Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/162

 NOTES AND QUERIES. tii s. i. FEB. 19, 1010.

CHINA AND JAPAN : THEIB DIPLOMATIC INTERCOURSE (11 S. i. 8). Treaties between these States are concluded in both Chinese and Japanese texts, and I believe their correspondence is conducted in pretty much the same manner as in other countries. For example, a dispatch from the Foreign Office at Tokyo would be sent to the Japanese Minister at Peking, whose official translator would put its purport into Chinese for the Minister to sign and address to the Tsungli Yamen ; and the same procedure would presumably be followed in the converse case as a general rule.

WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

TOPOGRAPHICAL DEEDS (11 S. i. 47). I cordially endorse the remarks of MR. McMuRRAY concerning the county cata- logues of ' Deeds and other Documents ' issued by Mr. F. Marcham of Tottenham. Besides being of service to the genealogist, pedigree-hunter, and historian, they contain much to amuse the general reader, such as memoranda about the families of noted people Dickens, Thackeray, and others. And those who like to trace out the histories of our large breweries will find in them a good deal of interesting matter.

HERBERT B. CLAYTON.

ROMAN LADIES : PURITY OF THEIR LAN- OUAGE (11 S. i. 69). Cicero in his ' De Oratore,' iii. 12, 45, makes L. Licinius Crassus, the famous orator, who died in 91 B.C., speak in most laudatory terms of the language and pronunciation of his mother-in-law Lselia, daughter of Gains Lselius, the intimate friend of Scipio Africanus the younger. In so doing Crassus lets fall the following general reflection : " Facilius enim mulieres incor- ruptam antiquitatem conservant, quod multorum sermonis expertes ea tenent semper, quae prima didicerunt.^

The charm of Laelia's conversational style, as well as that of her daughters and grand- daughters, is mentioned in Cicero's ' Brutus,' 58, 211. Quintilian again, I. i. 6, refers to Lselia, and mentions the debt in oratory which the Gracchi were said to have owed their mother Cornelia.

EDWARD BENSLY.

What Cicero writes (' De Or.,' iii. 12, 45) is : " Personally, whenever I hear my mother-in-law Leelia speak tor W9men preserve more easily (than men) the purity of old-fashioned speech, because they do not converse with many persons, and so retain what they learnt in the beginning when I hear her, I say, I seem to hear the speech of Plautus or Naevius; her intonation is so correct and unaffected that she seems to add no exaggera-

tion or imitation of others thereto. Hence I gather that such was the speech of her father and of her forbears; a speech not harsh or broad, not pro- vincial or broken by hiatus, but restrained, smooth, and gentle."

The words are put into the mouth of C. Licinius Crassus the orator, husband to Lselia's elder daughter Mucia.

In Cicero's time aspiration was beginning to intrude into Latin more than he (and Catullus) approved. H. K. ST. J. S.

[ J. S. also thanked for reply. ]

" OLD SIR SIMON n (10 S. xii. 490 ; 11 S. i. 34). If no definite person can be found to account for the name of the hotel and market, I would suggest that the ancient inn took its name from the title of an old song, and the market from the adjacent inn.

' Old Sir Simon the King l was one of the favourite airs of Squire Western, that his daughter played for him after dinner :

"The Squire declared, if she would give him t'other bout of ' Old Sir Simon,' he would give the gamekeeper his deputation the next morning. ' Sir Simon ' was played again and again, till the charms of music soothed Mr. Western to sleep." ' Tom Jones,' vol. i.

The song consists of four stanzas, and at the end of each is a chorus for the general company, " Says Old Sir Simon the King."

Chappell gives the words of the song in vol. i. of his ' Collection of English Airs,' but terminates each stanza with " Says Old Simon the King. n In vol. ii., however, the music renders it necessary that the phrase should run " Says Old Sir Simon the King,' ? and so the words are. See Chappell, ' Col- lection of National English Airs, 1 London, 1839, vol. i. pp. 41-3, vol. ii. p. 9.

J. H. K.

Percy's * Reliques ' contains a ballad entitled ' Old Sir Simon the King.* The hero was an innkeeper, if I remember accurately, but I have not the book at hand.

M. N. G.

WATSON'S ' HISTORY OF PRINTING * (10 S. xii. 428, 511 ; 11 S. i. 90). The statement referred to was made by William Blades in the note to Watson's book in a bibliography which appeared in The Printers'- Register. The note appears on p. 106 in the issue for 6 Dec., 1875, and is as follows :

" ' At best but a meagre performance ; it happens to be rare, and therefore bibliomaniacs hunt after it.' So writes Dr. Dibdin (' Biblio- mania,' p. 69) in his usual superficial style. He is right so far as rarity goes, for it is a volume that must be waited and watched for ; but that is not its only recommendation, for it contains some interesting and useful information on