Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/158

 126

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io th s. i. FEB. 13, 190*.

more than endorsed Dickens's opinion of her. He pronounced her to be the most affectionate and self-sacrificing girl he had ever known."

W. I. K. V.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation 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.

" DIABREAD." In Katharine M. Abbott's 'Old Paths and Legends of New England,' published in New York in 1903, occurs this sentence : " May Day [in Newport] is even now celebrated, according to the Devonshire custom, with blue eggs and diabread."

What are " blue eggs," and especially what is " diabread " ? Can any of your readers tell me about the Devonshire custom above men- tioned? No one of whom I have inquired here seems to know about it. R. B s.

Newport, R.I.

"QuiCE." In Shropshire and Cheshire a wood-pigeon is thus known. The word is used both in the singular and the plural. An estate belonging to my mother's family is known as Quoisley, which allowing for the broad local pronunciation, which turns i into oi presumably means the meadow or place of the wood-pigeons. Can any one suggest from what the word is derived ? So far as I can gather, it is only known about here.

HELGA.

[Quice is a form of quist, a name for the wood- pigeon (Colutnba palumbus), which, again, seems connected with cushat. See Wright's 'Dialect Dictionary.']

" PANNAGE AND TOLLAGE." What precisely was " pannage and tollage " 1 H. K. H.

[" Right of pannage" is a right granted to owners of pigs ordinarily to go into the woods of the grantor to eat the acorns or beech mast which fall to the ground. "Toll" (a more usual form than "tollage") is a sum of money paid for the temporary use of land. See Stroud's 'Judicial Dictionary ' (Sweet & Maxwell).]

"My LORD THE _ SUN." I should be glad of the reference in the passage quoted on p. 227 of Henry Harland's 'My Friend Pros- pero': "In the spirited phrase of Corvo,
 * here came my Lord the Sun.'"

NICHOLAS CRABBE.

NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA. In an ap- pendix to ' Les Excommunies,' by M. C. de Bussy (Paris, Duquesne, 1860), I find :

" A Sainte Helene, Napoleon, qui avait repouss^ C,vec indignation les agents du Cabinet Anglais lui

proposant la paix a la condition (Tabplir It catho- licisme en France, manifestait le de"sir de voir un ministre de sa religion."

Can any one refer me to authorities for the corroboration or refutation of this remark- able statement 1 C. POYNTZ STEWART.

EDWARD YOUNG, "THE PAINTER OF ILL- LUCK." At the end of the ' Precis de la Vie d'Young,' on p. 12 of a booklet known as the " Abrege des (Euvres d'Young, Traduction de le Tourneur, a Basle de 1'Imprimerie de Guillaurae Haas fils, 1796 " (91 pages, followed by one containing a 'Table des Matieres,' which is not numbered), one reads, " On 1'a surnomme : le peintre du malheur." Is it known who first applied this description to the author of ' Night Thoughts ' ? The little book in question is not to be found in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris ; but there is a copy in the Taylorian Library in Oxford. No specific mention of it is made in the account of the author in Michaud's 'Bio- graphie Universelle,' vol. xlii. pp. 51-2, but it is there stated that " Les ' Nuits' ont ete reimprimees souvent dans de petits formats." The author took part in a translation of Shakespere which offended Voltaire ; and added to French literature some versions of other well-known English books.

E. S. DODGSON.

WILLIAM R. H. BROWN. I should be glad if any reader could give me information as to the birthplace and ancestry of the late William Robert Henry Brown, who was at one time Governor of Newgate, and for over twenty years Warden or Governor of the old Fleet Prison. He is buried in St. Giles's Church, Cripplegate.

. ENQUIRER.

FREDERICK KEMPLAND was admitted to Westminster School on 15 September, \785. Can any correspondent of k N. & Q.' oblige me with particulars of his parentage and career? G. F. R. B.

EPITAPH BY SHAKESPEARE. In a little book of epigrams and epitaphs that was lent me by a friend, I noticed that one of the latter was attributed to Shakespeare. I had in- tended to make a particular note of it, but I returned the book without doing so. Speak- ing from memory, I believe the two stanzas composing the epitaph are taken from a tablet in West Drayton Church. Perhaps some readers will kindly confirm this, and say something as to the history of the lines, and whether there is any external evidence in support of the alleged authorship. Cer- tainly the internal evidence i.e., the style