Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/327

 10 s. VIL APRIL 6, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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pedlars were familiar figures on the country-side, und assisted him to display his wares, besides being conveniently placed to drop his pack upon from his shoulders. .Scarcely any of these once familiar objects are now to be met with."

HERBERT B. CLAYTON. 39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kenningtori Lane.

" CLACK-HOLE " OF BELLOWS. On p. 107 'of ' The Accidents of Human Life,' by Newton Bosworth, London, 1813 (second ed., London, 1834), one reads of '" a moveable circular piece of wood over the clack- hole, which must be turned over it in inflating, and removed aside when the bellows are used as common bellows for injecting stimulating vapours." Clack-hole does not occur among the com- pounds of clack recorded in the ' H.E.D.' EDWARD S. DODGSON.

" UMBRELLA." A monumental inscrip- tion quoted by Mr. Thomas Wainwright in Devon Notes and Queries affords an interest- ing example of the earlier of the uses of the word umbrella which are presented in Gay's lines :

Let Persian dames th' umbrella's ribs display

To guard their beauties from the sunny ray;

Or sweating slaves support the shady load

When Eastern monarchs show their state abroad ;

Britain in winter only knows its aid

To guard from chilly show'rs the walking maid.

Perhaps the word umbraculum in the Vulgate

version of the history of Jonah suggested

to the author of the epitaph to write :

Blest was the prophet in his heavenly shade,

But ah ! how soon did his umbrella fade !

Like our frail Bodys, whiche, being born of clay,

Spring in a Night and wither in a day.

The inscription is on a monument bearing

the date 1684. F. JARRATT.

THE FRENCH OF STRATFORD-AT-BOW* (See 10 S. vi. 326.) It is interesting to compare with what may be called the French advertisement of the Stratford school- master Dyche an earlier one which I have found in The Daily Courant of 11 Oct., 1717 :

"At Stratford le Bow, in Middlesex, near the Church, Mr. Thomas Dyche, late Schoolmaster in London, hath very good Accommodations for Boarding of Youth, and undertakes to instruct them in English, Latin and Greek, in Writing and Arithmetick, the Use of Globes and Maps, and most Practical Parts of the Mathematicks. Also French Gentlemen are Boarded to learn English." ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

"WAX AND CURNELS." - In London 'Opinion of 12 January is a contribution by Dr. Macnamara, M.P., ' Concerning Howlers,' gathered from school children and their parents. Among the parental excuses ten- dered for absence from school is a complaint

called " wax and curnels," which Dr. Macnamara says he has not solved. "Wax" is an undue accumulation in the ears, caus- ing partial deafness, and " curnels " is a formation of hard, movable lumps, the size of peas, under the skin of the neck, below the ears. The " wax " is often very offensive ; and the " curnels " are sore (so I have always understood) and cause stiff necks. The children often had these things, I remember, when I was at my first school.

THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

" MOBARSHIP." I should be glad of any light on the meaning and etymology of this word, occurring in the following quotation of 1467-8 :

"A Graunte to hym undre the Seall of our

Erledome of Marche, of thoffice of Mobarship of our Lordship of Dynby." ' Rolls of Parliament,' vol. v. p. 580.

HENRY BRADLEY.

Clarendon Press, Oxford.

" MOHOCK." What does this word mean in the following quotation ?

" Bob Tench was never at a loss for expedients, and had always a little phial of Fryar's Balsam in his pocket, some gold-oeater's skin, and court- plaister, as well as his corkscrew and mohock." Graves, ' Spiritual Quixote,' 1772, bk. x. ch. xxiv. HENRY BRADLEY.

" PONY." The first quotation for this word that appears among the materials for the ' New English Dictionary ' is from ' N. & Q.' (6 S. vii.), in the extracts from the diary of Andrew Hay of Craignethan, under date 18 June, 1659 :

"After denner I walked to the mosse and found that the peats were not yet dry. I caused bring home the powny and stugged him."

Dr. Murray will be very glad to know of earlier instances (in which the word may be spelt poulney or polney). These are most likely to occur in Scottish or Northern docu- ments. Replies direct to " Dr. Murray, Oxford," will be much appreciated.

Q. V.

' SIR RANDALL.' Can any reader kindly inform me where the words of an old Scotch song, called, I believe, ' Sir Randall,' could be found ? It tells of the young man leaving