Notes and Queries, Number 197, August 6, 1853

    Chartham.

"Jamieson the Piper."—I am anxious to ascertain who was the author of the above ditty; it was very popular in Aberdeenshire about the beginning of this century. The scene, if I remember rightly, is laid in the parish of Forgue, in Aberdeenshire. Possibly some of the members of the Spalding Club may be able to enlighten me on the subject.

    Bathensis.

"Keiser Glomer."—I have a Danish play entitled Keiser Glomer, Frit oversatte af det Kyhlamske vech C. Bredahl: Kiobenhavn, 1834. It is a mixture of tragedy and farce: the former occasionally good, the latter poor buffoonery. In the notes, readings of the old MS. are referred to with apparent seriousness; but Gammel Gumba's Saga is quoted in a manner that seems burlesque. I cannot find the word "Kyhlam" in any dictionary. Can any of your readers tell me whether it signifies a real country, or is a mere fiction? The work does not read like a translation; and, if one, the number of modern allusions show that it is not, as it professes to be, from an ancient manuscript.

    M. M. E.

Tieck's Comœdia Divina.—I copied the following lines six years ago from a review in a Munich newspaper of Batornicki's Ungöttliche Comödie. They were cited as from Tieck's suppressed (zurückgezogen) satire, La Comödie Divina, from which Batornicki was accused of plundering freely, thinking that, from its variety, he would not be detected:

"Spitzt so hoch ihr könnt euer Ohr,
Gar wunderbare Dinge kommen hier vor.
Gott Vater identifieirt sich mit der Kreatur,
Denn er will anschauen die absolute Natur;
Aber zum Bewustseyn kann er nicht gedeihen,
Drum muss er sich mit sich selbst entzweien."

I omitted to note the paper, but preserved the lines as remarkable. I have since tried to find some account of La Divina Comedia, but in vain. It is not noticed in any biography of Tieck. Can any of your readers tell me what it is, or who wrote it?

    M. M. E.

Fossil Trees between Cairo and Suez—Stream like that in Bay of Argastoli.—Can any of your readers oblige me by stating where the best information may be met with concerning the very remarkable fossil trees on the way from Cairo to Suez? And, if there has yet been discovered any other stream or rivulet running from the ocean into the land similar to that in the Bay of Argastoli in the Island of Cephalonia?

    H. M.

Presbyterian Titles (Vol. v., p. 516.).—Where may be found a list of "the quaint and uncouth titles of the old Presbyterians?"

    P. J. F. Gantillon, B.A.

Mayors and Sheriffs.—Can you or any of your readers inform me which ought to be considered the principal officer, or which is the most important, and which ought to have precedence of the other, the mayor of a town or borough, or the sheriff of a town or borough? and is the mayor merely the representative of the town, and the sheriff of the Queen; and if so, ought not the representative of majesty to be considered more honourable than the representative of merely a borough; and can a sheriff of a borough claim to have a grant of arms, if he has not any previous?

    A Subscriber.

Nottingham.

The Beauty of Buttermere.—In an article contributed by Coleridge to the Morning Post (vid. Essays on his own Times, vol. ii. p. 591.), he says:

"It seems that there are some circumstances attending her birth and true parentage, which would account for her striking superiority in mind and manners, in a way extremely flattering to the prejudices of rank and birth."

What are the circumstances alluded to?

    R. W. Elliot.

Clifton.

Sheer Hulk.—Living in a maritime town, and hearing nautical terms frequently used, I had always supposed this term to mean an old vessel, with sheers, or spars, erected upon it, for the purpose of masting and unmasting ships, and was led to attribute the use of it, by Sir W. Scott and other writers, for a vessel totally dismasted, to their ignorance of the technical terms. But of late it has been used in the latter sense by a writer in the United Service Magazine professing to be a nautical man. I still suspect that this use of the word is wrong, and should be glad to hear on the subject from any of your naval readers.

I believe that the word "buckle" is still used in the dockyards, and among seamen, to signify to "bend" (see "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 375.), though rarely.

    J. S. Warden.

The Lapwing or Peewitt (Vanellus cristatus).—Can any of your correspondents, learned in natural history, throw any light upon the meaning in the following line relative to this bird?—

"The blackbird far its hues shall know,
As lapwing knows the vine."

In the first line the allusion is to the berries of the hawthorn; but what the lapwing has to do with the vine, I am at a loss to know. Having forgotten whence I copied the above lines, perhaps some one will favor me with the author's name.

    J. B. Whitborne.

"Could we with ink," &c.—Could you, or any of your numerous and able correspondents, inform me who is the bonâ fide author of the following lines?—

"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the heavens of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky."

    Naphtali.
Launching Query.—With reference to the accident to H.M.S. Cæsar at Pembroke, I would ask, Is there any other instance of a ship, on being launched, stopping on the ways, and refusing to move in spite of all efforts to start her?

    A. B.

Manliness.—Query, What is the meaning of the word as used in "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., p. 94., col. 2. l. 12.

    Anonymous.

Minor Queries with Answers

Pues or Pews.—Which is the correct way of spelling this word? What is its derivation? Why has the form pue been lately so much adopted?

    Omega.

[The abuses connected with the introduction of pues into churches have led to an investigation of their history, as well as to the etymology of the word. Hence the modern adoption of its original and more correct orthography, that of pue; the Dutch puye, puyd, and the English pue, being derived from the Latin podium. In Vol. iii., p. 56., we quoted the following as the earliest notice of the word from the Vision of Piers Plouman:

"Among wyves and wodewes ich am ywoned sute
Yparroked in pues. The person hit knoweth."

Again, in Richard III., Act IV. Sc. 4.: "And makes her pue-fellow with others moan."—In Decker's Westward Hoe: "Being one day in church, she made mone to her pue-fellow."—And in the Northern Hoe of the same author: "He would make him a pue-fellow with lords."—See a paper on The History of Pews, read before the Cambridge Camden Society, Nov. 22, 1841.]

"Jerningham" and "Doveton."—Who was the author of Jerningham and Doveton, two admirable works of fiction published some twelve or fifteen years ago? They are equal to anything written by Bulwer Lytton or by James.

    J. Mt.

[The author of these works was Mr. Anstruther.]