Car Rominagrobis Fait en tous lieux un étrange carnage. S'il manque de souris, voudra manger des rats. See also Fable 5 of the same book. E. YARDLEY. See La Fontaine's' Fables,'' Le Chat, la Belette, et le petit Lapin' (Livre vii. 16), and 'Le vieux Chat et la jeune Souris' (Livre xii. 5). In a note to the former of these, in Mr. Francis Tarver's copiously annotated edition of the 'Fables de La Fontaine,' Hachette & Cie., 1886, there is the following explanation : "Raminagrobis: Tabby; a name for a cat found in Rabelais. Etym. doubtful. In a burlesque of the sixteenth century the councillors of the Parliament of Rouen are called 'gros raminas grobis.' Ramina sig nifies cat; rominer, to purr (Berry); grobis, self-important." La Fontaine calls Raminagrobis "sa majesté fourrée," and speaks of his old age and experience, which seems to agree with Horace Walpole's description as quoted by SIR HERBERT MAXWELL. JONATHAN BOUCHIER. Rominagrobis is the name of the tom-cat in French. It occurs more than once in La Fontaine's 'Fables'; for example, in 'Le Chat, la Belette, et le petit Lapin,' and in 'Le vieux Chat et la petite Souris.' It is used also by Voltaire and Rabelais. According to Littré, rominer and raminer means to purr in some parts of France. ARTHUR RUSSELL. PRONUNCIATION OF VIKING (7th S. x. 367, 492). -Concerning the termination -wyk in numerous Flemish and Dutch names, referred to by CANON TAYLOR, I wish to explain that in Beverswyk, &c., the final syllable cannot have the meaning of a bay or a bog, but perhaps that of village, corresponding to the Gothic veihs, St. Mark vi. 56, viii. 23, 26. In many Dutch place-names in wyk, as Steenwyk, Winterswyk, Vreeswyk, Wyk-by-Duurstede, the last syllable appears to be connected with Goth. vaihsta, St. Matthew v. 6 (corner), whilst Grimm supposes the existence of a lost verb vaihsan, corresponding to G. weichen, D. wyken (to retreat, to resort to); e. g., D. Stadwyk a resort from town. Cf. also G. weichbild, D. wyk, nearly equivalent to a ward in the City of London, quarters. B. KOSTER. Schiedam. SHIRE HORSES (7th S. x. 208, 412, 458).Whether "shire horse "=" sheer horse "="entire horse" is a matter which I do not feel competent to deal with, though I should have thought the exact opposite to be a more reasonable etymology. But I do wish, before the old modes of manufacture are forgotten, to protest against the expression "sheer steel," and the derivation implied by DR. COBHAM BREWER. "Shear steel," not "sheer steel," was so called because when the bars had been "converted" into steel, they were sheared into short pieces, and forged again from a pile built up with the layers crossed, so as to produce a web-like texture in the metal by the crossing of the fibres. Great toughness resulted from this mode of manufacture. But shear steel will soon be forgotten, I suppose. W. D. GAINSFORD. A "shire horse" is a stallion to serve cart mares from different shires. H. PUGH. JACOB TONSON, THE BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER (7th S. x. 448).-Jacob Tonson, the bookseller and founder of the Kit-Cat Club, had a house at North End, Fulham, for many years before he moved to Barn Elms. He passed his latter days, till he died in 1736, at Ledbury, where he purchased an estate. The Jacob Tonson whose death is given in the Gentleman's Magazine, and who ferred his business and his house and pictures at died in 1735, was his nephew, to whom he transBarn Elms. At the death of this nephew, a few months previous to his own, Jacob Tonson, senior, made his grand-nephew, another Jacob Tonson, his residuary legatee. CONSTANCE RUSSELL. Swallowfield, Reading. M. FERET does not appear to be acquainted with the fact that three persons bearing the above name successfully conducted the same business as booksellers in the Strand. Jacob Tonson the first, and original founder of the business, died at Ledbury, April 2, 1736. Jacob Tonson the second, his nephew, died at Barns, November 25, 1735. He it was who is said to have been worth 100,000l. Jacob Tonson the third, son of the last-named, and great-nephew of the elder and most celebrated bookseller that this country ever produced, died on March 31, 1767, at Bray, near Windsor. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. RIVER DEE (7th S. x. 347, 398).—May I be allowed to add my testimony that Charles Kingsley meant our Cheshire river? My late father's friendship with the canon dated from a correspondence (long before the latter came to occupy the stall he so ably held in Chester Cathedral) on this very subject. Unfortunately I am unable at the present moment to lay my hands on these letters, but when I do find them the pages of N. & Q. shall receive them, to put the fact on record on first-rank authority. I have often heard my father refer to this literary commencement of a warm friendship which lasted till the canon's death. T. CANN HUGHES, M.A. The Groves, Chester. Is not Kingsley's song generally known as The Sands of Dee,' not as 'The Sands o' Dee'? The former is its title in my copy of Kingsley's 'Poems,' F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. 