Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/101

 11 S. X. AUG. 1, 1914.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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through his ill-usage, until death relieved her of her sufferings. She died just ten years before her husband, and Elliott's legend doubtless refers either to her or to the old Lord's mistress, who was known as " Lady Betty." W. F. PRIDE AUX.

I enclose the first four verses of the poem. They will give your readers a general idea of what it is like, and also show how the phrase " Speak to me, Lord Byron ! " comes in :

A strange man own'd yon Abbey once,

Men call'd him " Devil Byron ;" Yet he a sister had, who lov'd Well that Man of Iron.

And well he lov'd that sister Love

Is strong in rugged bosoms ; Ev'n as the barren-seeming bough

Oft hoards richest blossoms.

Yet from his heart, when she espous'd

A peasant, he dismiss'd her ; And thenceforth " Devil Byron " spoke Never to his sister !

Therefore, whene'er he drove abroad,

She chas'd the Man of iron ; Rode by his wheels, and riding cried. " Speak to me, Lord Byron ! "

J. H. MURRAY. 100, Lothian Road, Edinburgh.

I presume that Ebenezer Elliott's ballad entitled ' Devil Byron ' alludes to the fifth Baron (1722-98), who was convicted of the manslaughter of his kinsman, Mr. Chaworth, before the House of Lords, 16 April, 1765, and was thereafter known as "the Wicked Lord."

Otherwise the ballad might allude to some confused memory of the poet and his sister, Mrs. Leigh. The fifth Lord is said to have ill-treated his wife.

A. R. BAYLEY.

GLADSTONE ON THE OFFICE OF CHAN- CELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (US. ix. 488). Admiral Lord John Hay of Fulmer Place, Slough, has favoured me with a reply to the query at this reference, embodying something he was told by a reliable person at the time Lord Palmerston was Prime Minister. A gentleman calling at Cambridge House one forenoon was discussing some political question. Lord Palmerston said, " If you wish to be quite sure about this, look in that drawer and take out the papers, and you can then satisfy yourself. ' ' The gentleman pulled out a drawer, and Lord Palmerston said, " That is not the right one ; that contains all Gladstone's resignations."

Lord John Hay concludes from this that it is possible Mr. Gladstone acted upon the

advice he is alleged to have given in the American paper I quoted, and always carried his written resignation to Cabinet Councils while Chancellor of the Exchequer in the four Governments under other Prime Ministers. J. LANDFEAR LUCAS.

Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey.

" BLOOD-BOLTERED," ' MACBETH,' IV. i. 123 (11 S. ix. 369, 417). We say " Der Schnee, das Mehl ballt sich " = backt, i.e., forms into lumps, which corresponds exactly to " the snow bolters," so that it does not seem to be rash to conclude that a connexion exists between the two words. The surmise is supported by the passage from Holland which MR. THOMAS BAYNE aptly quotes :

"Now by reason of dust getting among, it [the goat's beard] baltereth and cluttereth into knobs and bals."

Bal -\-teren would have been formed from bal, as dot -\-teren from clot. G. KRUEGER.

Berlin.

" GALLEON " IN ENGLISH VERSE (11 S. x. 28). The ' N.E.D.,' s.v., gives the answer to L. M. H.'s query. In Lyndesay, ' Com- playnt,' 406, " galleons," spelt " gailzeownis," rimes with "loons," spelt "lownis" ; and in Dibdin, in 'Naval Chronicle,' xiii. 394, " galleon," spelt " galloon," rimes with " tune." This seems to be one of an increas- ing number of instances in which a word adopted by some one who has never heard it pronounced is given a pronunciation more in consonance with the spelling than the real one is. " Galleon " is, I suppose, originally a nautical term. To my know- ledge, sailors pronounced it " galloon " as late as the fifties of the last century. Tennyson, Masefield, and, I may add, Kipling, have, however, I fear, settled the pronunciation for future centuries.

JOHN R. MAGRATH.

Probably the earliest appearance of this word in English verse is in Thomas Deloney's ' A Joyful New Ballad ' on the Armada fight, entered at Stationers' Hall, 10 Axig., 1588, in which it occurs three times. As I only know the verses in Arber's ' An English Garner ' (vii. 39), I cannot say how T. D. spells the word ; the pronunciation he intends it to have must be gathered from the verses themselves :

Another mighty Galleon

Did seem to yield at last. The chiefest Captain

Of this Galleon so high. Who was the General Of all the Galleons great.