—If this Query has already met with an answer, my apology for troubling you with this must be, that it has escaped my notice.
R. is undoubtedly right in supposing that a "toothed sleck stone" means a toothed or jagged whetstone; the word sleck preserving a greater resemblance to its Danish cousin slecht than the modern slick.
For "bullish," Milton shall be his own interpreter. "I affirm it to be a bull, taking away the essence of that which it calls itself."
The phrase "bid you the base" is apparently taken from the old game of Prisoner's Base, for which, if necessary, reference may be made to the Boy's Own Book. I am inclined to think that the very phrase was, in my school days, used in the game; but if wrong in any remembrance, I may still be right in my conjecture, and then the phrase would be equivalent to, "I challenge you to follow me," as one boy follows another in Prisoner's Base; and we should then have a curious illustration of the antiquity of the game.
PHILIP HEDGELAND.
The Termination "-ship" (Vol. iv., p. 153.).
—A. W. H. is referred to Dr. Latham's English Language, § 294. p. 372., ed. 2. The Dutch termination -schap, e.g. vriendschap, may be added.
CHARLES THIRIOLD.
"A little Bird told me" (Vol. iv. p. 232.).
—The following are merely a few rough notes made from time to time on this saying. I have tried to put them into some kind of order but they are too trivial, and too easily verified by reference, to deserve more space in print than they have hitherto had in writing:—