Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/456

 376

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. xn. NOV. G, 1900.

Italy, Sweden, Finland, and other parts of Europe ; but apparently he had no know- ledge of its existence in the East. His opinion was that it had gradually been developed from more than one ancient game. PHILIP NORMAN.

' NOTES AND QUERIES ' COMMEMORATION (10 S. xii. 167, 251, 331). Allow me to say that I believe that I am now the oldest living correspondent of ' N. & Q.,' my first communication having appeared 19 July, 1856 (2 S. ii. 47), with the signature OXONI- ENSIS. This continued as my pseudonym until 1868 (4 S. ii.), when my " sponsorial and patronymic appellations " were adopted, and I have always used them since.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

One may be allowed to express a hope that a well-known contributor may feel himself in a Commemorative vein, and deem the present an appropriate time for giving us a Second Series of A Student's Pastime.'

H. P. L.

GEORGE GORDON, FRIEND or PORSON (10 S. xii. 329). This George Gordon was a brother of Pryse Lockhart Gordon, author of 'Personal Memoirs' (1861). For him see ' Dictionary of National Biography.' Watson in his ' Life of Richard Porson ' says they were brothers, and describes George as a mercantile agent. S. WHEELER.

REGULATION SWORDS (10 S. xii. 328). The " ramrod-back " pattern sword was the regulation one in the Army in 1820. Mine that I carried in 1859 was by Prosser, having been made in the former year a beautifully balanced one, a virtue absent in the present regulation weapon.

HAROLD MALET, Col.

" CORRECT TO A T " : " RIGHT AS A TRIVET," (10 S. xii. 227, 273, 313). The correspondents who have replied to SIR JAMES MURRAY'S query seem (I only say, seem) never to have heard of a T square. Being in the frequent use of one, I can assure your correspondents (a) that it has the T shape ; (6) that its use ensures correct- ness. V.H.I.L.I.C.I.V.

Should not the word " trivet " in the second phrase be spelt " trevat " ? Has not^ the phrase originated in this way ? A " trevat " was an instrument for cutting the pile threads of velvet, and so must have been exceedingly sharp and well prepared the cutting edge having to be as perfect

as human skill could make it. That being so, the application to other things is easy to understand. When anything is as "right as a trevat," it must be right. The flaw in this reasoning is the apparent absence of the phrase in French and German, among peoples who have used such an instrument.

ARBEITER.

" A BISCUIT'S THROW " (10 S. xii. 326). This is a nautical term, just as a stone's throw is that of a landsman, or a pistol shot would be used by a soldier. The ' N.E.D.' gives a quotation from Capt. Marryat's ' Peter Simple ' in 1833, and one for "biscuit cast " from Capt. Kane's ' Grinnell Expedi- tion,' 1853. No doubt a perusal of the naval stories so popular in the first half of last century, such as the works by Capt. Chamier, Wm. John Neale, and others, would afford additional examples I remember when a boy reading a yarn- about the Flying Dutchman in which the expression was used. A. RHODES.

In reply to the suggestion that this expression is a novelty, Capt. Marryat may be quoted, who wrote in 1834 : " Let 's port the helm, and close her, till we can shy a biscuit on board " (' Peter Simple,' chap. Iv. p. 420, Macmillan's edition, 1895).

EDWARD BENSLY.

The phrase is chiefly met with in novels and tales of the sea. Marryat, for instance, in describing a combat between the Rattle- snake and some French privateers, speaks of " O'Brien running the brig within biscuit- throw of the weather schooner, engaging him broadside to broadside" ('Peter Simple,' p. 340, Richard Bentley, 1838). T. F. D.

" So close that you could throw a biscuit on board " is familiar to me as the stereotyped expression of the nautical writer when de- scribing an unusually short distance between ships at sea. A ship's biscuit is a fairly heavy article, and, well thrown, should carry anything up to sixty yards or so.

P. LUCAS.

[M. N. G. and MR. TOM JONES also thanked for replies.]

THE DEATH-BED OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN (10 S. xii. 329). The artist would, I feel sure, be Carlo Maratta (or, usually, Maratti),, 1626-1713, a native of Camerino, Ancona. His Madonnas were particularly admired,, though, while yet a young man, he was, ridiculed and nicknamed by contemporary rivals on account of his partiality for this