Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/227

 ii s. xii. SEPT. is, 1915. i NOTES AND QUERIES.

219

Hog (v. t.), to sow grain without ploughing. " I

just hogged my wheat into the stubble field." Horsebacker (n. ), one riding on horseback. Huckle-jee bread. Children, sitting with hands clasped over the knees, rock forward and backward at the huckles or hips, saying in sing-song :

My father and mother Are sick in bed, And I must learn how To make huckle-jee bread. Then up with your feet, And down with your head, And that is the way To make huckle-jee bread.

Juberous (adj.), doubtful; also " jubersome." Lotverarchy (n.), jocose antonym of " hierarchy.' Me (n.), my property. "He moved his fence

several feet over on me." Open one's heart (v. phr.), to be generous, usually in irony. " He opened his heart and gave a nickel to the cause."

Passing -on party (n. phr.), a reception where

guests are conducted along the receiving line.

Scald (n.), in the phrase " to get a good scald on,"

to have good results. " I baked bread to-day

and had a good scald on it."

Slanguage (n.), humorous contamination of

" slang " and " language."

Soddy (n.), a house with Walls of sod. " Only in the Western counties are there any soddies standing now."

Sound on the goose (adj. phr.), reliable, dependable. Topsy-stove (n.), a heater with two holes for

cooking. White horse or mule (n. phr.), diluted alcohol used

as a beverage.

Winna (n.), bindweed used by Germans from Russia.

These are some of the very expressive words and phrases which are noticed in several publications, such as The Literary Digest, The Catholic Fortnightly Review, and The Kansas Supreme Court Records.

These words may not survive and get into general currency, but they illustrate the wonderful vitality of the English language in America. R. J. KELLY.

45, Wellington Road, Dublin.

DUMB-WAITERS. The earliest mention of these contrivances by that name occurs in 1755 ('N.E.D.'). In them we can trace the origin of the lift or elevator. Samuel Rogers in ' An Epistle to a Friend,' ed. 1810, pp. 100-101, alludes to the petits soupers of Louis XV. at Choisy :

Nor boast, O Choisy ! seat of soft delight,

The secret charm of thy voluptuous night

Lo, here, attendant on the shadowy hour, Thy closet-supper, serv'd by hands unseen, Sheds, like an evening-Star, its ray serene To hail our coming.

And a few lines further on he speaks of " the shifting side-board " which excels " the

triumphs of a Loriot's art." The note, p. 113, describes

" those admirable pieces of mechanism, afterwards carried to perfection by Loriot, the Contidente and the Servante : a table and a side-board, which descended, and rose again covered with viands and wines (' Vie privee de Louis XV.,' ii. 43)."

The "ray serene" proceeded from the lamps which were placed on this " shifting side-board." RICHARD H. THORNTON.

8, Mornington Crescent, N.W.

JAMES HOWELL AND ' A PERFECT DE- SCRIPTION OF THE PEOPLE AND COUNTRY OF SCOTLAND.' The tract above mentioned was reprinted by Wilkes in No. 31 of The North Briton. The writer of Howell's life in the ' D.N.B.' seems to consider it amusing ; and it does not appear to have occurred to any- body that the tract was one of the numerous frauds of the time, though latterly the British Museum Catalogue (on what authority I am ignorant) has attributed it alternatively to Sir Anthony Weldon, the malevolent Parliamentary libeller of the Scots. The title-page runs as follows :

" A Perfect Description of the People and Country of Scotland. By James Howel, Gent. London. Printed for J. S. 1649."

Thomason has added the date of "June 14" to his copy. 'The Cambridge History of English Literature,' vol. vii., has made the mistake of dating the tract 1659,* instead of 1649.

Howell himself disclaimed the tract in The Moderate Intelligencer for 14-22 June, 1649, as follows :

" There is a book called a description of the people and country of Scotland, published the "ast week, fathered upon Mr. James Howell, but very falsely and wrongfully. This it's desired may be inserted for vindication of that Gentleman."

J. B. WILLIAMS.

MISREADINGS OF MSS. In the review of English Court Hand,' ante, p. 131, it is shown how easily a practised copier may go wrong. May I call attention to one or two nstances within my own experience ? When [ was making extracts from the Durham Account Rolls for the Surtees Society I copied without hesitation " pro molusione clausure voc. Furnace-close, xxd," and again, " pro molusione prati vocat. lez Allers " ; and printed the remark, " Molusio seems now to be a regular thing," ' Durh. Ace. Rolls,' p. 150, 1454-6. Imagining the supposed word to be an early evidence for our word " mulching," I sent the quotations ? or the ' N.E.D.' When they came under