not so coarse, or of higher finish, and of better appearance. This, I think, is a word in common use in Yorkshire, and especially in the North Riding. F. M. J. BECKTASHEES.-The readers of "N. & Q." will remember a discussion that took place in its columns upon the subject of this interesting sect of Turkey. The following extract from a correspondent's letter in the Daily News (written from Razgrad, and published here on the 20th ult.), as to the status and prospects of these sectarians in European Turkey, is for many reasons very curious:

"The peculiar, fast-spreading sect of the Bektachies, who have entirely relinquished Islamism and adopted a creed of their own, worshipping the Caliph Anly as a divine incarnation, and repudiating the Prophet, the Koran, and all external tokens of faith. They are, in fact, good Christians in morals and principles, without fanaticism, patient, tolerant, laborious, and free from prejudices. With the exception of these men, who appear to be more numerous even in European Turkey than is generally supposed, especially in the Danubian districts, the remainder of the Turks are men whose hatred has become stronger since the inconsiderate vengeance of the Bulgarians has given it new food."

H. C. C. [See "N. & Q.," 2nd S. iii. 169, 355; 5th S. vii. 323, 398, 435, 472, 516.]

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

"Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:
If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone.
My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourned,
And now to Helen it is home returned,
There to remain."

Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iii. sc. 2.
"So when I am wearied with wandering all day,
To thee my delight in the evening I come;
No matter what beauties I saw in my way,
They were but my visits, but thou art my home."
Prior, A Better Answer to Cloe Jealous.
JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

"QUOUSQUE TANDEM."-If we may use the influential columns of "N. & Q." for defence from impieties committed against our English, I would invite judicious censure upon two execrable usages which have grown up in our generation-the use of equable for equal and of quiescent for quiet. It is often said that the temperature is "equable," as if we could make it equal at pleasure, and the barometer has sometimes been "quiescent" so long that we may expect (not that it will now be quiet, but) a change. Readers of "N. & Q." do not require persuasive explanations, but only to have their attention called to the grievance.

GWAVAS.

SOMERSETSHIRE PROVERB.-I have not seen recorded in your columns the following proverb or saying, which I understand is prevalent in this county. When a skein of thread gets entangled in unravelling, a bystander will remark, “Oh, that

is like Hicks's horses, all of a snarl"; and, by way of parenthesis, adds, "They say that he had only one." It is then explained that the said horses or horse got entangled in the harness. W. H. D. B.

Queries.

[We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest, to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.]

POLITICAL CARICATURE.-The frontispiece to Wright's Caricature History of the Four Georges is a copy of the well-known coloured engraving representing George III. in the character of the King of Brobdingnag, examining through an opera-glass the first Napoleon as Gulliver. This is generally attributed to Gillray, and considered one of his masterpieces (see the work above cited, P. 596). It was published (at the time of the threatened invasion from Boulogne) on June 26, 1803, as appears from the date etched at the foot of the plate.

I possess an admirable specimen. It bears a memorandum, in what I know to be the handwriting of a gentleman then forty-six years of age, of the date of its acquisition, “June, 1803." Consequently it must be a very early impression, inasmuch as it appears to have come into the hands of its first possessor (for, as I have said, I know who its first possessor was) within four days of publication. Would you kindly render me your very valuable assistance in obtaining replies to the two following questions: 1. What is the probable saleable value of my copy, and where would be the best place to dispose of it or ascertain its intrinsic value? 2. Is there any doubt that this caricature is by Gillray? ask this question for this reason, that my copy bears in the left-hand lower corner, in Roman capitals, very neatly executed with a lead pencil on the delicately engraved tinted border, which is about an eighth of an inch in breadth, the initials J. L. R. Now, this inscription would seem to have been inserted by the purchaser, the gentleman I have above referred to; indeed, I know the engraving has only been in his hands, his daughter's, and my own, and the characters are certainly not those of the lady. Both are long since dead, however, and

obtained the print by the lady's kind bequest. The original acquirer, then, must have attributed the work to some other artist than Gillray; one who, according to reasonable inference, would be a well-known hand. Who was J. L. R.? Not Rowlandson; his name was Thomas. Can any of your readers kindly enlighten me? Will you courteously afford them the opportunity by inserting this communication?

