Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/59

 ii s.x. JULY is, 1911] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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curate of Lamerton, Devon. William be- came master of Launceston School, and is the first I can trace at that town. In 1834 Charles Gurney and John Lethbridge Cow- lard were partners in the firm of solicitors at Launeeston, a business which had as far back as 1784, and perhaps earlier, been conducted by Christopher Lethbridge, " attorney and town clerk " in 1784. In 1860 the firm was constituted of Charles Gurney, John Leth- bridge Cowlard, and Lethbridge Cowlard ; in 1861 it was Gurney, Cowlard & Cowlard ; in 1863 Gurney, Cowlard & Kempson ; in 1871 Gurney & Cowlard ; in 18 75 Cowlard & Cow- lard ; in 1884 Cowlard, Cowlard & Grylls ; in 1908 Cowlard, Grylls & Cowlard. Various members of the family have held important positions locally. Christopher Lethbridge Cowlard, Henry L. Cowlard, and the Misses Cowlard were, until quite recently, living at Launceston. John Lethbridge Cowlard pub- lished in 1879 (W. Clowes & Sons) 'The Present Agricultural Depression in Devon and Cornwall and How to Meet It,' pp. 15. In The Times, 1 Oct., 1873, there is a letter signed " John Lethbridge Cowlard," upon the subject of ' Launceston, a Pocket Borough.' A. L. HUMPHREYS. 187, Piccadilly, W.

ORIENTAL NAMES MENTIONED BY GRAY (11 S. x. 10). These are really Oriental, viz. :

1. Miradolin=Amir 'adl, Lord of Justice.

2. Vizier - azem = Sadr el 'azam (prime minister) and Wazir el 'azam, by contami- natio the " breast " being the same as the "agent" (or " vice -regent ") when the person meant is one and the same the Premier of the Sultan. Still, a Turk would never say what Gray says, if the Ottoman was speaking of his Padishah's prime minister, " Sadr el 'azam."

3. Israfil, not ' Israphiel," is E. A. Poe's loan not from the ' Hadith ' and not from the Q'ran, where it does not occur as a name of the Angel of the Day of Judgment, that Angel who has the sweetest voice of all God's creatures.

4. Abubekir, or (rather) Abu Bakr, was the first Khalifa, or Caliph, and the father- in-law of Mohammad the Prophet.

5. Negidher is the Demon of Apostasy, from Arabic nakada (" he denied ").

6. Tagut (not " Tagot ") figures in the Q'ran, of whose Elysium

7 . Admoim is an adumbration.

8. Sarag (for sarg) means a wooden saddle, or wooden pack-saddle, and stands for

Cambridge, through the following fanciful

proportion :

Sarg : swingle-tree : cambren :: Cambridge.

. ' . Sarg (sarag)= Cambridge. Cambren, or cambrel (a corruption), is the Welsh for a swingle -tree, and the River Cam has a Welsh name (in modern Welsh Cam- bridge =Caer Grawnt).

Reverting now to the Arabic names, we may explain them thus :

1 as the Chief Justice of the date of the letter.

2 as the Premier, Robert Walpole.

3 as Poetry, or her sister Music, or the two in one.

4 applies to any marriage connexion in religion or politics.

5 fits well such a " rat " as Maryborough.

6, the evil Tagut, is Mathematics (and the " monstrous " Scots hills).

7, Admoim, squares with Stoke Poges and Gray's happy days by that village's country churchyard. H. H. JOHNSON.

Miradolin intended for Miramolin, the title of the Emperor of Morocco.

The Vizier-azem Azim, the young convert in Moore's ' Lalla Rookh.'

The angel Israphiel, or Israfil th& Angel of Music, who possessed the most melodious voice of all God's creatures, and who is to sound the Resurrection Trump. Israfil was one of the three angels that warned Abraham of Sodom's destruction (Koran).

Abubekir the Caliph who was the first successor of Mahomet ; died at Medina^ 634. CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

Swallowfield Park, Reading.

HESSIAN TROOPS IN AMERICA (11 S. vii. 364, 436, 475). At these references several statements are made that are not in strict accordance with facts, as shown in con- temporary literature. A letter relating to the desire of the Hessian princes that their soldiers should not be sent back is said to be a forgery; and COL. SOUTHAM'S statement that the sending of Hessians to America did much towards increasing the sentiment for independence is seemingly disputed by MR. ALBERT MATTHEWS, who states that the Hessians did not arrive until six weeks after independence had been formally declared.

The facts are, however, that the knowledge that contracts had been made with German princes for forwarding mercenary troops was widely spread among the colonists some months before 4 July, 1776, and is frequently