Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/424

 348

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vn MAT 4, 1907.

the practice of wearing a badge at thei gatherings. I have found that the following did so : Vintners, Distillers, Carpenters Tallow - Chandlers, Innholders, Needle Makers, Joiners, Coopers, Patten-Makers Cooks, Cutlers, Turners, and Bakers.

ENQUIRER.

SULPHUR MATCHES : MATCH - MAKER' SONG. I can just remember seeing sulphu matches used with an old black wooden " tunder-box," as it was called by our servants ; and as a child I learned from then a little song of a match-maker's wife or child, in which were the words

'E splits 'em, 'e dips 'em, an' I do the same. I do not think I was old enough to attach any definite meaning to the words. Can any one furnish the rest of the song, or what ever it is ? I think I have some faint recollection of the matches being boughl at the kitchen door. J. T. F.

Winter-ton, Doncaster.

[See post, p. 351.]

" MATROSS " : " TO-PASS." The above were words for gunners, or ratings of gunners, in the old Indian Artillery. The former word should be from Ger. Matrose, and is given in Bailey's ' Diet.' as being " next below the gunners " ; but I wish to know the status of the " topass " and the etymology of the word. H. P. L.

'INTELLIGENCE,' J. MACOCK, 1666. Nichols, ' Lit. Anecdotes,' vol. iv., gives the above newspaper as having appeared in 1666. Can any one tell me whether there are any copies of it in existence ? There are none in the British Museum. Appa- rently the paper was still being issued in 1673, and if so, it is the longest-lived private undertaking of its century. J. B. W.

IMPERIAL PHRASES. Can any of your readers tell me the origin of the two phrases (1) " the white man's burden " and (2) " the sordid bonds of empire " ?

L. HAMILTON. Oriental College, University, Berlin.

Jl* S tle ?r f a .P em b y Mr - Kipling. See his book u F, Natlon s,' P. 79. The first line is : "Take up the White Man's Burden."]

SEINE, RIVER AND SAINT. The following passage occurs in Miss L. S. CosteUo's Pilgrimage to Auvergne,' vol. i. p. 280 : "The source of the River Seine is at a little istance irom the town [Dijon], and seems to have supplied the Romish calendar with the saint who presides over the spot."

Who was St. Seine ? person never existed ?

Can it be that such a ASTARTE.

CHALMERS OF CULTS. Can any one give me references to deeds, documents, registers, or other evidences, relating to this family from 1570 to the present day, or to the James Chalmers son of the Laird (Gilbert) of Cults upon whom the baronetcy was conferred in 1664 ?

References to Stodart, Cokayne, Playfair,. and printed pedigrees are known.

ANTHONY TUCKER, Capt.

Belle Vue, Heatherley Road, Camberley.

' AN EVENING STAR.' Some time between 1884 and 1887 there appeared in the Putney Parish Magazine some verses entitled ' An Evening Star.' The were by F. F. White- hurst, but I am uncertain whether there was any signature in the magazine. I should be greatly obliged to any one possessing these old numbers of the magazine for a copy of the verses, or for information as to where I may find the same. CHR. WATSON.

264, Worple Road, Wimbledon.

DR. JOHNSON : DR. JOHN SWAN : DR. WATTS. A few days ago I became possessed of the " Letter-Book " of Dr. John Swan, translator of Sydenham's works, circa 1750 r a physician and surgeon in Newcastle, Staffs,, for half a century. He died here in 1768,. and was buried in St. Giles's Churchyard on 9 April in that year. The book, which has- about 400 pages, is full of letters to or from Dr. Stonhouse, of Northampton, the Rev. Jas. Hervey, the Rev. W. Wellitts (who nu Josiah Wedgwood's sister), Justice Bathurst, Miss Honora Sneyd, and about thirty other persons.

Amongst the letters I find the following note to Dr. Samuel Johnson, recommending a Dr. Watts ; and as I do not suppose it has ver been printed, and it may interest your readers, I have copied it exactly as written :

To M r Johnson Author of the Rambler, recommen-

ing D r Watts to Him 3 d March 1762. SIR, Give me leave upon y e tooting of an old rd & acquaintance to recom'end y e gentmn who- delivers y s lett r to U, as a person of merit & learn**, who wd very gladly be employ'd by any man of etters, or Bookseler, in translating from y e Greek,. Latin, French, Italian or Spanish languages, in all wch he is well skilled.

As I havnt a frd in town y* can giv him so good nformatio' as yrslf in these matrs, & is betr abl to- lit him in a way of procuring som employm* for nis pen ; & as y e pres 1 manifold hardships lie labours^ undr, reduce him to y c necessity of living by his wits, I make no question, but y l after having heard y e Story of his misfortunes from his own mouth, it wil strongly excite yr com'iseration, & incline U rom motives of humanity benevolence to asist dm to y e utermost of yr power in y e only way he an think of to suport hmslf. The best good once therfor y 4 1 thought I cd do-