S. P.

PETER COXE, author of Another Word or Two; or, Architectural Hints addressed to the Royal Academy, by Fabricia Nunnez, Spinster, 1807; also of The Exposé; or, Bonaparte Unmasked, 8vo., 1809; also of The Social Day: a Poem in Nine Cantos, 8vo., 1823.—When did he die? He was born Oct. 11, and in 1829 entered his seventy-sixth year. I remember his losing his sight, and think of having seen him about 1840 or even later. There was a sale of his works of art after his death, I note in 1858, but fancy that date must be an error, as I have not been able to trace any record of it. Was he not a brother of Archdeacon Coxe, who died in 1828? Have any of your readers a copy of the first-named work, and also of Graham's English School, published before 1849, both of which I should be glad to see or have the loan of them? WYATT PAPWORTH.

33, Bloomsbury Street.

GOETHE AND JOHNSON ON DANTE.-I have been told lately that Goethe did not appreciate Dante. Can you refer me to any passages in Goethe's writings in which he mentions his great (may I not say greater?) predecessor in terms of depreciation ? Does any one remember any allusions to Dante in Johnson's writings? I have a vague recollection that the doctor somewhere speaks of some poem which opens like Dante's, but I cannot put my finger on the passage. I do not find any mention of Dante in the index to Murphy's edition of Johnson's works, 12 vols., 1823, or in that to the one volume edition of Croker's Boswell, 1860. I should think it is doubtful if the good doctor ever read much of Dante, and still more doubtful if he appreciated him. One cannot imagine Johnson, with his powerful but somewhat ponderous intellect, feeling much at home with Beatrice in the Terrestrial Paradise, or with St. Bernard in the White Rose of the Blessed.

JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

MDLLE. DE FONTANGE.-I have two Watteau dishes of Sèvres porcelain, with an inscription in gilt letters just within the rim underneath, “Donné par moi le Roy à Madle de Fontange.' The cipher within the Sèvres monogram shows the date of the manufacture to be 1757 or 1768, both during Louis XV.'s reign. I shall be greatly obliged for any information respecting this lady. C. S. "JINGO."-Without any wish to introduce a question of politics into "N. & Q.," I venture to ask for help in tracing the derivation of this word and its use in England. Is the original of jingo to be found in Jaincoac, the Basque word for God, which may be compared with the Polish bóg and Croatian bogu, whence comes our English bogy? I suppose the derivation from St. Genulphus, given in the Ingoldsby Legends, had no other, or at least no better, authority than Mr. Barham's vivid imagination. What is the earliest occurrence of the expletive "By jingo" in English literature? I am not able to trace it further back than Miss Caroline Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs.

Temple.

EDWARD H. MARSHALL.

What is the etymology of jingo, a word heard of late so frequently from patriotic throats? Halliwell says it is a corruption of St. Gingulf (i.e. victorious wolf), surely a good name for the warlike to swear by. But I have seen the word connected also with the Basque word for God, Jaungoicoa, abridged Jainkoa, meaning "the Lord on high," or, according to another explanation, "the Lord of the moon (goiko)"; in this case one would fancy St. Jingo would be an oath for lunatics. Can any one give me instances of the early occurrence of the formula "By jingo" in English literature? A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

1. What are "baldriggs"? same as baldric?

"His bugle horn hung by his side,
All in a wolf-skin baldric tied."

Lay of the Last Minstrel. The term is used as late as the year 1643. It then gives place to the word "bell-ropes." The oldest ringers about here have never heard the name.

2. In 1618 or 1619 the churchwardens paid iiijd. for a book entitled God and the Kinge; in 1621, xxd. for another touching or in defence of the right of the king; in 1626, two shillings for "two bookes for the fast against the warres." 1634-6 are charges for book of articles and going in procession. În 1636 one shilling is disbursed at

In

Warwick about the recusants; in 1641, 8d. for the ordinance of thanksgiving, Sept. 7. In 1655 is an entry, "Imprimis for acquittance for the distressed Protestants, 4d.” Information is sought under all these heads.

