Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/453

 io" a. iv. NOV. 4,1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 375 Alway, the scholar, like several of his con temporaries at Winchester, had previously been a chorister at New College, Oxford ('Valor Ecclesiasticus,' ii. 264). He came from Colerne, Wilts, where one Thomas Alwey acted as bailiff to New College (ibid., ii. 258). H. C. COL. PITT, 1711 (10th S. iv. 206, 333).—I think MR. A. R. BAYLEY must be wrong in his surmise that the Col. Pitt attached to the Russian army in 1711 was son of "Diamond Pitt," and should be glad to know on what basis he grounds his supposition. Col. John Pitt, Colonel of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, was A.D.C. to the King, and M.P. for Hindon 1714-15. The only wife of his that appears in the family pedigree is the Hon. Mary Belasyse, daughter of Viscount Fauconberg, and she was not married till 1724. Also Col. John Pitt was not born before 1689, as his eldest brother, Lord Londonderry, was only born in 1688, con- sequently he could not have had a grown- up daughter in 1711. I am still, therefore, anxious for information about this remark- able story. CONSTANCE RUSSELL. Swallowtield. SCALLIONS (10th S. iv. 327).—Now, that' The English Dialect Dictionary ' is completed, it must necessarily be conceded by all scholars and lovers of the English language that it deserves to be recognized as the best authority for dialect words. I therefore proceed to quote from it:— " Scallioti-gatf, sb. Radnorshire. A lych-gate. See Scallenge." " Scallengr, sb. obs. ? Heref. west country. Also written siailenge, skallynge (Haver-gal's ' Glossary'); and in forms scallage (' Heref. Gloss.,' 1839), west country. 1. A lych-gate, a detached covered porch at the entrance of a churchyard ; 'Heref. Gloss.,' 1839, and Havergal: west country, Halliwell. 2. Comp. Skallenge-block, a horse-block (HavergaJ)." The word is obviously derived from 0. Fr. escaillon, a nut-shell, a slate : from escaille. a slate, tile ; of Germanic origin, from O. H. G. -•<•//'/ (G. schale), a scale, shell, husk, cover. The reference is to the tiled roof. WALTER W. SKEAT. This word is the late Latin scalionts, French «scalier, a winding stair, or steps. Possibly the churches mentioned by MR. PHILLIPS are •on sloping ground, so that steps on one side might be necessary. Even if the ground is flat there may have been steps up and down, like a stile over a fence, or a bridge over a railway. S. O. ADDY. Was not a lich-gate called a scallion because, in a certain sense, the shed erected over the entrance-gates to a churchyard, for the tem- porary reception of the dead, is an unin- habited house? Scallion seems to be a corruption of Ascalon, one of the chief cities of the Philistines, which to this day, according to the prophecy of Zechariah (ix. 5), has not a single inhabitant within its walls. In Bailey's ' Dictionary,' 1740, an ascalon is " a kind of small onion of Ascalon, a City of Palestine." J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. This name for a lich-gate, in the forms callens, skallens, callans, callandes, scallyons, occurs often in the 'Ludlow Churchwardens' Accounts,' Camd. Soc.. pp. 108, 114, 131, 165. Probably there was a bar haying an upward and downward motion, similar to that of a scale-beam. Gates constructed on this principle are not uncommon. W. C. B. "BESIDE" (10th S. iv. 306).—To those who may not have given mucli thought to the difference in meaning between " beside " and "besides," the following extract from 'Eng- lish Grammar Past and Present,' by J. C. Nesfield, may be of interest:— " Beside, besides.—The'former means by the side of, and hence sometimes outside of. The latter means in addition to:—He came and sat beside me (=by my side). Your answer is beside (=outside of, irrelevant to) the question. Besides (=iu addi- tion to) advising, he gavelthem some money." F. HOWARD COLLINS. Torquay. The meaning attached to this word in the passage quoted is evidently " over and aboye," and in Nuttall's ' Dictionary' this meaning is given both to "beside" and "besides." That " beside " formerly stood for " besides " is evident from the Authorized Version ; see Matt. xiv. 21, Numbers xi. 6. "Beside" in the sense referred to having dropped out of use, the journalist quoted seems to think it his duty to revive it. EDWARD M. LAYTON. NUMISMATIC (10tbS.iv. 288).—The following will be useful:—J. Y. Akerman's ' Introduc- tion to the Study of Ancient and Modern Coins'; E. W. Madden's 'Handbook of Roman Numismatics1; 'Coins of the New Testament' (a two-fold card with illustra- tions, issued gratis by Marcus Ward & Co.); 'The Coinage of England and Ireland,' with illustrations, published in The Queen, circa March, 1903; H. W. Humphreys's 'God, Silver, and Copper Coins of England'; ' Comic Coins,' Ludgate Magazine, July, 1897; C. W. King, ' Early Christian Numismatics : ' The Coin Collector,' by Carew Hazlitt; and a more expensive work, Col. Thorburn's