Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/379

 10 s. vm. OCT. 19, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

313

river, and that these balconies were termed pot-galleries ; but the second and third in- stances even seem to indicate that the gal- leries were not necessarily on houses, the locality of these two being fixed by reference to stairs and to a wheeler's yard : no men- tion of any house at all. But why, with all the width of the Thames, and the banks presumably dry or nearly dry at low water, should galleries of only 5, 6, 7, and 8 ft. projection have been regarded as encroach- ing on ( ? the navigation of) the river ?

DOUGLAS OWEN.

On both sides of the Tyne, here and at North Shields, were balconies or galleries over the river. At the east end of this town there is a Balcony Quay (accent on second syllable, " Balcony "). R. B R.

South Shields.

" EVERY MAN HAS HIS PRICE " (10 S. vii. 367, 470, 492). Yet another version of the origin of this phrase is to be found in The Pall Mall Gazette of 23 September, which, noting the fact that the descendants of Sir John St. Aubyn, third baronet, have just erected a monument to his memory in Crowan Church, near Truro, says :

"The third Sir John, of the original creation, to whom these posthumous honours have been paid, represented Cornwall for some two-and- twenty years, and was the subject of Walpoje's often misquoted remark about 'all men having their price.' What Sir Robert did say was that ' he knew the price of every member of the House, except that of the little Cornish baronet.' And, of course, he meant this in a complimentary sense.

As has been said at another reference on this subject, " This is most circumstantial and precise," but where is the evidence ?

POLITICIAN.

[MR. R. J. FYNMORE refers to The Daily Graphic of 20 September for Walpole's remark on " the little Cornish baronet."]

MRS. MARSH, AUTHORESS OF ' THE VAL- LEY OF A HUNDRED FIRES ' (10*S. viii. 149, 253).' The Valley of a Hundred Fires ' was written by Mrs. Stretton (as stated in the 'D.N.B.'), and not by Mrs. Marsh. I was lent a copy of the book in 1880 by the late Miss Cecilia Collinson, a sister of the authoress. Mrs. Stretton also wrote ' The Queen of the County.'

KATHLEEN WARD.

Castle Ward, Downpa trick.

4 RULE, BRITANNIA ' : VARIANT READING (10 S. viii. 188, 258). I possess copies of Arne's original publication of the ode, and find that he correctly set the word " rule "

as written by Thomson. I .have also the libretto of ' Alfred,' published in 1745, which gives the line ' Britannia, rule the waves." I may add that I have many editions of the music and words published in England and Hanover, and find they all agree in the correct reading.

WILLIAM H. CUMMINGS.

"Sops AND WINE" (10 S. viii. 249). The notion that English words are " cor- ruptions " of something else ought to be abandoned at the present day, when the study of our language no longer depends upon guesses. Considering that Spenser mentions " sops in wine," and that Chaucer has the expression " a sop in wyn," in a not unknown work called ' The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales,' the idea of invoking the phrase soupqon de vin, literally " a suspicion of wine," is suggestive of an accusation of drunkenness on the part of our two great poets, which none of us ought to admit. If Chaucer obtained his phrase from French, we should have to suppose that soup^on de vin is a phrase older than 1400 which ought not to be admitted without proof. WALTER W. SKEAT.

SHREWSBURYE CLOCK :" POINT OF WAR " (10 S. viii. 8, 96, 195). Although originally applied as a general term for the various trumpet calls and drum beatings in the field, still I think that at least for the last 150 years " point of war " has been used in a restricted sense for one particular call, as is certainly the case at the present time.

In Capt. Simes's ' The Military Medley,' published at Dublin in 1767, it is stated to be the signal for " Charge bayonets " (see p. 237). No setting is given, but apparently it might be beaten by the drum alone. It is, however, to be found in the manual of instruction for ' Drum and Flute Duty for the Infantry ' now in use in our army, where it is given as No. 17 of the ' Drum and Flute Calls,' set for fife and drum, and entitled ' The Salute (or Point of War).' It is added in a foot-note that " it is also used when the Escort delivers to or receives the Colours from an Officer."

I think the term " point " originally meant a point to be remembered one of the things necessary to be known to every

soldier. In Garrard's " Arte of Warre

Corrected and finished by Captaine Hich- cocke " (anno 1591) on p. 204 it is said :

" All Collonels must ordaine, that all the drams have one kind and maner of battery, and that they do use all one forme of sounding to the field, of sounding the alarme, and to use one proper sound,