TENNYSON'S CAMBRIDGE CONTEMPORARIES (8th S. ii. 441). In the interesting note which has been contributed by CANON VENABLES upon this subject the name of "C. Donne (licenser of plays)" has been included among the friends and companions of Tennyson at Cambridge. This is a slip of the pen for William Bodham Donne, the late examiner of plays, who died in the early eighties. Mr. Donne was, I believe, a collateral descendant of the poet of that name, and was also connected with the family of William Cowper. After his death an interesting volume from his library came into my possession. This was a presentation copy of the privately printed collection of 'Poems' by Arthur Henry Hallam, which was issued in 1830. Bound up with it is the 'Poems, chiefly Lyrical,' of Alfred Tennyson, published by Effingham Wilson in the same year. It had been the original intention of Hallam and Tennyson, as noted in Kemble's letter to Trench of April 1, 1830, which is quoted by CANON VENABLES, to issue their poems in a joint volume. This idea was subsequently abandoned, and Hallam merely printed a few copies of his productions, which he distributed amongst his intimate friends. Mr. Donne, however, carried it out to some extent by binding up the two volumes together. Very few copies of Hallam's 'Poems' appear to be extant, and I should be glad to learn if any of them possess a title-page. My own copy has merely a half-title. W. F. PRIDEAUX. 9, St. James's Street, S.W. George Walker who eminently distinguished him- VOICES IN BELLS AND CLOCKS (7th S. xii. 304, 396; 8th S. ii. 238, 298).-Théophile Gautier, in his amusing description of the scalding soup at the table d'hôte at Courtnay during the twenty minutes' halt of the diligence in its journey from Paris to Brussels, in his 'Caprices et Zigzags,' says: "Ce retard était d'autant plus douloureux, que le plus goguenard des coucous, nous regardant avec les deux semblait nous mépriser infiniment, et nous poursuivre de trous par où on le remonte, comme avec deux prunelles, son tictac ironique, qui nous disait en langage d'horloge: L'heure coule, la soupe est toujours chaude." Under this head we ought not to forget The mellow lin-lan-lone of evening bells, Sounds overflow the listener's brain All the examples which have been adduced by myself and other correspondents are of imaginary articulate sounds in bells or clocks. For an example of the converse of this, namely an imitation, more or less exact, of a bell by a human throat, see the last note in 'The Heart of Midlothian' Some("Tolling to Service in Scotland"). Neither should we omit the campanero, or bell-bird of South America. See Waterton's graphic description of him: REEDS (8th S. ii. 327, 433, 517).-The only person whom I ever knew to use a reed for writing purposes was my late old friend Charles Longuet Higgins, of Turvey Abbey, Beds, who deservedly finds a niche in 'Lives of Twelve Good Men,' by his brother-in-law, Dean Burgon. autograph letters of his addressed to me, written with a reed, are most carefully preserved. They are beautiful specimens of calligraphy, each character being distinctly formed and nearly one inch in length. I remember to have seen, some quarter of a century ago, in the fine library at Aldenham Abbey, Herts, belonging to Mr. William Stuart, chiefly collected by his father, the Archbishop of Armagh, a valuable copy of the Pentateuch on rollers, most beautifully written with a reed in Hebrew characters. So regular and uniform were they that they looked as though printed. This, Mr. Stuart informed me, had been purchased for a very large sum at the dispersion of the library of the Duke of Sussex in 1843. JOHN PICKFOrd, M.A. TENNYSON ON TOBACCO (8th S. ii. 326, 371, 450). Has your correspondent ever searched through Cope's Tobacco-Plant? I do not know the periodical, but I have a faint recollection of being told that something by Tennyson appeared there. T. O. B. in equality, and upon a throne, with the Third A "CRANK" (8th S. ii. 408, 473). This is not exclusively an American word. Halliwell has it, and one of its definitions is "impostor." A book published A.D. 1566 is entitled A Caveat......for common cursetors, vulgarly called Vagabonds......Christian Iconography.' In 1886 a second and whereto is added the tale of the second