author of A Rough Sketch of Paris' and of Travels through France, Switzerland, and Germany' (1806). I should be glad to ascertain the date of his death. He was apparently alive in 1835, as his name appears in Whishaw's Synopsis of the Members of the English Bar which was published in that year. G. F. R. B. CAT QUERIES (11 S. xii. 183, 244, 286, 330, 369, 389, 428, 468).—In my notebook I have the following:: "There is a curious Belgian record of a race between a cat and twelve pigeons. They were taken a distance of over twenty miles from their village home and let loose. Although there was a strange river to cross, Puss triumphed and was the first to reach home." Can any reader give me further details of this race, or any similar trial of the "homing" instincts of domestic cats? CHARLES PLATT. sons PRONUNCIATION: REGULARITY IN MISCONDUCT (11 S. xii. 430, 490).-Une grande incompétence en philologie me permettra, au moins, d'être bref en essayant de répondre à la question si spirituellement posée. Les étrangers, j'imagine, continueront à commettre obstinément les mêmes fautes de prononciation dans notre langue aussi longtemps que les Français mettront de la constance à zézayer le th anglais, à défigurer le j espagnol (et je ne parle pas, pour cause, du ch et des aspirations de l'idiome germanique). La difficulté à former les inusités, qui paraît, pour nous, résider plutôt dans la gorge et dans la bouche, me semble en partie provenir, pour les étrangers, de l'oreille; il s'agit, pour eux dans notre langue, de menues intonations, de différences peu sensibles, auxquelles, pourtant, il convient d'accorder un certain respect, ne fût-ce que pour l'ancienneté de leur existence. Notre peuple est, comme on sait, le plus conservateur du monde, malgré certaines apparences. La langue, du moins dans nos campagnes, n'a guère bougé depuis La Fontaine et Rabelais, quand ce n'est pas depuis Joinville. Cette immobilité relative tient précisément à une certaine fixité dans la prononciation, qui, chez nous, observe assez exactement la différence étymologique entre les divers sons, ouverts оц fermés, d'une même voyelle, entre les labiales ou les dentales, suivant qu'elles sont dures ou adoucies. Pour une oreille avertie, la langue française peut n'être pas aussi monotone qu'elle le paraît, surtout à ceux qui la vont étudier dans les pays où on la prononce le plus mal, ou qui l'entendaient parler à en leurs enfants par d'invraisemblables "French maids nées un peu partout, sauf en France. Ces différences, d'ailleurs importantes, peuvent bien être un peu subtiles pour une oreille étrangère. En Allemagne surtout on ne fait pas tant de façons à distinguer les consonnes. J'ai pu, moi-même, longtemps m'y faire parfaitement comprendre confondant les b et les p, les d et les t, parce que, mon état de santé m'interdisant absolument la lecture, j'avais dû me fier à mon oreille pour retenir les mots sans en pouvoir jamais contrôler l'orthographe. Je exclusif de la méthode orale, au moins dans me suis demandé, plus d'une fois, si l'emploi les débuts de l'enseignement d'une langue, n'était pas indispensable pour nous permettre de capter des sons que la lecture des mots nous masque bien plutôt qu'elle n'est apte à nous les révéler. C'était la méthode du père de Montaigne, qui réussissait ainsi (avec l'aide d'un certain Horstanus) à obtenir que son fils-un sujet bien doué, il est vrai-parlât latin couramment avant de savoir lire. Ce devait être, sans doute, le système employé au moyen-âge, où il ne semble pas, pourtant, que l'étude des langues ait été moins florissante que de nos jours-au contraire. Mais ceci nous entraînerait trop loin. P. TURPIN. The Bayle, Folkestone. xii. 260, 325, 366).The Etruscans were ETRUSCAN SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS (11 S. wonderfully skilled in dentistry ('Introduction to the History of Medicine,' by F. H. Garrison, Philadelphia and London, 1914, P. 80). The Græco-Roman references hitherto mentioned can be brought nearer to date, thus: Milne's book is said to be somewhat hasty in its inferences from part only of the available material; Deneffe's special works on Gallo-Roman collections are called excellent " (see Histor. Vierteljahrschrift, 1914, xvii. 135-6). There is a review of T. Meyer-Steineg's Chirurgische Instrumente des Altertums,' which is highly praised, though elsewhere said to be weak in its Greek. 