Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/238

 194

NOTES AND QUERIES.

v. MARCH 10, im

elsewhere. But I remember being corrected at school some forty- five years ago ior pronouncing ivroth so. The latter must be obsolete, or obsolescent, but not the .former. What is the orthodox theological pronunciation of the "Slough of Despond" I know not ; but the word is more frequently used in surgery than in any other subject, -and when used in this connexion is invariably pronounced to rime with rough. I have been told that y is always long and accented (as in jmpyrus) when it represents the Greek upsilon. But is it so ? It is certainly not so in the first line of Virgil's * Bucolics.'

J. FOSTER PALMER. 8, Royal Avenue, S.W.

PARTY COLOURS (10 th S. v. 65). The time lias come when definite colours should be ^adopted by each political party.

In Shropshire, during the last election, four out of the five divisions used blue for Conservatives and Unionists, and red for Radicals. The Wellington division reversed Ihis Gentlemen from the other divisions visiting Wellington to hear Mr. Chamberlain speak had to change their favours, and in some cases their neckties, on the journey.

I am an ardent Tory, and arrived in Liver- pool, about the same date, to find that the blue tie worn by me was the mark of the TRadical at that time. Why not fix blue ("True Blue") as the mark of the Conserva- tive and Unionist, red for Liberals and Radicals (unless the former prefer the old colour of buff, yellow, or orange), and green for Nationalists? HERBERT SOUTH AM.

In Bassetlaw Tories were blue, Liberals .yellow. In the neighbouring constituency of Gainsborough it is the reverse. It is Tory 'blue and Liberal yellow in Derbyshire ; and I well remember how, many years ago, these colours were "flown" at Derbyshire elec- tions on a very large scale, many men flaunt- ing long streamers from their head wear, both Wue and yellow, besides rosettes on their breasts. <k Yaller for iver ! " was the cry of -one party ; " True blue for iver ! " the cry on the other side, with, fora change, '* Up with -the Whigs, and down with the Tories," and " Blue 's up, Yellow 'a down."

THOS. HATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

COLOUR TRANSITION (10 th S. v. 86). Do not the words glds and glass refer to Latin glades, ice, which is green or blue according to the light ? In Baskish there is no native word for green as a colour, the Castilian verde, pronounced berde, pherde, perde, being used

instead; while urdin, blue, evidently from ur, hur, water, is also used in the sense of grey, as in speaking of hair or horses. Heze, damp, moist, sappy, gets the sense of green in speak- ing of plants only because in them greenness depends on their yearly youth. Is it con- I nected with ivet ? ' E. S. DODGSON.

"THESE ARE THE BRITONS, A BARBAROUS RACE " (10 th S. iv. 510 ; v. 31, 77). A few years ago I got, through a bookseller in

Derby, a copy of ''Our Native England

with 47 woodcuts." This, the twentieth edition, was published ** London, Walter Smith & Innes, 31 & 32, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C. 1889," price sixpence. The preface is signed " G. J. C. Market -Place Academy, Bost9n, 1838." Then follows a "Recommendation " :

" ' An ingenious little work, written by Mr. Cuckow, of Boston, which we feel much pleasure in recommending to the notice of all managers of national, infant, and other elementary schools, and indeed to every person engaged in the instruction of children. In this little book a vast variety of information is conveyed in a pleasing form, so that children cannot fail to derive great advantage, as well as amusement, from the perusal of it.' Boston Herald, Dec. llth, 1838."

It begins with "This is our native Eng- land," giving a map with the names of the county towns, and ends with a ' Summary of the Sovereigns ' :

Seventeen Saxons, and three of the Danes, Three Normans, one Blois the crown obtains. Plantagenet eight, of Lancaster three, Three Yorkists, and then the five Tudors we see, Five Stuarts, one Orange. To finish, we join The six of the Brunswick or Hanover line. Fifty-five as our total of sovereigns appears In about a thousand and seventy years.

Then comes a list of * Remarkable Events,' the second line, on the Romans, differing somewhat from that given by ST. SWITHIN:

These are the Romans, a people bold, Most famous of all the nations of old.

M. ELLEN POOLE. Alsager, Cheshire.

DEKKER'S ' SWEET CONTENT ' (10 th S. v. 106). In my copy of Palgrave's 'Golden Treasury,' 1870, the words "perplexed" and "vexed," to which MR. BAYNE refers, are not only printed thus in full, but have the final ed accentuated, to show that any contraction mars the rhythm.

FRANCIS C. BUCHANAN.

TWIZZLE-TWIGS (10 th S. iv. 507; v. 53, 91) The Flemish for " road-indicator" is Weg- wijzer, and *' to change one's road " is } t Weg (=het Weg) ivisseln. Is this connected with the supposed meaning of twizzle- twigs ?