taking of the counterfeit crank.' A glossary at the end of the book defines cranke, "young knaves and harlots that deeply dissemble the falling sickness." An American lawyer published a pamphlet; a newspaper review called it the "effusion of a crank"; for this the lawyer sued for libel; he was nonsuited, the Court holding that to call a man a crank was not libellous per se (Walker v. Tribune Co., 29 Federal Reporter, 827). One having impracticable ideas is called a crank." Guiteau, who shot President Garfield, was called a crank." The sentinel appointed to guard Guiteau, who considered it his duty to shoot the prisoner, was called a "crank." The man who entered the ST. CUTHBERT (8th S. ii. 386, 449, 498, 535).— office of Rusell Sage and demanded one million There is a woodcut of the "obverse of the Seal of and a quarter dollars, and, his demand not being the Convent of Durham" in a pamphlet entitled complied with, then and there exploded a dyna-Sainct Cudberht hys hatrid that he bare vnto mite bomb, was called a crank." Women,' &c., which was published at Newcastle in 1844. It evidently resembles Raine's woodcut, mentioned by J. T. F. J. F. MANSERGH. Liverpool. 66 66 JOHN TOWNSHEND. New York. Perhaps another word or two may be admitted about 66 a crank." It was a common term for crazed folk, whether temporarily through drink, or more permanently through trouble. These poor folk, in Derbyshire, were always called "cranky.' About thirty years ago the roundabout horses common at wakes, statutes, and fairs began to be driven by a crank," turned by a man-superseding voluntary child power-and from thence till to-day the roundabout horses are known as 66 cranky horses." Worksop. THOS. RATCLIFFE. I have been accustomed to use this word all my life. A boat is said to be crank when it is easily upset. If a ladder be insecurely placed, one would say, "Don't go up the ladder, it's crank" (likely to fall or break). When applied to the intellectual faculties, it is generally pronounced cranky. Skeat tells us that it is a Middle-English word, parallel to the Teutonic krank, to twist. E. LEATON-BLENKINSOPP. PICTURE OF THE HOLY TRINITY (8th S. ii. 89, 152, 395). The mode of representing the Holy Trinity which MR. H. J. MOULE describes, in which the sacred personages are seated side by side 0. I have no doubt that the last word in the inscription is "sc'i," for sancti, and wonder at my blindness in not seeing this before. Winterton, Doncaster. "To THREEP = J. T. F. Herbert Coleridge's 'Dictionary of the First or Some herds, well learn'd upo' the beuk, Dublin. Threep is pre-eminently a Scottish word. It is "to aver with pertinacity, in reply to denial." "Luna is silver we threpe," in Chaucer, as well as "Came unto me and threped upon me that I should be the duke of Clarance sonne," in Hall's Chronicle,' attest the accuracy of the definition. You will hear it all over Scotland any day, and one of our common phrases is "He threepit it doon my throat." ROBERT LOUTHEAN. Thornliebank. 66 a "ZOLAESQUE" (8th S. ii. 468).-Why should not those of us who find such a word as Zolaesque suited to their present uses use it accordingly, without getting it put into a dictionary? Homer and Shakespeare have their adjectives, with somewhat differing application; but Shakespeare and Homer are immortals. Nor do we grudge Milton, ": name to resound through ages," his not so frequent adjective. But after suchlike it becomes a matter for consideration whether a poet, rhythmical or otherwise, deserves promotion from substantive to adjective rank. "Johnsonese," said Macaulay; "Macaulayese," said somebody else; but is it certain that either this critic or the critic criticized contemplated the addition of a new word to the English language? The day may come when we shall know no need for "Zolaism" or Ibsenism" (which some call Zolaism with a wooden leg), and we may again have to talk of "Anthony-Trollopy women and men in Birket-Fostery landscapes. Writing once, in virtue of my position as one of those ignorant men in the street who make the British language, I ventured to protest betimes against the recognition of some words newly coined without, as it appeared to me, the temporary justification of the one in question. In doing so I chanced to make a perfectly