—Your correspondent H. B. C. states that the earliest use he has met with of this phrase is in Dean Swift's Polite Conversation, written, as appears by the preface, about 1731; but he will find, in Dampier's Voyages, the same phrase in use in 1686, or perhaps earlier: not having the work itself at hand, I cannot refer him to the passage, but he will find it quoted in the United Service Journal for 1837, Part III. p. 11.
J. S. WARDEN.
Balica, Oct. 1851.
Collars of SS. (Vol. iv., pp. 147. 236.).
—With reference to the different notices that have appeared in your pages respecting effigies bearing the collar of SS, and especially in compliance with the desire expressed by MR. E. FOSS, that information should be sent to you of any effigy that might be met with having this distinction, I beg to state that in the church of St. Mary, Ruabon, Denbighshire, there is a finely executed high tomb of alabaster, bearing the effigies of "John ap Ellis Eyton" and of his lady "Elizabeth Chalfrey Ellis Eyton;" the former deceased A.D. 1524, and the latter A.D. 1527. The knight wears the collar of SS, to which is suspended a rose-shaped ornament, and is stated to have been at the battle of Bosworth, and, for his services on that day, to have been granted by Henry VII. what lands he chose. The knight's gauntlets lie together on his right side, and his feet rest against a lion.
G. J. R. G.
Pen-y-lau, Ruabon.
Locusts of the New Testament (Vol. iv., pp. 255. 351.).
—In reference to the word ἀκρὶς, which has given rise to so much discussion in your very valuable periodical, may I be permitted to observe that the pâtois spoken in this town (Nice = Nizza = Nicæa, founded by the Phocæans, expelled their Asian abode by Harpagus; Strabo, l. 4. p. 184.; Herod. i. 163.) bears many traces of its Greek origin. The tree which answers to the "locust" is called by the peasantry acroòb; and in order that you, or any of your correspondents, may observe its similarity in every point to the Eastern tree, I have transmitted a packet of its fruit to your office. I do not know whether Grimm's law would authorise the antithesis of a d for a p sound, but every student of Romaic will allow the tendency that i and o sounds have for interchanging. This would give acreed, ακρίδ, the root of ἀκρὶς.
NICÆENSIS.