3. In 1687 the king, James II., came by. Was it on his way to Oxford, or on his return? Ryton-on-Dunsmore is four miles south-east from Coventry on the great London and Holyhead road.

4. In 1686 the churchwardens took ten journeys to". present the Decenters." What is exactly meant by this?

5. What were letters of request? There are numerous entries of sums paid to persons, whom we should now probably call tramps, on the strength of these letters. ALFRED STARKEY. The Vicarage, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Coventry.

E. LEATON BLENKINSOPP. "HERBEROUS."-In the Epistle for the Sunday after Ascension Day, taken from 1 St. Peter iv. 7, in the first Book of Common Prayer of King Edward VI. occurs this phrase, 66 Be ye herberous one to another." This passage is taken from the translation known as the Bishops' Bible. In the Authorized Version the rendering is, "Use hospitality one to another," and the Douay version agrees with it. Can any readers of "N. & Q" refer me to the use of the word "herberous" in the sense indicated by the two more recent translaWILLIAM WING.

tions?

Steeple Aston, Oxford.

[See "St. Julian," p. 14.]

OFFICERS IN UNIFORM WHEN OFF DUTY.-If Pugin's and Rowlandson's illustrations to Ackermann's Microcosm of London are correct, naval and military officers commonly wore their uniforms in theatres and other public and private assemblies. If this was so, when was the practice discontinued, and why? GEORGE ELLIS.

MACAULAY'S REPARTEE. Will any correspondent oblige myself, and, I am sure, many other lovers of well-applied classical quotations, with the repartee of which Mr. Trevelyan (Life of Macaulay, i. 81) says, "that it was acknowledged without dissent to be the best applied quotation that ever was made within five miles of the Fitzwilliam Museum"?

"A BRASS KNOCKER."-I lately heard this name applied to an invitation given to very intimate friends to come after a party and help to finish the remains of the supper. Can any one tell its origin? P. J. F. GANTILLON.

"NOBLESSE OBLIGE."-Where is this saying to be found? The other day it formed the subject of a paper which was read at a clerical meeting at which I was present, but the author of the paper could not tell me where the phrase came from. I had imagined that it was adopted as a motto by one of the noble families of Great Britain, but a reference to the peerage has failed to discover it. The nearest approach to it is the motto of the Earl of Lindsey, "Loyaltè me oblige."

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

"TO BE NO BETTER THAN ONE SHOULD BE."What is the origin of this phrase? I remember meeting with it in an Irish novel, Hector O'Hal

THE PIN WELL.-Near Chepstow is the Pin Well, still in some repute for its healing powers. In "good old times" those who would test the virtues of its waters said an Ave, and dropped a pin into its depths. Are there other Pin Wells? Was the pin a mere tiny tribute? HENRY ATTWELL.

Barnes.

BISSET FAMILY, CO. BUCKS.--In some charters

of Roche Abbey, which I have lately discovered,

are two deeds in which "Ernaldus Bisset de comitatu Buk." grants property in Laughton-en-leMorthen and Slade Hoton, Yorkshire, to the monks of Roche. The deeds are not dated, but were probably written early in the fourteenth century. I should be much obliged to any one who could give any information concerning this Arnold Bisset or his family. Were the Bissets of Preston Bisset, co. Bucks? S. O. ADDY. Sheffield.

SIDNEY, BARON HERBERT OF LEA.-A biographical sketch, reprinted from Fraser's Magazine, and entitled Sidney Herbert, First Baron Herbert of Lea, was published in Salisbury in 1862. Who was the author? Lord Herbert deserves, I think, a much more detailed biography. There cannot be any lack of materials. ABHBA.

trator, published in 1834, are given five woodcuts, CHURCH MEDALS.-In Brayley's Graphic Illusabout 24 inches diameter, each showing the front of a newly erected church. These were cast in plaster for sale. Is there any record of who brought them out and the number in the set?

W. P.

THE MONKS OF MOUNT ATHOS.-Can you tell me of any account of the monks of Mount Athos published subsequently to that by the Hon. Robert Curzon ? A. S.

