Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/597

 io s. xi. JUNE 19, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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mouth of the glen, where the river flows down into the waters, and they came with great surprise upon the Neishes, who were feasting in their hall, and smote them every one, till there was no Clan Neish left at all."

This is narrated by the heroine, Christina M'Nab, and reads like a description of a massacre of Armenians by Turks.

JOHN HEBB.

There are some errors in the Gaelic words in MR. OWEN'S contribution, chiefly, I think, misprints.

" Smooth " would be min, not mion, which means " little." Oiach and oiddch should be oidhch. Dorra, according to Macbain, seems to mean " harder " or " more difficult " ; " worst " is miosa. Lastly, boidh is a misprint for biodh= " let there be." There is no such word in Gaelic as fromgh, it is apparently mis- written or misprinted for fiamh, " fear," literally " let there be no fear on you," i.e., " fear nothing " or " dread nought."

C. S. JERRAM.

CANOPIED PEWS (10 S. xi. 169, 272). There used to be two old canopied pews in the church of St. Osyth, Essex. I believe I saw a statement some few years ago that they had now been removed. This would probably be in 1900, when the church underwent restoration. JOHN T. PAGE.

THE KING'S BODYGUARD (10 S. xi. 427). The following curious reflection on the band of gentlemen known formerly as the " King's Pensioners," or " Gentlemen Pensioners," occurs in The Craftsman of 29 April, 1733 :

" Indeed, the Gentlemen-Pensioners have been often pleas'd to expatiate on the flourishing Con- dition of our Country ; and to assert that our Trade and Wealth are at a much higher Degree than They were ever known before. For a proof of This, They direct us to the Grandeur, Extravagance and Luxury of this Town ; which all considering Men look upon rather as the Forerunners of Poverty, than Marks of Riches, out supposing it otherwise, what is This to the Purpose? Doth the Wealth and Splendour of the Metropolis (of an overgrown Metropolis !) through which all the current Cash of the Kingdom circulates, as it is the great Mart and Emporium of, and where the Court, the Nobility and the Gentry chiefly reside ; is This, I say a proper Specimen and Proof of our National Pros-

eerity, or any just Confutation of those terrible omplaints of Poverty, which are made in almost all the Counties of England? London, no doubt will be the last Place that will feel the Extremities of Want, or the certain Symptoms of Ruin ; and yet I am afraid the Bulk of People, even there, do not find Themselves in so vigorous a State of Health as these Court Physicians endeavour to persuade them. We may therefore apply the Words of the Prophet to these sycophant Writers,

and their Patrons, who glory in their own private Wealth, as a proof of public Prosperity. They who lye upon Beds of Ivory, and stretch Them- selves upon their Couches ; who eat the Lambs out of the Flocks, and the Calves out of the midst of the Stalls ; who chaunt. to the Sound of the Viol, and invent to Themselves Musick ; who drink Wine in Bowls, and anoint Themselves with the chief Ointments ; they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph."

J. HOLDEN MAcMlCHAEI*

A good history was published in 1892, by Major Henry Brackenbury, entitled ' The Nearest Guard : a History of Her Majesty's Body Guard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, from 1509 to 1892.' There was another edition published in 1905, with a slightly varied title. The portion relating to Charles II. is pp. 112-130, in the first edition.

A. RHODES.

WILKES'S 'ESSAY ON WOMAN' (10 S. ix 442, 492 ; x. 33). In one respect the con- jectures of the late Mr. C. W. Dilke as regards the date at which this poem was written appear to be based upon a mis- apprehension. With his wonted industry and acumen, he strove to draw his conclu- sions as to the period of its authorship from the age of its heroine Fanny Murray (2 S. iv. 41) ; but although his surmises are most ingenious, they cannot be reconciled with certain facts that have since come to light. For instance, he assumes that " it must have been 1740, or early in 1741," that Lord Hardwicke saw the nude portraits of Fanny Murray and Kitty Fisher at Mr. Montagu's in Cambridgeshire. Now, although this is just possible in the case of the former lady, who was in her twelfth year in 1741, we know that the latter courtesan was a mere baby at this date. Writing to a friend in Derbyshire, 5 Jan., 1758, Thomas Bowlby remarks :

" You must come to town to see Kitty Fisher, the most pretty, extravagant, wicked little whore that ever flourished ; you may have seen her, but she was nothing till this winter." Many other references corroborate the statement that the famous courtesan, who was then quite a young girl, first came into prominence in this year.

There is a note also to a poem written in 1768 by Temple Luttrell, which tells us that Kitty Fisher died* in the preceding year " under thirty years of age." See ' New Foundling Hospital for Wit ' (Debrett, 1784), i. 171.


 * She died 10 March, 1767.