Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/117

 10* s. i. JAN. so, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

93

They do indeed so use the word chaperonner, but Littre gives no such meaning to the word chaperon.

I have often wondered why morale, in the phrase " the morale of the army," is written in italics, as if it were French. As a matter of fact, there is no such word in French ; but there is a word le moral, which means morality. Again, we often see in English books " une guerre a Foutrance," which is not French at all. We write e'pergne as if it were a French word, which it is not ; and others might be added. We have surely the right to annex any words we choose from any language, and to attach any sense to such words as we may find convenient ; but why should we not recognize the words as frankly English ? H. A. STRONG.

University, Liverpool.

I have to thank SIMPLICISSIMUS for his further instructive comments under this head. The rivulet of judgment meanders pleasantly from its original fount. This was merely an inquiry on my part as to the correctness, or otherwise, of a phrase con- necting the male with duties hitherto only associated with the fair sex. After careful search amongst recognized authorities I was glad to discover that my notion as to the inaccuracy of the expression was generally confirmed. Lest I should stumble more seriously, I will not again venture into the perilous paths of a discussion anent chaperone, chaperon, or escort. I have said my say ; abler pens than mine must finally settle that question if they can.

SIMPLICISSIMUS asks if I would "taboo the use of the word author as applied to a lady." To this 1 am bold enough to reply that assuredly I would. Authoress is, in my humble view, so welcome and certain a guide to identification that it should by no means be allowed to drop out of service.

CECIL CLARKE.

WEST- COUNTRY FAIR (10 th S. i. 48). Among the records of the Exeter Corporation are letters patent concerning Exeter Fair in the fourteenth year of Henry IV. (1412) and in 1610 (see Notes and Gleanings in Devon and Cornwall, ed. by W. Cotton, F.S.A., and James Dallas, F.L.S., 15 Jan. and 15 Aug., 1889, pp. 10 and 124) ; also Archceologia, vol. i. pp. 190-203 ; the Western Antiquan/, vol. i. March, 1881, to March, 1882, pp. 102-3, 129, 140; Doidge's 'Western Counties Annual'; Cooke's 'Topographical Survey'; Hugh Carew's 'Survey of Cornwall,' 1811; 'An Account of all the Fairs in England and Wales,' by Win. Owen, London, 1756,

12mo ; ' A Manuell of the Chronicles of Englande, from the Creacion of the World e to the Yere of our Lorde 1565,' abridged and collected by Richard Grafton, London, 1565, with index and a list of the principal fairs ; and Walford's 'Fairs Past and Present,' 1883, pp. 24, 35, 66, &c. In the Evenimg Post of 8 Feb. (? 1721), No. 1956, is the following announcement :

" Whereas K. James I. by his Letters Patent, did grant to Sir Francis Lacon, Knt., and his Heirs For ever, the Privilege of holding Three Fairs Yearly in the Town of Cleobury alias Cieobury Mortimer in the County of Salop : These are to give Notice, that William Lacon Childe, Esq., designs to hold Three Fairs in the said Town Yearly, for the Sale of all Manner of Cattle, Goods, and Merchandize, on the Days following, viz., on the 21st of April, on Trinity-Eve, and on the 16th of October. The First Fair to be held on the 21st of April next, and that Care will be taken to provide proper Accommodations for such as shall resort thereto."

A long account of fairs will also be found in Brand's ' Popular Antiquities,' revised by Sir Henry Ellis (Bohn, vol. ii.).

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

CAPT. DEATH (10 th S. i. 48). He commanded the Terrible, a London privateer, and was killed in action with the Vengeance, a privateer of St. Malo, on or about 28 Dec., 1756. F. F. L. will find an account of the action, which seems to have been a gallant affair, in Beatson's 'Naval and Military Memoirs",' vol. i. pp. 524-5. J. K. L.

[The REV. J. PICKFOKD refers also to the edition of Hume and Smollett by the Rev. T. S. Hughes ; MR. G. T. SHERBORX to Tindal's continuation of Rapin ; and MR. J. B. WAINEWRIGHT to Smollett, book iii. ch. viii. 28, and 'Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxvii. p. 90.]

HOBGOBLIN'S CLAWS (9 th S. xii. 189, 333). Kinouchi Shigeakira's ' Unkonshi,' written in the eighteenth century, describes and figures what is called by the Japanese " Tengu-no-Tsume," or Tengu's claw, which is the fossilized tooth of extinct sharks.. It is reputed to have the power of repulsing evil spirits and curing demoniacal possession. The Tengu is a wood-goblin of Japanese popular mythology, and is represented now with prominent nose, now with bird's bill, as well as bird's wings, strongly recalling the classical Harpy. KUMAGUSU MINAKATA.

Mount Nachi, Kii, Japan.

" COLLECTIONER " (10 th S. i. 28). This word cannot be attributed only to East Anglia. A contributor long ago (2 nd S. x. 28) re- quired similar information, and gave two instances of its use from the church register of Great Hampden, Bucks, in which "this