Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/60

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIIL JULY 20, 1907.

first register book of Blakesley, beginning in 1538, with a view to its careful rebinding by Messrs. Birdsall of Northampton, so that Blakesley now once more has its own. It may not be out of place to put on record a note as to when and how the lost portion was found, and restored to the satisfaction of all concerned. HENRY ISHAM LONGDEN.

" NlT BEHAMEY," YIDDISH PHRASE.

A common expression in the Yiddish jargon spoken in the East End of London is " Nit behamey ! " which means " Don't be a fool ! " Visitors to the Sunday market in Petticoat Lane must often hear it. This phrase, which has not yet found its way into our slang dictionaries, is a good example of the way German and Hebrew are mixed together by jargon speakers. Nit is the German word nicht, " not." Behamey is the Hebrew behemah, from which we get the " behemoth " of our Old Testament. Ob- serve the curious transition of meaning by which this, which originally denoted a large and strong animal, has come to have, in the usage of modern Jews, merely the sense of " fool." JAS. PLATT, Jun.

' KOTTABOS,' A DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MIS- CELLANY. I happen to have in my posses- sion a bundle of odd numbers of the brilliant little periodical Kottabos, now long extinct and unobtainable in the bookshops. I should be happy to place them freely at the service of any readers of ' N. & Q.' (N.B. not booksellers) who may have imperfect sets and may wish to complete them. Any such might communicate with me, and mention the numbers required and the date of issue. ALEX. LEEPER.

Trinity College, University of Melbourne.

AN EARLY ELECTIONEERING EXPERIENCE OF SIR JAMES GRAHAM. (See 7 S. xi. 304.) In the recently published ' Life and Letters of Sir James Graham,' by Mr. Charles Stuart Parker, is given a striking instance of modern political biography as it is written from the purely friendly and admiring point of view. It is stated therein that Graham at the dissolution of 1820 was elected as one of the representatives of the Cornish borough of St. Ives ;

" but early in 1821 petitions were presented from St. Ives against both members, and as the Com- mittees of Parliament who then dealt with such petitions notoriously were governed in their votes by party interests, he did not care to incur the costs of defending his seat, but preferred for a time to quit political life." Vol. i. p. 57.

It is evident from this that Mr. Parker has not troubled to investigate the history

of the particular (and very singular) trans- action of which he is writing, for his summary of that history is misleading in every essential particular. Much of the story was told by myself in ' N. & Q.' at the reference above given ; and the main facts were these :

(1) Graham was elected for St. Ives on 10 March, 1820.

(2) At the Cornwall Assizes, which com- menced at Launceston on 20 March, the grand jury found a true bill against him and others for conspiracy to secure the return by means of bribery and corruption.

(3) On 20 June a Select Committee of the House of Commons reported Graham and his colleague Lyndon Evelyn to have been duly elected, but declined to consider the petitions against them frivolous and vexatious.

(4) On 24 July the House gave leave for the production of the Select Committee's minutes of evidence at the next Cornwall Assizes, on the trial of certain indictments for perjury.

(5) It was not until 16 May, 1821, that a new writ was issued for St. Ives conse- quent upon Graham's acceptance of the Chiltern Hundreds.

What, then, was the truth of the whole affair ? Obviously, something different from the story related originally in ' D.N.B.' (vol. xxii. p. 329), and again put forward by Mr. C. S. Parker.

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

ST. CHAD'S WELL, BATTLE BRIDGE. Along the east side of Gray's Inn Road, near King's Cross, there has recently been excavated a deep trench to receive a number of telephone or telegraph cables. Between Britannia Street and St. Chad's Place there was a slight but constant inflow of water at a depth of 20 feet. This was clearly a rediscovery of the springs that supplied the once famous St. Chad's Well unimportant, but decidedly interesting. It was necessary to keep a pump at work until a concrete bed and the several tiers of earthenware pipes for the cables had been laid down.

ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road, N.

ALBERT MOORE AND THE ' D.N.B.' In the memoir of Albert Moore it is stated :

" He executed other important decorative works, like 'The Last Supper' and some paintings for a

church at Rochdale and a frieze of peacocks for

Mr. Lehmann."

The ' Last Supper ' here alluded to was a design for the decoration of the east end of the Dutch Church, Austin Friars, the