Passage in Burke (Vol. vi., p. 556.).—The reply to Quando Tandem's Query is given, I imagine, by Burke himself, in a passage which occurs only a few lines after that which has been quoted:
"Little did I dream that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom."
This means, I suppose, that Marie Antoinette carried a dagger, with which, more Romano, she would have committed suicide, had her brutal persecutors assaulted her.
Alfred Gatty.
Ensake and Cradock Arms (Vol. vi., p. 533.).—In a pedigree of the family of Barnwell, of Cransley in Northamptonshire, now before me, I find emblazoned the arms of Ensake: Paly of six azure and or, on a bend sable three mullets pierced. Cradock: Argent, three boars' heads couped sable armed or.
G. A. C.
Sich House (Vol. vi., pp. 363. 568.).—Sike or syke, a word in common use in the south of Scotland, and on the Border, meaning a small water run. In Jamieson's Dictionary it is spelt "Sike, syik, syk, a rill or rivulet; one that is usually dry in summer; a small stream or rill; a marshy bottom with a small stream in it."
J. S.s.
Americanisms so called (Vol. vi., p. 554.).—The word bottom, signifying a piece of low ground, whether upon a stream of water or not, is English. I recollect two places at this moment (both dry), in the county of Surrey, to which the word is applied, viz. Smitham Bottom, to the north of Reigate, through which the railway runs; and Boxhill Bottom, a few miles to the westward, in the same range of chalk hills.
Sparse and sparsely, it is said by Uneda of Philadelphia, are Americanisms. This, however, is not so. There is a Query on the word sparse in Vol. i., p. 215. by C. Forbes: and on p. 251. of the same volume J. T. Stanley supposes it to be an Americanism, on the authority of the Penny Cyclopædia.