630.).—Your correspondent T. Hughes derives this word (applied in Devonshire, as he tells us, to the cover of book) from forrell, "a term still used by the trade to signify an inferior kind of vellum." Is it not more natural to suppose it to be the same word which the French have made fourreau, a cover or sheath? (See Du Cange, vv. Forellus, Forrellus.)
J. H. T.
Dublin.
Parochial Libraries (Vol. vii., p. 507.; Vol. viii. passim).—There is a library at Wimborne Minster, in the Collegiate Church, which, on my visit two years since, appeared to contain some valuable volumes, and was neglected and in very bad condition.
θ.