attention of the congregation, was not course, merely borrowed from the Latin objected to. His name was Sheriff. He died a number of years ago, and his sketches were secured by a bookseller with a view to their publication, but I do not know if this ever took place. He certainly never wrote the Travels of Dr. Syntax, although his having borne the name may have caused parties to ascribe the composition to him, and to throw doubts as to Mr. William Combe being the real author. Alike doubt was thrown upon the authorship of The Burial of Sir John Moore' by a Durham farrier laying claim to its composition; but, so far as I am aware, Dr. Syntax of Edinburgh never laid claim to being an author. A. G. REID. Auchterarder. Judæus, and is entirely unconnected with The reference here to a magazine article "THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER" (9th S. v. 65). has probably been misleading. 'Modern--PROF. SKEAT'S paper on this subject is Athenians' (A. & C. Black, 1882, pp. 2 and 3) interesting; no doubt his conclusions are speak about John Sheriff, on whom the name correct. The subject of colour has not reof "Dr. Syntax" was bestowed, from the ceived the attention which it deserves. Much remarkable likeness he showed to the figure has, I need not say, been done from the so called in Rowlandson's coloured prints, point of view of art and physical science, published about the year 1815." G. L. though even there further investigation will have to be made; but the students of history, philology, and folk-lore have hitherto given The authorship of the Three Tours of Dr. Syntax' has been so fully discussed in the pages of 'N. & Q.' that, unless any new light can be thrown on the subject, they may, without doubt, be attributed to the pen of William Combe (see 4th S. ii., iii., iv.). EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. THE KNIGHTS OF BRISTOL (9th S. iii. 321).-I have been much interested in the account of the Knight family of Bristol. I am quite sure that if the writer of it had examined the will of Francis Knight, "one of the Aldermen of the City of Bristol," he would have found that the testator does not mention a son George. The will is dated 8 August, 1616, and was proved 12 October of the same year (P.C.C. Cope, 112). In Le Neve's 'Knights,' p. 175, it is distinctly stated that George Knight, of Bristol, merchant, father of Sir John Knight, Mayor, &c., was a son of John Knight, of Com. Oxon. I am interested in trying to find the ancestry of a certain Christopher Knight, a good account of whom will be found in Oliver's 'History of the Island of Antigua.' In my search I have gathered a good deal of information concerning the family of Knight. HOWARD WILLIAMS LLOYD. Germantown, Philadelphia. THE SURNAME JEKYLL (9th S. iv. 415, 483): -I am afraid that I do not understand A. H.'s position. The Welsh Iuddew is, of it little attention. Green is very noteworthy; sometimes it seems the symbol of the springtide, and consequently of hope, mirth, and gladness, at others it is connected with immodesty and jealousy. It is notably a rare tincture in our older English heraldry. This may be because it was regarded as of evil import. Can it have been connected with the evil eye? We are told that the cloak of Death was of green (Ballad Soc., xxi. 27), and in Caithness it was unlucky to wear green on a Monday (Scott, Border Min.,' iii. 345). We hear also of "the fairies' fatal green ('Lady of the Lake,' iv. 13). Green stockings for women formerly considered a sign of an evil life. Marlowe, describing a woman of loose character, speaks of were Her green silk stockings and her petticoat This colour is still used as a social badge by "The Messager des Chambres states the occur rence of a Carlist riot at Montpellier on the 15th instant, the name-day (St. Henry) of the Duke of Bordeaux. High mass was celebrated with much ostentation, and a novena for the return of the enfant du miracle took place. A ball was announced, to which nobody but those who wore green and white ribbons should be admitted, and the ball room was decorated in these colours. The tri-colour was to be trampled under foot; and some young people of the party paraded the streets in tricoloured slippers. The authorities interfered, and the ball was prevented." The fact that green was used as a party distinction in the time of the Commonwealth has lately been dwelt upon in the pages of N. & Q' In a recent article in the Month Mr. C. Kegan Paul has spoken of "the green banner of the Church of M. Comte" (July, 1899, 65). On the other hand, in medieval times, it is stated that a part of the dress of St. John the Evangelist was represented as green (Walcott, Sacred Archæology,' 258); and Dante saw in Purgatory angels in green garments "like tender leaves new born (Dugdale's "Trans.,' canto viii.). Richard Whitford in his 'A Werke for Housholders,' 1537, condemns the form of words "by my hood of green," which was, in his day, an oath used by children. See Gasquet's Eve of the Reformation,' p. 314. We have, perhaps, here a reference to the colour of fairy garments. EDWARD PEACOCK. A thousand guilders, the mayor looked blue, 'Pied Piper of Hamelin.' If I mistake not, the word blue has also been employed as a vulgar euphemism. An amusing instance of what might be called "projected subjectivity," e. g., "the pot calling the kettle black," is in 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' III. i.:— Snout. O Bottom, thou art changed! What do I see on thee? Bottom. What do you see? An ass's head of your own, do you? [Italics mine.] The answer of the translated" prince of clowns to his questioner seems to me to be rather artificial, and the ass joke is surely overworked in the play. In like manner Mr. Stiggins ('Pickwick Papers'), on reaching the temperance meeting in an inebriated condition, declared his opinion that "this meeting is drunk," and thereupon proceeded to assault the respectable brother who kept the door. Brixton Hill. FRANCIS P. MARCHANT. FIRST HALFPENNY NEWSPAPER (9th S. ii. 504; iv. 270, 357, 425, 526).