Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/140

 112

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io"> s. in. FEB. n, 1905.

on Botanical Writers,' a propos of Miller's 'Gardener's Dictionary.' The Gentleman's Mag. of 1781 records the death, at Barking, of Mr. James Gordon, senior, the " ingenious and eminent botanist," 20 January. The will of James Gordon, nurseryman, Fountain- bridge, Edinburgh, was proved 6 April, 1788.

J. M. BULLOCH. 118, Pall Mall, S.W.

ROYAL REGIMENTS OF THE LINE (10 th S. iii. (>9). Royal regiments received that prefix as a token of the sovereign's favour and appreciation of their achievements in arms. These regiments are distinguished by their dark blue facings and the scarlet band (except in Scotch and Rifle Regiments) round the forage caps of ranks that wear the peaked cap. To be exact, the same facings are worn by six other regiments, which are not styled " Royal," but bear the appellation of the Sovereign or Consort, as " The King's " (8th), " The Prince Albert's " (13th), &c.

The following is a list of the Royal Regi- ments forty years ago : 1st (The Royal Regiment), 2nd (The Queen's Royal Regi- ment), 6th (The Royal 1st Warwickshire), 7th (Royal Fusiliers), 18th (Royal Irish), 21st (Royal North British Fusiliers), 23rd (Royal Welsh Fusiliers), 35th (The Royal Sussex Regiment), 42nd (The Royal Highland Regiment), 60th (The King's Royal Rifle Corps), 87th (Royal Irish Fusiliers), 100th (The Royal Canadian Regiment), 101st (Royal Bengal Fusiliers), 102nd (Royal Madras Fusi- liers), 103rd (Royal Bombay Fusiliers). In addition, the following were considered Royal Regiments : The King's Own (4th), The Queen's Own (50th), The King's Own Light Infantry (51st) ; the first two of which now bear the title of " Royal." H. P. L.

" PHIL ELIA " (10 th S. ii. 527 ; iii. 36, 79). When Lamb wrote to his publisher John Taylor on the eve of publication of the 'Essays of Elia' he enclosed a "Dedication to the friendly and judicious reader"; but before the letter was finished he decided it was not to be inserted in the book. He goes on : " The Essays want no Preface : they are

all Prefate There will be a sort of Preface

in the next Magazine which may act as an advertisement, but not proper for the volume."

The "sort of Preface" was 'A Character of the late Elia,' bearing the signature of "Phil-ffiia," and it was published in the January number of The London Magazine, 1823. The essay appears to be so character- istic of Lamb's style that it is somewhat strange that it should ever have been

ascribed to anybody else. The following letter seems to indicate that Lamb claimed it as his own.

To Moxon, who published the ' Last Essays of Elia,' to which the 'Character' (slightly altered) appeared as the Preface, he wrote (1833) : " I send you the last proof not of my friendship pray see to the finish. I think you will see the necessity of adding those words after ' Preface ' and ' Preface ' should be in the Contents-table " (the italics are mine). The conclusion to be drawn from this, I am inclined to think, is that the " Pre- face" was to be understood as one of the 'Last Essays,' and therefore written by Lamb.

S. BUTTERWORTH, Major R.A.M. Corps.

Carlisle.

"WASSAIL" (10 th S. ii. 503; iii. 9). The Icel. veizla would have given some such form as ivaissel, rather than ivaitsel, because the t would have been assimilated to the s. Com- pare the modern E. bless from O.E. ble'tsian.

It is said that such a form as ivaitsel would not explain the ai in the second syllable. In the Yorkshire version of the carol which I have quoted there is no ai in the second syllable ; the forms are wessel, used as a sub- stantive, and wesselling, the participle of a verb. In discussing these words with a friend I was told that ivossel, instead of wassel, is often used in the Sheffield version of the carol, and I find that in the passage which Hearne quotes from Robert of Brunne the form wossaile occurs twice. PROF. SKEAT omits this in his prose version of the same passage given ante, p. 9. Yet this form strongly favours the derivation from Icel. veizla, because in Middle English we find such words as ston (the o being long) from O.E. stdn, O.N. steinn, stone.

The woes hail of Layamon is merely an old " popular etymology," of no more value than Selden's wish-hail and the other curiosities which PROF. SKEAT refers to in his dictionary. As for the story about the British king Vortigern and Rowena, the less said about it the better. It comes from the romancers who invented the derivation of Britain from Brut, King of Troy, and of Ludgate from King Lud.

The proposal to regard the Icel. veizla as the original of wassail gains weight from the fact that, in a Yorkshire version of the carol referred to, it is preceded by the adjective jolly, which may very well stand for a popular interpretation of Jala. In ' Eireks Saga RauSa' a splendid J6la-veizla is mentioned (" var fa buit til Jola-veizlu, ok var5 hon sva