Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/566

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. xi. JUNK 12, im

church, which might truthfully have been described as the intended rendezvous of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, is incorrectly marked as " Origin of Longfellow's ' Village Blacksmith.' " The map is published under the auspices of the London Geographical Institute.

As this error seems inclined to nourish, I anticipate that the best way to kill it will be to pillory it in ' N. & Q.'

JOHN T. PAGE.

" YATAGHAN " : ITS ETYMOLOGY. The dictionaries give us no assistance with this word, except to tell us that it is Turkish. This is, of course, perfectly correct. It is one of the few pure and uncorrupted Turkish terms which every reader knows. Such being the case, it is worth while to inquire from what root it is derived. Its termina- tion is a not uncommon one, and by a well- known rule in Turkish grammar yataghan leads us back to a simpler noun, yatag, from which it must come. Yataq primarily means a bed, which is of little use to us here, as a yataghan can hardly mean a bedside sword. But another meaning of yatag is a place of ambush. I think we may conclude that the yataghan was originally a hunting knife, so called from the ambush where the hunter awaited his prey.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

HOUSES OF HISTORICAL, INTEREST. The Builder of 22 May contained the following reference to Warren Hastings :

" Memorial Tablets. It was reported that a suggestion had been made to the Duke of West- minster that the residence of Warren Hastings at No. 40, Park Lane, situated on the Grosvenor estate, should be commemorated by means of memorial tablets. His Grace has stated that instructions have been given for a tablet to be affixed to No. 40, Park Lane, commemorative of the fact."

A. J. C.

DANIEL DEFOE'S WIFE. The article in the ' D.N.B.' says it is supposed, though on very slight evidence, that Defoe married a daughter of Samuel Annesley, the ejected minister of St. Giles's, Cripplegate. Men- tioning a statement of about 1705 that his father-in-law was a lay elder in a conventicle, the article remarks that if Defoe married Annesley 's daughter this must have been the father of a second wile.

Permit me to mention that amongst the allegations for marriage licences issued by the Vicar-General (Harleian Society, vol. xxx) is the entry, on 28 Dec., 1683, of Daniel Foe, of St. Michael's, Cornhill, London, merchant,

bachelor, about 24, and Mrs. Mary Tuffley, of St. Botolph's, Aldgate, London, spinster, about 20, with consent of her father ; alleged by Charles Lodwick, of St. Michael's afore- said ; at St. Botolph's aforesaid, St. Law- rence, Jewry, or St. Giles's, Cripplegate. The man, if fully 24, would have been born in 1659. This is a year or so earlier than Defoe's birth is generally placed (1660 or 1661), on the strength of his assertion, in 1727, that he was then in his sixty -seventh year. But Defoe's passion for truth did not amount to a disease. I have looked up what I can of the references to him in ' N. & Q.,' but I have not been able to see Mr. Wright's ' Life,' which is mentioned in some of them. DIEGO.

GARUM AND PUNCH.

" Desist from poysoning my limbs, I shall send you some Garum to rench your Punch, which will dissipate your revengeful Thoughts." ' Chevalier Montenack to Mr. H. B. [Hadrian Beverland]. Letter from Seignior Perin del Vago to Mr. H. B. and his reply.'

Adrian Beverland, to whom the letter quoted was addressed, was born in Middle- burg, Zealand, in 1653, and was a man of genius, but prostituted his talents by the production of loose and obscene pieces. He was at Oxford University in 1672. He died insane about 1712 (Cooper's ' Biog. Diet.').

" Garum " was a sauce much prized by the ancients, made of small fish preserved in pickle or brine. JOHN HEBB.

FANNY MURRAY'S DEATH. This lady is celebrated as the mistress of Beau Nash, and as the heroine of Wilkes's ' Essay on Woman.' It is usually alleged by modern writers that she died in 1770. The error has been handed down to us in the ' Cata- logue of Engraved Portraits ' by Henry Bromley, p. 444 ; and kept alive by John Chaloner Smith in ' British Mezzotinto Por- traits ' p. 731. The following newspaper paragraphs should set the matter at rest :

" Yesterday died at their house in Cecil Street in the Strand, Mrs. Boss, wife of Mr. Ross, comedian, the late celebrated Miss Fanny Murray." Adam's Weekly Courant, Tues., 7 April, 1778.

" Mrs. Ross (formerly Fanny Murray), though from her early starting in public life known for only the age of forty-nine marked on her coffin." General Evening Post, Thurs., 9 April Sat., 11 April, 1778.
 * a succession of years to all ranks of people, has

See also the Gazetteer, Friday, 10 April, 1778. The Town and Country Magazine, however, says that she died on 1 April.