Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/218

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. xn. A. *. 1909.

THACKERAY: " HORSE-GODMOTHER " (10 S. xi. 141, 210 ; xii. 33, 78, 118). An earlier use of this word than that given in the lation of ' Gil Bias,' Book I. chap. v.
 * N.E.D.' is to be found in Smollett's trans-

JOHN WILLCOCK.

Lerwick.

[The Thackeray quotation cited by MR. BTRACHAN, ante, p. 118, is the latest "in the ' N.E.D.' The earliest is from 1569-70.]

" SKYLE " (10 S. xii. 130). The word style is now spelt skill. The final e does not mean that the y was long, but that the word was originally dissyllabic, and pro- nounced like skilly. The old senses were discernment, distinction, cause, reason, argu- ment, &c. For examples see Chaucer, ' Hous of Fame,' 726, 827 ; ' Legend of Good Women,' 1392 ; ' Cant. Tales,' E. 1152 ; also the non-Chaucerian part of * The Romaunt of the Rose,' 1951, 3120, 4543. The 'N.E.D.' will shortly tell us the com- plete history of the word.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

"No FLOWERS" (10 S. xii. 130). I do not think flowers at funerals had come into use in the northern part of Lincolnshire in 1861. None were sent to my father's funeral, which took place in that year. The custom of employing them does not seem to have become common until a few years later. In 1890 it had already become a habit to add " No flowers " to death- notices in newspapers.

I believe the chief objection to flowers at funerals has arisen from the undue expense often caused. EDWARD PEACOCK.

It can scarcely be that there is any religious objection to a custom so wide- spread one might almost say so universal in all ages as that of strewing flowers on the dead ; and those who now desire " no flowers " at funerals are probably only protesting against the vulgar ostentation which has debased what is in itself a natural and pious instinct. Something may, how- ever, be due to the increase of the feeling of the sanctity of vegetable as of other life. Landor says :

I never pluck the rose ; the violet's head Hath shaken with my breath upon its bank And not reproacht me ; the ever-sacred cup Of the pure lily hath between my hands Felt safe, unsoiled, nor lost one grain of gold.

Such refinement of sensibility will probably never be very general, but it is more common, I think, than it used to be, though one scarcely sees why it should be felt for cultivated flowers, whose end it is to be "cut." C. C. B.

AUTHORS or QUOTATIONS WANTED (10 S, xii. 88, 116). At the latter reference it is stated that the lines beginning

Oh, earlier shall the rosebuds blow, occur in a poem entitled * A Song,' in William Cory's ' lonica.'

I found them the other day in a small volume entitled ' Otiis Addenda,' by the late Armine Thomas Kent (A. K. Baldwin, Grosvenor Printing Works, Tunbridge Wells, 1905). This is a collection of Mr. Kent's poems, the title being explained by the fact that a collection of his essays, &c., had previously been published under the title of ' Otia.' T. F. D.

SNEEZING SUPERSTITION (10 S. xi. 7, 117, 173 ; xii. 97).

" If one chance to sneeze after repast, the order is for to call for a dish of meat and a trencher again to be set upon the board ; and in case he taste not of somewhat afterward, it is thought a most fearful and cursed presage on his behalf." Holland's
 * Pliny,' Book XXVIII. c. ii.

Also see E. B. Tylor's ' Primitive Culture,' chap, iii., for copious references.

TOM JONES.

FLINT PEBBLES (10 S. xii. 50, 118). I am obliged to MR. SCARGILL for his reply to my query, but I am sorry to say that it is not at all satisfactory, since the broken pieces of flint are to be found in more or less abundance in fields and other places far away from public roads, and where it is not at all likely there ever were any roads. I hope some more satisfactory answer will be forthcoming, as, to my mind, it is a question worth answering. Can the flints be relics of the times when flint implements were in such large demand ? Only a few days ago I picked up near Portslade-by-Sea what has every appearance of being a flint axe, and every appearance, too, of having had a good deal of knocking about, which it probably has. J. BROWN.

88, St. Leonard's Road, Hove.

NIMBUS (10 S. xi. 489; xii. 110). An article dealing with ' The Nimbus in Eastern Art ' will be found in Nos. 55 and 56 (1907) of The Burlington Magazine. This gives an account of its earliest appearance in the West as well as in the East.

J. TAVENOR-PERRY.

5, Burlington Gardens, Chiswick.

AVIATION: EARLY ATTEMPTS (10 S. xii. 126). There are numerous references to Otto Lilienthal and his attempts at flying in Dr. Raimund Nimfuehr's ' Leitfaden der Luftschiffahrt und Flugtechnik ' (Vienna, 1909), with some illustrations. L. L. K.