Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/142

 114

NOTES AND QUERIES. [lo*- s. v. FEB. 10, im

HEBB, or the third quatrain of the '* Chinese Exhibition" portion. But I may observe that the song dates back several years before the Great Exhibition of 1851. I remember it myself in the forties > and one correspondent tells me he has not heard it for sixty-two years. Internal evidence gives the same testimony. It may have been revived in 1851, but in that year the King of the French, his would be assassin Fieschi, and Com- missioner Lin were "ancient history," and the "Great Agitator" had finally ceased to agitate four years previously. The topical allusions to the Ojibbeway Indians, the Chinese Exhibition, the Centrifugal Rail- way, and Tom Thumb would seem to fix the date of the song at the years 1842-4.

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

TOWER OF LONDON (10 th S. v. 47). If your Chicago correspondent desires to see some of Oruikshank's best etchings, let him refer to worth, published in 1843. The frontispiece represents the execution of Ladj^ Jane Grey, on a scaffold in front of the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula. On the scaffold are Manger, the headsman, about to do his office; Cicely, the handmaid; Sir Thomas Erydges ; and John Feckenham, the priest, the last Abbot of Westminster.
 * The Tower of London,' by Harrison Ains-

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

"WAS YOU?" AND "YOU WAS " (I0 tb S. i.

.509; ii. 72, 157; v. 32, 76). Even as late as 1840 old-fashioned people very frequently used ivas for were, and as a boy I remember being much surprised at hearing a titled lady, who came to distribute prizes at a school in the village where I lived, ask one of the children: "Was you at church last Sunday ? "

Dickens ridicules the habit in ' Nicholas Nickleby,' chap, xlii., where he makes Miss Squeers say, "Was you, ma'am was you? Was you given to understand," &c.

FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

[Bub it must be remembered that Miss S. was the daughter of a lady who prided herself on being
 * ' no grammarian."]

"BRELAN " (10 th S. v. 29) is the name of a very old game of cards, dating back to early in the sixteenth century. It is not included in Rabelais's list (1532), but it is thought by some that the first game mentioned by him {le flux) was akin to it. In the game itself the term is applied to a combination of three cards of the same sort, such as three kings. There are several variations of the game of brelan, the simplest appearing to be when

two to five persons play with a piquet pack, the cards having the same order as in piquet and whist, save that a brelan of knaves is the highest. Three cards are dealt to each player, and if no one has a brelan, each in turn discards one card from his hand, and draws in one from the pack, until a brelan is acquired. The holder thereof is the winner of the partie, and if he has a "brelan de valets " he receives double stakes.

J. S. McTEAR.

THE CONDADO (10 th S. v. 47, 77). I am afraid MR. DODGSON has missed the point of my query, which was not where a Condado might be found, but where this particular Condado was the Condado distinguished as the place of export of figs. Was Barcelona ever known as such ? I think not.

J. K. LAUGHTON.

"Diss.": AN ABBREVIATION (10 th S. v. 69). May I point out that on p. 94 of my 'Author and Printer' "diss." is given as the abbreviation for dissertation 1

F. HOWARD COLLINS.

Torquay.

The abbreviation " diss." is not unusual for dissertation or inaugural dissertation. It is frequently found after the quoted title of works published in continental university towns, as every student must print a disser- tation in order to obtain a degree. At the University of Paris a dissertation is neces- sary for the Doctor's degree in all sciences.

LUDWIG ROSENTHAL. Hildegardstrasse, 16, Munich.

4 PANCHARIS ' : ' MINERVA,' 1735 (10 th S. v. 69)._One of the publications asked about is probably ' Minerva, the High - Dutch

Grammar, teaching the Englishman the

High - German Language,' London, 1685. There is a copy of it in the British Museum. The author is unknown. JAS. PLATT, Jun.

" PIN-FIRE" (10 th S. v. 70). The two different kinds of breech-loaders and cart- ridges were always described as "pin-fire" or " central-fire " in Devonshire at least twenty- five years ago. W. CURZON YEO.

Richmond, Surrey.

TRAFALGAR (10 th S. iv. 385, 431, 471, 534; v. 57) I should be obliged if MR. FRANCIS KING would kindly give his authority for the statement that the original (Moorish) form of this word is Tarf el-Gharb (West point). If by the accented d MR. KING means that the vowel should be pronounced like the a in far, I may observe that there is no such word as Gharb in Arabic. The Arabic for * west " is