Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853

is strongly corroborated by the Scripture text.

    Q. D.

Minor Notes

Judicial Families.—In vol. v. p. 206. (new edition) of Lord Mahon's History of England, we find the following passage:

"Lord Chancellor Camden was the younger son of Chief Justice Pratt,—a case of rare succession in the annals of the law, and not easily matched, unless by their own cotemporaries, Lord Hardwicke and Charles Yorke."

The following case, I think, is equally, if not more, remarkable:—

The Right Hon. Thomas Berry Cusack-Smith, brother of the present Sir Michael Cusack-Smith, Bart., is Master of the Rolls in Ireland, having been appointed to that high office in January, 1846. His father, Sir William Cusack-Smith, second baronet, was for many years Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Ireland. And his grandfather, the Right Hon. Sir Michael Smith, first baronet, was, like his grandson at the present day, Master of the Rolls in Ireland.

Is not this "a case of rare succession in the annals of the law, and not easily matched?"

    Abhba.

Derivation of "Topsy Turvy."—When things are in confusion they are generally said to be turned "topsy turvy." The expression is derived from a way in which turf for fuel is placed to dry on its being cut. The surface of the ground is pared off with the heath growing on it, and the heath is turned downward, and left some days in that state that the earth may get dry before it is carried away. It means then top-side-turf-way.

    Clericus Rusticus.

Dictionaries and Encyclopædias.—Allow me to offer a suggestion to the publishers and compilers of dictionaries; first as to dictionaries of the language. A large class refer to these only to learn the meaning of words not familiar to them, but which may occur in reading. If the dictionaries are framed on the principle of displaying only the classical language of England, it is ten to one they will not supply the desired information. Let there be, besides classical dictionaries, glossaries which will exclude no word whatever on account of rarity, vulgarity, or technicality, but which may very well exclude those which are most familiar. As to encyclopædias, their value is chiefly as supplements to the library; but surely no one studies anatomy, or the differential calculus, or architecture, in them, however good the treatises may be. I want a dictionary of miscellaneous subjects, such as find place more easily in an encyclopædia than anywhere else; but why must I also purchase treatises on the higher mathematics, on navigation, on practical engineering, and the like, some of which I already may possess, others not want, and none of which are a bit the more convenient because arranged in alphabetical order in great volumes. Besides, they cannot be conveniently replaced by improved editions.

    Encyclopædicus.

"Mary, weep no more for me."—There is a well-known ballad of this name, said to have been written by a Scotchman named "Low." The first verse runs thus:

"The moon had climbed the highest hill,
Which rises o'er the source of Dee,
And from the eastern summit sped
Its silver light on tower and tree."

I find, however, amongst my papers, a fragment of a version of this same ballad, of, I assume, earlier antiquity, which so surpasses Low's ballad that the author has little to thank him for his interference. The first verse of what I take to be the original poem stands thus:

"The moon had climbed the highest hill,
Where eagles big[2 - Build.] aboon the Dee,
And like the looks of a lovely dame,
Brought joy to every body's ee."

No poetical reader will require his attention to be directed to the immeasurable superiority of this glorious verse: the high poetic animation, the eagles' visits, the lovely looks of female beauty, the exhilarating gladness and joy affecting the beholder, all manifest the genius of the master bard. I shall receive it as a favour if any of your correspondents will furnish a complete copy of the original poem, and contrast it with what "Low" fancied his "improvements."

    James Cornish.

Epitaph at Wood Ditton.—You have recently appropriated a small space in your "medium of intercommunication" to the subject of epitaphs. I can furnish you with one which I have been accustomed to regard as a "grand climacterical absurdity." About thirty years ago, when making a short summer ramble, I entered the churchyard of Wood Ditton, near Newmarket, and my attention was attracted by a headstone, having inlaid into its upper part a piece of iron, measuring about ten inches by six, and hollowed out into the shape of a dish. I inquired of a cottager residing on the spot what the thing meant? I was informed that the party whose ashes the grave covered was a man who, during a long life, had a strange taste for sopping a slice of bread in a dripping-pan (a pan over which meat has been roasted), and would relinquish for this all kinds of dishes, sweet or savoury; that in his will he left a request that a dripping-pan should be fixed in his gravestone; that he wrote his own epitaph, an exact copy of which I herewith give you, and which he requested to be engraved on the stone:

"Here lies my corpse, who was the man
That loved a sop in the dripping-pan;
But now believe me I am dead,—
See here the pan stands at my head.
Still for sops till the last I cried,
But could not eat, and so I died.
My neighbours they perhaps will laugh,
When they read my epitaph."

