Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/71

 io"> s. i. JAN. 16, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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S)pular. From 'The Music of the Church ymnary and the Psalter in Metre,' by William Cowan and James Love, publishec in 1901, we learn that in a collection of hymn tunes published by V. Novello in 1843. entitled 'Home Music, the Congregationa and Choristers' Psalm and Hymn Book,' the tune is headed 'Air by Reading,' an ap- pended note stating that John Reading was a pupil of Dr. Blow (the master of Purcell), and that the tune obtained its name of ' The Portuguese Hymn' from the circumstance that the Duke of Leeds, after hearing the hymn performed at the Portuguese Chapel, introduced the melody at the Antient Con- certs, giving it the title of ' The Portuguese Hymn.' Cowan and Love state that no known music of Reading resembles that oi 'Adeste Fideles,' and further, that the date 1680 is decidedly wrong, since Reading was only born in 1677. According to the 'Dic- tionary of National Biography' there was, however, a John Reading who was appointed organist of Winchester Cathedral in 1675. The earliest known appearance of the tune is, according to Cowan and Love, in 'An Essay on the Church Plain Chant,' published by J. P. Coghlan in 1782. The oldest manu- script in which it is to be found is a volume preserved at Stonyhurst College, the work of a priest named John Francis Wade, entitled 'Cantus Diversi pro Dominicis et Festis per Annum ' ; it bears the date 1751. J. S. SHEDLOCK.

WHENCE" (10 th S. i. 9). I sympa- thize with your correspondent. But why does he admit that the phrase from whence is "grammatically inaccurate"? It is the old confusion between grammar and logic. Grammar merely goes by custom, and is independent of strict logic, a simple axiom of which half the world seems to be ignorant. From a grammatical point of view the phrase from v:hence is merely "more or less pleo- nastic," for which see 'H.E.D.,' s.v. 'From,' 14b.

The phrase is surely old enough, since it occurs several times in Chaucer :

There thou were \vel,//-o thf-nms artow weyved. ' Cant. Tales,' B. 308. To my contree//-o thennes that she wente.

Id., B. 1043.

"For no wight as by right, fro fheniiesforth that him lakketh goodness, ne shal ben cleped good." Chaucer, tr. of Boethius, bk. iv. prose 3, 1. 13.

It seems high time to protest against the arrogance and impertinence of some of our modern reviewers, who in their own igno- rance of the history of the English language presume to think that no one knows so much

as themselves, and so proceed to lay down the law, as if there were no facts to go upon. That journalists should, as a rule, know nothing of Middle English or the gram- matical usages of Elizabethan authors is not surprising ; but this would not matter if they would only recognize the fact them- selves, and refrain from the arrogance of " correcting " others who know more of these things. Let us rather preserve our freedom of speech, and refuse to be dictated to after this sort.

There is often a great outcry about the educational value of Greek, for which reason it "ought to be compulsory on all." It is high time to insist on the educational value of English ; but it will be long before the study of it is compulsory ! I verily believe that many dare not even to suggest such a thing ; yet why should we not value our own language as much as the Greeks valued theirs? WALTER W. SKBAT.

JOHN WAINWRIGHT, BARON OF THE EX- CHEQUER IN IRELAND (9 tn S. xii. 505). Baron Wainwright left no issue. For some account of the baron's life in Ireland I venture to refer MR. J. B. WAINEWRIGHT to the last part published of 'A History of the County Dublin,' by myself, and to the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland for 1898. If further information would be of any use to MR. WAINEWRIGHT, my manu- script notes are much at his service.

F. ELRINGTON BALL.

Rous OR ROWSE FAMILY (9 th S. xii. 487). Information as to this family will be found as follows : *N. & Q.,' 1 st S. ix. 222 ; 6 th S. xi. 328, 429; East Anglian N. < Q. (N.S.), iii. 229, 247 ; Seventh Rep. Hist. Com., 663 ; Rous of Badingham, pedigree, Add. MSS. (Brit. Mus.) 19,147 ; arms and quarterings. Tanner (MSS. Bodleian), cclvii. 239 ; of Crat- field, Dennington, and Henham, pedigrees, Add. MSS. (Brit. Mus.) 19,147; with arms in trick (1561), Rawl. B (Bodl.) 422 ; of Wood- bridge, Burke's 'Landed Gentry,' 1370; ' Archselogise Attica?,' by Francis Rous, Oxford, 1654; Dr. Rous's verses on his death, Magd. Coll., Oxford, ccxxxix. 79; Joan Rous, Baker MSS., Cambridge, xxxv. end ; etter discharging Adam Rous, surgeon to Richard II., of 20 marks for medicine for the jing's use, Cambridge, Dd. iii. 53 (140) ; .etter allowing him a tun of Gascony wine, ib. ; letter of Lady Parnell Rous to Sir John flobart relative to wardship of her son, 12 Dec., 1603, Tanner, cclxxxiii. 109; 'Diary of John Rous, Incumbent of Santon, Down- lam, 1625 to 1642,' edited by M. A. E Green