Notes and Queries, Number 191, June 25, 1853

George Miller, D.D. (Vol. vii., p. 527.).—His Donnellan Lectures were never published.

    Ἁλιέυς.

Dublin.

"A Letter to a Convocation Man" (Vol. vii., p. 502.).—Your correspondent W. Fraser may be informed that the "great preacher" for whom he inquires was Archbishop Tillotson.

    Ἁλιευς.

[Perhaps our correspondent can reply to another Query from Mr. W. Fraser, viz. "Who is the 'certain author' quoted in A Letter to a Convocation Man, pp. 24, 25.?"—Ed.]

Sheriffs of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire (Vol. vii., p. 572.).—This is a very singular Query, inasmuch as Fuller's list of the sheriffs of these counties begins 1st Henry II., and not, as is assumed by your correspondent D., "from the time of Henry VIII."

    C. H. Cooper.

Cambridge.

Ferdinand Mendez Pinto (Vol. vii., p. 551.).—Inquirens will find the passage he quotes in Congreve's Love for Love, Act II. Sc. 5. Foresight, addressing Sir Sampson Legend, says:

"Thou modern Mandeville, Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type," &c.

In the Tatler, No. 254. (a paper ascribed to Addison and Steele conjointly), these veracious travellers are thus pleasantly noticed:

"There are no books which I more delight in than in travels, especially those that describe remote countries, and give the writer an opportunity of showing his parts without incurring any danger of being examined and contradicted. Among all the authors of this kind, our renowned countryman, Sir John Mandeville, has distinguished himself by the copiousness of his invention, and the greatness of his genius. The second to Sir John I take to have been Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, a person of infinite adventure and unbounded imagination. One reads the voyages of these two great wits with as much astonishment as the travels of Ulysses in Homer, or of the Red Cross Knight in Spenser. All is enchanted ground and fairy land."

Biographical sketches of Mandeville and Pinto are attached to this paper in the excellent edition of the Tatler ("with Illustrations and Notes" by Calder, Percy, and Nichols), published in six volumes in 1786. Godwin selected this quotation from Congreve as a fitting motto for his Tale of St. Leon.

    J. H. M.

The passage referred to occurs in Congreve's Love for Love, Act II. Sc. 5. Cervantes had before designated Pinto as the "prince of liars." It seems that poor Pinto did not deserve the ill language applied to him by the wits. Ample notices of his travels may be seen in the Retrospective Review, vol. viii. pp. 83-105., and Macfarlane's Romance of Travel, vol. ii. pp. 104-192.

    C. H. Cooper.

Cambridge.

"Other-some" and "Unneath" (Vol vii., p. 571.).—Mr. Halliwell, in his Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, has other-some, some other, "a quaint but pretty phrase of frequent occurrence." He gives two instances of its use. He has also "Unneath, beneath. Somerset."

    C. H. Cooper.

Cambridge.

The word other-some occurs in the authorised version of the Bible, Acts xvii. 18. "Other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods." It does not occur in any of the earlier versions of this passage in Bagster's English Hexapla. Halliwell says that it is "a quaint but pretty phrase of frequent occurrence," and gives an example dated 1570. Unneath, according to the same authority, is used in Somersetshire. Other-some is constantly used in Norfolk. I think it, however, a pity that your space should be occupied by such Queries as these, which a simple reference to Halliwell's Dictionary would have answered.

    E. G. R.

Willow Pattern (Vol. vi., p. 509.).—Evidently a Chinese design. The bridge-houses, &c., are purely Chinese; and also the want of perspective. I have seen crockery in the shops in Shanghai with the same pattern, or at least with very slight difference.

    H. B.

Shanghai.

Cross and Pile (Vol. vii., p. 487.).—Another evidence that the word pile is of French origin: "Pille, pile; that side of the coin which bears the head. Cross or pile, a game."—A Dictionary of the Norman French Language, by Robert Kelham of Lincoln's Inn: London, 1779, 8vo., p. 183.

    Φ.

Old Fogie (Vol. vii., pp. 354. 559.).—J. L., who writes from Edinburgh, denies the Irish origin of this appellation, because he says it was used of the "veteran companies" who garrisoned the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling. My mother, who was born in 1759, often told me that she never had heard any other name for the old men in the Royal Hospital, in the vicinity of which she passed her early days. It was therefore a well-known name a century ago in Dublin, and consequently was in use long before; probably from the building of the hospital in the reign of Charles II. Can J. L. trace the Scotch term as far back as that? Scotch or Irish, however, I maintain that my derivation is the right one. J. L. says he prefers that of Dr. Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, who "derives it from Su.-G. Fogde, formerly one who had the charge of a garrison." In thus preferring a Scottish authority, J. L. shows himself to be a true Scot; but he must allow me to ask him, is he acquainted with the Swedish language? (for that is what is meant by the mysterious Su.-G.) And if so, is he not aware that Fogde is the same as the German Vogt, and signifies governor, judge, steward, &c., never merely a military commandant; and what on earth has that to do with battered old soldiers?

