Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/193

 1 1 s. xii. SEPT. i, 1915.]! N OTES AND QUERIES.

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dismounted and supplied just the additional power that was required, and helped to get the gun off, so that it could be moved to its new position. All this time he and the gunners were under fire. By his prompt action he was instrumental in saving the gun, as well as the gunners, and in enabling both to get into action again.

That is the story as I heard it at Trichinopoly in 1879 from a bombardier in the old L Battery, 1st Brigade; and it was for this gallant act that he was recommended by the G.O.C. for the Victoria Cross. Did that act make him a combatant?

FRANK PENTSTY.

'THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH' (11 S. xii. 140). 5. " Jairi." May a key to this use of the name be found in the record of Jair ( = Jairus) in the O.T., who possessed " three and twenty cities "; or again another Jairus, who " took the small towns " of Havoth - Jair? Possibly there may be a thought of " Jairus, the ruler," in the N.T. story.

If for " Gorgonius " we might read " GargoniuV there may very well be a reference (the suggestion is not pleasant!) to Hor., Sat. I. ii. 27 :

Pastilles Rufillus olet, Gargonius hircum.

10. (e) "Post tot naufragia portum " (not "tutus") is tke motto of Lord Sandwich. It may be that Sir Edward Montagu, the founder of the family, being a very distin- guished naval officer and Lord High Admiral, assumed this motto as significant of his career. It was in the sea-fight with the Dutch off Southwold that he was killed in 1670. I am not aware that the half line has any classical source.

11. "Quern qu?erimus," c., occurs, of course, in our office for the Burial of the Dead : "of whom may we seek for succour," &c. The original "Media vita" is a sequence in the Sarum Breviary, used as an antiphon to the Nunc Dimittis at Compline, during part of Lent. The authorship is ascribed to Notker, a monk of St. Gall, Switzerland, in tho ninth century. S. R. C.

7. One of the best-known cases of prob- able precontract is that of Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway. Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps

Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare,' vol. i. p. 62, seventh edition) wrote :

'rr we assums, as \v<- reasonably may, that co- habitation had previously taken place, no question L morals would! in those days have arisen, or could h*ve been .-iit.>ita,in,Ml. The precontract, which was usually celebrated t\\<> or three m..nths

before marriage, was not only legally recognised,

but it invalidated a subsequent union of either

of the parties with any one else."

Then follows a list of the statutes governing

precontracts.

Reviewing Mr. J. W. Gray's book ' Shakespeare's Marriage,' The Times said (21 April, 1905) :

" The presumption is fairly strong, having regard to the prevalent usage of the time, that Shakespeare had entered into troth-plight with Anne Hathaway a few months before the date of the marriage."

On p. 64 of his ' Outlines ' Halliwell- Phillipps cites the case of William Holder and Alice Shaw, who, having privately made a contract, voluntarily came before two wit- nesses in 1585 to acknowledge that they were irrevocably pledged to wedlock. Three years later there was a precontract meeting at Alcester, but the young lady appeared without any of her friends. She having explained the reason for this omission, the future bridegroom was perfectly satisfied, merely asking her

" whether she was content to betake herself unto him, and she answered, off ring her hand, w T hich he also tooke, upon the offer that she was content by her trothe, and thereto, said she, I geve thee my faith, and before these witnesses, that I am thy wief; and then he likewise answered in theis wordes, vidz., and I geve ttiee my faith and troth, and become thy husband."

A. C. C.

9. As to Blessed Nicholas of the Rock,, a not very sympathetic account is given in ' The Forest Cantons of Switzerland,' by J. Sowerby, M.A. (London, Percival & Co.,. 1892), at pp. 145-50. See also Murray's- ' Handbook for Switzerland,' 19th ed. (London, Stanford, 1904, at pp. xcviii, 240-41, 243).

From a Catholic point of view see the Rev. Dr. Michael Ott, O.S.B., in the ' Catholic Encyclopaedia,' xi. 62.

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

BOOKWORMS ^11 S. xii. 138). In Mr. Power's ' Handy-Book about Books,' which he becomingly dedicated to the readers of and the contributors to ' N. & Q.,' there are paragraphs, pp. 46, 130, 131, 132, about bookworms, the matter being furnished, for the most part, from the columns of our old friend. If MR. H. J. MASSINGHAM, wrh whom I have great sympathy, has access to the stores collected years ago, he will find much to interest, and I hope to help, him at some of the following references : 1 S. xii. 427, 474; 2 S. i. 143, 244, 360; xi. 506; 4 S. vi. 597; vii. 65, 168, 262, 346, 461 ^