Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/513

 11 S. X. DEO. 26, 1914.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

507

" ONTO." (See ante, p. 328.) This ugly- looking word is still older than I dreamed. It occurs in No. 508 of the Paston Letters, 18 June, 1465, John Rysyng to John Paston :

"And as for John Smyth and John Ilopton, they had labored the meanes onto Master Jenney, that they were delyvered owt of pryson or than [before] the massenger come ageyn to them which they sent onto yow."

It is clearly a variant of unto.

The ' N.E.D.' has an instance from Bishop

Douglas's ' ^Eneid,' 1513:

Or that Proserpine .... dubbit hir heid Onto the Stygian hellis flude of deid.

This is given s.v. 'Dub,' but not s.v. ' Onto.' There are a good many other examples in Douglas. RICHARD H. THORNTON.

SUBMARINE'S DARING FEAT. To the ex- ploit of Capt. Kinneir (see ante, p. 444) should now be added the daring feat of Lieut. Holbrook, in reference to which the Secretary of the Admiralty made the follow- ing announcement :

"Yesterday [i.e., 13 Dec.] Submarine B'll, Lieu- tenant-Commander Norman D. Holhrook, R.N., entered the Dardanelles, and, in spite of the difficult current, dived under five rows of mines and torpedoed the Turkish battleship Messudiyeh, which was guarding the minefield. Although pursued by gunfire and torpedo boats, B 11 returned safely, after being submerged on one occasion for nine hours. When last seen the Messudiyeh was sinking by the stern."

Holbrook has long been an honoured name in the world of newspapers, and the father of the gallant officer, Col. Holbrook, was President of the Newspaper Society last year. The Daily Telegraph of the 15th inst. states that he has five sons serving with His Majesty's forces. A. N. Q.

" SWABOS." By this name Serbian soldiers apparently designate their opponents, im- plying that only Suabians are employed in the Austro- Serbian campaign.

FRANCIS P. MARCHANT. Streatham.

" WALLOONS." I respectfully suggest that MR. J. B. BRANDRETH, in his reply about ' Boches ' (ante, p. 417), is not quite precise in writing of Walloons as " French-speaking Belgians." There must be, or have been, a vast number of French-speaking Belgians, e.g., in Brussels, who are not Walloons.

In ' Murray's Handbook for Holland, Belgium,' &c., 1873, i. 182, we read :

" Lie'ge. ... is the capital of the Walloons, who spread from this to Longwy in France and to Mons, and are very anxious not to be supposed Flemish,

claiming a descent from the Eburones. The Walloon language, spoken by the lower orders, is a dialect, or rather idiom, of the French, and resembles the old French of the 13th cent., but contains many Celtic and some Teutonic words unknown to French of any age."

It is some years since my last visit to Belgium, but, if my memory is correct, notices in railway stations, such as " Way out," " Booking office," used to be given in French, Flemish, and Walloon.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

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.

LADY ANA DE OSORIO, COUNTESS OF CHINCHON AND VICE-QUEEN OF PERU. I am, anxious to find a portrait of this lady, who was the heroine of the novel by Madame de Genlis entitled ' Zuma.' She was cured of a tertian fever in the year 1638 by the use of Peruvian bark the bark of a tree known amongst the bark- collectors as Cascarilla de Chahuarguera, the genus of which was named by Linnaeus, in honour of the Countess, " Cinchona," un- doubtedly an error for Chinchona.

Sir Clements R. Markham in his ' Memoir of the Lady Ana de Osorio, Countess of Chinchon and Vice-Queen of Peru,' pub- lished in 1874, gives her pedigree and the arms both of Cabrera y Bobadilla, Count of Chinchon, and of Osorio, Marquis of Astorga, but he gives no portrait. I have looked in the A.L.A. ' Index of Portraits ' with no better result. Probably some reader of ' N. & Q.' can assist.

THOMAS WM. HUCK. 38, King's Road, Willesden Green, N.W.

PAVLOVA. Can any one tell me the correct pronunciation of the name of this Russian dancer ? I am told that it is pronounced as spelt, with the accent on the first syllable. I am also told that the v is pronounced like u, and that it means " daughter of Paul." Is either right ?

H. F.-H.

CATECHIST AT CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD. What were his duties ? Thomas Vincent (1634-78) was chosen Catechist 1 June, 1654. Does the office still exist ? It is not mentioned in the Oxford University Calendar of 1845. M.A.OXON.