I may as well take this opportunity of replying to another of your Caledonian correspondents, respecting the origin of the word nugget. The Persian derivation is simply ridiculous, as the word was not first used in Australia. I am then perfectly well aware that this term has long been in use in Scotland and the north of Ireland as i. q. lump, as a nugget of bread, of sugar, &c. But an ingot is a lump also: and the derivation is so simple and natural, that in any case I am disposed to regard it as the true one. May not the Yankee term have been made independently of the British one?

    Thos. Keightley.

Another odd Mistake (Vol. vii., p. 405.).—On page 102. of Last Glimpses of Convocation, by A. J. Joyce, 1853, I read of "the defiance thrown out to Henry III. by his barons, Nolumus leges Angliæ mutare." I have never read of any such defiance, expressed in any such language, anywhere else.

    W. Fraser.

Tor-Mohun.

Spontaneous Combustion (Vol. vii., pp. 286. 440.).—I have somewhere read an account of a drunkard whose body was so saturated with alcohol, that being bled in a fever, and the lamp near him having been overthrown, the blood caught fire, and burst into a blaze: the account added, that he was so startled by this occurrence, that on his recovery he reformed thoroughly, and prolonged his life to a good old age. Where is this story to be found, and is the fact related physically possible? It seems to bear on the question of spontaneous combustion.

    W. Fraser.

Tor-Mohun.

Erroneous Forms of Speech (Vol vii., p. 329.).—E. G. R. will find, on farther inquiry, that he is in the wrong as regards the mode of writing and speaking mangold-wurzel. The subject was discussed in the Gardeners' Chronicle in 1844. There (p. 204.) your correspondent will find, by authority of "a German," that mangold is field-beet or leaf-beet: and that mangel is a corruption or pretended emendation of the common German appellation, and most probably of English coinage. Such a thing as mangel-wurzel is not known on the Continent; and the best authorities now, in this country, all use mangold-wurzel.

    M.

P.S.—Since writing the above, I have seen Mr. Frere's note on the same subject (Vol. vii, p. 463.). The substitution of mangel for the original mangold, was probably an attempt to correct some vulgar error in orthography; or to substitute a word of some significance for one of none. But, as Dr. Lindley has said, "If we adopt a foreign name, we ought to take it as we find it, whatever may be its imperfections."

Ecclesia Anglicana (Vol. vii., pp. 12. 440. 535.).—I gladly set down for G. R. M. the following instances of the use of "Ecclesia Gallicana;" they are quotations occurring in Richard's Analysis Consiliorum: he will find many more in the same work as translated by Dalmasus:

"Ex Gallicanæ Ecclesiæ usu, Jubilæi Bullæ ad Archiepiscopos mittendæ sunt, e quorum manibus ad suffraganeos Episcopos perferuntur."—Monumenta Cleri, tom. ii. p. 228.

"Gallicana Ecclesia a disciplinæ remissione, ante quadringentos aut quingentos annos inducta, se melius quam aliæ defendit, Romanæque curiæ ausis vehementius resistat."—Fleurius, Sermo super Ecclesiæ Gallicanæ Libertatibus.

I have not time to search for the other examples which he wants; though I have not any doubt but they would easily be found. The English Church has been, I consider, a more Romanising church than many; but, in mediæval times, the most intimate connexion with Rome did not destroy, though it impaired, the nationality of the church. The church of Spain is, I believe, now one of the most national of the churches in communion with Rome.

    W. Fraser.

Tor-Mohun.

Gloves at Fairs (Vol. vii., p. 455.).—The writer saw, a few years ago, the shape of a glove hanging during the fair at the common ground of Southampton, and was told, that while it was there debtors were free from arrest within the town.

    Anon.

In returning my thanks to your correspondents who have given instances of this custom, allow me to add that a friend has called my attention to the fact that Mattishall Gant, or fair, takes place in Rogation or Gang week, and probably takes its name from the latter word. Forby says that there are probably few instances of the use of this word, and I am not aware of any other than the one he gives, viz. Mattishall Gant.

    E. G. R.