Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/219

 ii s. vm. SEPT. is, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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were required, but after that a great change was made. The choristers are now, I believe, twenty in number, and have to pay fees. Hence they can be drawn only from amongst boys whose parents can afford the fees, and I really do not think that the tone and power of the voices is so good as it was in the days when the boys were fewer in number, but had to pay no fees. The lay clerks were increased to twelve in 1869.

W. A. FROST, Vicar Choral, St. Paul's Cathedral.

" BUDS OF MARJORAM " (11 S. viii. 169). Sir Sidney Lee in a note to 1. 7 of Sonnet XCIX. says :

" Buds of marjoram are dark purple red ; the flowers are pink. Marjoram was best known as an ingredient of scent, and it is probably the perfume of this flower rather than its colour which the poet associates with his friend's hair. On the other hand, dark auburn hair might perhaps be poetically described as ' marjoram coloured.' See Suckling's ' Tragedy of Brennoralt,' IV. i. 155 : ' Hair (of a girl) curling and cover'd like buds of marjoram,' where ' cover'd ' is probably a misprint for ' color'd.' "

Prof. Dowden quotes the passage from Suckling ; and Dean Beeching adds :

" The passage from Suckling is, of course, only a reminiscence of this line in the sonnet, and does not carry us any further. I have a bunch of half -opened marjoram before me as I write ; and the colour is that of the pigment known as ' brown madder.' The context shows that it is the ' colour,' and not, as some have thought, the ' shape,' that is referred to."

Mr. George Wyndharn cites Dowden with Mr. H. C. Hart's suggestion " that the mar- joram has stolen, not colour but perfume from the young man's hair." Mr. Wyndharn continues :

' The Guide into Tongues ' quotes Gerard : ' planta est pdorata tota,' and the clean, aromatic scent of this sweet-herb counted, no doubt, for something in suggesting the simile, but the quota- tion from Suckling gives the more direct clue. The illustration is, primarily, from the fresh, close-leaved spike of marjoram with the crisp bunch of little buds at its summit. Cf. ' Two Noble Kinsmen ' :

His head 's yellow, Hard hayr'd, and curl'd, thicke twind, like ivv-

tops, Not to undoe with thunder "

Mrs. C. C. Stopes, commenting on this passage, says :

" Prof. Dowden supposes the friend's hair dark red, like the buds of marjoram. But it also refers to the curl at the tip, and possibly to the perfume."

A. K. BAYLEY.

"To PULL ONE'S LEG" (11 S. vii. 508; viii. 58, 158). This must be a comparatively modern expression, as it does not seem to be recorded in Farmer and Henley's ' Slang and its Analogues.' It often was employed in India some forty years ago, and I remem- ber on one occasion I was calling, in com- pany with a friend, on a young lady who had recently arrived at Calcutta, and was, of course, in the first stage of her grimnhood. My friend, who was a Yorick in his way, could not refrain from telling her some tall stories, to which she listened in rapt astonishment. At last she jibbed at some Munchausen anecdote : " Oh, Capt. C. ! I really cannot believe that ! " " No, Miss A., you know I was only pulling your leg." "Pulling my leg, Capt. C. !" ex- claimed the shocked fair one. "Indeed you were not, for I had them both under my chair ! " Solvuntur tabuke.

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

SOME IRISH FAMILY HISTORIES (11 S. vii. 483 ; viii. 124, 173). Among the printed accounts of Irish families no mention has yet been made of

Notes and Documents relating to the Family of Loffroy, of Cambray prior to 1587, of Canter- bury 1587-1779, now chiefly represented by the Families of Lefroy of Carriglass, co. Longford, Ireland, and of Itchel, Hants ; with branches in Australia and Canada. Being a Contribution to the History of Foreign Protestant Refugees, by a Cadet. (Sir John Henry Lefroy, F.B.S.) Woolwich : Printed at the Press of the Royal Artillery Institution. For Private Circulation. MDCCCLXVIII. Folio.

JOHN R. MAGRATH.

Queen's College, Oxford.

Mr. Richard J. Kelly, B.L., Hon. Secre- tary of the Galway Antiquarian and Archaeo- logical Society, has from time to time written short accounts of Galway families, which have been published in The Tuam Herald. In 1888 a ' History of Tuam ' was appearing in the paper, and those parts published in January and December of that year con- tained notices of the Tully and Kirwan families. Possibly this * History of Tuam * has been since separately printed in book- form. F. P. LEYBURN YARKER.

Cambridge.

CORPORATION OF ST. PANCRAS, CHI- CHESTER (11 S. viii. 168). If MR. MAC- ARTHUR will refer to vol. xxiv. of the Sussex Archaeological Collections, on p. 135 he will find a full account of the origin and history of this curious society, which I contributed to that volume. E. E. STREET.

Chichester.