Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/13

io' s. in. JAN. 7, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 5 the right writing of our English tung,' printed at London, 1582.

In describing the sound of the letter e Mulcaster says:—

This is to say, that an expert in English pronunciation, writing at the very time when the word was quite new, distinctly tells us that quandare is a word "of a Latin form," and that it is used "English-like," i.e, with some very slight change. Dr. Ellis remarks on this: "Observe that quandary is referred to a Latin origin, quam dare, as if they were the first words of a writ." See his 'English Pronunciation,' p. 912.

I much doubt if quam dare is right; it is difficult to see how a sentence can thus begin. But if any one can produce an example, the question will be settled.

My own guess is that quan: dare is a playful mode of reference to the phrase quantum dare, "how much to give." This is a question which causes perplexity every day, notably to one who contemplates going to law, or contributing a subscription, or buying any luxury or even any necessity. At every turn this searching question puts the thinker "in a quandary." For such an abbreviation, compare ''verbum sap., infra dig., pro tem., nem. con.'', &c.

(See 5ᵗʰ S. v. 209, 252)—A paragraph from Australia, which has been copied into The British Australasian, alludes to the succession to an English baronetcy of a Hobart cabman, and adds that "the position carries an income of about 4,000l. yearly, and residence at the Royal Foundation, Windsor Castle." The statements as to income and residence can hardly both be true, and may neither of them be so. But a correspondence as to the "Poor Knights" may be supplemented by this note.

(See 10ᵗʰ S. ii. 520.)—Quoted, and I think the source given, in Crabb Robinson's 'Diary.' W. T.

—Stickle-back, stickle-bag, and prickle-back are well-known variants of this friend of our childhood, and I think I have come across dittle-bat. The above, however, is a new acquaintance, and is to be found in Hassell's 'Life of Morland,' p. 106, where the author gives the title to one of his pictures as 'Children fishing for Prickle-bats.'

— In the notices of the career of the late Marquis of Salisbury which appeared in the newspapers on the occasion of his death, reference was made to the fact that in his early days he lived in a part of London not usually patronized by the members of our great families. Amongst his London residences I saw no mention of No. 21, Fitzroy Square, where he lived from 1860 to 1862. He was then Lord Robert Talbot Gascoigne Cecil, M.P. for Stamford. I have verified the entry in the directory by the St. Pancras rate-books, and find that the house was rated at 90l. It is now occupied by the British and Foreign Sailors' Society.

(See 8ᵗʰ S. vi. 25.)—As an addition to my note at the above reference, I send on the following cutting taken from The Daily Mail of 3 December last:—

—In The Guardian's obituary list of 14 December last forty-three deaths are recorded. In six cases the age is not stated. Of the remaining thirty-seven eleven were aged ninety and over the senior being the Rev. George Elton, M. A. Cantab., aged ninety-five; eleven were between eighty and ninety; eight between seventy and eighty; five between sixty and seventy; one fifty-eight, and the youngest of the whole list fifty-two. Out of the whole forty-three thirty-one were males. It would be easy to supplement this list from other papers. An aunt of my own died on 1 December in her ninety-ninth year. The unseasonably severe cold at the end of November was, no doubt, the cause of a large proportion of these deaths.

—In the introduction to his 'Life of Mangan' Mr. D. J.