Читать книгу: «Notes and Queries, Number 11, January 12, 1850», страница 4

J.I.

Oxford.

By Hook or by Crook.—You have noted the origin of Humble Pie. May I add a note of a saying, in my opinion also derived from forest customs, viz. "By hook or by crook?" Persons entitled to fuel wood in the king's forest, were only authorised to take it of the dead wood or branches of trees in the forest, "with a cart, a hook, and a crook."

The answer to the query respecting the meaning of "per serjantiam Marescautiae," is the Serjeantry of Farriery, i.e. shoeing of the king's horses. In Maddox, vol. i. p. 43. you will find a very full account of the office of Marescallus.

J.R.F.

THE ORIGIN OF GROG

"Written on board the Berwick, a few days before Admiral Parker's engagement with the Dutch fleet, on the 5th of August, 1781. By DR. TROTTER.

 
"'Tis sung on proud Olympus' hill
The Muses bear record,
Ere half the gods had drank their fill
The sacred nectar sour'd.
 
 
"At Neptune's toast the bumper stood,
Britannia crown'd the cup;
A thousand Nereids from the flood
Attend to serve it up.
 
 
"'This nauseous juice,' the monarch cries,
'Thou darling child of fame,
Tho' it each earthly clime denies,
Shall never bathe thy name.
 
 
"'Ye azure tribes that rule the sea,
And rise at my command,
Bid Vernon mix a draught for me
To toast his native land.'
 
 
"Swift o'er the waves the Nereids flew,
Where Vernon's flag appear'd;
Around the shores they sung 'True Blue,'
And Britain's hero cheer'd.
 
 
"A mighty bowl on deck he drew,
And filled it to the brink;
Such drank the Burford's² gallant crew,
And such the gods shall drink.
 
 
"The sacred robe which Vernon wore
Was drenched within the same;
And hence his virtues guard our shore,
And Grog derives its name."
 

W.H.S.

[The gallant correspondent to whom we are indebted for the foregoing satisfactory, because early and documentary, evidence of the etymology of the now familiar term GROG, informs us that there is a still earlier ballad on the subject. We trust that he will be enabled to recover that also, and put it on record in our columns.]

Barnacles.—In a Chorographical Description of West, or Il-Jar Connaught, by Rhoderic O'Flaherty, Esq., 1684, published by the Irish Archaeological Society in 1846, the bernacle goose is thus mentioned:—

"There is the bird engendered by the sea out of timber long lying in the sea. Some call them clakes, and soland geese, and some puffins; others bernacles, because they resemble them. We call them girrinn."

Martin, in his Western Isles of Scotland, says:—

"There are also the cleek geese. The shells in which this fowl is said to be produced, are found in several isles sticking to trees by the bill; of this kind I have seen many,– the fowl was covered by a shell, and the head stuck to the tree by the bill,– but never saw any of them with life in them upon the tree; but the natives told me that they had observed them to move with the heat of the sun."—See also Gratianus, Lucius, Ware's Antiquities, &c.

Eating sea-birds on fast days is a very ancient custom. Socrates mentions it in the 5th century: "Some along with fish eat also birds, saying, that according to Moses, birds like fish were created out of the waters." Mention is made in Martin's Western Isles, of a similar reason for eating seals in Lent. Cormorants, "as feeding only on fish," were allowable food on fast days, as also were otters.

CEREDWYN.

Vondel's Lucifer.—I cannot inform your correspondent F. (No. 9 p. 142.), whether Vondel's Lucifer has ever been translated into English, but he will find reasons for its not being worth translating, in the Foreign Quarterly Review for April, 1829, where the following passage occurs:—

"Compare with him Milton, for his Lucifer gives the fairest means of comparison. How weak are his highest flights compared with those of the bard of Paradise! and how much does Vondel sink beneath him in his failures! Now and then the same thought may be found in both, but the points of resemblance are not in passages which do Milton's reputation the highest honour."

The scene of this strange drama is laid in Heaven, and the dramatis personæ are as follows:—

I give this from the original Dutch now before me.

HERMES.

Dutch Version of Dr. Faustus.—Can any of your correspondents give me information as to the author of a Dutch History of Dr. Faustus, without either author's name or date, and illustrated by very rude engravings? There is no mention of where it was printed, but at the bottom of the title-page is the following notice:—

"Compared with the high Dutch copy, and corrected in many places, and ornamented with beautiful copper plates."³

There is also a promise of a Latin copy soon to follow.

HERMES.

[The first German chap-book upon Faust appeared in 1587. A translation of it into Dutch was published as early as 1592, at Emmerich. It was again printed at Delft in 1607; and there have been several editions since that date. The curious history of this romance has been well investigated by H. Düntzer, Die Sage von Doctor Johannes Faust, in the 5th volume of Das Kloster; and even more fully by the Freiherr v. Reichlien Meldegg, in the 11th volume of the same work.]

To Fettle.—Your correspondent L.C.R. (p. 142) is referred to the late Mr. Roger Wilbraham's Cheshire Glossary, or (as he modestly termed it) An Attempt, &c. This work, privately printed in 1820, is the republication, but with very considerable additions, of a paper in the Archaeologia, vol. xix.

The explanation of the present word is an instance of this expansion.

Your correspondent and Mr. W. agree as to the meaning of this verb, viz. "to mend, to put in order any thing which is broken or defective." Being used in this sense, Mr. W. differs from Johnson and Todd, and he is inclined to derive Fettle from some deflection of the word Faire, which comes from Latine Facere. I must not crowd your columns further, but refer to the Glossary.

