Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/473

 ios. in. MAY 20, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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it may not be. There were several other magazines not unlike it in character in existence at the time, and it may have found a place in one of these. I shall be grateful to any one who will point out where it is to be seen. EDWARD PEACOCK.

Wickentree House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

NINTHS. Except in the reign of Ed- ward III., for the purposes of the war, were ninths ever levied ? HOLCOMBE INGLEBY.

"FoR A GOD Yow." This expression, or adjuration, is used in one of the letters that form part of an acrimonious correspondence with which the election of 1768 was con- ducted in Norfolk. Will some one kindly explain it 1 HOLCOMBE INGLEBY.

VIXENS AND DRUNKENNESS. At the end of " Den nieuwen Dictionaris oft Schadt der Duytse eii Spaensche Talen...Door Arnoldus de la Porte... t'Antwerpen. 1659," one reads: "Zorra, d'wyfken van den vosse, vossinneken. Estar hecho Zorra, droncken syn. Cagar vna gorra, sich droncken drincken." Similar ex- pressions are recorded in other dictionaries of the Castilian language e g., those of Delpino and R. Barcia. The latter gives zorra as meaning drunkenness, quoting the phrases "dormir la zorra, desollar la zorra." How came " the vixen " to be used as the equivalent of a drunken person or a fit of drunkenness 1 It is said in Spain that foxes will eat grapes till they become intoxicated. Certain dogs, too, e.g., fox-terriers, are fond of grapes. Young foxes are of the colour of a certain kind of wine which is made in Catalunya (in Castilian Cataluna); and the Catalan for "fox" is guineu, which, as a Welsh word meaning reddish, is thought by Prof. J. Rhys, of Oxford, to be derived from Latin uinum. Zorra, orra, in Baskish means " the debt." It might be used of the penalty or fine imposed upon drunkenness. Does the English language contain any expressions similar to those noted by A. de la Porte, viz., <k To turn oneself into a vixen," " To chase a vixen," in the senses expressed in his Dutch equivalent 1 ? The fox and the grapes is an old tale.

EDWARD S. DODGSON.

MAJOR JOHN MILLER. I should be grateful for information respecting Major John Miller, of the Coldstream Guards, adjutant- general to General Monk in the celebrated I march from Scotland, and appointed to intro- 1 duce the excluded members into the House of Commons, whose votes so materially assisted in the Restoration. He is frequently mentioned in MacKinnon's 'History of the

Coldstream Guards,' published in 1833. He retired from the army in 1673. It is believed that he emigrated to America, and succeeded to the estate of a Francis Miller who was killed in the revolt of the Indians in 1652. A John Miller appears in the list of _ New- England proprietors in 1677, the first existing record after the Indian outbreak. What family of Miller now uses the arms granted to Major John Miller 1 ? They were:

"Argent, a treshure flory, counter flory, and over it a fess inibattelled gules : Crest, a lyon's pawe erased, gules, holding ye hilt, or, on ye blade proper, a chaplet also gules. May 27, 1672, in 24 th yeare of Charles ye 2 d . MS. Harleian 1172, folio 76."

These arms do not appear in any modern book of heraldry. Is there any family of Miller that claims descent from Major John Miller 1 Is there any record of the names of the many discontented officers who went to America after the Restoration ?

EMMA MILLER.

7, Scroope Terrace, Cambridge.

MAXWELL OF ARDWELL. -I am interested in the genealogy of this family, and should be glad of the following information.

John Maxwell, of Ardwell and Killasar, had a son William Maxwell (of Ardwell), who had a son Hamilton Maxwell (also of Ard- well). Can any of your readers give me the name of the wife of this William ] Was she a Miss Hamilton 1 ? Burke's 'Peerage' and 'The Book of Caerlaverock ' give no infor- mation on this point. Family tradition, I believe, states that this William's wife was an Irish lady.

Is anything known as to the dates of the birth, marriage, and death of the aforesaid William Maxwell ? W. M. BATTEN.

5, Rosebank, Church Street, Bradford.

RALPH RABBARDS. An edition of Ripley's 'Compound of Alchymy,' brought out in 1591, was "Set foorth by Ilaph Rabbards, gentle- man, studious and expert in Alchemicall Artes," and in the Lansdowne MSS. is 'A Joppie of Notes delivered to her Majestie oy llaphe Rabbards.' I should be glad Rabbards or as to his family name. From dedication of the book to Queen Eliza- beth it appears that Rabbards was at that irae over sixty years old, that he had been mgaged in unsuccessful litigation for ten years, and that in his younger days he had mixed in State affairs. He refers to the "secret divelish practises of your Highnesse mor-
 * o receive any information as to Ralph

tall Enemies whereof my selfe was an Eye

witnesse, and so farre privie of some of the most mischievous intended Conspiracies, as for my