Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/441

 n s. i. MAY 28, 1910.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

433

translated literally, means " In spite of who Would say it," and has some tiling of the sound in Lowland ears of " Ganion Coheriga.' 8 See, for the Clanronald motto, Chambers's ' Popular Rhymes of Scotland, 1 p. 358. May I be pardoned for pointing out how the slogan copied above, when com- pared with the late MB. JAMES PLATT'S version, written from memory, affords striking evidence of that distinguished scholar's marvellous mastery over the Gaelic tongue ? W. SCOTT.

MAY BASKETS AND JUNE BOXES (11 S. i. 347, 394). The opening of Spenser's ' Shepheards Calender,' 1579-80, under ' Maye J should be noticed : Yougthes folke now flocken in every where, To gather May bus-kets [bushes] and smelling brere : And home they hasten the postes to dight, And all the Kirke pillours eare <fay light, With Hawthorne buds, and swete Eglantine, And girlonds of roses, and Sopps-in-wine.

Globe ed., 1869, p. 458.

By "postes" the poet Would hardly mean laypoles ; more likely the posts fixed at le entrances of great houses, e.g., those of

magistrates. It Was usual to " trim " the

posts of a new Lord Mayor (' N.E.D., 1 vii.

1159).

When was the decorating of churches on

May Day given up ? W. C. B.

GEORGE ELLIS, 1753-1815 (11 S. i. 268). The statement in ' The Encyclopaedia Britannica l that George Ellis was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, is confirmed by Gorton's ' Bio- graphical Dictionary,' 1830, vol. i. p. 699. Gorton adduces The Gentleman's Magazine as the authority for his assertion.

W. S. S.

BEST COMPANY CONSISTS or FIVE PERSONS (11 S. i. 367). Athenseus, lib. i. p. 4E, quotes some lines from a Sicilian poet, Archestratus, Who composed a work in hexameter verse on a gastronomic subject. In the course of the quotation occur the following Words : "EoToxrar 8 s rj rpets 77 To-<rapes 01 ^vvdiravTcs

VJ TOJV 7TVT y /A?) TrActOVS.

" Let their total number [i.e., that of those at table] be three or four, or at the utmost five."

The source for the saying referred to by C. B. W. that the company at dinner should be neither more than the Muses nor less than the Graces is Varro's Menippean satire ' Nescis quid vesper serus vehat, 1 in which,

according to Aulus Gellius, lib. xiii. 11, We are told that the number of guests ought to begin - with the number of the Graces, and go up to that of the Muses :

" Dicit autem convivarum numerum incipere oportere a Gratiarum numero et progredi ad Musarum, id est proficisci a tribus et consistere in novem, ut cum paucissimi convivse sunt, non pauciores sint quam tres, cum plurimi, non plures quam novem."

The ideal number was variously estimated among the ancients. In cap. 5 of the Life of Verus in the Augustan History We have the proverb " Septem convivium, novem vero convicium." Ausonius, ' Ephemeris,' v. 5/ puts the figure lower :

Quinque advocavi ; sex enim convivium Cum rege iustum : si super, convicium est. EDWARD BENSLY. Aberystwyth.

GALLOPING HOGAN : THE RAPPAREES (11 S. i. 367). The poem entitled 'The Rapparees * in the collected verses of the late Hon. Thomas D'Arcy McGee, the Irish- Canadian statesman (pp. 310-11-12), gives a good deal of information on the subject. In an editorial note Mrs. Sadler, novelist, remarks :

" This is a logical defence of a most injured class of brave men. The Rapparees first appeared in the wars for James II., and were the guerillas of that and the succeeding generation. A false Williamite nomenclature has made the name synonymous with assassination and larceny. This, to be true, would make all that history records of fugitive heroism false.' '

J. F. HOGAN.

Royal Colonial Institute,

Northumberland Avenue.

TOUCHING FOR THE KING'S EVIL : " TOUCHING PIECE " (11 S. i. 389). In 1684 John Browne, Sworn Chirurgeon in Ordinary to the King, published a volume in Three Books, With the following titles : 1. ' Adenochoiradelogia * ; 2. ' Chceradelogia * ; 3. ' Charisma Basilicon,' &c. Prefixed to the collection, in addition to a portrait of Browne engraved by White, is a curious frontispiece, also engraved by White, entitled ' The Royal Gift of Healing, 1 representing Charles II. seated on his throne, surrounded by his Court, touching for the king's evil. The book Was " Sold by Samuel LoWndes over- against Exeter Change in the Strand."

If P. D. M. Will refer to ' Curialia Miscel- lanea,' by Dr. Samuel Pegge, F.S.A., London, 1818, 8vo, he Will find a most interesting historical treatise on ' The Virtues of the Royal Touch, 1 pp. 111-72, and this will furnish, I hope, all the information desired.