Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/110

 86

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. m. FEB. *,

out that when Major Light's 'Views of Sicily appeared Sir Henry Light was a captain in the Royal Artillery. The authorship o; ''Views of Sicily' is vouched for on the title- page. I had no idea of any doubt on the subject when, in 1901, Messrs. Sampson Low published my book 'The Founders of Penang and Adelaide.' A. FRANCIS STEUART.
 * Travels in Egypt' in 1818. I need but point

PATENT MEDICINES. These do not appeal to be anywhere defined in the ' H.E.D.' under "* Patent'; and the only illustrative quota- tions of the term are misleading, being given under " 3. Of an invention : Protected or covered by letters patent," &c. At the time to which these quotations refer patent inedi- cines were so protected, but this is not the case with one in a thousand of the so-called " patents " which now afflict humanity. They are simply proprietary medicines bearing a 'Government stamp. The distinction is of some importance, and ought to have been explained. C. C. B.

" EAEPICK." William Fisher, priest in the Minster of Sheppey (Kent), by his will, proved 5 June, 1505, gave " to the Shrine of St. Sexburga a little crucifix with a ere pike of silver." The will was proved at Canterbury, iu the Archdeacon's Court {vol. x.). ARTHUR HUSSEY.

Tankerton-on-Sea, Kent.

[The 'N.E.D.' has one earlier quotation, dated

" SWEDENBORGIANISM " IN PHILADELPHIA.

The late Dean Hole, in his ' A Little Tour in America,' is made to assert, on p. 323, that among the places of worship in the city of Philadelphia, in the year 1725, there was "one Swedenborgian." As, however, the "New Church," commonly called "Sweden- borgian," was not organized in America before 1788, the Dean's statement is mani- festly erroneous he probably meant 1825. CHARLES HIGHAM.

WILLIAM RASTELL. The 'D.N.B.,' xlvii. 305, says : "He was continued in office by Elizabeth, resigning office early in 1563." In fact, he had already fled to Flanders before 10 January, 1561/2 ('Cal. S.P., Span., Eliz.,' vol. i. p. 224). JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

NEW YEAR'S EVE IN BASKISH. Christmas Eve is nocke buena in Castilian ; and the Baskish gabon is the literal translation of that. Gab on ! or Gau on ! is also used for the nightly salutation " Good night ! " the Basks not using the plural as the Castilians do when they say, "Buenas noches !" As

Christmas was once the beginning of the civil as well as of the ecclesiastical year, the Basks still call New Year's Eve gabon tsar or sar, literally "old good night." They do not apply this term, as one might have expected, to Twelfth Night. They call Christmas Day egu or egun, or egum berri (or barri), i.e., " new day." New Year's Day is iirthatse, from urte (or /iwrte)=year, and hatse or haste = beginning. The Epiphany is Tru- fania, a word which has not yet, I believe, been explained. Can the syllable tru be in any way connected with trois (rois)] The good in noche buena reminds one, of course, of "Good Friday" as translating "Vendredi Saint." EDWARD S. DODGSON.

" PROSOPOYALL." The twenty-fifth chapter of Montaigne's ' Essays,' Book I., is an elabo- rate and substantial disquisition ' Of the Institution and Education of Children,' as Florio expresses the title. Somewhat before the middle, after showing how the young man should comport himself when beginning to make his way into society, the essayist ap- propriately quotes from Seneca, "Licet sapere sine pompa, sine invidia." Then he proceeds, "Fuye ces images regenteuses," &c. This ex-

gression Florio renders, " Let him avoid those rosopoyall images of the world," &c. " Proso- poyall " does not seem to have won the favour of a MS. commentator on the copy of Florio which prompts this note, for he has wantonly put his pen through it and inserted "im- perious," as an epithet more to his mind. Probably "Prosopoyall" was foredoomed to neglect, but it need not greatly disturb any scholarly reader of Florio, and, at any rate, it is interesting in itself as illustrative of the translator's vocabulary. " Prosopopeyall gravitie" occurs in the essay 'Of Experience.' Other examples would be useful.

THOMAS BAYNE.

CHRISTMAS CUSTOM IN SOMERSETSHIRE. Lake's Falmouth Packet for 30 December, 1904, remarks :

"A curious Christmas - Eve custom, known as burning the faggots,' is observed in many inns in Somerset. Ashen faggots are thrown on the fire, and as soon as the bands have burst the customers are allowed to help themselves out of large cans of ale produced by the landlord/'

HARRY HEMS.

NATHANAEL TAUBMAN. The literary achievements of this chaplain R.N. are duly chronicled in the 'Diet. Nat. Biog.' iVhen ashore he lived in the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster. On 8 November, 711, Taubman, having in view " the par- .icular perills I am soon to be exposed to,"