incidental but insufficiently respectful reference to a word which, whether I liked it or not, I recognized as being a part of the British language. The result was interesting. Unneeded defence of this word came from the highest authority, while the "words that were not wanted" received no notice whatever; and a cultured contributor, who, alas! contributes no longer, expressed his gratification in a reply which showed that he had read the latter, but apparently not the former entry. There must be in every language vacancies for ideas not yet expressed; but, in consideration of the scope of the N. E. D.,' the editor seems more in need of support in rejection than in admission. KILLIGREW. I should not be so sanguine as to look for the insertion of this word in the 'N. E. D.' There would be no end to the inclusion of such words, indicative of literary style, words which can be coined intuitively in the course of converse without lexicographical authority. Accord Zola such a distinction, and straightway you must open your columns to adjectivalities in connexion with all great authors, from Herodotus to Hugo. No, no! Such words should neither encumber nor infest the pages of a dictionary. In a copy of Craig's Universal Dictionary' which lies before me I find the word rhubarby is given as "like rhubarb "; but I look in vain tor the word rhubarb itself! Substance is often sacrificed by an overreach at the redundant. ROBERT LOUTHEAN. Thornliebank. I join MR. GERISH in his hope that Zolaesque may be included in the last part of the 'N. E. D.'; and in order to help towards the completeness of the 'Dictionary' I have sent Dr. Murray quotations for Zolaism, Zolaistic, Zolaite, and Zolaizing. What should we think of a dictionary which omitted euphuism and bowdlerize, or of a new compilation which refused to recognize boycott as a word added to the language? JOHN RANDALL. 6 SEDAN-CHAIR (8th S. ii. 142, 511).—One would like to know whether the passage quoted from under this head, rests on any authority, or is only Bygone England' by MR. BIRKBECK TERRY, a mere ipse dixit of the author. To say that "the where it was first used," is to say what there is sedan-chair was named after Sedan, the town no French authority, with which I am acquainted, to back. By whom was it called a "sedan" chair? Certainly not by Frenchmen, who called it a chaiseà-porteurs. The author of 'Bygone England' in Haydn, that sedan-chairs were seems to have adopted the statement to be found "first seen in England in 1581," and " came to London in 1634." The Duke of Buckingham may have used a socalled sedan-chair (i.e., subsequently so-called); but if his "sedan" was borne like a palanquin," it was not the sedan-chair as we understand the thing; it was the primary form of it, simply an uncovered arm-chair; a revival of the Roman lady's cathedra, attributed to, or, at any rate, largely patronized by, the Reine Margot. According to La Rousse, the sedan-chair proper, the covered and enclosed chaise-à-porteurs, was "imported into France" at the commencement of the reign of Louis XIII. (1610-1643). Now, it might which did not form an integral part of France till very well have been "imported " from Sedan, 1642, when Maréchal Fabert, in the name of "the Just," came down upon Frédéric-Maurice de La Tour-d'Auvergne, and deprived that active conspirator of his principality. But neither La Rousse nor the likes of him say anything about sedanchairs having been imported from Sedan, or of their having been manufactured there. The "importation" is stated to have been due to the Marquis de Montbrun. An association for supplying chaises-à-porteurs to the public on hire was formed in Paris in 1617. The patent bears date December 11. The association consisted of the Sieur Jean Doucet, manufacturer; the Sieur Jean Regnault d'Eganville, financier, a very singular character; and Pierre Petit, a captain of the Gardes. It was the Guardsman's influence which obtained the patent from the parlement. This conferred on this copartnery the sole right of supplying chaises-à-porteurs on hire, not only in Paris but "in the other cities of the kingdom, pour y faire porter des rues à autres ceux ou celles qui désireront s'y faire porter." The offices of the association were in the Rue du Grand-Hulen, at the house of Charles Chaignier, master cabinetmaker, where a model of the chaise was on view. In 1639 a similar patent was granted to another Marquis de Montbrun, for, if the chronologist be correct, the first would have been dead in 1637; own experience) it is generally used in a negative sense in Norfolk, as, "Ta don't fare to gee," equivalent to "He does not seem to go." Davies gives "Gee-ho, a gee-ho coach seems to be a heavy coach from the country" (probably plying between the large cities and going and stopping at the towns and villages on the way; hence "Gee !