Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/601

 10 s. XL JUNE 19, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

497

" SEVEN AND NINE " (10 S. xi. 410). The American phrase " seven - by - nine " is generally applied to a laugh or smile of a latitude more than usually benignant, as if measuring the length and width thereof, and at the same time playing upon the word benign :

" Papa, don't you think young Mr. Canter has a benign smile ? "

" Yes, my dear, seven -by nine. I never see him do it without wishing to throw a shovelful of corn into his mouth." New York Journal.

Quoted, I think, in one edition of Barrere and Leland's 'Diet, of Slang.'

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

GOOSE WITH ONE LEG (10 S. xi. 388, 438). Martinelli in his ' Historical Observations on the Tales of the Decameron ' states that he believes this to be a true story, for this reason : Neifile, who relates it/ tells her listeners that Currado Gianfigliazzi, whose cook appeased the resentment of his master by his humoursome ingenuity, was well known to them all, and it is unlikely that Boccaccio would have given for truth what so many living contemporaries could prove to be false. B D. MOSELEY.

Burslem.

EARLY ITALIAN LITERATTTRE (9 S. iii. 7, 231 ; 10 S. iiL 447). After the lapse of another three years and a half, I hope it is not impolite to suggest that an excellent method of celebrating the twentieth anni- versary of the publication of the first part of Dr. Monaci's ' Crestomazia Italiana,' would be the issue of the glossary promised to complete it some nineteen years ago. Scholars may be patient, but they are not

immortal. Tfn-RT .T WTTTT-WTTTT.-!-.

immortal. Oxford.

BEATING THE BOUNDS (10 S. xi. 384). If, as I think, JAS. M. J. FLETCHER is my old Oxford friend and brother-scholar at University College, he may remember, as I do, that on Ascension Day, 1873, the parochial authorities passed in procession through our College Hall, marking an in- visible line, which separated two parishes. The Master was lecturing in the Hall at the moment of the incursion.

G. W. E. RUSSELL.

PUNCH AND JUDY (10 S. xi. 371). Punch and Judy came to see us in my native village sixty years ago for the first time in my recollection, and entranced us so, that half a dozen of us, none more than five years, followed them to the next village

before we had enough. In those days " a Judy " was the woman who tramped with a tramp, the woman who went with a gipsy, or a woman with a man of whom no one knew whether she was a wife or not. It was on a highway much used by tramps, and when seen together it used to be said " There's a man with his Judy." But this is not an adequate reply to SIR J. A. H. MURRAY'S query. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

CARSTARES OR CARSTALRS (10 S. xi. 290, 397). According to Jamieson's ' Dictionary ' car is the initial syllable of many names of places in the west and south of Scotland, as Car-stairs, Car-luke, &c., signifying a forti- fied place. The Welsh caer signified a city one of that description which was known in early times, a castle a fort, a place sur- rounded with a wall, palissades, or a ram- part. Caered is the wall of a city. In Gaelic, cathair, a city, must be viewed as the same word, pronounced q. cair. Stare or ster is the terminating syllable of names of places, usually on the sea coast, which signifies an estate, settlement, or habitation.

Carstairs is also the surname of a noted Scottish Presbyterian divine (1649-1715).

TOM JONES.

WOMAN BURNT FOR POISONING HER HUSBAND (10 S. xi. 407). There is an article on ' Burning to Death ' in ' Bygone Punish- ments,' by William Andrews, 1899, p. 98. The last case on record is stated to be Christian Murphy, alias Bowman, who was burnt for coining on 18 March, 1789, and the author terminates his article by a reference to the Act of 30 George III., cap. 48, which granted that after Jxine, 1790, women were to suffer hanging in the same way as men.

It may be noted that the book I have referred to also contains articles on ' Hanging in Chains ' (p. 39) and ' Hanging Alive in Chains ' (p. 76). The latter is only a short article, and includes a statement that the subject was discussed in ' N. & Q.,' vols. x. and xi. of the Fourth Series (see ante, pp. 221, 303, 404). URLLAD.

POLISH DRAGOONS : " JAGER " (10 S. xi. 189, 256, 277). In the early formation of Continental armies, " huntsmen " consti- tuted an important element, either from their love of roving adventure, or, as is more probable, from their hardihood acquired in the chase. They are not. always mounted. Spain has regiments of " Cazadores," Italy " Cacciatori," and the Polish " Uhlan " is