1862. "CLOTHES MADE OUT OF WAX": "TUTTIES" (7th S. x. 408, 456).—I am much obliged to MR. A. H. BULLEN for answering my query, and still more for his kind compliment to myself. This is laudari a laudato. Might I trespass again on MR. BULLEN'S good-nature? In a poem or song in his small volume, perhaps even more charming than "Once did my thoughts both ebb and flow," namely, that at p. 197, beginning "Jack and Joan, they think no ill"; the word "tutties" occurs, explained in a foot-note as nosegays." Is this an archaism or a provincialism? Richardson gives tutty' " with quite a different meaning, supported by a quotation from the Tatler, No. 266. When I read Jack and Joan' I feel under a personal obligation both to Campion and to MR. BULLEN. JONATHAN BOUCHIER. 66 CHAPMAN'S ALL FOOLS (7th S. vi. 46; vii. 177, 513; x. 50, 331). May I ask if COL. PRIDEAUX has read the late Dr. Ingleby's opuscule, entitled 'The Shakspere Forgeries,' London, 1860? I ask, because I consider that, after such an exposure, it is useless to regard the party implicated as really innocent; and I may add that I lived for some years in the close neighbourhood of the late J. P. Collier, and the talk thereabouts, the servants' gossip, &c., was much commented on. Let me point out that Dr. Dodd, executed in 1777, was a royal chaplain and successful author. Henry Fauntleroy was a London banker, so both had moved in the very best society. I am yet to learn that a newspaper reporter or Civil Service clerk can claim any higher position. I do not think it would have been possible to bring Mr. Collier to public trial for any direct act; the utmost would have been to raise the question by an action for obtaining money by false pretences-a game not worth the candle. Of course the real evil is in being "found out"; but the ship and history, the result being, in its way, consequences are a confusion of fact as to authorsimilar to the great inconvenience caused by the false Richard of Cirencester. A. H. MISTAKES IN BOOKS OF REFERENCE (7th S. ix. 304, 378, 455; x. 16).—In the 'Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits,' published by A. E. Evans & Son, vol. ii. p. 338, No. 20,828, is a notice of one of "Henrietta, Countess of Rochester, 'la triste héretière' of Grammont, daughter of Richard, Earl of Burlington, &c." Here we have Grammont wrongly quoted, for in his vol. ii. p. 303, he says, "Lord Rochester......married a melancholy heiress, Elizabeth, daughter of John Mallet, of Eumere, in the County of Somerset," and an engraving is given of her portrait after Sir P. Lely by E. Scriven. The same error appears at p. 294 of Evans's vol. i. In the 'Guide to Hampton Court' we are told that "Henrietta Boyle, Countess of Rochester, daughter of first Earl of Burlington, was married to Lawrence Hyde." He was in "" December, 1682, created Earl of Rochester, alluded to by Evelyn as the great favourite.' This latter, in italics, is also an error, the great favourite being John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. From the fact of the resuscitation of the title of Earl of Rochester in the person of Lawrence Hyde, the first Lord Boyle, the year following its extinction in the death of John Wilmot's only son, the third earl, these errors I make a note of have crept into print, and, so far as I can ascertain, still remain to puzzle the searcher. In my copy of a new edition of the 'Memoirs of Count Grammont,' published by Carpenter & Miller, 1811, the engraving I have referred to of "la triste héretière" is after a picture by Lely. I have a portrait of her in oils exactly as this engraving, and by Mary Beale. I from a Lely in the possession of Lord Lisburne. have lately found out that this engraving was taken From this it would seem that Samuel Redgrave was right in his surmises when he said that, speaking of Mary Beale, "She is said to have been instructed by Sir P. Lely, but probably only copied HAROLD MALET, Colonel. his works." UNFASTENING A DOOR AT DEATH (7th S. x. 66, 169, 318, 433, 494).—The replies given to my query (for which I return thanks), though they have wandered somewhat from the subject, have been extremely interesting. Some of them have recalled to my mind a circumstance which took place in my own family a few years ago. A cousin of mine was paying a round of visits in the country. On chairs, and the girl in a regular and larger bed- WAYZGOOSE (7th S. x. 187, 233, 373).