66 235-42; A Collection of Greek Surgical somebody in death. He who in the flesh was Instruments' was copied in the Boston always giving alms, in stone is beginning to lose Medical and Surgical Journal, 1914, clxx. 777-8, from The Times of about 1 April, 1914. Græco-Roman Surgical Instruments represented in Egyptian Sculpture,' by H. S. Wellcome, is in Proceedings xvii. of the International Congress of Medicine, 1913, Section xxiii., 207-10. This has pictures and descriptions of a tablet showing a cabinet of obstetric instruments, including forceps such as were used a few years ago. The same volume has at pp. 137-42 a German article on Saws,' by E. Holländer, who has an article (also in German) on the Surgical Saw' in Archiv f. klinische Chirurgie, Berlin, 1915, cvi. 319-39. GOATS WITH CATTLE (11 S. xi. 452, 500; xii. 39). This custom first came under my observation in Leicestershire in 1891. On inquiry of an experienced farmer, owner of a large dairy herd, I was informed that the presence of a goat had a soothing effect on grazing cows-in-calf, and prevented premature births. W. JAGGARD, Lieut. OTHELLO (11 S. xii. 460).-A list of sixtysix different works dealing with the play of Othello' and its sources, &c., will be found on pp. 428, 429, and 726 of the Shakespeare Bibliography,' 1911. WM. JAGGARD, Lieut. JOSEPH STURGE (11 S. xii. 338, 370, 406).— MR. HOWARD S. PEARSON'S some years ago as the approximate date of the accident to the Sturge statue at Edgbaston is liable to be misunderstood. I remember it well, and was surprised myself to find out, on looking through my set (1861-89) of Birmingham's classic serio-comic, The Town Crier, when a monthly, how long it is since it happened. In The Town Crier for November, 1872, are the following announcement and impromptu : "We regret to announce that one of our cherished local monuments is already falling to limbo. The other day the statue of Joseph Sturge suddenly amputated itself at the shoulder. Alas poor Sturge! The arm that was never raised against any one in life has nearly dropped upon them.' CHRIST'S "SEVEN EYES" IN WELSH POETRY (11 S. xii. 420, 486). The last note that I received from the late Sir John Rhys of Oxford refers to the number of N. & Q.' containing the above query, and runs as follows:: Coll. Jesu Oxon: Dec. 5th, 1915. closed. I am afraid I cannot answer the question. DEAR MR. DODGSON,-Many thanks for the enI don't know of the occurrence of the "seven eyes in any other passage besides those you mention. Yours truly, J. RHYS. May he rest in peace! E. S. DODGSON. ST. SWITHIN AND EGGS (11 S. xii. 480).— Let no one suspect me of being egotistical if I try to be informing on this subject. A punster might call me egg-otistical, but he should not do it in the decorous columns of N. & Q.' I know not where the legend was originally told. I have not found it in Gloucester Fragments,' i., edited by the late Prof. Earle in 1861, where he gives and comments on some leaves in Saxon handwriting on St. Swichun; but he quotes (p. 84) a passage from Caxton's 1483, Golden Legende,' which may well be repeated here :— "Saint Swythyne guyded full well his bysshopryche and dyd moche good to ye toun of Wyn chestre in his tyme: He dyd do make without y weste gate of the toun a fayr brydge of stone at his propre cost/ And on a tyme there came a woman over the brydge with her lappe full of egges: & a rechelles felaw stroglyd and wrestelyd wyth her & brak all her egges/ And it happed that this holy bysshop came that waye the same time: & bad the woman lete hym see her egges/ And anone he lyfte vp his honde and blessyd the egges/ & the were made hooll and sounde euerychon by the merytes of this holy bysshop." Hone prints a doggerel version of the story in The Every-day Book,' vol. i. p. 478 :A woman having broke her eggs By stumbling at another's legs, For which she made a rooful cry. St. Swithin chanc'd for to come by, Who made them all as sound or more Than ever that they were before. Mr. Baring-Gould does not mention the egg-mending miracle in his 'Lives of the Saints,' but he used as sources the metrical life by Wolstan of Winchester, 990, and a life by Gotselin, a monk, 1110, as well as referring to William of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontificum.' One of these authorities might contain the legend sought by your correspondent, but he would have to go to the British Museum to get at them all. "Sanctus Episcopus pontem Wintoniensem, qui est ad Orientem, construxit. Cumque ei ædificando solicitam navaret operam, quodam die, illo ad opus residente, quædam paupercula mulier eo venit, ova venalia in vase deferens : quam apprehensam operarii lascivientes et ludibundí, magno