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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[11 S. I. JAN. 8, 1910.

here the sex is indubitable. Thus these distinctions have apparently no relation to sex in the ordinary acceptation of that word. Whether they follow a euphony so delicate and refined as to be appreciable only by those who have an intimate know- ledge of the language I cannot say.

H. W D.

[The French language not having a neuter gender, table must consequently be treated as masculine or feminine ; and as tabula was feminine in Latin, table has become feminine in French.

With respect to Mddchen, it is the rule in German that all diminutives are treated as neuter. Thus although Magd is feminine, its diminutive follows the rule relating to that class of words, and becomes neuter grammatically.]

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. Can any of your readers inform me where the couplet

Who fled full soon on the first of June,

But bade the rest keep fighting, occurs ?

The "first of June" no doubt refers to Lord Howe's victory off Ushant that day, and the hero of the verse was, I think, a French admiral who took part in the battle. I have, however, been quite unable to trace the source of the lines. W. H. COOKE.

Shine as the countenance of a priest of old Against a flame about a sacrifice Kindled by fire from heaven

So glad was he.

J. FOSTER PALMER. 8, Royal Avenue, S.W.

MICHAEL MAITTAIRE, 1668-1747. Who

were his parents, and when and where was he born ? The ' D.N.B.,' xxxv. 384, says only that he " was born in France in 1668 of Protestant parents, who about the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes sought refuge in England. 5 * G. F. R. B.

JOHN MAPLET, M.D., 1612 ?-70. When and whom did he marry ? The ' D.N B ' xxxvi. 113, does not say. G. F. R. B. '

WILLIAM MITFORD was steward of the

Westminster School Anniversary Dinner in

1781. His address is given as Berners

btreet. Can any correspondent of ' N. & Q.'

help me to identify him ? G. F. R. B.

THOMAS ELLIS OWEN is said to have died in 1814, and to have been buried in Llanfair- is-Gaer Church, Carnarvonshire ('D.NJ3.,' xlii. 456). I should be glad to ascertain the exact date of his death. G. F. R. B

MICHAEL NEWTON OF BEVERLY : HIS ARMS. In George Taylor's memoir of Robert Surtees, the historian of the County Palatine of Durham, the second issue of which was published with additions by the Surtees Society under the editorship of the Rev. James Raine the elder, the following passage occurs, quoted from a letter written by Surtees to Sir Walter Scott :

" I am tempted to add here an heraldic bearing inserted by Mr. Gryll in Gwillim's ' Heraldry,' now in my hands : ' He beareth per pale or and arg., over all a spectre passant shrouded sable, by the name of Michael Newton of Beverly, Esq., in Yorkshire,' probably the only attempt ever recorded to describe an unembodied spirit in heraldry. The common arms of Newton are Sable, two cross thighbones proper, which perhaps suggested the above. I must apologize for the length of the above, but I could not well tell you in fewer words on what authority the extract rested."

Can any one say if ever there was a Michael Newton of Beverly, Esq., and, if so, whether he bore the above arms ? The editor of the second edition tells the reader in a note that " Gyll's ' Gwillim ' is now my property, but I find in it no trace of such an entry."

This in itself is no disproof of the asser- tion of Surtees. The statement may not have been written in the margin, but scribbled on paper put between the pages, and afterwards lost ; but in the investiga- tion of the matter it is well to bear in mind that Surtees was wont to jest with his own modern verses, which on more than one occasion he passed off as ancient. Heraldry as well as poetry may therefore have led him astray. y^Mfil^I^ft COM. EBO*.

KING'S PLACE, PICCADILLY. This small court is described variously as being in Duke Street or Little Duke Street, Piccadilly, or Pall Mall, and obviously from its nomen- clature it must have been in the neighbour- hood of King Street. In the several maps that I have consulted, from Rocque's of 1744 to Laurie and Whittle's of 1776, in the Grace Collection at the British Museum, the name of King's Place does'not appear. '!v\v

Nevertheless, there is a clue to the exact- site in ' The Meretriciad,* by Capt. Edward Thompson, which describes it as

a snug entry leading out Pell Mell ......

Between th' Hotel and Tory Almack's House.

Almack's Rooms were in King Street, and as the yard of " The Rose and Crown Inn " was situated on the south side of this same street, opposite the end of Duke Street, I am inclined to think that King's Place was a