Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/259

 11 S. XL MAR. 27, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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ROBERT RANKEN. I have a charming tinted drawing of this gentleman, signed "Margaret Carpenter, 1846." The sitter lias a good head and a strong face, and he would appear to be verging on seventy years of age. I should be very glad if some corre- spondent could tell me who he was. for I can find no mention of him in the ' D.N.B.'

JOHN LANE. The Bodley Head, Vigo Street, W.

" TUBBY " : " FI-FI." A few months ago " men's " rooms in Oxford were invaded by grotesque, brown, plush-covered figures of dogs, with goggly eyes and floppy ears rather of the teddy-bear kind. These were called " Tubbys," the (more or less) corre- sponding cats being known as " Fi-fis." Were these names local, or general through- out England ? What is their origin ? Have they any literary source ? Q. V.

AUTHOR WANTED. Who wrote the fol- lowing ?

" Ernald ; or, The Martyr of the Alps ; and other Poems. By Adeline, author of ' Scenes in the West Indies,' &c., &c. London : David Bogue, 86, Fleet Street ; John Mason, 14, City Road ; and E. Adams, Burton - on - Trent. MDCCCXLIII." 8vo, pp. vii. and 274.

S. A. GRUNDY-NEWMAN. Walsall.

[Halkett and Laing, ' Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature,' state that the author is Mrs. Sergeant.]

PETRUS MAXAI AT CANTERBURY. -The editor of the enlarged and amended English translation of Giovanni Botero's ' Relations of the most Famous Kingdoms and Common- wealths ' (London, 1630) states that

"the most of this description of Bethlen Gabor and his dominions, wee owe unto Master Petrus Eusenius Maxai, a Transilvanian boine, and servant to the Illustrious Prince aforesaid."

We know, further, that this Petrus Maxai, when passing on his way home through Leyden, in September, 1632, met there Gabriel Haller, a countryman of his, and told him that he had spent some years in the Archbishop of Canterbury's household. Is there any other record of his stay in England extant ? L. L. K.

THE ZANCIGS. Can any reader tell me the year and the month in which the best account of the Zancigs (husband and wife) was published in the daily newspapers ? I mean, of course, an account of their per- formances. It was about eight to ten or eleven years ago. DALETH.

SNAKES IN ICELAND. It is many years since I w r as first told that in Von Trail's book on Iceland there is a chapter headed ' The Snakes of Iceland,' and that the whole chapter runs " There are no snakes in Iceland." I have recently experienced a rude shock by meeting with a copy of Von TroiFs book, published in an English transla- tion in 1780, and finding that there is no such chapter, nor, so far as I could discover, any mention of snakes. My knowledge of Danish is microscopic, but I was naturally spurred to seek out the original, ' Bref rorande en resa til Island,' 1777 ; but neither in that work did there seem to be any chapter of such admirable conciseness. The form of the book, too, seems to be against the truth of the story, for it consists of some score of letters written at intervals to learned friends, and though a chapter of one sentence might pass for a good joke, a letter of similar length might be taken in bad part. I should put down the whole tale as a freak of my imagination, except that I ana sure I could never invent anything so humorous, and I have found people who " seemed to have heard it before." Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' relieve the exasperation I naturally feel by telling me what, if anything, is the foundation of the story ?

C. B. WHEELER.

[De Quincey (v. 'Works,' Black, vol. iv. p. 295) is responsible for assigning this chapter to von Troil : the author was Neil Horrebow, in his ' Natural History of Norway,' chap. Ixxii. This is quoted in Boswell's 'Johnson.' See 5 S. v. 173.]

Either in the year 1884 or 1885 this historical sketch appeared in an American monthly publication, probably The Century, together with the portrait, copied from an original painting, of an ugly, clean-shaven little man who was the founder of the fortunes of the German Imperial family. Can any corre- spondent oblige me with the title of this publication, the author, date, and the address of the publishers ? A. J. MONDAY.
 * THE BISE OF THE HOHENZOLLERNS.'

" THE LADY OF THE LAMP.'' Will some- body kindly tell me whence this description of Florence Nightingale comes, and by whom first used ? ' KATHLEEN WARD.

ALEPPO : TILLY KETTLE. (See pp. 101, 182.) I should like to ask MR. JEFFERY if he has found any allusions to Tilly Kettle, the portrait painter, who died " near Aleppo " in the spring of 1798. If so, will he be kind enough to communicate them to ' N. & Q.' MARGARET LAVINGTON.