Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/563

 10"- s. iv. DK<-. o, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 465 That both Vallans and Lamb used the ex- pression " pleasant Hertfordshire " does not prove that the one copied from the other. The word " Hertfordshire" was necessary to Lamb's meaning, and lie need not have gone to an almost forgotten poet for the word "pleasant." EDWARD M. LAYTON. " NECK AND HEELS. " (See 9th S. v. 369.)—An early mention of this punishment is to be found in ' L'Histoire de la Guerre d'Ecosse pendant les Campagnes 1548 et 1549,' by Jean de Beaugue, Paris, 1556, Book III. chap. iii.: " Puis luy lierent les pieds, les mains, & la teste ensemble." The whole passage is thus given at p. 93 of the translation of ' L'His- toire' published by Dr. Patrick Abercromby in 1707 :— "I remember they purchased one of the prisoners from myself for a horse: they tied him Neck and Heels, laid him down in a plain Held, rim upon him with their lances, armed as they were, and on horse- back ; killed him, cut his body to pieces, and carried the divided parcels on the sharp ends of their spears The truth is, the English had tyrannised over that part of Scotland in the most barbarous manner, and I do not find that it was an injustice to repay them, aa the saying it, in their own coin." James Miller, in his 'Lamp of Lothian,' quotes from the above passage (p. 51 in the new edition, Haddington, 1900). The Maitland Club reprinted ' L'Histoire' in 1830. W. S. " POLITENESS "=LITERARY ELEGANCE.—The dictionaries do not seem to recognize the significance given to " politeness " in the fol- lowing sentence of Young's preface to his ' Satires' :— "A writer in polite letters should be content with reputation ; the private amusement he finds in his compositions : the good influence they have on his severer studies ; that admission they give to his superiors; and the possible good effect they may have on the public; or else he should join to his politeness some more lucrative qualification." The ideal thus presented is appropriately attractive and romantic ; its defect is that harassing difficulty of attainment which is so prone to beset the aspirant after Utopian conditions. THOMAS BAYNE. MULES : THEIR CRYING.—An Englishman having asked me what word is used in English to express the song of mules, whether braying or neighing, I found my brain in a state of utter dumbness on the question. Perhaps Lewis Carroll might have rolled the two into one to express something that would partake of both of these kinds of ejaculation. If no technical term is known to the learned, perhaps muliny might fill up the void. As Shakespere used muling or aifit'/in!t of the voice of human babies, it is worth noting that in Qipuskoan Baskish the word arrantea (which seems to come from arran=cattle-bell, clarine) means not only the voice of mules and donkeys, but the crying of young children. E. S. DODGSON. LINCOLNSHIRE DEATH FOLK-LORE.—A stray pigeon settling on a house, or coming into it, is a sign of death. In a farmhouse in the- wapentake of Yarborough an old servant had full belief that some one connected with the family would die when such a bird once appeared. To confirm her in her faith there soon came news of the death of a near kins- man. The pigeon stayed on, and soon another relative died. After that the bird entered one of the upper rooms of the house, and was found dead in a wardrobe; but, contrary to- the servant's expectation, no one under the roof departed this life. At the house of a friend not far off a pigeon appeared before- the death of a child. JANET LUCY PEACOCK. COWPER AND VOLTAIRE. — Cowper's dis- paraging allusion to " the brilliant French- man" in contrast to the simple but pious " cottager " is well known (see the poem on 'Truth ). But was not Cowper himself slightly indebted to Voltaire for the idea of one of his shorter and lighter poems—'Report of an Adjudged Case'? In Voltaire's 'Candide,' chap, i., Master Pangloss says :— "As all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end. Observe, for instance, t/te none in formed for spectacles; therefore we wear spectacles." Compare with this the sixth verse of the above jeu d'esjn-it:— On the whole it appears, and my argument shows. With a reasoning the court will never condemn, That the spectacles plainly were made for the nose, And the none wax an plainly intended for thtm. Date of 'Candide,' 1759. Cowper's first volume was published in 1782, four years after the death of Voltaire. C. LAWRENCE FORD. Bath. WOODEN WATER-PIPES IN LONDON.—The Daily Chronicle of Tuesday, 10 October, stated that on the previous day a line of wooden water-pipes had been discovered run- ning east and west in Theobalds Road, and suggested that this was part of the original Lamb's Conduit, dating from the reign of Henry VIII.