Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/335

 io s. x. OCT. 3, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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place-names known as " Cunnigar," all 'derived from the Irish coinegear, which means a rabbit warren. All Munster men .are conversant with the famous Cunnigar at Dungarvan, co. Waterford.

I may add that there are a number of French words adopted by Irish speakers, .and incorporated into the living language. W. H. GRATTAN FLOOD.

Enniscorthy.

LOTEN'S MUSEUM (10 S. x. 126). Since I wrote my note on this subject, I find that Lo ten's Museum has been removed to its old home at Easington, Holderness, East Yorkshire. The purchaser, Mr. Charlton of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is related to the present curator, Mrs. Bingham.

It will not be without interest to reproduce one of the handbills circulated when the museum was in Hull :

Do not fail to see Loten's Unique

Exhibition now on view at 3, Albion Street

Hull. The Only Exhibition of its

kind in the World. Works of art made from Fish Bones, Postage Stamps,

Finger Nail Clippings, Onion Peels, Straw, &c., &c. Open Daily from 10 A.M. to 9 P.M.

Admission 10 A.M. to 7 P.M., Sixpence ;

7 to 9 P.M., Threepence. Saturday, all day Threepence.

The late Mr. Loten was a keen student -of ornithology, and frequently rare birdfi were sent to him by curators of public museums and others for identification. He had the reputation of being one of the most skilful taxidermists in this country, and did -excellent work for the Natural History Museum at Edinburgh and other important museums. WILLIAM ANDREW.

Royal Institution, Hull.

NAPOLEON'S CARRIAGE (10 S. vii. 170, 236, 313, 357, 393, 434 ; viii. 135, 217, 373). In The Dover Express of 11 September there are some extracts from a diary kept by Thomas Pattenden. After an account -of the return of troops to the close of 1818, when the last of the British army of occupa- tion quitted French soil, occurs the following :

"Long before that, Bonaparte had been sent to his final exile at St. Helena, and the carriage and horses which he used at the last great battle had been sent to London as a curiosity, concerning -which Pattenden wrote under date October 13th, 1815 : ' This morning a Prussian officer came here (from Calais, bringing with him the carriage in

which Bonaparte rode to the battle of Waterloo, which the same officer had taken, together with four bay horses. The carriage, which was kept shut up, and seen by few persons, was sent to London. 5 "

R. J. FYNMORE. Sandgate. *

'CHILDE HAROLD' (10 S. viii. 430, 495; ix. 10). A perusal of the correspondence of Lord Stanhope, Dr. Ingleby, Mr. F. T. Palgrave, Prof. Beesly, Mr. Thos. Kerslake, and Mr. Frederic Harrison in The Times of January, 1873, will, I think, tend to confirm the opinion of DR. KRTJEGER that the con- struction of this stanza is involved, the imagery inapt, and the sense obscure ; though it is quite true, as MR. JOHN MURRAY observes, that its meaning is intelligible. Even Byron himself wrote, " I confess I thought it had been better," when taxed about some of his phrasing. Mr. Frederic Harrison, indeed, went the length of saying : " Byron's warmest admirers admit that he is a constant sinner against grammar, taste, and music " ; and another writer drew atten- tion to an old grievance in stanza 180, the ungrammatical use of " lay " for lie.

The truth seems to be that though the conception of ' Childe Harold ' is grand and the interest well sustained, the poet had not yet attained to that marvellous facility of versification which atones for so much that is debased and questionable in ' Don Juan.' In the present instance it is open to question whether Assyria should be classed along with Greece, Rome, and Carthage as a maritime Power ; and it is possible that Byron's notoriously bad hand- writing is answerable for the technical faults complained of. N. W. HILL.

[MR. JOHN MURRAY'S reply at the last reference discourages the idea of an emendation, for he says that " the MS. leaves no room for doubt."]

RUSHLIGHTS (10 S. x. 27, 76, 93, 135, 154). I well remember my grandfather, who died in 1860, using rushlights when reading in the days when country houses were not extravagantly lighted in the evenings. He held the light close to the print, with a small fold of paper around it to protect his fingers from the grease. These rushlights were made from well-grown rushes with plenty of pith. The extremities were cut off, and the rushes soaked in water to loosen the outer covering, which was then all removed but a narrow strip. This peeling was a critical operation, and required care and skill, or many rushes were ruined. The peeled rushes were put away in a dry place, tied in bundles, and when required, a bundle was taken out and soaked