-Ho!" going, stopping). He quotes: "They drew all their heavy goods here [Bristol] on sleds or sledges, which they call gee-hoes, without wheels."-Defoe, Tour through Great Britain,' ii. 314. gee-ho-coaches."-T. Brown's Works,' ii. 262. "Ply close at inns upon the coming in of waggons and W. B. GERISH. another to the Sieur de Souscarrières; and a third to Mlle. d'Etampes. Under Louis XIV., thanks to the Maintenon, the chaise-à-porteurs became "Gee, Up!" and "Gee, Woo!" both mean more fashionable than ever. How inveterate grew "Horse, get on!" In Notts and many other the use of it Mascarille witnesses in the Pré- counties nurses say to young children," Come and cieuses Ridicules.' When the Duchesse de see the gee-gees.' "Up" is a contraction of Nemours, Princesse de Neuchatel, was minded "stir up" (your stumps), and "Woo!" is a proto go from Paris to her principality, she went in a vincial pronunciation of away or way," sedan with forty porteurs, who bore her in reliefs, meaning, Get on the way. In confirmation thereof and took ten days over the hundred and thirty we refer to two other terms used to horses: leagues. Apropos, Angelo, somewhere at the end" Woo'ish!"-bear away, and "Woo'sh, come of the first volume of his 'Memoirs,' tells a lively story of a lady's sedan-chair which was housed in St. James's Palace about 1762. W. F. WALLER. a word. 66 hather" (hather to rhyme with father), i. e., bear away to the side on which the carter walks. There is not the least likelihood that "Gee !-Woo !" is the Italian gio, because gio will not fit in with Major Henry Brackenbury, in his interesting any of the other terms, and it is absurd to suphistory of the Queen's body guard, recently pub-pose that our peasants would go to Italy for such lished, mentions that to Sir Saunders Duncombe, The carter or team-man walks on the left "Woo!"-stop or halt, is quite another ancestor of Lord Faversham, is credited the introduction of sedan-chairs into England in 1634, and Wo, or woh, is a turning (see Bosworth). E. COBHAM BREWER. that he received "from the king a patent for himself and heirs, vesting in them the sole right of Does not "Gee!" mean horse? We hear carrying persons for hire in these novel convey-carters exclaim "Gee !-Up!" as well as "Gee!CONSTANCE RUSSELL. Wo!" ARTHUR MESHAM. ances." [See also 1st S. xi. 281, 388; 6th S. xii. 308, 331, 498; 7th S. i. 37, 295; ii. 6; xii. 394.] "GEE!-WO!" (8th S. ii. 445).—These words are used here by waggoners, carters, &c., walking by the side of their horses; but, as I was taught more than fifty years ago, it shows dreadful ignorance to use them on horseback or riding in any vehicle. "Wo!" or "Woy!" means stop. "Gee!"-go to the right, or away from the driver, who walks on the left hand of his horses. "Auve!" or "Come hither, Auve!" in a singsong tone, sometimes accompanied by laying the waggoner's long whip gently across the neck of the horse, means 66 Come to me," or to the left. "Tela-tcla-tcla," a noise made by the tongue against the roof of the mouth, means get on, or mend your pace. "Woy!" when prolonged into Whoigh-ah!" and uttered severely, means "Stop instantly, you stupid beast; did you not hear me speak?" R. R. I think Halliwell is correct as to the first exclamation, "Gee!" it being derived from the A.-S. gegan, to go. According to Nall (and my word. side. design he has conceived for the purpose of tor-containing chiefly plates, in which the letterpress menting them. Two misprints were noticed in the errata in the ensuing number of N. & Q.' Ergötzen is not a misprint, it is the word employed in my edition of 'Faust' (Rivington, 1882). B. D. MOSELEY. Burslem. AMBROSE GWINETT (8th S. ii. 447, 535).