D. P. W.
Rotherhithe, Jan. 21. 1851.
Lama Beads (Vol. iii., p. 115.).—It is a pretty bold assertion that Lama beads are derived from the Lamas of Asia. Lamma, according to Jamieson, is simply the Scotch for amber. He says Lamertyn steen means the same in Teutonic. I do not find it in Wachter's Lexicon.
Your correspondent's note is a curious instance of the inconvenience of half quotation. He says the Lamas are an order of priests among the Western Tartars. I was surprised at this, since their chief strength, as everybody knows, is in Thibet. On referring to Rees's Cyclopædia, I found that the words are taken from thence; but they are not wrong there, since, by the context they have reference to China.
C. B.
Language given to Men, &c. (Vol. i., p. 83.).—The saying that language was given to men to conceal their thoughts is generally fathered upon Talleyrand at present. I did not know it was in Goldsmith; but the real author of it was Fontenelle.
C. B.
Daresbury, the White Chapel of England (Vol. iii., p. 60.).—This jeu-d'esprit was an after-dinner joke of a learned civilian, not less celebrated for his wit than his book-lore. Some stupid blockhead inserted it in the newspapers, and it is now unfortunately chronicled in your valuable work. It is not at all to be wondered at that "the people in the neighbourhood know nothing on the subject."
Echo.
Holland Land (Vol. ii., pp. 267. 345.; Vol. iii., pp. 30. 70.).—Were not the Lincolnshire estates of Count Bentinck, a Dutch nobleman who came over with William III., and the ancestor of the late Lord George Bentinck, M.P. for Lynn Regis, denominated Little Holland, which he increased by reclaiming large portions in the Dutch manner from the Wash?