Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/569

 10 s. vii. JUNE is, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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any thing at that rate which can so easily be broken." 'Letters of Dr. Johnson,' vol. ii. p. 35, Hill's edition.

I shall be glad if any of your readers can inform me in what edition of Johnson's works his dissertation can be found.

C. A. LLOYD.

17, Garrett Street Wellington, N.Z.

" As POOR AS RATS." This phrase is said to occur in Swift's ' Journal to Stella where ? Q. V.

" BETTY," A HEDGE-SPARROW. The other day a boy came to our house and told us that there was a bird's nest in the hedge near our garden gate containing five eggs. On being asked what nest it was, he replied, " A betty's." As inquiry failed to elicit any further information concerning the bird, I went to look at the nest, and found it to be that of a hedge sparrow. I had not heard this bird referred to by this name before,- and I shall be glad to know if the appellation is familiar to readers of ' N. & Q.' resident in other parts of the country.

JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

PRINCESS ROYAL : EARLIEST USE OF THE TITLE. Will any of your readers favour me with information respecting this title ? I find in Burke' s ' Peerage,' under the head- ing ' The Royal Lineage,' that " Anne, daughter of George II., who married William, Prince of Orange, in 1734," was styled Princess Royal. Is this the first instance of the eldest daughter of the reigning sovereign being thus distinguished ? The daughters of George III., Queen Victoria, and King Edward VII. have been similarly dignified. So far as I know, the title is of Hanoverian origin ; but it has been mentioned to me that Mary, daughter of Charles I., was styled Princess Royal both before and after her marriage in 1648 to William II., Prince of Orange ; and their son William of Orange (William III. of England) became the husband of Mary, daughter of James II. If so, the title of Princess Royal points to a Stuart origin. JAMES WATSON.

Folkestone.

AMERICAN MAGAZINE CONDUCTED BY FACTORY WORKERS. The Lowell Offering, published in 1840, and continued monthly, was under the editorship of Abel B. Thomas, who stated that all the articles in the maga- zine were the productions of females em- ployed in the mills, and that none had been materially amended editorially. Has this statement ever been disproved ? All the

papers contributed to the volume I possess, which is an English reprint, with a com- mendatory introduction by Miss H. Mar- tineau, betoken more ability than I should expect to find in the average factory hand to-day. Civis.

MAISONS DE CORNEILLE. Pourrait-on me renvoyer a un ouvrage qui donne des details exacts (surtout les adresses) sur la maison ou est ne le Grand Corneille et les maisons qu'il a habitees depuis ?

EDWARD LATHAM.

IRISH GIRL AND BARBARY PIRATES. Can any one tell me where I shall find a poem describing the capture of an Irish girl by Barbary pirates ? I remember the following fragments : " The O'Driscoll's Child," " She hath stabbed the Dey in full Serai," " When they led her forth to a death of fire, she only smiled, the heroic maid." BARBARY.

" SHAM ABRAHAM." What is the exact meaning of the slang phrase " to sham Abraham " ? It seems to be out of use now, but was common fifty years ago. The earliest example I have met with occurs in The Sporting Magazine (1801), vol. xvii. p. 7.

K. P. D. E.

[The only authority for this phrase quoted in the ' N.E.D.' is Hotten's ' Dictionary of Slang,' 1860. But it is much older even than K. P. D. E. s refer- ence, for Goldsmith used it in 1759 in ' The Citizen of the World,' cxix. " He swore that I understood my business perfectly well, but that I shammed Abraham merely to be idle." The original meaning was to feign sickness or distress, an Abraham-man or Abram-man being a beggar. See the quotations under 1561 and 1633 in the 'N.E.D.' Abraham Newland was chief cashier of the Bank of England from 1778 to 1807, and his name appearing on oaiik notes, a secondary meaning was developed for the phrase, illustrated in a popular song of that period : I have heard people say that sham Abraham you

may, But you mustn't sham Abraham Newland.}

KEBLE'S ' CHRISTIAN YEAR.' On the Seventh Sunday after Trinity occurs : And far below, Gennesaret's main Spreads many a mile of liquid plain,

(Though all seem gathered in one eager bound). What is the meaning of ' ' eager " ? " Bound has been explained as " leap."

JAMES MEW.

J. THOMPSON, PORTRAIT PAINTER. In my possession is the half-length portrait in oil of a youth, inscribed in the right-hand bottom corner " J. Thompson Pinxit 1849 " evidently the work of an artist of some