Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/423

 io s. VIIL NOV. 2, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

349

Michaelmas. They were a happy family, and as it drew near to Michaelmas again he had occasion to remark to the farmer that he hoped the two men would remain on. The farmer replied, ' Well, they have not cut their sticks yet.' Then it transpired that the custom was (I believe, is) for a man to cut a new stick from the hedge and place it in the chimney corner if he means to leave at Michaelmas. That is their method of giving, as it were, legal notice of the termination of the agreement. If the stick is not cut and placed in position, the man remains on for another year without a word spoken. " Our host als_o told us that this custom exists in a closely identical form in parts of India. This statement he wonld like corroborated, and the name of the custom supplied if possible."

DOUGLAS OWEN.

[Various explanations of "cut his stick" were offered at 9 S. ii. 326, 417 ; iii. 272, 434 ; but the custom mentioned above was not among them. ]

ANTHONY TROLLOPE : KEY TO ' PHINEAS FINN.' I shall be indebted to any one who will furnish a key to the political characters who figure in ' Phineas Finn, the Irish Member,' first published in 1869. The following compose the Liberal Ministry :

Mr. Mildmay, Premier.

Lord Weazeley, Lord Chancellor.

Duke of St. Bungay, Lord President of the Council.

Plantagenet Palliser (afterwards Duke of Om- nium), Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Mr. Gresham, Foreign Secretary.

Sir Harry Coldfoot, Home Secretary.

Lord Cantrip, Colonial Secretary.

Mr. Legge Wilson, " the brother of a peer, a great scholar, and a polished gentleman," Secretary for War.

Lord Plinlimmon, Secretary for India.

Viscount Thrift, First Lord of the Admiralty.

Sir Marmaduke Morecombe, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Mr. Monk (the great Radical, spoken of in chap. ix. as member for " The Pottery Hamlets," and in chap. xx. as for West Bromwich), President of the Board of Trade.

Earl of Brentford, Lord Privy Seal.

In opposition are Mr. Daubeny and Lord De Terrier ; and apart from both Mr. Turn- bull, the idol of the mob.

It does not seem difficult to identify some of t he politicians of that day under a not very deep disguise, but I should welcome a more exhaustive key than I am able to apply to the problem. W. B. H.

[If Trollope had inserted photographs of real people, he would not have been Trollope. His charm is that he made them, and made them well. Mr. Monk is Bright, as he is only "spoken of." The Pallisers and Finn are great creations, but they are of Trollope's making.]

"VARAPEE." D'ou vient la derniere ex- pression de la phrase suivante, tiree d'une brochure emanant d'une compagnie de

chemin de fer suisse ? " L'ete est, pour la montagne, la saison par excellence ; c'est le temps des vacances, la periode des ascen- sions et des longues varapees." Est-ce du francais dit federal? Jusqu'ici je n'ai pu trouver le mot dans aucun dictionnaire francais. EDWARD LATHAM.

WILLIAM WEARE, MURDERED BY THUR- TELL. Some inconclusive correspondence will be found at 6 S. x. 226 ; xi. 468 ; xii. 74, 136, 296 as to the authorship of the lines (said to be greatly admired by Sir Walter Scott)

They cut his throat from ear to ear, His brains they battered in ; His name was Mr. William Weare, And dwelt in Lyon's Inn.

Thackeray and Maginn were both mentioned as possible authors, but Scott attributed the lines to Theodore Hook. Locker-Lampson, however, in ' My Confidences,' mentions J. W. Croker as the author. So far as dates go, this would fit. Croker was born in 1780, and died in 1857, and the murder was in 1823. Can any one supply confirmation of Mr. Locker-Lampson's statement ? Croker was never mentioned when the question was discussed in ' N. & Q.'

WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK. " NARROW BETWEEN THE SHOULDERS."

The following passage occurs in ' Utopia ' :

Hie tarn tetricus est ut non admittat iocos, hie tarn insulsus ut non ferat sales."

Burnet translates it :

" Some are so sour that they can allow no jests, and others so dull that they can endure nothing that is sharp."

Robinson translates it :

" One is so sour, so crabbed, and so unpleasant bhat he can away with no mirth nor sport ; another is so narrow between the shoulders that he can bear no jests nor taunts."

Are there other instances of " narrow between the shoulders" being similarly used ? DAVID SALMON.

Swansea.

"WiTH FULL SWINGE." At what date did the expression " with ful swinge " come into vogue ? In " A Treatise on John 8, 36.

By George Downame, Doctor of Diuini-

tie," London, 1609, one finds on p. 51, " that it raigne no more with ful swinge and authoritie in vs," and on p. 53 "with full swinge and consent of will." In the same book " vnperfect " occurs on pp. 34 and 95 ; and on p. 77, " that we are neuer cast into such an exigent, betweene two sinnes not yet committed." E. S. DODGSON.