—The enterprise of Scottish journalists must not be overlooked in this discussion. Early in 1864 an ephemeral sheet appeared in the afternoon at Pittenweem, Fifeshire; and about the same time the Greenock Telegraph, which still flourishes, was started as an evening halfpenny paper. In August of the same year, independently of these, and starting from no precedent, the late Dr. Hedderwick founded his halfpenny afternoon daily, the Glasgow Evening Citizen. To all intents and purposes Dr. Hedderwick was a leader in the Sphere of evening journalism, for, although he may have been slightly anticipated both in England and Scotland, there is the best reason for saying that he fared forth with his new paper in the belief that nothing else of the kind had ever been attempted. His immediate and continuous success was the best justification of what seemed to his friends at the time only a hazardous experiment. In its independent inception, character, and aim, this admirable journal deserves to be regarded as an adventurous pioneer and a suggestive national exemplar. To-day, with its thousands of advertisements, its fresh telegrams, and its skilful editing and management, it is one of the best newspapers in the country. There is little doubt that many of the existing afternoon journals, both in Scotland and Eng land, followed the brilliant lead of Dr. Hedderwick, who was, it may be added, not only an ingenious and enterprising journalist, but a distinguished man of letters. His 'Villa by the Sea and Lays of Middle Age' give him a notable place among the poets of philosophic idealism. THOMAS BAYNE. Helensburgh, N.B. Was not the French Le Petit Journal the first of the great halfpennies, or did the Echo precede it? Is it not still the greatest, &c., or has the Daily Mail outstripped it? I mean, of course, in point of circulation only. THOMAS J. JEAKES. CHURCHES BUILT OF UNHEWN STONE (9th S. v. 68). Great Clacton Church, Essex, is a Norman structure, almost entirely built of septaria, i. e., of the rounded nodules of laminated stone found in the London clay, which abounds in the neighbourhood. The south-east portion of St. Osyth Church is also built of septaria, thirteenth century. W. B. ROGERS'S GINEVRA' (9th S. v. 3, 92).-The Mistletoe Bough,' I find, was written by Thomas Haynes Bayly, a fact I ought to have remembered. Bayly's first volume of poems was published in 1827, Rogers's 'Italy' in 1822. Whether Bayly took the incident on which his poem is founded from Rogers or not I cannot say. C. C. B. "HOPPING THE WAG" (9th S. v. 25).-To which may be added that commonest expression of London Board School children "Playing the charley wag," often shortened into "Playing the charley." I would like to put an interrogation point after "charley" for an explanation. C. E. CLARK. SUFFOLK NAME FOR LADYBIRD (9th S. v. 48). -I suspect that it has been pointed out over and over again in 'N. & Q.' that ladybird is a euphemistic rendering of Our Lady's bug, and that bug was once the usual name by which small insects were designated. "HIPPIN" (9th S. v. 47). According to Weigand's 'Deutsches Wörterbuch,' Hippe in German is the same wafer-shaped cake as the more commonly known and highly relished Waffel, which is baked between two iron forms, and consists either merely of a little flour and honey, or, if made in a more costly way, of flour, eggs, butter, and sugar. These waffel cakes, which are of the lightest weight, and of very small nourishing value, have always been a favourite relish, attracting many visitors of the fairs to the row of public stalls where they used to be speedily manufactured. As to the origin of the other name Hippe in German, Heyne (v. Grimm's 'Deutsches Wörterbuch') seems to be right if he derives it from the extremely thin and light substance of this cake, and connects it with the adjective hippig thin, meagre, insignificant. H. KREBS. HAIL, QUEEN OF HEAVEN, THE OCEAN STAR (9th S. v. 28).-In Dr. Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology,' p. 99, under Ave Maris Stella,' there is a list of English translations, each with a first line somewhat similar to the above, but Dr. Lingard's name does not appear. One is by Caswall. Bath. C. LAWRENCE FORD, B.A. plated bands. The latter, as far as I know, green de Brakelond, the historian of the abbey of ST. EANSWYTH (9th S. iv. 461; v. 8, 74).— One would have almost felt certain that MR. HARRY HEMS would have favoured N. & Q.,' to which he is such a constant and valued contributor, with full details "of what was considered to have been one of the most remarkable antiquarian finds ever made in Kent." But failing this, I am grateful for the list of references vouchsafed. MR. ARTHUR HUSSEY has gone a step further and kindly placed in my hands the information to which he refers. For this I, as a country reader of N. & Q., am doubly grateful. JOHN T. PAGE. GREEN FAIRIES: WOOLPIT GREEN CHILDREN (9th S. v. 47). The tale quoted by MR. HOOPER must be far older than his authorities. "Green" spirits are "sinless" in Celtic literature and tradition, and the terms are combined in the word glais. Instances of an intermediate state are found. Lugh Lethglas (Luke Halfgreen) is the imperfect, half - instructed Druid of the Fomorians at the battle of Samhain. It may be more than a coincidence that the girl marries a "man of Lynn." Here the original word would be lein, evil, i. e., the pure fairy marries a sinful child of earth. Fossa luporum (wolves' graves) preserves another item of Celtic teaching, found alike in the earliest legends of Rome and amongst modern French Freemasons. "Martin" is a variant of Merdyn or Merlin, assisted by the EDGAR A. POE'S 'HOP-FROG' (9th S. v. 4).