Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/529

 10 s. x. NOV. 28, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

437

distinctly remembers hearing the song when quite a young girl.

In ' Through the Looking-Glass ' the verse, as quoted above, is given, and referred to as " the words of the old song."

R. VATJGHAN GOWEB.

"NosE OF WAX" (10 S. viii. 228, 274' 298). This obsolescent phrase occurs in Carlyle's ' Frederick the Great,' where it is used in the author's characteristic way to describe the personality of the second Elector of Brandenburg :

"Young Friedrich II., upon whom those Berlin Burghers had tried to close their gates, till he should sign ' Capitulation ' to their mind, got from them, and not quite in ill-humour, that name Ironteeth : ' Not the least a Nose-of-wax, this one ! No use trying here then !'" Vol. i.-bk. iii. c. iii.

N. W. HILL.

New York.

COMMODORE CHAMBEBLAIN (10 S. x. 329, 372). I thank SIB J. K. LATJGHTON and MB. D. MUBBAY for their replies, but my query as to the Jewish origin of Chamberlain remains unsolved. I find that, about thirty years before James Picciotto's ' Sketches of Anglo -Jewish History ' appeared, a little volume was published entitled ' Moral and Religious Tales for the Young of the Hebrew Faith,' adapted from the French of G. Ben Levi by A. Abraham. The prefatory re- marks are dated from Liverpool, May, 1846. On p. 135 Commodore Chambers (not Chamberlain) is referred to as a Jew in the English service. Although the names some- what vary, I am inclined to think they refer to one and the same person. I should like to trace the source of this statement made by Ben Levi and Picciotto. It surely must have some foundation in fact.

ISBAEL SOLOMONS.

91, Portsdown Road, W.

OVOCA OB AVOCA (1,0 S. x. 308, 397. Ovoca appears from the authorities to be the more correct form.

Mr. Joyce in his ' Irish Names of Places,' 3rd ed., 1871, p. 75 says :

"The river that he [Ptolemy] calls Oboka appears by its position on the map to be the same as the Wicklow river now so well known as the Avoca ; but this last name has been borrowed from Ptolemy himself, and has been applied to the river in very recent times. Its proper name, as we find in the one of the two principal branches that form ' The Meeting of the Waters.' "
 * Annals,' is Avonmore, which is still the name of

Ovoca is adopted by Robert Fraser in liis Royal Dublin Society's ' Wicklow Sur- vey,' published in 1801 ; by Wm. Shaw

Mason in his ' Parochial Survey of Ireland,' published (vol. ii.) 1819 ; and by James Fraser in his admirable and accurate ' Hand- book for Ireland,' 3rd ed., 1844.

I may add that the place is generally called Avoca now. L. A." W.

Dublin.

"POBTIONS": "PENSIONS" (10 S. x. 310, 358, 419). It is with great diffidence that I venture to criticize a note on eccle- siastical matters signed C. J. (ante, p. 358) ; but, so far as my experience goes, " portion " is the name of the part of the revenues of an impropriated benefice allotted by the bishop to the vicar for his sustenance and the payment of ecclesiastical dues. For ex- ample, in Augmentation Office, Miscell. Book XXXVI., the document numbered 28 (19 June, 1354) is the taxation by William, Bishop of Norwich, of the vicar's portion in the parish church of Braunforde and the chapel thereto annexed, appropriated to the abbot and convent of Battle by Clement VI. It is fixed at twenty marks sterling.

Q. V.

THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT (10 S. viii. 268, 418, 478 ; x. 358). I never heard of Barrili's novel ' L'Undecimo Comanda- mento ' until I read MB. HILL'S letter at the last reference, nor can I claim to have read the novel I mentioned in a previous com- munciation on this subject. The latter was published in 1903 or 1904, and to the best of my recollection Woodgate was the name of the author. These facts, such as they are, were fixed in my memory by a news- paper report of a trial of an action for libel, alleged to be contained in the book.

R. L. MOBETON.

MILITABY BANK-NOTE (10 S. x. 389). This is without doubt only one of the many flash bank-notes of the period. The names Flag, Hill, and Cannon in combination on a military note pronounce it such. I do not think there was such a place as Fort Montague, let alone a bank of that name. I have seen many similar to this note, of very small values ; they were doubtless done to pass off upon unsophisticated people as genuine bank-notes.

ABTHUB W. WATEBS.

Leamington Spa.

JESUITS AT MEDIOLANTJM (10 S. x. 309, 374). ST. SWTTHIN'S reply carried me back to my visit when a boy to Milan, and referring to my diary, I find under 1 Sept., 1855 : " We went thro' the Piazza di