Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/173

 us. viii. Arc, 30, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

167

"J'AI ACCEPTE LA GUERRE D'UN CCEUR

LGER." Concerning M. Ollivier's famous phrase, "We accept the responsibility [of the war of 1870] with a light heart," the remarks of The Times in its issue for 22 Aug. may be worth recording :

" In after years M. Ollivier always used to quote on this subject Littre^s definition of the word ' le*ger ' ' qui n'accable pas par un poids moral ' ; and he used to add : ' I have therefore been as irreproachable from the grammatical as from the moral point of view ' . . . .* J'ai accept^ la guerre d'un cceur leger, c'est & dire d'un cceur que n'accablait pas un poids moral.' "

W. CLARK THOMLINSON. Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

JOHNSON'S ' LIVES OF THE POETS.' (See ante, p. 101.) MR. FREDERIC TURNER, in his interesting note on Stephen Duck at the above reference, credits Isaac Reed, on the evidence of Boswell, with being the most useful voluntary helper with these bio- graphies. An examination of Add. MS. .5159 at the British Museum will show that John Nichols the printer- antiquary is entitled to equal credit. It is possible that Feed's assistance was recruited by Nichols, who is constantly appealed to by the Doctor to obtain further information.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

DODEKANISA. Several Paris journals have recently applied the name Dodecanese to those ^Egean Islands situated along the east coast of Asia Minor which were occupied by the Italians during their war with Turkey and conquest of Libya last year. It may perhaps be worth observing that this is a topographical misnomer, and that Dode- kanisa, i.e., the group of 12 islands, was always commonly understood to signify and describe the ancient Cyclades, which comprise a Nomos or province of the king- dom of Greece since it was liberated and constituted nearly a century ago. Let me quote the following brief statement from the ' Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIX e Siecle,' ed. P. Larousse, tome v. p. 706 (pub. in 1869), which will render this fact evident :

" Lea ' Cyclades ' furent connues, sous 1'empire

Byzantin, sous le nom ' Dodecaneses.' Apres la

' Croisade elles furent e>igees en chichi en faveur

du V^mtien Marc Sanudo. Elle formentaujourd'hui

une Nomarchie du royaume de Grece."

also the name Dodekanisa applied to the Cyclades in J. Arrowsmith's great London Atlas (in the map of ' Turkey in Europe ' pub. in 1842). *H. KREBS.

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.

HON. JAMES BRUCE OF BARBADOS, died 19 Sept., 1749 (Gent. Mag.). Who was he ? Robert Bruce, first Earl of Aylesbury and second Earl of Elgin, had eight sons, of whom, we are told, three only Thomas, Robert, and James survived him. Thomas succeeded him in the peerage, and lived till 1741, in his eighty-sixth year. The Peerages are silent as to the fate of his two brothers. Robert was successively M.P. for Ludgershall. Maryborough, and Great Bedwin, and died 19 May, 1729. James sat for Bedwin, 1702-5, and Maryborough, 1708-10, after which he disappears.

W. D. PINK.

OLD NOVEL WANTED. Can any one help me to the name of a novel which describes the old " Star Inn" at Lewes, and the vaults underneath where the martyrs were con- fined before being burnt ?

It is not ' Ovingdean Grange.' Apropos of Ainsworth's book, was the title " Mock- beggar's Hall" bestowed on Zachary Trang- mar's house only in derision, or was it known by that name at any other period ?

There are several " Mockbeggars " in Kent. Were they possibly also nicknames ?

J. D. Camoys Court, Barcombe.

R ABEL'S DROPS. The Prologue to Mrs.

Behn's ' Rover,' pt. i., 1677, has the following

lines :

RdbePs Drops were never more cry'd down By all the Leanied Doctors of the Town, Than a New Play.

Obviously " Rabel's Drops " are some fashionable quackery of the day. Is there any other allusion to Rabel and his medicines in contemporary literature, or is anything known of him ? M. S.

PICTURES OF PENINSULAR BATTLES. Are there any paintings (contemporary or otherwise) representing the later actions of the Peninsular War (Nive, Nivelle, Orthez, Toulouse, Bayonne) in public or private jalleries in or around London ? and, if so, where may they be found ? I noticed some vague allusion to the Balkan dele- gates holding their sittings in St. James's Palace in a room in which were hung pictures of some of Wellington's victories,