Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/455

 ii s. i. JUNE 4, i9io.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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des Cheminots '), may be worth recording. " Cheminots 1J appears to be an abbreviation of " travailleurs de chemins de fer." Com- pare the corresponding German neologism <; Eisenbahner," i.e., labourers employed upon the railway line. Is there no equivalent abbreviated term in English ?

H. KBEBS. [" Railwayman " is used in England.]

" POSTIEBS." Another recently coined term which has not yet entered the French dictionaries may be mentioned, in connexion with " cheminots," viz., " postiers," i.e., an abbreviation of "employes de la Poste,' 1 or Post officials of the lower classes. " Un millier de Cheminots et de Postiers ont decide de manifester a la gare de Lyon -'* (cf. Journal des Debats, 22 Avril, 1910).

H. KREBS.

(SJwrws.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

ST. LAWBENCE'S TEABS. I have been told that this is or has been a popular appellation for the Perseids or 10th of August meteors. Will any reader of ' N. & Q.' give us a quotation for the expression ?

J. A. H. MUBBAY.

Oxford.

" SCBIBBLE." The earliest examples of this verb occur in what may be called an epistolary formula: " Scribled in hast with mine owne hand in default of other helpe att London the 21 of June " (1465 in 4 Plumpton Corresp.,* p. 14) ; " Scrybyllyd in the moste haste, at my castel or manoir of Aucland" (1490 in * Paston Letters, 1 iii. 363) ; " Scribled the xiiith day of October with the hand of your servant William Frost " (1505 in ' Wells Cathedral Records '). The formula continued in use down to the end of the sixteenth century. The German skribblen, skriblen, has the same sense. These words suggest the possibility that there may have been, in England and in Germany, a late mediaeval Latin *scribillare used in correspondence. Is any example known ? HENBY BBADLEY.

Oxford.

COUNT D'OBSAY'S JOUBNAL. What be- came of the manuscript journal of Count d'Orsay, which he showed to Byron at Genoa in 1823, and which the English poet compared not unfavourably with Gram-

mont's Memoirs ? It is to be inferred from Byron's remarks on it, as conveyed in a letter to D'Orsay, that it was full of caustic and witty comments on English society as contemplated by the brilliant young Frenchman, whom England, a few years later, was to recognize as the pattern of the dandies of his day. A curious statement recently made, on what appears to be good authority Sir Robert Anderson in Black- wood concerning D'Orsay's death in Paris in 1852, lends a fresh interest to the story of the man's life. Those earlier passages in his career, which were recorded by D'Orsay himself, must have had some literary value when the narrative won a special compliment from Byron. Into whose hands did the papers left by the Count fall ?

MOBGAN M'MAHON.

Sydney, New South Wales.

DUNCAN LIDDEL AND Jo. PoTiNius.--The Bodleian Library possesses a copy of a rare volume :

" Duncani Liddelii, Henr. Schaperi, Jo. a Felden et Sigismundi Hosemanni, Professorum Quondam in Academia Julia Mathematicorum memorise sub Magistratus Academici Auspicium D. XXVI Junii An. MDCCXL VII. In Academia Julia Carolina Oratione Solenni Resuscitatse a Jo. Nicolao Forbesio Mathem. ac Philos. P.P.O. Helmstadii, Typis Paoli Dieterici Schnorii, Acad. Typogr. [1747.]"

On p. xxiii. of Forbesius's volume appears an ' Index Scrip torum Duncani Liddelii,' in- cluding the entries :

"1. Propositiones astronomicse de dierum et annorum differentiis et causis, publice ad disputan- dum propositse, respond. Jo. Potinio, Verdensi [Grsecse linguae postea in hac Academia professore]. Helmst. 1591."

"10. Progr. in funere Valent. Schindleri, ling. Ebr. professoris. Helmstad. 1604.

"11. Progr. in fun. M. Nic. Volceri, eccles. Helmst. ministri. 1604."

These three items were unknown to me when I recently compiled a tentative bibliography of Liddel. They do not appear in Erman and Horn's * Bibliographie der deutschen Universitaten,' nor can I trace their existence in any British libraries of importance. I shall be glad to hear of any surviving copies. P. J. ANDEBSON.

University Library, Aberdeen.

SHAKESPEABE : "MONTJOY ET ST.DENNIS." The statement of Dr. Wallace that Shakespeare in ' Henry V.' raised his host, Christopher Mont joy, '" to the dignity of a French herald," is incorrect. As pointed out ante pp. 315, 376, Shakespeare follows Holinshed's ' Chronicle.' But the official title of the French herald was Mont joy and I am informed that the battle-cry of the