Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/95

 10 s. xir. JULY 24, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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The following obituary notice appeared in Gent. Mag., Ixxxi. pt. i. 601 :

"May 13 [1811]. Felix McCarthy, esq., long well known for his eccentricity and benevolence, and latterly for the embarrassments brought upon him by both. He offered himself, a few years ago, as a representative for Leicester, where he conducted himself with the strictest honour and punctuality. He was the author of several pamphlets on subjects of temporary interest at the periods -when they were written. His last production was of considerable length and comprehension upon the question of the Catholic veto. His latter years exhibited alternate vicissitudes of generous, but extravagant and thoughtless hospitality, and of distress often border- ing on want, which could not subdue his spirit or destroy his cheerfulness. Mr. M'Carthy was a native of the county of Cork, and although he had been absent from his country for above thirty years, during the early part of which he resided on the Continent, he always retained a sincere and ardent affection for his native land. He was accordingly sought after by multitudes of his distressed country- men, with whom he never failed to share his purse while he had anything in it, and his heart when he had not. This single trait is itself a summary of his character ; ana if it had in it sometimes more of generosity than of discretion, the failing arose from so good a principle, that his death (which was probably not a little hastened by its consequences) will require but a little exertion of the charity towards human frailty which death naturally in- spires, to extinguish the blame that indiscretion may sometimes call forth from strict propriety, in the sympathy which his known and undeniable good nature must find in the kindred feelings of every generous heart. Leicester Journal"

Possibly the B.M. Catalogue may contain a list of his publications ; and the contem- porary newspapers probably will give further particulars of his life in their obituary notices. HORACE BLEACKLEY.

"BRING," ARCHAIC USE (10 S. xii. 7). Examples of the archaic usage occur in Shakespeare. In ' Two Gentlemen of Verona, ' IV. ii. 32, Julia finds the host ready to cope with her low spirits. " Come," says he cheerfully, " we '11 have you merry : I '11 bring you where you shall hear music and see the gentleman that you asked for." Again, in 'As You Like It,' II. iv. 72, Rosalind thus appeals to Corin because of Celia's exhaustion :

I prithee, shepherd, if that love or gold Can in this desert place buy entertainment, Bring us where we may rest ourselves and feed.

In my own experience I have heard the word used in this sense once only, and the circumstances were curiously akin to those in which Rosalind and her party found themselves. A little group in a strange town sadly needed refreshment, and the spokesman of the occasion asked the nearest policeman if he could bring him and his 1

friends to a restaurant. It may be added that this leading spirit spoke Gaelic in his youth ; that in his maturity, and even after a university career, he sometimes found difficulty with the English idiom ; and that at the time of speaking he had not read a word of ' As You Like It.' Cf. St. John, Third Epistle, 6, " Bring forward on their journey." THOMAS BAYNE.

From a child I have known " bring "=to take : "I will bring something nice with me," " Bring her the best you have "- "bring" in the sense of " take." I often hear " bring " thus used for " take."

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Work sop.

NASEBY FIELD (10 S. xi. 344, 433, 514). Let MR. PAGE be comforted : he has not deprived Sir Clements R. Markham of a baronetcy, as a K.C.B. is the cause of his being " sirred." This was conferred in 1896, long after the ' Life of the Great Lord Fairfax ' was written. ST. SWITHIN.

" BOSTING" : "KEVEL" (10 S. xi. 508). In a building account in ' Durham Account Rolls ' (Surtees Society) of 1372-3, p. 210, we find " Et in factura murorum dicte capelle et Infirmarie cum bostillyng^per idem tempus et dealbacione, 31s. 4d." I never could make out what " bostillyng " was, but " bosting " is evidently connected with it. " Bostilling " is not in the ' N.E.D.'

J. T. F;

Winterton, Doncaster.

" Bosting " as a masons' term is spelt indifferently " bosting " and " boasting." Webster's 'International Diet.,' 1890, has it thus :

"Boast" (of uncertain etymology). To dress, as a stone, with a broad chisel. In sculpture, to shape roughly as a preparation for the finer work to follow ; to cut to the general form required.

" Boaster. A stonemason's broad-faced chisel."

" Boaster " is a general name for the tool, but of course it would vary locally and with the kind of stone to be cut. A mason would not boast (or bost) granite with the same tool that another would use for the softer Bath stone. ARTHUR HARSTON, F.S.I.

In the 'N.E.D.' the following references occur :

"Boaster, a broad-faced chisel used by masons in making the surface of a stone nearly smooth. 18 <o

-'1^76.' Sir E. Beckett, 'Building,' 167, 'More trouble is taken to work the stone with small

chisels than it would take to "boast (as they

call it) into a fairly level surface."