incommodo affecerunt, ovis universis non ereptis, sed confractis. Illa igitur pro illata injuria et damno dato, cum lacrymis et ejulatu coram Episcopum conquerenti, vir sanctus pietate permotus, vas, in quo erant reposita ova, corripit, dextra signum Crucis exprimit, ovaque incorrupta et integra restituit." A similar incident is related in the life of Blessed Margaret of Ypres, a Dominican tertiary, who died in 1237. Her cult is somewhat obscure. She is often represented in art holding a basket of eggs, of which two or three are falling to the ground. Pons Wintoniensis is a well-known stone bridge across the Itchin, at the eastern gate of Winchester. As GOWER FAMILY OF WORCESTERSHIRE (11 S. iv. 53).-MR. H. A. BULLEY's correction of the account in Nash's History of Worcestershire' of the descent of the Boughton St. John estate to the Ingrams in the female line contains several statements that genealogists must question. For instance, he states that George Gower of Colemers, co. Worcester, second son of William Gower by his wife Eleanor Folliott, and grandson of Henry and Barbara Gower, and greatgrandson of William Gower (died 1546), succeeded to the Boughton St. John property on the death of his elder brother John Gower in 1625, and was father of Abel Gower of Boughton St. John. In the Gower pedigree in Mr. Hardwicke-Jones's Hardwicke of Burcott,' published about the same time, we are told that John Gower was succeeded by his nephew Abel, son of George. Mr. William Page, F.S.A., in his Worcestershire section of the Victoria History of the Counties of England," agrees with these two that Abel was the son and heir of George, but declares that the latter was a brother of William Gower, who died 1546, and that the estate was sold by William's son Henry in 1617 to his cousin Abel. this Henry died 1548, this was impossible. tion of England and Wales,' vol. xi. p. 164, Mr. F. A. Crisp in his 'Notes on the VisitaWilliam Gower in 1546 to his son Henry, the estate passed from who died 1548, and that Henry's grandson Henry sold it in 1617 to his father's cousin Abel (born 1565), son of Robert (died 1599). and grandson of William, who died 1546, This account has all the appearance of being the correct one, is supported by ample and reliable documentary evidence, and is corroborated by the 1569 Visitation of Worcestershire,' p. 61 (Harl. 1566, fol. 52), where we read that William Gower left by his wife Anne, daughter of Richard Tracye, a son Henry of Boughton, who married Barbara, daughter of Edward Littleton, by whom he had a son William of Boughton, who married Ellinor, daughter of John Folliott of Pirton, by whom he was father of Henry and other children. We read further that William and Anne had two other sons, one of whom was Robert of Rydmarli, who married Cicely, daughter of Richard Sheldon, by whom he had, with other issue, a scn Abell. There is nowhere in this account any mention of a George. informs us that MR. BULLEY next tells us that Abel Gower had by his wife Anne Withers a son Abel, born 1620; but Mr. Crisp proves conclusively that Anne was Abel's first wife and died 8.p., and that Abel's second wife Mary was mother of Abel No. 2. Then, again, MR. BULLEY informs us that Robert Gower of Buttonbridge Hall married in 1671 Katherine, daughter of Sir William Lacon Childe of Kinlet, whereas in the parish register it is recorded that Robert Gower married, Aug. 8, 1670, Katherine, daughter of Sir William Childe of Kinlet. As a matter of fact, there was no such person as Sir William Lacon Childe. Sir William Childe was succeeded in turn by his two sons, Sir Lacon William Childe and Thomas Childe, which latter had a son William Lacon Childe of Kinlet Hall. cleared water. Turbid water can be cleared much better by the addition of alum, seven grains to the gallon (or of aluminium sulphate five grains), previously dissolved. The small quantity of carbonates or of silicates usual in even the softest surface-water decomposes either of these alum-salts; the gelatinous alumina produced subsides in a few hours, carrying down with it all suspended clay, and the water can then be poured off perfectly clear. Only suspended impurities are removed; those in solution are not appreciably affected, otherwise tnan by the substitution of an equivalent quantity of sulphate of lime or of soda for the salts which decomposed the added sulphate of alumina. Neither is of any hygienic importance. EDWARD NICHOLSON. Les Cycas, Cannes. In one important particular, however, MR. BULLEY is supported by indisputable extant documentary evidence, and that is that the Boughton estate and lordship were sold in 1729 by William Gower, then of Chiddingstone in Kent, grandson of Robert and Catherine; though Mr. Arthur W. BARON WESTBURY: MOCK EPITAPH (11 S. Isaac, on p. 11 of his Bolton in St. John xii. 422, 464).