Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/215

 10*8. I. FEB. 27, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the Hon. Sir Charles Stuarfc, fourth son of days a civet means, I believe, "jugged hare," John, third Earl of Bute. He captured Minorca from the Spaniards in 1798, and died in 1801. The victor of Maida was Lieut.- General Sir John Stuart, who died in 1815. HERBERT MAXWELL.

This I think must be a portrait of General the Hon. Charles William Stewart (after- wards Marquis of Londonderry), a celebrated character in his time. John Stuart com- manded the English force at Maida. Charles Stewart, 50th Regiment, never attained the rank of a general officer.

W. PICTON MORTIMER.

ANATOMIE VIVANTE (9 th S. xii. 49, 157 ; 10* S. i. 138). I can find nothing whatever to warrant the statement that this turns was ever exhibited at the Egyptian Hall. Neither Hone nor Timbs mentions it, and I still think that the writer in the Daily Telegraph has been led into error by the unsubstantiated version in 'Old and New London.' Seurat, in fact, prospered so happily at the Chinese Saloon, according to his own confession, that it would .have been very foolish of him, unless compelled to do so, to covet two birds in the Piccadilly bush when he already had one in the hand in Pall Mall. If the authors of 'Old and New London' allude to the account in Hone's 'Every-Day Book' as a short one, they are certainly wide of the mark, for Hone devotes no fewer than four- teen columns to this wonderful prodigy. In all these fourteen columns there is no mention of the Egyptian Hall, neither does Tiinbs in 'Something for Everybody' allude to Seurat's being exhibited there. It is, of course, possible that he was, but at present some reliable evidence is desirable.

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

PECULIARS (9 th S. xii. 69, 137). Ilminster, Somerset, was a royal peculiar the only one in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Until a few years ago the vicar held his own visita-

and hare only ; but as late as 1734 (' Le Nouveau Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois') directions are given for making civets not only of lievre, but of cerf, biche, fan, and sanglier. The receipt for cooking venison in the aforesaid 'Nouveau Cuisinier' begins thus : u The stag is a wild animal, as every one knows." I still fail to see where M. Alexandras joke comes in. FRANCIS KING.

ENVELOPES (9 th S. xii. 245, 397, 434, 490; 10 th S. i. 57, 133). Possibly the use of enve- lopes originated on the Continent. There is in the Bodleian Library a letter to the librarian, Joseph Bowles, from J. G. Eccard (von Eckhart), the historian, dated at Hanover, 11 July, 1721, which is enclosed in an envelope with four folds meeting in the middle, where it is sealed with his armorial

seal.

W. D. MACRAY.

tions, and was not under the jurisdiction of the bishop. The seal bears the effigy of the Duke of Somerset. C. T.

"FIRST CATCH YOUR HARE " (9 th S. xii. 125,

518). There is little doubt that the "Pour faire un civet," &c., as quoted by R. Alex- andre, is the equivalent jest in French for our ' First catch your hare," but with this difference that the humour of the one is wanting in the other. Whatever mav be

In ' Granby,' a novel of fashionable life by J. H. Lister, published in 1826, Lady Harriet Duncan observes, in regard to her letters : " No, no ; take them [i.e. the letters] out of the envelop there thanks and give them to me." (Chap, ix.)

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

" PRIOR TO " (9 th S. xii. 66, 154, 312 ; 10 th S. i. 114). This expression is familiar to many, as occurring in Paley's definition of instinct, in bhe eighteenth chapter of his ' Natural Theo- logy,' the fifth edition of which was published ^n 1803 : " An instinct is a propensity prior x> experience and independent of instruc- ion." J. T. F.

MOON FOLK-LORE (10 th S. i. 125). In Berk- shire also one has merely to look at the new moon and say :

New moon, new moon, I hail thee !

By all the virtue in thy body,

Grant this night that I may see

He who my true love shall be !

In the third line of the North Lincolnshire version furnished by J. T. F. would not " ray " be " array " contracted into " "ray," as we say " rack " for "arrack"? Is it not also possible that the lines have become so much corrupted from the original as to have formerly contained some allusion to the "ray" of the moon? In a Bushman legend quoted by Dr. Bleek (' Brief Account of Bush- man Folk-lore') the moon is a man who the wrath of the sun, and is con-