ALFRED GATTY.
Ecclesfield.
[We subjoin the following Query, as one so closely connected with the foregoing, that the explanation of the one will probably clear up the obscurity in which the other is involved.]
To save One's Bacon.—Can you or any of your correspondents inform me of the origin of the common saying, "He's just saved his bacon?" It has puzzled me considerably, and I really can form no conjecture why "bacon" should be the article "saved."
C.H.M.
Arabic Numerals.—I should be glad to know something about the projected work of Brugsh, Berlin, referred to in Vol. ii., p. 294.,—its size and price.
J.W.H.
Cardinal.—"Never did Cardinal bring good to England."—We read in Dr. Ligard's History (vol. iv. p. 527.), on the authority of Cavendish, that when the Cardinals Campeggio and Wolsey adjourned the inquiry into the legality of Henry VIII.'s marriage with Catharine of Arragon, "the Duke of Suffolk, striking the table, exclaimed with vehemence, that the 'old saw' was now verified,—'Never did Cardinal bring good to England.'" I should be glad to know if this saying is to be met with elsewhere, and what gave rise to it?
O.P.Q.