-Perhaps the phrase which in Bedwardine,' after incorrectly stating most persistently adhered to Lord Westbury that Robert Gower married Catherine, was one originating in the way in which daughter of Thomas Childe, in 1682, tells us he spoke of himself in addressing the local that their elder grandson Abel Eustace had Y.M.C.A. at Wolverhampton on Oct. 4, a son Francis, born 1736, and a daughter, 1859. This was summarized in Vanity Fair born 1744-the truth being that Francis and of May 15, 1869, as his sister were children of Abel and Elizabeth Gower, members of another branch of the family, and that Abel Eustace enjoyed his inheritance for a short time only after his father's death, and died s.p. 1711, aged 14 years, his younger brother William succeeding him, as is clearly shown by Mr. Crisp and the parish records. WILLIAM ADAMS. THE WATER OF THE NILE (11 S. xii. 443, 510). The beans mentioned as used to clear Nile water in floodtimes acted in the same way as does the clearing-nut of India, the seed of Strychnos potatorum (noted in the N.E.D.' and in the Anglo-Indian Glossary). Perhaps this nut, resembling a button-shaped bean, may have been used in Egypt. The sediment deposited from turbid water, when the vessel in which it is contained has been previously rubbed inside with a clearing-nut, is the fine clay which otherwise settles very slowly, sometimes imperfectly after many days' standing, from the water of rivers in flood or of ponds in which there is no vegetation to produce this effect naturally. This fine clay is very difficult to remove by filtration; indeed, it often chokes domestic filters. Precipitation by the clearing-nut is due to the coagulation of an albuminous constituent of the seed, and this leaves a slight bitterness in the 66 the information he once volunteered to an assembly of serious young men, to whom he pointed out that the reputation he had achieved as a lawyer was nothing compared with that to which, he is entitled as man. an eminent Christian The accompanying cartoon had the last four DR. JOHNSON ON FISHING (11 S. xii. 462).— I am glad to see MONA's letter at the above reference, in which he points out that there is nothing in Dr. Johnson's writings, or Boswell's records of his sayings, to show that he ever described angling as a fool at one end of the line and a worm at the other." This saying has been attributed to Johnson times out of number. I told the late Dr. Birkbeck Hill (who knew all there is to know about Johnson) that Johnson was very civil to our sport, and had suggested to Moses Browne, the pastoral poet, that a new edition of the Angler' was wanted, and spoke of writing a Life of Walton. Would that he had done so ! Dr. Hill told me that he could not find that the libel on angling could be brought home to Johnson; it seems that he, too, had taken it for granted. R. B. MARSTON, Ed. Fishing Gazette. 19 Adam Street, Adelphi, W C. BETHAM, ARTIST (11 S. xii. 481).-An artist named William Beetham flourished about the time indicated by your correspondent. He exhibited sixteen pictures in the Royal Academy, all of which were portraits, between the years 1834-53 from three different addresses in London. Among them were Hon. Reginald and Randolph Capel (1842), Group of Portraits' (1844), and Mrs. W. Beetham (1852). ARCHIBALD SPARKE. RED EARTH (11 S. xii. 442).—“ And that red earth runs from Devonshire right up to Cumberland, and wherever you find red earth you find apples." This remark was made to me, years ago, by an elderly gentleman having association with Devonshire. I give it for anything it may be worth, on the chance of its being of interest to RENIRA. a were, and readily yield their full significance only to experts and such as have not quite lost hold of the national tradition. Forty years ago the late Sir James Murray realized that the disintegrating process was at work; and, when he published his Dialects of the Southern Counties of Scotland,' he expressed the hope, as Sir James Wilson now recalls, that complete dictionary of the northern variety of English speech would be compiled." Jamieson's book, which is a century old, was a remarkable achievement for its time; but, while it maintains standard value as a storehouse of reference, it naturally