-The following is an extract from Edwards's Words, Facts, and Phrases': 6 66 the morning when she was to have gone to the house next on her list she awoke early, and finding it too soon to rise abandoned herself to the pillow again, falling into that pleasant half-waking state which everybody but the great duke has sometimes enjoyed. She was not sleeping, for hearing (as she thought) the door opened behind her, and the curtain of her bed moved back, she was sufficiently awake to raise herself and look round. Before, or rather while she was in the act of doing so, an inarticulate but quite audible whisper at her ear quickened her movements, and she half sprang from her bed, thinking one of her cousins in the house was playing her some trick. To her great surprise the door was Supfast shut and there was nobody near. posing the whole thing a delusion, though with difficulty persuading herself that it was so, she lay down again, but not to doze. On the contrary, she remained vividly awake, debating with herself whether she could have been deceived or no. In the course of some minutes the same thing happened again; the door was heard to This term is employed to the annual Wayzgoose. open gently, the curtain to stir, and then the same holiday of the employés in printing offices. The name is synonymous with stubble-goose, and the stubble-goose is whisper, hardly more than a breath or a sigh, but still unmistakably human. Being now excited the principal dish on these occasions. The name and the and a little alarmed, my cousin rose and dressed. custom are of considerable antiquity. Moxon, in his Hardly had she got down stairs and acquainted Mechanick Exercises,' 1653, says: 'It is customary for the journeymen every year to make new paper windows, whether the old will serve or no, because the day they the family with what had happened, when a messenger from the house to which she was going make them the master printer gives them a wayzgoose. These wayzgooses are always kept at Bartholomewtide, arrived with the news of the sudden death of a relative there, and in the course of the day a letter and until the master has given the wayzgoose the or telegram (I forget which) was received announc-journeymen do not work by candle-light.' A different ing the almost equally sudden death of her dearest friend at another house which she was to have C. C. B. visited a few days later. A story of knocking at the door at the very hour of his father's death is related by the celebrated French novelist Alexandre Dumas in his Let us add it 'Mémoires,' first series, chap. xx. to those which were told in one of the last numbers of N. & Q.' by A. J. M., to make up three, which, as everybody knows, is a favourite number with the gods. The author of 'Les Mousquetaires' was then three and a half, and lived with his parents at Villers-Cotterets, in the Department of Aisne. His father, General Dumas, lying on his deathbed, the child, who had not the least notion of what the word "death" could mean, bad been removed to the house of a friend of the family in the same place, under the care of his cousin Marianne, The a young lady somewhat older than he was. house had two entrance doors, which were always shut and bolted at night; and when shut nobody One could enter the house from the outside. night, at twelve o'clock, the boy and the girl-who slept in the only room of the house (a smithy, a kitchen, and an inner yard forming the other parts), the boy on a little couch which had been arranged for his private use on a couple of etymology is given by Mr. Hazlitt. He says in a note to ancient custom of holding a grand goose feast at Waes Brand's Popular Antiquities,' 'I am of opinion that the in Brabant at Martinmas is more likely to have given rise to our English phrase.' CELER ET AUDAX. Whence comes MR. A. HALL'S "urbanic "? Dictionaries within my reach seem not to have the word. Is it needed? Instead of "bucolic, not urbanic," might he not have written "rustic, not F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. urbic," cf. "res rustica et urbicæ.”—' Aul. Gell.,' 15, 1, 3? DUKE OF WELLINGTON (7th S. x. 5, 174, 337).— SIR,-In answer to your enquiry respecting my son the Duke of Wellington, I inform you that he was born the first of May, 1769. I am much flattered by your intention of celebrating his birthday! the good wishes and prayers of worthy respectable persons, I trust, will continue to my son the good fortune and success that it has hitherto pleased the Almighty to grant him in the service of his king and country. I happened yesterday to meet with a very striking likeness of the Duke, ANNE MORNINGTON. which you will do me a favour by accepting of from your very humble servant The above letter was addressed to Mr. James Cuthbertson, Seton Mains, Tranent, Scotland. Both the letter and the picture alluded to by the Countess of Mornington are in the possession of Mr. St. Clair Cunningham, Edinburgh. I think I have been told that upon more than one occasion this letter has been quoted to establish the exact date of the birth of the Duke of Wellington. H. GIBSON. MERIC CASAUBON (7th S. x. 448, 518).