Notes and Queries, Number 51, October 19, 1850

At page 53. of the same volume is a copperplate representing the tomb. On one side appears a soldier leaning on his musket. On his cap is inscribed "3rd Regt.;" his right hand points to the tomb; and a label proceeding from his mouth represents him saying, "I have obtained a pension of a shilling a day only for putting an end to thy days." At the foot of the tomb is represented a large thistle, from the centre of which proceeds the words, "Murder screened and rewarded."

Accompanying this print are, among other remarks, the following:—

"It was generally believed that he was m–d by one Maclane, a Scottish soldier of the 3d Reg

. The father prosecuted, Ad–n undertook the defence of the soldier. The solicitor of the Treasury, Mr. Nuthall, the deputy-solicitor, Mr. Francis, and Mr. Barlow of the Crown Office, attended the trial, and it is said, paid the whole expence for the prisoner out of the Treasury, to the amount of a very considerable sum. The defence set up was, that young Allen was not killed by Maclane, but by another Scottish soldier of the same regiment, one McLaughlin, who confessed it at the time to the justice, as the justice says, though he owns he took no one step against a person who declared himself a murderer in the most express terms.... The perfect innocence of the young man as to the charge of being concerned in any riot or tumult, is universally acknowledged, and a more general good character is nowhere to be found. This McLaughlin soon made his escape, therefore was a deserter as well as a murtherer, yet he has had a discharge sent him with an allowance of a shilling a day."

Maclane was most probably the "Mac" alluded to by SENEX; but his account differs in so many respects from cotemporaneous records that I have ventured to trespass somewhat largely upon your space. I may add, that I by no means agree in the propriety of erasing a monumental inscription of more than eighty years' existence without some much stronger proof of its falsehood; for I quite coincide with the remarks of Rev. D. Lysons, in his allusion to this monument (Surrey, p. 393.), that

"Allen was illegally killed, whether he was concerned in the riots or not, as he was shot apart from the mob at a time when he might, if necessary, have been apprehended and brought to justice."

    E.B. PRICE.

September 30. 1850.

The Rev. Dr. John Free[2 - Dr. Free was of Christ Church, Oxford, and perhaps some of your readers may know where his biography is.] preached a sermon on the above occasion (which was printed) from the 24th chapter of Leviticus, 21st and 22nd verses, "He that killeth a man," &c.; and he boldly and fearlessly denominates the act as a murder, and severely reprehends those in authority who screened and protected the murderer. The sermon is of sixteen pages, and there is an appendix of twenty-six pages, in which are detailed various depositions, and all the circumstances connected with the catastrophe.

    § N.

Your correspondent SENEX will find in Malcolm's Anecdotes of London (Vol. ii., p. 74.), "A summary of the trial of Donald Maclane, on Tuesday last, at Guildford Assizes, for the murder of William Allen, Jun., on the 10th of May last, in St. George's Fields."

    R. BARKER, JUN.

A long account of this lamentable transaction may be found in every magazine eighty-two years since. The riot took place in St. George's Fields, May 10. 1768, and originated in the cry of "Wilkes and Liberty."

    GILBERT.

MEANING OF "GRADELY."

(Vol. ii., p. 133.)

For the origin of this word, A.W.H. may refer to Brocket's Glossary of North Country Words, where he will find—

"Gradely, decently, orderly. Sax. grad, grade, ordo. Rather, Mr. Turner says, from Sax. gradlie upright; gradely in Lanc., he observes, is an adjective simplifying everything respectable. The Lancashire people say, our canny is nothing to it."

The word itself is very familiar to me, as I have often received a scolding for some boyish, and therefore not very wise or orderly prank, in these terns:—"One would think you were not altogether gradely," or, as it was sometimes varied into, "You would make one believe you were not right in your head;" meaning, "One would think you had not common sense."

    H. EASTWOOD.

Ecclesfield.

Gradely.—This word is not only used in Yorkshire, but also very much in Lancashire, and the rest of the north of England. I have always understood it to mean "good," "jolly," "out and out." Its primary meaning is "orderly, decently." (See Richardson's Dictionary.) The French have grade; It. and Sp., grado; Lat. gradus.

    AREDJID KOOEZ.

Gradely.—This word, in use in Lancashire and Yorkshire, means grey-headedly, and denotes such wisdom as should belong to old age. A child is admonished to do a thing gradely, i.e. with the care and caution of a person of experience.

    E.H.

Gradely.—In Webster's and also in Richardson's Dictionaries it is defined, "orderly, decently." It is a word in common use in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and also Cheshire. A farmer will tell his men to do a thing gradely, that is, "properly, well."

    G.W.N.

