Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/180

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL FEB. 20, im

Bloxam, ' Magdalen Coll.,' iii. 179-80 ; Macray, ' Magdalen Coll.,' v. 55 ; Gent. Mag., 1776, pp. 214, 601 ; Gardiner, ' Wad- ham Coll.,' 1889, pp. 422-3.

W. P. COURTNEY. (To be continued.)

WILLIAM MORRIS AND A SCOTCH VERGER. In the brief note prefixed to the mono- graph on William Morris which he has con- tributed to the " English Men of Letters " series, Mr. Alfred Noyes, in order to show that the author of ' The Earthly Paradise ' had distinction even in his aspect and demeanour, writes as follows :

"'Wha'syon? Wha'syon?' exclaimed a Scotch verger (in a dialect which I cannot represent), as Morris entered his church. ' Wha 's yon ? ' and he violently shook the sleeve of the minister who had brought Morris to look at the building. ' Canna ye tell me ? Yon 's not an ordeenary man ! Yon J s not an ordeenary man ! ' The verger had at any rate the right flair" &c.

Since his " verger " spoke in a dialect that he cannot represent, it might have been prudent in Mr. Noyes to leave to another exponent the dramatic scene he has thus attempted to delineate. Vergers are not recognized officials in the parish churches north of the Tweed, and it seems probable, therefore, that the poet had visited a Scottish Episcopal church. Here in all like- lihood there would be a verger ; but if he spoke as Mr. Noyes represents him to have done, he must have been a foreigner wrestling with the language of the district into which he had been transplanted. A Scotsman, thinking things out for himself, might speak of " no ordinar' man " or " a by-ordinar' man " ; but " ordeenary " would never occur to him, any more than the " meenister " with whom he is so commonly and divert- ingly credited by Mr. Punch and other cheerful, but erring commentators. One is surprised to hear that a verger, even in these days of advanced thinkers, could be so daring as violently to shake the sleeve of his minister. This could never happen within the pale of the national Church, and its occurrence is emphatic proof, in addition to that afforded by the reported remarks, that Morris's two observers, as well as himself, must have been ecclesiastically strangers in a strange land. THOMAS BAYNE.

REV. THOMAS PATTEN : A COINCIDENCE. Several cases of curious coincidences have been reported in ' N. & Q.' (see especially 9 S. x. 88 ; xii. 137, 190, 396), and I recently came across one which seems worthy of being added to the list.

Having occasion to make researches about

Seasalter, in Kent, I came across some

curious particulars concerning the Rev.

Thomas Patten, curate in charge from 1711

to his death on 9 Oct., 1764 (Gent. Mag.,

xxxiv. 498). He is included in the eccentric

biographies in Grose's 'Olio' (1796, pp. 150,

157). Some of the quaint entries he made

in his registers are given in Burn's ' Regis-

trum Ecclesiae Parochialis,' pp. 95, 166,

and in Cox's ' Guide to Whitstable.' Though

from his habits it was not likely he had

anything to leave, I thought his will, if he

made one, would be a curiosity. I searched

the calendar in the Probate Office at Somerset

House, and found the will of a Thomas

Patten, proved 15 Oct., 1764, six days after

his death. On consulting the will I found

it was not that of the clergyman of Seasalter,

but that of Thomas Patten, shipwright of

St. Margaret's, Rochester, dated 4 Sept.,

1760, and leaving everything to his mother,

as he was going to his Majesty's dockyard

at Antigua. Patten is not a very common

name, but it is certainly curious that the

will of a Thomas Patten should be proved

close on the death of another of the same

name and no relation, as the clergyman

according -to Foster's ^Alum. Oxon.,' was

a native of Somerset. A. RHODES.

" SERASKIER " : ITS PRONUNCIATION. One is at a loss to know why this term, which denotes the Turkish War Minister, is marked in Ogilvie and other modern dictionaries with the stress upon the second syllable, serdskier. There seems no reason for this. It is opposed both to the Turkish usage, which lays the stress upon its last syllable, and to the English habit of. stressing the last syllable in words of similar termina- tion, such as brigadier, grenadier, &c. Byron preserves the correct sound in his ' Don Juan,' canto viii. :

They took the bastion, which the Seraskier Defended at a price extremely dear.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

FOREIGNERS IN TOTTENHAM. Tottenham seems to have been a favourite haunt for Slav foreigners for a long time. In 1854 a tiny pamphlet, ' Elekcyja Wladiysys Lawa IV.,' was published in Polish from the Drukarni Polskiej at 5, Grove Place, Tottenham. It deals incidentally with Sir Francis Gordon, our Agent in Poland.

J. M. BULLOCH.

["Tottenham is turned French "was proverbial in Heywood's time. See the discussion at 9 S. xi. 185, 333.]