-His first wife, née Harrison, was she related to Mr. Harrison who was lessee under the Dean and Chapter of Winchester, 1660, of rectories of Preston Candover and Nutley, Hants? Dr. Casaubon seven years afterwards became lessee, as appears by a note-book in the chapter house at Winchester, entries between 1660 and 1680. Sir Richard Harrison held land at Nutley or in neighbourhood 1635. Mr. Wm. Harrison (Gen.), Lay Subsidy, 1605, held lands in Preston Candover. Can H. W. give any information of Harrison family related to Casaubon, and probably holding lands in North Hants? VICAR. c. xix. 115-117? Bishop Jewel (who drolly Perhaps it may be as well to make a note of the AMERICAN MOBBY (7th S. x. 209, 398).— "Mobee. A fermented liquor made by the negroes in the West Indies, prepared with sugar, ginger, and snakeIt is sold by them in the markets.-Carmichael's root. West Indies.'"-Bartlett's 'Dictionary of Americanisms.' F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. FLASH (7th S. x. 146, 234, 355, 396, 492).—If I might be allowed to add a little to all that has been said on this subject, I would add that "flash" the matter of that, in other large towns, for many salesmen have had their home in London, and, for years, quite irrespective of the derivation which they are supposed to obtain from Cottonopolis or its vicinity. "Flash" is a word with various meanings, but all tending to the same end. Anything that is showy or smart is flash; any one that is particularly knowing is flash. A person is said to be dressed flash when his garb is showy, and after a fashion but without taste. A person is flash when he apes the appearance or manners of his betters, or when he is trying to be superior to his friends or relations. Flash also means fast, roguish, and sometimes infers deception; and this, perhaps, is its general significance. Nowadays it is mostly used to denote that which is not what it appears to be, such as spurious jewellery and shoddy clothes. In 'Tom and Jerry,' by Moncrieff, is the line, "Flash, my young friend, or slang, as others call it, is the classical language of the Holy Land; in other words, St. Giles's Greek." Vulgar language was first termed "flash" in the year 1718 by Hitchin, author of 'The Regulator of Thieves, &c., with Account of Flash Words." "Flash" is sometimes exchangeable with "fancy," as in the lines from 'Lyra Flagitiosa' beginning: My flash man's in quod. THE STUDY OF DANTE IN ENGLAND (7th S. v. 85, 252, 431, 497; vi. 57; x. 118, 334, 415).-I am very pleased that my note (7th S. x. 334) has drawn so valuable a reply from PROF. TOMLINSON (7th S. x. 415). I have read his article not only with interest but with profit, as it has informed me of several facts in the history of Dante literature with which I was previously unacquainted. I was aware that, although Dante is the representative poet of medieval Catholicism, he is not, for all that, regarded with an over-favourable eye by ultramontane Catholics. It would seem that Dante, like his compeer Milton, was far too great to be tied and bound by the chain of any church, and that, so far as was possible in fourteenth century Italy, he broke away from strict Catholicism, in the same way that the English poet afterwards CARDS (7th S. x. 486).—I do not know whence broke away from strict Puritanism, and stood J. M. R. obtained his information; but in one "grandly alone." PROF. TOMLINSON says that point at least it is not correct: "The emblems "the measure of his iniquity was quite filled up......still are in Spain for the heart, a cup......the when the Protestants claimed Dante as one of the witnesses of the truth." May I ask PROF. TOMLINSON to name any leading early Protestants who have so claimed Dante, other than Milton, who appears to do so in his citation of the 'Inferno,' Stratford, E. J. W. ALLISON spade, an acorn......the club, a trefoil......the diamond, a rose." It is true that for hearts the Spaniards have cups, but for spades they have swords (in Spanish espadas, whence our name and figure for this suit); for clubs, clubs, real clubs, or batons (whence our name, though not our figure); and for diamonds, gold coins (oros). Perhaps at any earlier date the Spanish (and Italian, for they substantially agree) cards may have had for their emblems cups, acorns, trefoils, and roses; but the names of our two black suits seem to show a considerable antiquity for the swords and clubs they no longer resemble in appearance. A. E. Your correspondent does not seem to be aware of the fact that the pack originally consisted of seventy-eight, and not fifty-two cards, viz., twentytwo tarots (the existence of which he does not even suspect), sixteen (and not twelve) coat-cards (king, queen, chevalier, and knave in each suit), and forty pip cards (one to ten in each suit). What authority is there for the statement that the coatcards were formerly depicted as the signs of the zodiac? L. L. K. MEASOM FAMILY (7th S. x. 488).