Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/456

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL MAY n, 1907.

and as George is not a Bible name, and was not represented by a King of England till 1714, its position of eighth on the list is quite as high as one would have expected : John, 3,826; Thomas, 2,777; William, 2,546 ; Richard, 1,691 ; Robert, 1,222 ; Edward, 957 ; Henry, 908 ; George, 647 ; Francis, 447 ; James, 424 ; Nicholas, 326 ; Edmund, 298. H. A. P.

It would seem that the popularity of George as a Christian name arose from the rivalries of Hanoverian and Jacobite, James having been correspondingly common with the latter. The reason for its not having been much in use before that time probably lies in the fact of its being strictly a surname, meaning in Greek a worker or tiller of the land, thus corresponding to a surname already in use, that of Farmer.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

" PISCON-LED " (10 S. vii. 226^. The suggestion having been brought to my notice that the Pembrokeshire term " piscon- led," for wandering lost in the dark, had the same origin as the Normandy legend that the wanderer has trodden on the foxglove plant, I have consulted an old Welsh- speaking woman who lived in her youth close to a pigeon-haunted field. She never heard of any plant at' ill repute, and says that bysedd is not the local name for fox- glove, but rappers,

"because when you smack the flowers against your hand, they goes off rap. Yes, 'tis the same in Welsh, only mostly they says rappers-y-cwn, dog's rappers. You might be piscon - led anywheres ; I knowed a woman piscon-led in her own house no such a thing could she find which room was she in ; but there was some fields had a name for it. There was one near by my home. Oh, I 've a-crossed it right enough, but some would say to me, ' Not you go, you'll be piscon-led.' Piscon? that's a sort of a being ; some is so foolish they think it can lead them astray. No, I never asked them no more about it ; it is too foolish."

MARY S. CLARK. Robeston Wathen, Narberth.

MARLY HORSES (10 S. vii. 190, 211, 251 277, 352). MR. PIERPOINT says : " M. N. D gives ' Coustou the Younger.' " There ib no room for doubt : the order, the receipts, all the documents exist. Moreover, every book of the smallest authority on the subject, and every French biographical dictionary, follow universal usage by calling the second of the three sculptors who illustrated the name of Coustou, " Coustou le jeune." Nicholas Coustou (1658-1733) was the chiei sculptor of France in succession to his uncle and teacher Coyzevox. When his young

Brother Guillaume Coustou (1677-1746),, also the pupil of Coyzevox, returned from Rome, the two brothers shared their royal commissions, and the younger, Guillaume, fixed his name in history as " le jeune." The third Coustou is known as " Guillaume

oustou le fils" (1716-77): the Potsdam Venus is his best-known work. The dates of the two Williams in the Academic are

oustou le jeune, received 1704, Professor 1715, Rector 1733 ; G. Coustou le fils, received 1742, Professor 1746, Rector 1770.

M. N. D.

Without attempting to question the authority of Lady Dilke's ' French Archi- tects,' &c., I must insist that the two groups by Coysevox one representing a ' Renommee,' and the other a ' Mercure,' both on horseback had been known as Marly horses by French writers and archaeologists long before the actual pair were brought to Paris. Dulaure (' Environs de Paris,' 1786), describing Marly, writes about the Coustou groups : " Ces superbes groupes tiennent la place des deux chevaux qui sont aujour- d'hui aux jardins des Tuileries."

I do not suppose, after all, that the author of the query is satisfied yet with any of the answers, as he probably meant all the time another group, quite different : ' Les Chevaux du Carrousel ' or ' Chevaux de Corinthe.' This group had been brought from Italy to Paris, and taken back again to Venice.

L. P.

Paris.

"IDLE DICK NORTON" (10 S. vii. 168,. 330). By way of supplement to MR. EVERITT'S most interesting account of this- worthy and his family it may be worth noting that while certainly secluded in the " Purge " of December, 1648, the Colonel returned to the House some three years later. On 26 Nov., 1651, the Commons' Journals report that he " entered his dissent " (i.e., to the vote of 6 Dec., 1648, which recom- mended the reopening of treaty relations with the King), and was readmitted to sit. Though very lukewarm in his attendances at the House, he nevertheless was elected a member of the fifth and final Council of State to the Commonwealth (December, 1652, till April, 1653). To the " Barbones' Parliament " in the last-named year he was as correctly said by MR. EVERITT again elected for co. Southampton, and also replaced upon the Council of State ; and he was further returned for the same county in all three Parliaments of the Protectorate,, in each of which he was a fairly active