contains less than the modern student requires. Materials are now being prepared for the production of such a work as was adumbrated by Sir James Murray, and meanwhile Sir James Wilson, in his systematic and minutely elaborated volume, does yeoman service by delineating the this in his youth, he now gives it a literary setting, folk-speech of his native district. Familiar with aided by local experts whom he distinguishes as his authorities in a photographic frontispiece. He explains that he takes responsibility only for the speech prevalent in the parish of Dunning, and he adds, When I describe words or expressions as Scotch,' I mean Scotch as at present "JERRY-BUILDER (11 S. xii. 482)-spoken in the Lower Strathearn district of PerthColloquially "Jerry-builder" is certainly shire. Concerning himself only with forms and older than the late "sixties." I lived in sounds, he proffers a well-arranged and interesting Liverpool from 1862 to 1866, and was record, fully warranting Dr. Craigie's compliment familiar with it, I may say, for the whole of on finding that the study "has been carried out with so much thoroughness, and presents so that time, though I never heard any ex- complete a survey of its special theme." Choosing planation of it. My recollection is that it a comparatively simple system of pronunciation, was accepted as a well-understood word he adopts the grammatical method, and, after fully that needed no explanation, though to me illustrating the uses of vowels and consonants, proceeds seriatim through the various parts of it was quite new. speech. Then he gives an attractive series of word-lists, following these with proverbs, idiomatic expressions, and so forth, and closing with illustrative riddles and different types of verse. In the issue he produces a compact and fairly exhaustive presentment of his engaging subject. Notes on Books. D. O. C. C. B. Lowland Scotch, as Spoken in the Lower Strathearn District of Perthshire. By Sir James Wilson, K.C.S.I. With Foreword by W. A. Craigie, LL.D. (Oxford University Press, 58. net.) THAT branch of Northern English which is known as Lowland Scotch is gradually losing its function as a medium of intercourse, and is tending to wane into desuetude. At one time it had universal sway in the middle and south of the country; and less than a century ago it was spoken, and even written, by people of culture and position. Some still living can recall how it was used, vigorously and with sure grip of idiom, within the learned purlieus of the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Now, for various reasons, notably the more direct and larger intercourse with England and fuller educational advantages than existed of yore, all this has undergone and is undergoing a radically transforming change. English vocabulary and phraseology are now fashionable as they used not to be; and, as Lowland Scotch is not generally taught in schools, it is gradually losing its hold as a colloquial factor, and begins to have literary value as an exceptional feature, and sometimes merely as an experiment. Thus the poems of Burns and the vernacular dialogues in the Waverley Novels are less generally understood in Scotland than they once 66 66 66 Rigidly applying his scheme of pronunciation, Sir James Wilson is occasionally constrained to give forms that outwardly differ from their "Ane literary equivalents. " meaning one, for Instance, as we find it in the best authors, has to appear as "ain," which besides causes it to conflict with the possessive adjective "ain for own On the author's plan the contracted form ae has to be written ay," which makes it clasn with the affirmative interjection. A famous. idiom in consequence becomes aw ay oo," which looks strange. Then the incautious reader may become bewildered over bray for brac, caanay" for canny, coal" for cole, a haycock, gouun for gowan, "ruil" for rule, unkul for uncle, and other peculiarities, all of which are to be regretted, even if they are inevitable. One dislikes also "haim" in the sense of home, and recalls Sir Walter Scott as he murmured in his distress, Hame, hame, hame!" Sir James Wilson says that in Lower Strathearn "hoakh (hough) means thigh, which seems odd. Both in text and glossary "staig" is defined as stallion, whereas elsewhere in Scotland (even just over the Ochils) the staig is an unbroken colt or filly.. Obviously, as the author says, one thing to be learnt from this valuable book is that the indigenous speech of the people varies consider-ably from district to district." |