Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/400

 328

NOTES AND QUERIES. uo s. x. OCT. 24, im.

that the noun in question occupies a place in the alphabetical order of the dictionary, whereas its figurative meaning is actually given by the words quoted above.

I hope some reader of ' N. & Q.' will be able to identify the word I am seeking.

ARTHUR GRANICHSTAEDTEN.

IX., Althanplatz 2, Vienna.

ROYAL ENGINEERS OF IRELAND, 1251-1801. It may not be generally known that pre- vious to the Act of Union in 1801 Ireland had her own Royal Regiment of Artillery and her own Corps of Royal Engineers, under her own Master-General of the Ord- nance.

The latter corps can trace its existence to an order of Henry III. to the Justiciary of Ireland in 1251, though, of course, its name and titles were different ; and from 1279 there is a fairly complete succession to the last Chief Engineer in 1801, General Vallancey.

I am at present engaged in collecting materials for a history of this corps, and I shall be very grateful if any readers of ' N. & Q.' who have information about the corps or its individual members will send it to me. As, however, this may involve a larger correspondence than can be con- veniently carried on through the medium of ' N. & Q.,' I ask that communications may be sent to me, care of Cox & Co., Hornby Road, Bombay.

W. P. PAKENHAM WALSH, Lieut. R.E.

" MAMAMOTJCHI." In ' Le Bourgeois Gen- tilhomme,' IV. v., we find this word, with the explanation " C'est a dire, en notre langue, paladin, ce sont de ces anciens .... Paladin, enfin." The editor says in a note : " Un mot forge par Moliere . . . . il a pris place dans notre langage populaire, oil il designe un homme habille a la turque."

The word is, however, found in Ben Jonson, ' Volpone,' II. i.

Can any of your readers inform me of the origin of the word ? Could Moliere have borrowed it from Ben Jonson ? It appears to be what might be called " pidgin- Arabic," like the other words in ' Le Bourgeois Gen- tilhomme.' T. O. HODGES.

Kumbakonam, S. India.

[The 'N.E.D.' merely describes it as a mock- Turkish title, and offers no derivation. The first quotation for it in English is from Dryden in 1672.]

" DISDAUNTED." On the monument of Sir Palmes Fairborne in Westminster Abbey are some lines written by Dryden. In them occurs the word disdaunted, which, so far

as I know, has always appeared in transcrip- tions as " undaunted." It is so given even in Ackermann's history of the abbey. It seems unlikely that the word is a mistake of the sculptor's, but it seems not to have made its way into dictionaries. Does any one know of its occurrence elsewhere ? When did the epitaph first appear in print ? It should be said that the sculptor was an ignorant man. He has carved " Balladium " instead of Palladium. JOHN SARGEATJNT. 11, Vincent Square, S.W.

JACKSON FAMILY. Information wanted as to who are the present representatives of James Jackson of 17, Furnival's Inn, London, attorney, who either died or retired from practice in 1779. He acted for the Molyneux and Sherard families.

PEIRCE GUN MAHONY, Cork Herald.

Office of Arms, Dublin.

" PRESBYTER INCENSATUS." This term occurs in the course of a judicial inquiry into a criminal charge contained in the Re- gister of Robert Rede, Bishop of Chichester, anno 1411. The priest in question had been apparently present unofficially at the cele- bration of Mass in the church of Walberton, near Arundel, and was entertained at break- fast afterwards in the vicarage with others. I can find no explanation of the word in- censatus. If a miscopying for incensitus. would the in be intensive or privative ? " taxed " or " untaxed " ? Would he per- chance be an itinerant, prepared to take a Mass or other clerical duty for a considera- tion ? CECIL DEEDES. Chichester.

CONSTABLE'S FAMILY. Can any of your readers kindly tell me of the respective deaths of Abram Constable, brother of John Constable, R.A., and Anne and Mary Con- stable, his two sisters ? W. ROBERTS.

47, Lansdowne Gardens, Clapham, S.W.

" START " = Ass. In his ' New Account of E. India and Persia ' (1698), p. 224, Dr. John Fryer, writing of Gombroon in Persia, says : " The most diverting was of our Europe sailors mounting their Starts or Asses, the briskest, neatest, and nimblest of that kind I ever saw." Whence comes this word " start " ? EMERITUS..

DUGDALE AND THORP MSS. : G. P. R.

JAMES AS GENEALOGIST. Can any one in- form me whether these MSS. formed a part of the Staunton (Warwickshire) Collection,, destroyed by fire at Birmingham in 1879 ? And did they include genealogical nates- con-