    J. H.
Cambridge.

Pictorial Pun.—In the village of Warbleton, in Sussex, there is an old public-house, which has for its sign a War Bill in a tun of beer, in reference of course to the name of the place. It has, however, the double meaning, of "Axe for Beer."

    R. W. B.

Queries

SIR THOMAS BUTTON'S VOYAGE, 1612

I am about to print some information, hitherto I believe totally unknown, relative to the voyage of Sir Thomas Button in 1612, for the discovery of the north-west passage.

Of this voyage a journal was kept, which was in existence many years afterwards, being offered by its author to Secretary Dorchester in 1629, then engaged in forwarding the projected voyage of "North-West" Foxe; it is remarkable, however, that no extended account of this voyage, so important in its objects, has ever been published. I am desirous of knowing if this journal is in existence, and where? Also, Lord Dorchester's letter to Button in February, 1629; of any farther information on the subject of the voyage, or of Sir Thomas Button.

What I possess already are, 1. "Motiues inducing a Proiect for the Discouerie of the North Pole terrestriall; the streights of Anian, into the South Sea, and Coasts thereof," anno 1610. 2. Prince Henry's Instructions for the Voyage, together with King James's Letters of Credence, 1612. 3. A Letter from Sir Thomas Button to Secretary Dorchester, dated Cardiff, 16th Feb., 1629 (from the State Paper Office). 4. Sir Dudley Digges' little tract on the N.-W. Passage, written to promote the voyage, and of which there were two distinct impressions in 1611 and 1612. 5. Extracts from the Carleton Correspondence, and from the Hakluyt Society's volume on Voyages to the North-West.

I shall be glad also to learn the date, and any other facts connected with the death of John Davis, the discoverer of the Straits bearing his name.

    John Petheram.

94. High Holborn.

Minor Queries

The Words "Cash" and "Mob."—In Moore's Diary I find the following remark. Can any of your numerous readers throw any light on the subject?

"Lord Holland doubted whether the word 'Cash' was a legitimate English word, though, as Irving remarked, it is as old as Ben Jonson, there being a character called Cash in one of his comedies. Lord Holland said Mr. Fox was of opinion that the word 'Mob' was not genuine English."—Moore's Diary, vol. iii. p. 247.

    Clericus Rusticus.

"History of Jesus Christ."—G. L. S. will feel obliged by any correspondent of "N. & Q." stating who is the author of the following work?—

"The History of the Incarnation, Life, Doctrine and Miracles, the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. In Seven Books; illustrated with Notes, and interspersed with Dissertations, theological, historical, geographical and critical.

"To which are added the Lives, Actions, and Sufferings of the Twelve Apostles; also of Saint Paul, Saint Mark, Saint Luke, and Saint Barnabas. Together with a Chronological Table from the beginning of the reign of Herod the Great to the end of the Apostolic Age. By a Divine of the Church of England.

"London: printed for T. Cooper, at the Globe, in Paternoster Row, 1737."

This work is in one folio volume, and all I can ascertain of its authorship is that it was not written by Bishop Gibson, of "Preservative" fame.

Quantity of the Latin Termination -anus.—Proper names having the termination -anus are always long in Latin and short in Greek; thus, the Claudiānus, Luciānus, &c. of the Latins are Κλαυδιᾰνος and Λουκιᾰνος in Greek. What is to be said of the word Χριστιανος? Is it long or short, admitting it to be long in the Latin tongue?

While on the subject of quantities, let me ask, where is the authority for that of the name of the queen of the Ethiopians, Candace, to be found? We always pronounce it long, but all books of authority mark it as short.