SIR JOHN STEPHENS, KNT., GOVERNOR OF DUBLIN CASTLE, who resided in 1664 at Meakstown Castle, near Finglas, co. Dublin.-I will feel greatly obliged if any of your correspondents can kindly give me information concerning the above, or concerning Sir Daniel Bellingham, first Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1665, who resided in 1664 at Dubber Castle, near Finglas. The information sought is additional to what Gilbert gives in his History of Dublin, vol. i. p. 14.

The Rectory, Santry.

B. W. ADAMS, D.D.

PANK FAMILY, NORFOLK.-I should be glad if any one could give me the coat of arms and crest

PERSONAL PROVERBS. (5th S. ix. 47, 169, 215, 492.) Surely it will be worse than useless to discuss the meaning of our older proverbs, if they are to appear in the mutilated state to which several of those in MR. SOLLY'S selection from Howell's Paroimiographia, 1659, have been reduced. A little examination will show that by this process they have been needlessly obscured, and difficulties created where none existed. No doubt the drift and language of a few offend against decency, but were it not better, then, that such should be let alone and left in the oblivion effected by time and improved manners?

I am inclined to think that most proverbs which have come down to us coupled with a personal name were derived from some anecdote, ballad, or history of the period, the missing link to which can but seldom be now supplied, and still more rarely is worth searching for. Some were certainly the stereotyped sayings of the Court fools, of which three or four are attributed to Pedley, who was, we know, Henry VIII.'s jester. Others, which have been improperly included in this category, really belong to typical callings and characters. Of this class are the following:

"As coy as a croker's mare." Heiwood, our first collector, gives it thus. Howell, who has copied from him freely, and at times inaccurately,

has turned the trade into the surname which grew out of it, while Hazlitt gives Herbert as his authority, whose Outlandish Proverbs was not published till nearly a century later. Crocks or earthen pots hawked about for sale in panniers on an animal's back required a steady-going one, as HORATIO has already observed, and such may be intended in the passage below; else it defies solution. The the theme of this early literary treasure, is sitting gamesome widow, whose wooing and wedding are for her portrait:—

"Of auncient fathers she took no cure nor care,
She was to them as koy as a croker's mare;
She tooke thenterteinment of the yong men
All in daliaunce as nice as a nun's hen."

J. Heiwood, Dialogue, 1566, pt. ii. 1. "As learned as Doctor Doddypoll," Howell p. 17 (omitted by Hazlitt). Skelton gives us "Doctor Daupatus" (Colin Clout, I. 801) doddypatis" (Why come ye not to Courte? 1. 649), "hoddypoule" (ib., 1. 670), and “huddypeke" (Duke of Albany, 1. 301), for an ignorant, chattering pretender to learning, and "Doctor Dotypoll," in the same sense, occurs in the old play of Hickscorner (Hazlitt's Collection, i. 179). A priest is always the butt, and his shaven crown has to bear comparisons with the jackdaw, the snail, and the dotterel (Skelton, Philip Sparrow, 1. 409). A cognate proverb, "The dosnell dawcock comes dropping in among the doctors," is in Withal's Dictionary, 1634.

"Madam Parnell, crack the nut and eat the kernel." Howell (p. 21) adds, "This alludes to labour"-at once a sufficient explanation (though Mr. Hazlitt overlooks it), and upon which nothing more need be said than that the word pernel had become, so far back as the seventeenth century, the synonym for a woman of loose life (see Vision of Piers the Plowman, iv. 116, v. 26).

"O master Vier, we cannot pay you your rent [for we had no grace of God this year. No shipwreck upon our coast. A saying of the Cornish," Howell, p. 12; omitted by Hazlitt]. HORATIO'S derivation from the gaming-table must fall before the complete version. Vier looks very like the West-country reading of fair, and, were it not for the capital letter, we might understand "master fair" for "fair master," in an apologetic address to a landlord from a tenant behindhand at quarterday. Light is thrown here, but darkness also, by another proverb in Howell, "The grace of God is worth a Fair," which I take to mean, “Luck is as profitable as industry." In Ferguson's Scottish Proverbs (published in the middle of the seventeenth century) we meet with "The grace o' God is gear enough."

"As red as Roger's nose, who was christened with pump-water." Have we not here a drunkard who has been sobered or punishel by a douche under the village pump?