—I have a copy of this rare Life of Ambrose Gwinett,' which I have had bound up with my friend Theodore Watts's 'Reminiscences of George Borrow.' It has always been a pet little volume on my shelves, but I shall be delighted to lend it to your correspondent should he desire to read it. Unfortunately no date is indicated, but I should take it to be 1770 or thereabouts. The frontispiece has two engravings, one of the man whom Gwinett was supposed to have murdered being seized by the press gang, the other of Gwinett in a cart being taken to be hanged on the gallows erected in a field hard by the church. The title is too long for 'N. & Q.,' but I give the pith of it: "The Life, Strange Voyages and Uncommon Adventures of Ambrose Guinett, formerly known to the Public as the Lame Beggar: Who for a long Time swept the Way at the Mew's-Gate, Charing Cross. Containing an account, &c. The Fourth Edition. London, J. Lever, Little Moorgate, next to London Wall near Moorfields. (Price Six Pence.)" I should much like to know if the story has ever been dramatized, as Mr. Watts infers in his 'Reminiscences of Borrow'; also if it is founded on fact; or are we indebted to Oliver Goldsmith's inventive genius for it? JAMES ROBERTS BROWN. SALISBURY MISSAL (8th S. ii. 528).-The Missal in English was published in 1868 by the Church Printing Company. The Lesser Hours of the Day were published by Swan Sonnenschein about two years ago. The Breviary complete in English is promised this year-I am uncertain by what firm of publishers. It is to be published by subscription and with music. H. A. W. There is a complete English translation of the Salisbury Missal by Mr. Walker, I believe, and of the Breviary by the Marquis of Bute. Winterton, Doncaster. J. T. F. SIR EDWARD LITTLEHALES (8th S. ii. 527).—Sir Edward Baker Littlehales (afterwards Sir Edward Baker Baker) was Under-Secretary of the Military Department at Dublin at the time mentioned by your correspondent. Sir Edward apparently held this post from 1801 to 1819. G. F. R. B. BOOK MARGINS (8th S. ii. 307, 435).-The suggestion of MR. WYLIE respecting an equal (perhaps I should say a more equalized) margin all round the printed matter of a page is not new. Works serves only to describe them in a brief manner, are usually printed in this way, the obvious fact being that the binder cannot cut the printed page down without serving the plates in the same way and thus ruining the book. I have a large-paper copy of a local work (no plates save the frontispiece), the late C. J. Palmer's Diary,' published 1892, which has an almost equal margin all round, it will not be rebound in my time, I confess to a allowing for the space taken into the binding. As admire it greatly, and shall be pleased to show it disregard for future generations' approval, and to any correspondent when in this neighbourhood. W. B. GERISH. South Town, Great Yarmouth. VERSES BY WHITTIER (8th S. iii. 9).— A dreary place would be this earth Were there no little people in it,' are the opening lines of a short poem called The Little People,' given by way of motto to Child Life,' a collection of poems edited by Whittier (London, 1874), one of the most charming collections of poetry for children that I have ever seen. The concluding lines of the poem are:— A doleful place this world would be Were there no little children in it. There is nothing to indicate that the verses were written by Whittier, though in all probability they were. W. W. DAVIES. Lisburn, Ireland. The verse "In Anglo-Saxon we find to where now at is preferred. quite often enough to modify our wonder at the great prevalence of to in Devonshire. Such a phrase as thisWas Hama swan gerefa to Suɣtune' (Hama was herdshire. Not so very many years ago, schoolmasters in reeve at Sutton)-is of constant occurrence in DevonDevonshire were wont to tell how that Atterbury gave as a reason for unwillingness to go into Devonshire, that the natives could not pronounce at, and he had no fancy to be called To-terbury!" In Toterbury the vulgar pronunciation of tutor would have been reproduced, just as Towell would be pronounced Toowell. In recent years the chaff of outsiders has led some of the Devonian folk to adopt the alien at into their speech, to the disuse |
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