Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/286

 278

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[11 S. I. APR. 2, 1910.

In this poem he mentions his infantile delusive dreams. There (in his home) was "each face (save one) array'd in smiles." That one was his father's. The father would not appear to have treated his wife well, for the son was desirous her wrongs to avenge, her griefs to share. The discarded son is named Edward in the poem ; to him

Unconscious fear, not love, precedes The stern approach of gloomy sire.

When Edward went to town he was told of his father's wealth, and they

Taught him remorse in wine to drown ; To borrow riot-means by stealth,

And thus elude a father's frown. Then Edward, having got into the direst distress, confides his position to his younger brother. The latter with crocodile tears promises help. His way of doing this is to go to their father and reveal what Harwell has told him. Thereupon Barwell is sum- moned by his father, and in terror obeys the paternal call, to find his brother has betrayed him and that ' ' he was for ever lost."

"So, sir" (thus Edward was address'd),

" Your course of profligacy run, With vice, and shame, and debt oppress'd." " Spare me ! " he cried, " I am thy son."

LXI.

" Spare thee ! to see this fair domain To cheats and prostitutes a prey ;

The object of my care and pain

Destroy'd and lost ; away away ! "

Here we get the reason for Coles's early disappearance from the army. He must soon have reformed his ways, as he left several works of merit to be remembered, while his favoured younger brother seems to have done nothing. Barwell appears to have been a far better character than this younger brother. Besides this, as he outlived this brother, the family estate would" have remained longer in the family, had it de- scended to him.

Now also we have the mystery in Burke's ' Landed Gentry ' explained. In that work up to 1875 we find the name of Charles Barwell Coles first, and his younger brother next as master of Ditcham Park. This must have puzzled many a searcher.

RALPH THOMAS.

"TALLY-HO": " YOICKS (11 S. i. 48, 93, 135, 172). It may be of some interest to supplement what has been so well and conclusively said on this subject by quoting the explanation given of " tally-ho " by Sir Walter Scott, himself a notable hunter. Continuing Strutt's ' Queenhoo-Hall,* the author of " Waverley ' starts with a charac-

teristically vivacious and realistic chapter devoted to a hunting party. Having given his apposite and resonant ' ' Waken, lords and ladies gay," he takes his miscellaneous company to the covert, where, we learn, they ' ' waited until the keeper entered, leading his ban-dog, a large bloodhound tied in a learn or band, from which he takes his name.' 1 The narrative then proceeds as follows :

" But it befell thus. A hart of the second year, which was in the same cover with the proper object of their pursuit, chanced to be unhar- boured first, and broke cover very near where the Lady Emma and her brother were stationed. An inexperienced varlet, who was nearer- to them, instantly unloosed two tall greyhounds, who sprang after the fugitive with all the fleetness of the north wind. Gregory, restored a little to spirits by the enlivening scene around him, followed, encourag- ing the hounds with a loud tayout, for which he had the hearty curses of the huntsman, as well as of the Baron, who entered into the spirit of the chase with all the juvenile ardour of twenty."

Annotating " tayout " in his own off-hand fashion, the author writes : ' ' Tailliers-hors f in modern phrase, Tally-ho ! "

THOMAS BAYNE.

HAIR BECOMING SUDDENLY WHITE THROUGH FEAR (10 S. ix. 445; x. 33, 75; xi. 433). The following occurrence, reported in the New York Evening Post of 26 January, may be of interest to readers of ' N. & Q. ? who have been studying the sudden incidence of grey hairs in particular cases :

" Fred Jones, a seven-year-old child with hair as grey as that of an old man, is attracting the attention of physicians (at Atchison, Kansas )_ Recently, while playing in a hay loft, he fell thirty feet. He was not seriously injured, but the fright so acted upon his nervous system that his hair began to turn white."

N, W. HILL.

New York.

EASTER ON 27 MARCH (11 S. i. 185, 231). Augustus De Morgan says in his ' Book of Almanacs,' 2nd ed., 1871, Introduction, p. viii, that Easter day may be any day of the five weeks which commence with 22 March ;. Easter was on 27 March in 1842, 1853, and 1864. FREDERIC BOASE.

"LE WHACOK' ? (11 S. i. 88). This sign would seem to be one of a similar class to "The Barley Mow,' ? "The Wheatsheaf," &c., that is) if I am correct in assuming that it is "The Haycock," though I never came across such a sign ; but that does not mean that such a one never existed.

A. RHODES.

"SCANDALIZE'' (11 S. i. 225). This has been discussed at 3 S. xii. 204, 260 ; 6 xii. 109, 172, 232. W. C. B,