Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/141

 ii s. i. FKB. 12, i9K>.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

1-33

the origin of the custom remains unaccounted for. Having occasion to refer to the exact meaning of the arms of the London Company of Coachmakers, I imagine that the solution will be found there. The Golden Boy and the Naked Boy, as representing Phaethon, is represented in the crest of that guild ; while the supporters are :

" Two horses argent, harnessed and bridled sable, studded or, garnished gules, housings azure, fringed and purified of the third ; each horse being adorned on the head with a plume of four feathers of the fol- lowing colours, viz., or, argent, azure, and gules."

I rather think that, so far as funeral plumes are used to-day, or were until latterly, they were four in number on each horse's head. Do I remember rightly ?

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (11 S- i. 88). The quotation from Byron is in- exact. For "Highland's " read "High- lands' "' ; and for "owns ?? read "shows " :

He who first met the Highlands' swelling blue Will love each peak that shows a kindred hue.

It is from ' The Island,' Canto II. st. xii. 11. 9, 10. WALTER W. SKEAT.

[PROF. BENSLY, MR. M. A. M. MACALJSTER, NEMO, and ETHEL M. TURNER also supply the reference.]

BROOKE OF COBHAM (11 S. i. 29, 98). With reference to MR. MACMICHAEL'S reply, it may be mentioned that Mr. Edward Brooke of Ufford Place has an elder brother, Lieut. -Col. Reginald Brooke, formerly of the 1st Life Guards, who thus would appear to be the present representative of the Brookes of Cobham.

J. H. RIVETT-CARNAC.

Sehloss Rothberg, Switzerland.

CANNON BALL HOUSE, EDINBURGH (US. i. 9). At the risk of incurring the reproach of " carrying coals to Newcastle," I would venture to remind MR. W. J. HAY that a paper by Mr. Bruce J. Home, entitled ' The Cannon Ball House,' is promised to be included in the volume for 1909 of ' The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club,' shortly to be published. W. SCOTT.

COUNT BOOKSELLER (10 S. xii. 481, 501).
 * THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE ' : FIRST DIS-

MR JOHN C. FRANCIS in his second article refers to the large sale of the first number of The Comhill as being then without pre- cedent in serial literature. He does not make any mention of the great number disposed of by Mr. J. F. Dunn, who had then recently begun business as a second- hand bookseller at the corner of Skinner Street and Farringdon Street in the Holborn

Valley. He sold each copy at ninepence. which was a new departure in the book- trade, and thereby, I believe, became the first discount bookseller, a fact that seems worth recording. The wholesale trade tried to stop the supply, but failed.

W. J. GADSDEN, Wood Green.

SOWING BY HAND (11 S. i. 46). In Moritz Retzsch's ' Outlines to the Song of the Bell ' (' Umrisse zu Schiller's Lied von der Glocke,' Stuttgart und Tubingen, 1843), plate 31, is a sower sowing with his left hand. His right arm holds up his loose outer garment, apparently to form a bag for the seed. He is walking in a furrow.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

The design of the sower on the cover of The Comhill is not a faithful representation of one sowing grain broadcast. The attitude is altogether wrong, for the sower seems to be running. The sower really goes along at a steady pace, in rhythm with the action of sowing the corn in front of him, using right and left hand alternately. This method ensures an even distribution, for the step is timed with the movement of the hands. The sower throws from "a skep " slung from his neck or shoulders. I have seen a bushel measure used as a skep, and this measure would not be a light weight when nearly full. There is a con- siderable art in the "throws'' right to left on the part of the sower.

Neither the man with the flail nor the reaper is in correct pose : they are too stiff. The last word will also fit the man at the plough, which otherwise is fairly accurate. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Work sop.

" WELSH !? : ORIGIN OF THEIR NAME (11 S. i. 69). I would add to the editorial note that the A.-S. Wealh, a Celt, is now regarded as derived from the name (Volcce) of a tribe of Southern Gaul, to which it corresponds phonetically. In Middle High German Walhen continued to be applied to the French and Italians, and the Slavonic languages took it over in that sense ; thus Polish Wloski, Bohemian Vlassky, Slovenian Laski, all mean Italian, though answering in form to our word Welsh. I am surprised to see that in ' The Century Cyclopaedia of Names * the Welsh are described as " the members of the Celtic race indigenous to Wales." Modern anthropological dis- coveries have made it certain that, in the words of Sir John Rhys, only " a mere