Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/262

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s i. M AR. 26, 1910.

romantic, and careless of money ; but they had not Malaya to civilize. It would have been nice to think they were related, but it is not possible, for it is not true.

WM. Mum. 79, Coleman Street, E.G.

' ALONZO THE BRAVE ? (11 S. i. 167, 215). My authority for stating (ante, p. 115) that Sam Cowell wrote the words of ' Alonzo the Brave, ? i.e., the well-known comic song, and not the " lugubrious ballad " is a book entitled ' 120 Comic Songs Sung by Sam Cowell,' published years ago by H. D'Alcorn, 25, Poland Street, W. Under the heading ' Alonzo the Brave and the Fair Imogine ' in this book is printed : " The words by Sam Cowell ; the Music arranged by J. Harroway, R.A. n

WlLLOUGHBY MAY COCK

" YON " : ITS USE BY SCOTSMEN (11 S. i. 43, 131). It is distressing to learn from my courteous critic T. F. D. that there are people in Glasgow who say " yon n when they might be expected to use " this " or "that." But for the assurance that the statement rests on personal knowledge, one would be disposed to seek its origin in baseless rumour or an unfortunate misapprehension. Accepting it, however, as it stands, one can- not concur at the same time in the view that Burns is to be held as illustrating such a vicious practice. When he says ' ' yon birkie,'* the poet clearly means one who is entirely outside the circle with which for the moment he identifies himself ; and in his reference to the three damsels in " the lighted ha' Ji he discriminates with accuracy and characteristic precision.

I regret the ambiguity that undoubtedly characterizes my allusion to "thon." " Archaic " or " obsolete " would have been better than " earlier, n as the purpose was to distinguish between " thon ' ? and "yon," and not to imply that the one is a different form of the other. The recognition of "thon" as a distinct term prompted the remark that it ' ' sometimes had little more force than that of the definite article."- It may, however, interest PROF. SKEAT to know that the two words (probably owing to local peculiarities of pronunciation) are used in some parts of Scotland as identical. In one version of the legend about Baird and the Pyramids the ironmaster's scornful query appears in the form, ' ' Whatna f ule sank his money in thon ? " Again, the late A. K. H. B., author of the ' Recreations of a Country Parson,' used to illustrate the same

thing in a story regarding an admirer of Dr. Chalmers's pulpit oratory. This en- thusiast, .he said, once in his own hearing described a great occasion in the sentence, " It was fell preachin', thon ! n

THOMAS BAYNE.

When I was young, and in the Mid- lands, " yon " was accounted inadmissible to talk polite ; but it was allowed to pass unchallenged in some verses my grand- mother used to repeat in a way which im- pressed me then, and imprasses me still. They started with

As Miss and Master went to town, They met a poor lad coming down, All rags and tatters, pale and wan. Miss saw first him, and thus began : " Look, brother, look at yon poor lad !"

"Wan n and " began n rimed just as they would do in ' The Earthly Paradise.'

I think " yon " was frequently applied to something more or less remote from the speaker : a near object which was not ' ' this " was "that." Perhaps the distinction may have been more strictly observed in earlier times. One other living language has a limitation to correspond. In Spanish aquel refers to what is distant from two interlo- cutors, ese to what is nearer to the one who listens than it is to him who talks.

ST. SWITHIN.

MAKING ONE'S PARISH (11 S. i. 206). By certain statutes of Henry VII. Edward VI., and Elizabeth, persons unable or un- willing to work were compellable to remain, for the purposes of relief, in the parish, where they had settled. An Act of Charles II. fixed the period in which a man acquired ' ' a settlement" by residence as forty days. This forty days ran from the time when notice of the new abode was given to the parish officers ; but notice was dispensed with in the case of apprenticeship, where the residence was more or less notorious. This will explain the old woman's statement to mean that John was in need of relief, and, to get it, had to go back to his parish of settlement. R- S. B.

HANDLEY CROSS (11 S. i. 208). If P. D. M. has any means of access to The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News of 20 Nov., 1886, he will find, under the signature of "The Mouse in the Corner," a long and interesting article, not only with regard to the genesis of ' Handley Cross,' but alsc as to the original prototype of the immorta John Jorrocks, the hero of that delightfi sporting novel. The writer adduces some