Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/602

 498

NOTES AND QUERIES, cio* s. v. JUNE 23, woe.

be, however, that it is from a Keltic source which enlightened both Scotland and Spain in prehistoric times ; for it does not seem likely that the western Scots should have felt obliged to borrow the name of one of their shells from a language known to them as Spanish within the last two thousand years. E. S. DODGSON.

SAMUEL WILLIAMS, DRAUGHTSMAN (10 th S. v. 109, 312, 417). Redgrave gives 23 Feb., 1788, as his date of birth, and states that he died in his sixty-fifth year, differing from MR. PICKFORD'S extract from Ottley's ' Dic- tionary of Recent and Living Painters.'

HAROLD MALET, Col.

"I EXPECT TO PASS THROUGH" (10 th S. i.

247, 316, 355, 433 ; v. 393). A correspondent of * N. & Q.' sends me an extract from * Dan- monii Orientales Illustres : or, the Worthies of Devon,' by John Prince, London, 1810 (p. 262), from which it would appear that there is no foundation for the statement that the phrase quoted is inscribed on the tomb of Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, at Padua. 1 may now add what particulars I have gleaned on the subject.

An inquiry in T.P.'s Weekly (15 April, 1904, p. 518) elicited the reply (13 May, p. 650) that the phrase "is by Carlyle," but no reference was given. In The Girl's Own Paper (1 Aug., 1896, p. 704) it is stated that " the lines quoted by Prof. Henry Drummond [I do not know where he quotes them, but I do not think he names his authority if he does quote them] are from Marcus Aurelius 4 1 shall pass through this world but once.' ' As regards Marcus Aurelius, I find the same idea (i.e., that a man lives but once) in Long's translation (Bell & Sons, 1889), pp. 82 and 180; but this can scarcely be the origin of the phrase sought for. Possibly it is a translation, with additions, of part of a line in Goethe's play of 'Clavigo,' Act I. sc. i (Leipzig, 1774, p. 8) :

Man lebt nur einraal in der Welt. I have before me a printed card, one sid< of which bears the following words :

" Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." Resolve. I expect to pass through this world bu once; any good thing therefore that I can do, o any kindness that I can show, to a human being or any word that I can speak for Jesus let me d< it now. Let me not neglect or defer it ; for 1 shal not pass this way again.

On the reverse side of the card is printed : This Resolve was written by a New York lady much impressed with the thought of the un certainty of life. Not many days after, she was a a meeting in Madison Square Gardens, where sh had distributee! some printed leaflets with tfo

lesolve, when the Hall roof fell in, and she was ne of those killed by its fall.

Bemrose & Sons, 23, Old Bailey, London ; and Derby.

Price 3s. per 100 ; 5d. per doz. Post free.

I do not know whether the card in question s still being published or not, nor have I ny idea who the lady was, nor when the ccident occurred. Perhaps some readers of N. & Q.' may be able to furnish the nformation. But I am inclined to think hat the lady, perhaps, did not claim to do

anything more than quote when she wrote. 3ut from whom 1 ? The phrase may be buried omewhere in Carlyle's works for aught I

know. EDWARD LATHAM.

P.S. Since I wrote the above Mr. Ben- iam has informed me that in Pettigrew's Chronicles of the Tombs' (1857) there is 'an epitaph frequently quoted " on the tomb )f Edward Courtenay, third earl, at Tiver-
 * on (d. 1419); but the words bear no

resemblance to the phrase sought for, so I

need not quote them here.

ROPES USED AT EXECUTIONS (10 th S. v. 266, 315, 375, 418, 457). This superstition is apparently widely believed. The following is taken from an article, 'Personal Recollections of James Billington, Hangman ' (by one who knew him), which appeared in The Bolton Evening Neivs, 20 Dec., 1901 :

' A certain woman living in a great Italian city wrote him a letter. It came through the Home Office. The letter, rather curious to relate, was signed with the historic (Christian) name Cleopatra.

The letter went on to say that the writer was

a poor woman and mother of four dear little chil- dren. To her great grief, her husband was going blind, and what the family would do when the bread-winner was deprived of sight she could not

say She had been told by one whose word she

could trust, that if she would obtain a piece of the rope that had been used in executing a fellow- creature, and induce her husband to wear it round his neck, his eyesight would be preserved to him and all would be well. Would he therefore send her a piece of rope ? " Billington did not send any rope. CLIO.

Bolton.

BARNES PIKLE (10 th S. v. 409). See under 'Pightle,' 'English Dialect Dictionary,' vol. iv. p. 498 :

" Boxted Vicarage : it is said that the vicarage house standeth in a small pikle containing about an acre (Newcourt, ' Repertorium Eccles.' 1710, ii. 79)."

ANDREW OLIVER.

OPEN-AIR PULPITS (10 th S. iv. 430 ; v. 55, 96, 154). At the annual pilgrimage in August to Kiedrich (near Ellville-am-Rhein) a balcony between the two buttresses pn the