—No pedigree appears on record; and it is, therefore, a matter of research. The surname is derived from a locality in Derbyshire, to which county the Measom family originally belonged. I shall be glad to afford further information by letter. 10, Turquand Street, S.E. R. A. COLBECK. LARGE FAMILY (7th S. x. 465).—Your correspondent chronicling the event of the lady who presented her husband with the "thirtieth pledge" of their affection, although having done fairly well, has not "broken the record," nor has the lady fully come up to the standard of the marvellous, In J. D'Alton's King James's Irish Army List,' "Cavalry," vol. i. p. 315, in giving the history of the O'Carrolls, this passage occurs : defendant, found that the relieving-officer's statement as to the thirty-two children was a fact, defendant himself had twins on three occasions, afterwards a couple of being one of three at a birth. Hooker said his mother triples, and on one occasion whilst they were living at Dowlais four at a birth. These, with the other children, made no fewer than thirty-two." D. K. T. ADDISON'S WIFE (7th S. x. 367, 434, 513).— Both MR. PICKFORD and MR. MARSHALL will pardon me for drawing attention to the fact that the house at Bilton associated with Addison is always called Bilton Hall; Bilton Grange, in the same parish, but at least a mile distant, is a large modern mansion, built about 1840-50 for the late Capt. Washington Hibbert, step-father of Bertram, seventeenth Earl of Shrewsbury. E. WALFORD, M.A. 7, Hyde Park Mansions, N.W. "NINETED OR "NIGHNTED " BOYS (7th S. I. 504).-Merely bad spellings of 'ninted, a provincial pronunciation of anointed. It has been discussed long ago; see N. & Q.,' 3rd S. viii. Halliwell gives :— 452, 547; ix. 359, 422. 'Anointed, chief, roguish; 'an anointed scamp; West."" The spelling ghn is not justifiable in English. Those who can believe that 'ninted is short for "nigh - unto'd" must be strangely credulous. WALTER W. SKEAT. In Cornwall the word anointed is used in full, e. g., "You anointed villain"="you confoundedor perhaps confirmed-rascal"; see Jago's 'Glossary of Cornish Dialect.' It is a word often used in condemnation of some one who is a notorious scamp. Higher up, in Somerset, I have heard the expression "He's a 'nointed young owl" used of a mischievous lad or a dog or cat caught in some petty larceny. F. F. S. Flushing Vicarage, Falmouth. "Previous to the time of the above entry, a Donagh O'Carroll, according to an ancient manuscript forwarded in aid of this work, married the daughter of O'KenFREKE (7th S. x. 507).-F. H. Stratmann, in his nedy by Margaret O'Brian Arra, which Margaret was the daughter of O'Carroll Ely. By her he is said thereinDictionary of the Old English Language,' says to have had thirty sons, all of whom he presented, in one that Freke is derived trom the Anglo-Saxon freca, troop of horse and accoutred in habiliments of war, to a bold man, and refers to the use of the word in the Earl of Ormonde, with proffers of all his and their the following works :assistance in the royal cause. Most of these sons, it is added, died in foreign lands, having followed the wanderings of the Stuarts." READER OF 'N. & Q.' The enclosed cutting from the Western Mail (November, 1882), beats APPLEBY's record by two: "On Tuesday, at the Aberdare Police Court, a young man named John Hooker was summoned, at the instance of Relieving-Officer David, in respect of the maintenance of his father. Mr. David stated that the old man had been in receipt for the past four weeks of 2s. 6d. per week. The father was seventy-three years of age, and the mother fifty-six or fifty-seven. Mr. David added that the woman had had thirty-two children. The summons was dismissed upon defendant undertaking to support his parents in future. Our reporter, upon interrogating the King Alisaunder, in Weber's Metrical Romances, The Romance of William of Palerne (about 1350). Edited by W. W. Skeat. London, 1867. The Vision of William (Langland or Langley), concerning Piers the Plowman (about 1380). Arthur and Merlin. Edinburgh, 1838. (About 1320.) In Halliwell's 'Dict. of Archaic and Provincial Words' this quotation is given: Thane folous frekly one fote frekkes y-newe, 71, Brecknock Road. FISHERY TERMS (7th S. x. 488).-Pole nets, i. e., nets hanging from poles, are still in use in Hun |