Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/543

 s. in. JCN-E 10, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

447

It would be interesting to know to what extent, and in what localities, the Royal Oak Day customs are still observed.

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

Hereabouts and, maybe, elsewhere all schoolboys who do not wear a sprig of oak with the apple thereupon on Oakapple Day are liable to be vigorously jnnched by their companions. This questionable attention, however, tradition does not permit to be put in force after noonday. HARKY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

EARLY ITALIAN. (See 9 th S. iii. 7, 231.) It must be just six years since I followed MR. KREBS'S kind suggestion, and consulted Dr. Ernesto Monad's ' Crestomazia Italiana.' On the cover of the second fascicolo (issued in 1897) I read : " II fascicolo iii. ed ultimo di questa Crestomazia e in corso di stampa. 1 ' The "corso di stampa" has apparently not been a corsa ; and I venture to hope that before long the grammar and glossary may be issued. Surely there are some among the venerable professor's pupils who will relieve him of the drudgery of the glossary, and help him to complete the work of which the first part was issued sixteen years ago.

HOBT. J. WHITWELL.

Oxford.

HALLEY SURNAME. Having raised at 9 th S. xi. 366 the question of this British surname, I may refer to a reply by T. H. S., printed in Scottish Xotes and Queries, Second Series, vi. 159 (April, 1905).

EUGENE F. Me PIKE.

Chicago. U.S.

HENRY AL WORTH MEREWETHER. The statement in the 'D.X.B.,' xxxvii. 275, that this serjeant-at-law, who was Town Clerk of London 1842-59, became a "King's Counsel" in 1853, is not only curious, but also incorrect. Henry Al worth Merewether, who became Queen's Counsel in 1853, was the Serjeant's son. See ' The Law List' for 1854. H. C.

"SOUWARROW XUT." This corruption has found its way into several English dic- tionaries, but is not condemned or explained in any of them. It appears to have ! originated with Dr. Pinckard, in whose I 'Notes on the West Indies,' 1806, vol. iii. p. 287, I find the sentence, " We collected some fine plants of the tonquin bean, the Souwarrow nut, the wild orange, and a species of the medlar." From his use of the capital letter it is clear Dr. Pinckard was thinking of the great Russian general

Souwarrow, who died in 1800. What he should have written is sawarra nut, which is a Carib term, well known in Guiana. In the ' Dictionarium Galibi,' a vocabulary of the Indian dialect published in 1763, it figures in French orthography as " Saouari, arbre ou graine picquante." The quasi-Russian form is a very curious instance of popular etymology. JAS. PLATT, Jun.

SIR JONATHAN TRELAWNY, BART., 1650 1721, Bishop successively of Bristol, Exeter, and Winchester, according to the ' Diet, of Xat. Biog.,' vol. Ivii. p. 182, was "Busby trustee of Westminster school." This is pure nonsense, as the Busby Trustees have no duties connected with the school. They are always Old Westminsters, and their duties mainly consist in the distribution of gifts of money to the poor clergy in certain counties. Trelawny was elected a trustee of the Busby charity 28 January, 1719, in the place of George Smalridge, Bishop of Bristol.

G. F. R. B.

JOIINSONIANA. The following saying of Dr. Johnson on taking a pinch of snuff has not, to my knowledge, at any time appeared in print ; it may, therefore, interest readers of*N.4Q.':

" Permit me to immerge the summits of my digits in your box of pulverized odoriferous sweets, for the purpose of producing a pleasing titillation of the olfactory nerves."

I can vouch for its authenticity, for it was repeated by Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, who again repeated it to Sir James Fellowes (her literary executor) ; he repeated it to my father, and my father to me. O. B. FELLOWES.

PICKWICK, c. 1280. In a list of jurors of Haytor in 9 Ed. I. (Assize Roll, 184, Devon, rn. 1) the name appears of " Will mus Pyke- wyke." Had the eye of the immortal Mr. Pickwick fallen upon this entry, it might have diverted his researches from the source of the Hampstead ponds to that of his own ancestry ! E. L.-W.

KING'S 'CLASSICAL AND FOREIGN QUOTA- TIONS.' (See 10 th S. ii. 281, 351.)!. Among the quotations classed as adespofa by Mr. King (p. 391, Xo. 3051) is the epigram on the Bible :

Hie liber est in quo qurerit sua dogmata quisque ; Invenit et pariter dogmata quisque sua.

The provenance of these lines has formed the subject of inquiry and reply in ' X. & Q ,' Samuel Werenfels being named as the author. (See 1 st S. xi. 73 ; 2 nd S. i. 140 ; 4 th S. iii. 506 ; vii. 109.) I was unwilling to repeat this identification until I had had an opportunity of examining the quotation in situ. It is