Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/571

 io B. in. jrsE IT, MOB.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

471

lent" because he did his duty. The celebrated speech of Outran in the action of Hevey v. Sirr, referred to by FRAXCESCA, is given in Howell's 'State Trials,' but with the whole evidence and proceedings of the trial ; and the matter was fully dealt with in the corre- spondence in The Weekly Irish Times which followed ' Kecollections of Major Sirr ' in the same paper (9 March to22 June, 1901). Curran's speech against Major Sirr, if read by itself and without reflection, would seem to be most damning : partisans so present it. Briefly, this side issue of Major Sirr's cha- racter, raised by the use of the epithet " truculent," may be answered by the article in the 'D.N.B.,' which considers the popular mendacity, and then states, " But he [Major Sirr] was, as Sir Robert Peel testified in the House of Commons, unswervingly loyal, religious, and humane." And in the volume of 'D.X.B.' Errata a significant correction is made under 'Curran' of the brief reference to the speech at the trial in question, while under ' Sirr ' a reference is given to Hansard for Sir Robert Peel's testimony, called forth by Brougham's unfair use of Curran's speech. The name " O'Hart," in the last line but one of col. 1, p. 413, is a mistake for O'Hara.

H. SIRR.

In ray copy of Maxwell's ' History of the Irish Rebellion in 1798,' which contains some of Cruikshank's best work, is an engraving of 'The Arrest of Lord Edward FitzGerald,' depicting him struggling with Capts. Swan and Ryan, who are lying on the floor and holding him by the legs, whilst Major Sirr is entering at the door and firing a pistol. Mine is an original copy, bound from numbers in 1845, and the impressions of the plates are beautifully distinct. I must, how- ever, say that the best portion of the letter- press and descriptions is contained in the notes and extracts. The author draws largely from the stores of Sir Richard Musgrave and Sir Jonah Barrington.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

New bourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

PHILIPPINA : PHILOPCF.KA (10 th S. iii. 406). I can remember the "Philippine" (I never heard it called anything else) back to, at least, 1854. I used to play it with my aunts. My impression is that it was then regarded as an established usage ; but I cannot speak certainly as to this. My father was at that time Secretary of the British Commission for the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1855, and it is possible that in a visit to France he may have picked up the idea and brought it home. Our way of playing was.

that any one finding two kernels in a nut could invite another person to " have a Philippine." If the other agreed, each ate a kernel. Nothing more took place till a night had gone by ; but, after that, the first to greet the other with " Bon jour, Philippe " (or, if a woman were addressed, "Bon jour, Philippine"), won, and the loser had to give the winner a present.

So far as I ever considered its derivation. I have from childhood mentally associated the game with Louis Philippe, but H. de Balzac gives it an Arabian or Chinese origin. In the Post-scriptum to his 'Physiologic du Mariage ' he says :

"Au commencement de 1'Empire, les dames mirent a la mode un jeu qui consistaib a ne rien accepter de la personne avec laquelle on convenait de jouer sans dire le mot Diculette. Une partie durait, comme bien vous pensez, des semaines entieres, et le comble de la tinesse etait de se sur- prendre 1'un ou 1'autre a recevoir une bagatelle sans prononcer le mot sacramentel. Meme un baiser? Oh ! j'ai vingt fois gagne' le Diadestc ainsi ! dit elle en riant. Ce fut, je crois, en ce moment et a 1'occa- sion de ce jeu, dont 1'origine est arabe ou chinoise, que mon apologue obtint les honneurs de 1'impres- sion," &c.

In later years I have seen the Philippine played in this way, neither of the kernel- eaters accepting anything from the other without saying a particular word. This word I have heard, but forget it was not Philip- pine and it was not Diadeste. I am not sure that the recipient was not required to say " je prends," but here I own to uncertainty. FRAXK REDE FOWKE.

24, Nethertou Grove, Chelsea.

I distinctly remember this old game or custom in the later fifties in the lonely Norfolk moor where I was born. It must surely have been there long past its early youth to have reached so remote a region. Indeed, I should say it was getting, as Hamlet would say, "somewhat musty." It was always "Bon jour, Philippe," or "Bon jour, Philippine," according to the sex of the person addressed, and was, of course, always played between two persons of opposite sexes. J. FOSTER PALMER.

8, Royal Avenue, S.W.

Has DR. MURRAY overlooked the fact that this subject has already been noticed in ' N. & Q.' 1 It originated in G th S. iii. 68, and was followed by contributions from ten dif- ferent correspondents at iii. 272 and iv. 174.

The following paragraph appeared in The Sunderland Herald of 12 November, 1887 :

'About a year ago, the Grand Duke Michael of Russia, visiting Paris, chanced to dine in the com- pany of Rosa Bonheur, the great animal painter.