Gradely.—In Carr's Craven Dialect appears "Gradely, decently." It is also used as an adjective, "decent, worthy, respectable."

2. Tolerably well, "How isto?" "Gradely." Fr. Gré, "satisfaction"; à mon gré.

    S.N.

Gradely.—Holloway[3 - Dictionary of Provincialisms] derives gradely from the Anglo-Saxon Grade, a step, order, and defines its meaning, "decently." He, however, fixes its paternity in the neighbouring county of York.

In Collier's edition of Tim Bobbin it is spelt greadly, and means "well, right, handsomely."

"I connaw tell the greadly, boh I think its to tell fok by."—p. 42.

"So I seete on restut meh, on drank meh pint o ele; boh as I'r naw greadly sleekt, I cawd for another," &c.—p. 45.

"For if sitch things must be done greadly on os teh aught to bee," &c.—p. 59.

Mr. Halliwell[4 - Dictionary of Provincial Words.] defined it, "decently, orderly, moderately," and gives a recent illustration of its use in a letter addressed to Lord John Russell, and distributed in the Manchester Free Trade Procession. It is dated from Bury, and the writer says to his lordship,—

"Dunnot be fyert, mon, but rapt eawt wi awt uts reef, un us Berry foke'll elp yo as ard as we kon. Wayn helps Robdin, un wayn elp yo, if yoan set obeawt yur work gradely."

Gradely.—I think this word is very nearly confined to Lancashire. It is used both as an adjective and adverb. As an adjective, it expresses only a moderate degree of approbation or satisfaction; as an adverb, its general force is much greater. Thus, used adjectively in such phrases as "a gradely man," "a gradely crop," &c., it is synonymous with "decent." In answer to the question, "How d'ye do?" it means, "Pretty well," "Tolerable, thank you."

Adverbially it is (1.) sometimes used in sense closely akin to that of the adjective. Thus in "Behave yourself gradely," it means "properly, decently." But (2.) most frequently it is precisely equivalent to "very;" as in the expressions "A gradely fine day," "a gradely good man"—which last is a term of praise by no means applicable to the mere gradely man, or, as such a one is most commonly described, a "gradely sort of man."

Though one might have preferred a Saxon origin for it, yet in default of such it seems most natural to connect it with the Latin gradus, especially as the word grade, from which it is immediately formed, has a handy English look about it, that would soon naturalise it amongst us. Gradely then would mean "orderly, regular, according to degree."

The difference in intensity of meaning between the adjective and the adverb seems analogous to that between the adjectives proper, regular, &c., and the same words when used in the vulgar way as adverbs.

    G.P.

PASCAL AND HIS EDITOR BOSSUT

(Vol. ii., p. 278.)

Although I am not afraid of the fate with which that unfortunate monk met, of whom it is said,—

"Pro solo puncto caruit Martinus Asello,"

yet a blunder is a sad thing, especially when the person who is supposed to commit it attempts to correct others.

Now the printer of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" has introduced, in my short remark on Pascal, the very error which has led the author of the article in the British Quarterly Review, as well as many others, to mistake the Bishop of Meaux for the editor of Pascal's works. Once more, that unfortunate editor is BOSSUT, not BOSSUET; and if it may appear to some that the difference of one letter in a name is not of much consequence, yet it is from an error as trifling as this that people of my acquaintance confound Madame de Staël with Madame de Staal-Delauney, in spite of chronology and common sense. Again, by the leave of the Christian Remembrancer (vol. xiii. no. 55.), the elegant and accomplished scholar to whom we owe the only complete text of Pascal's thoughts, is M. Faugère, not Fougère. All these are minutiæ; but the chapter of minutiæ is an important one in literary history.

Another remarkable question which I feel a wish to touch upon before closing this communication, is that of impromptus. Your correspondent MR. SINGER (p. 105.) supposes Malherbe the poet to have been "ready at an impromptu." But, to say the least, this is rather doubtful, unless the extemporaneous effusions of Malherbe were of that class which Voiture indulged in with so much success at the Hôtel de Rambouillet—sonnets and epigrams leisurely prepared for the purpose of being fired off in some fashionable "ruelle" of Paris. Malherbe is known to have been a very slow composer; he used to say to Balzac that ten years' rest was necessary after the production of a hundred lines: and the author of the Christian Socrates, himself rather too fond of the file, after quoting this fact, adds in a letter to Consart:

"Je n'ai pas besoin d'un si long repos après un si petit travail. Mais aussi d'attendre de moi cette heureuse facilité qui fait produire des volumes à M. de Scudéry, ce serait me connaître mal, et me faire une honneur que je ne mérite pas."