— saint's reputation as a thaumaturgist. Part It may interest MR. R. H. THORNTON to know of the dry bed of the Mere of the Wizard at Glastonbury is now St. Martin's Moor. The name is applied to that portion of Bride's Meadows which lies between the hamlet of Beckery [1], or Little Ireland, and the village of Street, and includes that part of the Salmon of Knowleye [?] which lies to the west of the river Brue. The Salmon itself is the long, low, artificial mound, formerly an island in the Mere, the tail of which may be seen in a field near Glastonbury station. G. Ralph of Coggeshall states that he had this story from Sir Richard de Calne, into whose house, he tells us, the children were received. It is strange, however, that Jocelin West Haddon, Northamptonshire. that the catastrophe of the Hôtel de Saint- "I can see that I have plenty of hard work cut out for me, and plenty of difficult nuts to crack. Whether I shall be able to extricate myself fairly, or shall find that South Africa is to me, as it has been said to be in general, 'the grave of all good reputations,' remains to be seen.' in her mantles. The shock, however, brought defeat, at the disastrous affair of Amajuba on another attack of the madness which (Pigeon's) Hill-to Major Macgregor, dated Charles was to transmit to his grandson Natal, 25 July, 1880:Henry VI. of England (and for some time of France). The tragedy took place on the night of 29 January, 1393, after the wedding festival of one of Queen Isabeau's German maids of honour. 66 The bride," says Mme. Darmesteter, was a widow, and thrice a widow; therefore a subject for the grotesque licence of the age." There is a curious MS. picture of the Bal des Ardents' in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. แ "At the present moment (August, 1853) there is a suit before the Court which was commenced nearly twenty years ago, in which from thirty to forty counsel have been known to appear at one time; in which costs have been incurred to the amount of seventy thousand pounds; which is a friendly suit; and which is (I am assured) no nearer to its termination now than when it was begun." He mentions another case not then finished See his 'Life,' by Lieut.-General Sir Wm. F. Was not this first used in reference to Ireland? It is thus applied in Beesly's 'Queen Elizabeth' ("English Statesmen "). I have seen it in reference to India. And now it is South Africa. With so many applications the original loses much of its value. GEORGE MARSHALL. Sefton Park, Liverpool. "which was commenced before the close of the last century," and states that if other authorities were wanted he "could rain them on these pages." Forster ('Life of Dickens') ANGLO-SAXON SPEECH ((9th S. iv. 45, 94, 137 mentions a striking pamphlet" on the 218, 296, 466, 547).-SIR HERBERT MAXWELL subject of the Chancery abuses which Dickens seems to think that the 'oo() story belongs received just after the appearance of the first exclusively to the Border. When I lived in number of 'Bleak House," "containing details Galloway I dare say that I used to think 80, so apposite that he took from them, without too, although there was nothing in Murray's change in any material point, the memorableDialect of the South of Scotland' (1873) to case related in his fifteenth chapter." Is the title of this pamphlet known? JOHN T. PAGE. woman warrant the belief. I adhere to my statement that the dropping of w before the u or o sound is common in the north of Scotland. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. The Welsh and South-West English proTHOMAS A KEMPIS (7th S. viii. 125, 171).-nunciation of 'ooman or 'uman for " This discussion began by an attempt to justify is heard to-day, for instance, in the neighthe popular name, but the only argument bourhood of Balmoral; and 'uman, as well as (except custom) in favour of it was demolished 'oon woollen, is given in Gregor's 'Dialect by PROF. SKEAT. So far as any conclusion of Banffshire' (1866). could be drawn, it appeared that we should write either Thomas Kempis or Thomas à Kempen. On the other hand, all your correspondents stick to the popular form. What ought we to write? J. J. F. "THE GRAVE OF GREAT REPUTATIONS" (9th S. v. 48).-I cannot tell who was the author of this saying, but it is quoted, in slightly different words, by a distinguished man and a gallant officer, the late Sir George PomeroyColley, in a letter written about seven months before he fell-deserted, but glorious even in Even so accessible an authority as Jamieson cites the saying "To gather 'oo' on one's claise," i. e., "To feather one's nest," as belonging to Aberdeenshire, and 'oon = woollen as prevalent in Northern Scotland. Of course, in many Scottish districts where Celtic once reigned supreme, the difficulty of the w sound is got over by the simple expedient of vowel-mutation: thus "wood" becomes wad, "world," warld, and so on. Here the true English w sound is not necessary, because uad and warld give the same pronunciations as wad and warld. |