Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/519

 s. x. NOV. 28, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Halliwell was the subject of ' The Whip- piad ' (also by Heber), which appeared in Blackwood's Magazine in July, 1843, and is referred to at 1 S. vii. 393. He died at Oayton, 15 Jan., 1835, in his seventieth year, and left no issue. His only sister married my grandfather, James Fishwick of Burnley. HENRY FISHWICK.

4 THE KNIGHT OF THE BURNING PESTLE,' BY BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. In his edi- tion of this play ("Temple Dramatists Series," 1898) Prof. Moorman suggests that the title is taken from that of a play per- formed at Court in 1579, ' The Historic of the Knight in the Burning Rock.' I would suggest that it is rather a parody of a title attached in the romances to Amadis of Greece " the Knight of the Burning Sword." Cp. ' Don Quixote,' cap. xviii. : " La ven- tura aquella de Amadis quando se llamaba El cabellero de la Ardicnte Eapada" The title appears in editions of ' Amadis de Grecia,' or the ' Ninth Book of Amadis.' published at Burgos 1535, and at Seville 1542, at Paris 1550, at Venice 1557 and 1629, at Lisbon 1596, and at London 1694 ( ' The .... History of .... Amadis of Greece, surnam'd the Knight of the Burning Sword ' ). See Duffield's translation of ' Don Quixote,' i. p. Ixxiv, and British Museum Catalogue. G. C. MOORE SMITH. Sheffield.

JOHNSON ANECDOTE. The following para- graph appeared in The Public Advertiser on 23 April, 1776 :

" As Dr. Johnson and Mr. Boswell were riding upon the Western Road they observed written up over a shop : ' Girdles for the Itch and all Scurvy disorders.' Upon which the Doctor observed with his usual Politeness and Humour ' Boswell, if that Man would advertise his Medicine upon the Northern Road he would make his fortune and do great Service to your Countrymen.'"

At this date the bad example of The Morning Post had begun to infect Mr. Woodf all's news- paper, i HORACE BLEACKLET.

T' GRISBET." Sir George Birdwood, in a letter to The Times of 9 November on Presi- dent Roosevelt's use of the word " frazzle," mentions among other alleged cognates of the American word ' * the homely grisbet of Somersetshire, a wrinkled or drawn (by bodily suffering) face." I draw attention to this word because it does not occur pre- cisely in this sense in ' E.D.D.' It is doubt- less the same word as the Somerset grizbite (or grisbet), a verb denned by * E.D.D.' thus : "' to grind and gnash with the teeth, to make a wry face." This is a Wessex survival of O.E. gristbitian, to gnash the teeth, a

word of frequent occurrence in old versions of the Bible, in the Psalms and in the Lin- disfarne Gospels. For citations see Bos- worth-Toller (s.v.). A. L. MAYHEW.

TOBACCONISTS' HERALDRY. I found a choice addition to the heraldic vocabulary on a card in a packet of cigarettes, describing the Salford arms : " Above is shown a corded bale between two mill-winds .... The wolf is * charged ' with a mill-wind." It would be interesting to know what the blazoner supposed a " mill- wind " to be. Q. V.

(g turns.

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 answers may be sent to them direct.

" PARADIGM A." I remember that, some fifty years ago, my schoolmaster, who was a Cambridge Wrangler, and, I believe, a fair classical scholar, was accustomed to use this word, not in the sense in which it is ordinarily found in grammars, but as a name for the list of the " principal parts " of a Greek verb. When he directed us to write out, for instance, the " paradigma " of AeiVw, what we were expected to give was the series " A.e/7rw, Acii/'u), cAiTrov, AeAotTra." I should like to know whether this curious misuse of the grammatical term was due to an individual misapprehension, or whether it was really current among Cambridge men of a former generation. H. B.

' LETTERS LEFT AT THE PASTRY-COOK'S.' Can any reader give the name of .the author of this work, published about 1850 ?

W. GEISENDORFER.

Spohrstr. 40, Frankfurt-a-M.

WILLIAM WEATHERHEAD : PORTRAIT AS A CHILD. I have a portrait of the above, as a child, of undeniable merit. In faint lettering on the back is written " William Weatherhead bought at Eriswell 1792." The probabilities point to this being an early work of Gainsborough's, as he was constantly painting children in the district between 1750 and 1760. It might elucidate the history of the picture if any of your corre- spondents could trace the subject of the portrait and inform me as to his parentage. The Weatherheads are a well-known family in Suffolk, I believe, and it would be interest- ing to know how such a portrait came under the hammer. I am the more interested in that one of the family had property in this