May I point out rather a ludicrous misprint (doubtless owing to an illegible MS.) at p. 120. For Mr. Pickering's Lives, read Series of Aldine Poets.

J.H.M.

To Fetyl, v. n. To join closely. See G. factil. ligamen.—Wyntown.

Fettil, Fettle, s. Energy, power.—S.B.

To Fettle, v. a. To tie up.—S.

Fettle, adj. 1. Neat, tight.—S.B. 2. Low in stature, but well-knit.—S.B.

Fetous, adj. Neat, trim.

Fetously, adv. Featly.

Jamieson's Dictionary, abridged 8vo. edition. Fettle, v. To put in order, to repair or mend any thing that is broken or defective.

I am inclined to consider it as from the same root as Feat,—viz. Sue Got. fatt, apt, ready. Swed. fatt, disposed, inclined; fatta, to comprehend.—Brockett's Glossary.

Ptolemy of Alexandria.—Your correspondent, "QUERY," wishes to be informed what works of Ptolemy have been translated. The following, as far as I can learn, is a list of them, viz.:—

"The Compost of Ptholomeus, Prynce of Astronomye, translated out of the Frenche into Englysshe." London, printed by Robert Wyer, no date, 12mo. There is also another edition of the same work, London, printed by T. Colwell, without date, 12mo.

"The Bounding of Greece-Land, according to Ptolomeus; Englished out of the Greek, by Thos. Wilson." London, 1570, 4to.

N.B. This is included in Wilson's translation of Demosthenes' Olynthiacs.

"The Geography of Ptolemy, so far as it relates to Britain; in Greek and English, with observations by J. Horsley." London, 1732, folio.

N.B. This forms a part of the Britannia Romana.

"Quadripartite; or Four Books concerning the Influence of the Stars, faithfully rendered into English, from Leo Allatius; with Notes, explaining the most difficult and obscure Passages, by John Whalley." London, 1701 and 1786, 12mo.

"Tetrabiblos, or Quadripartite; being Four Books, of the Influence of the Stars, newly translated from the Greek Paraphrase of Proclus; with a Preface, explanatory Notes, and an Appendix containing Extracts from the Almagest of Ptolemy, and the whole of his Colloquy, &c. by J.M. Ashmand." London, 1822, 8vo.

I am indebted to Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica for the titles of the first three of these works. The others I have in my possession.

W.J. BROWN.

Old Street.

There are several real or pretended translations of the astrological work—some certainly pretended—and Ptolemy's name is on many astrological titlepages which do not even pretend to translate. The Geography, as far as Britain is concerned, is said to be in Dr. Henry's History of Great Britain, 1788. Some works in harmonics appear in lists as translations or close imitations of Ptolemy, as John Keeble's, 1785, Francis Styles, Phil. Trans. vol. li. Various dissertations on minor pieces exist: but there is no English translation of the Almagest, &c., though it exists in French (see Smith's Biograph. Dict. art. PTOLEMY). If an English reader wants to know Ptolemy's astronomical methods and hypotheses, nothing will suit him better than Narrien's History of Astronomy.

M.

Accuracy of References.—In connection with the article on "Misquotations," in No. 3. p.38., will you impress upon your correspondents the necessity of exact references? It is rather hard when, after a long search, a sought reference has been obtained, to find that the reference itself is, on examination, incorrect. To illustrate my position: at p. 23., in an article relating to Judge Skipwyth, and at p. 42., in an article relating to the Lions in the Tower, references to certain "pp." of the Issue Rolls of the Exchequer. Now if any person with these references were to search the Issue Rolls, he would be much surprised to find that the Rolls are rolls, and not books, and that "pp." is not the correct reference. The fact is that neither of your correspondents are quoting from the Rolls themselves, but from a volume, published in 1835, under the direction of the Comptroller General of the Exchequer, by Mr. F. Devon, called Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, Bishop of Exeter, Lord High Treasurer of England, &c. 44 Edward III.

And while on the subject, permit me to remark, with reference to the article on the Domestic Expenses of Queen Elizabeth (page 41.), that there are plenty of such documents in existence, and that the only test of their value and authenticity is a reference to where they may be found, which is wanting in the article in question.

J.E.

A Peal of Bells.—In No. 8 of your interesting and valuable journal, I find a query, from the REV. A. GATTY, relative to a peal of bells. Now the science of bell-ringing being purely English, we can expect to find the explanation sought for, only in English authors. Dr. Johnson says peal means a "succession of sounds;" and in this way it is used by many old writer, thus:—

 
"A peal shall rouse their sleep."—MILTON.
 

And again Addison:—

 
"Oh for a peal of thunder that would make
Earth, sea, and air, and heaven, and Cato tremble."
 

Bacon also hath it:—

"Woods of oranges will smell into the sea perhaps twenty miles; but what is that, since a peal of ordnance will do as much, which moveth in a small compass?"

It is once used by Shakespeare, Macbeth:—

 
"Ere to black Hecate's summons
The shard-borne beetle, with drowsy hums,
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note."
 

Will not ringing a peal, then, mean a succession of sweet sounds caused by the ringing of bells in certain keys? Some ringers begin with D flat; others, again, contend they should begin in C sharp.

In your last number is a query about Scarborough Warning. Grose, in his Provincial Glossary, give the meaning as "a word and a blow, and the blow first;" it is a common proverb in Yorkshire. He gives the same account of its origin as does Ray, extracted from Fuller, and gives no notion that any other can be attached to it.

R.J.S.