Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/119

 ii s. m. FEB. 11, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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THE VICTORY : EARLY SHIPS OF THE NAME (US. iii. 68). I quote the following note from the foot of p. 328, vol. ii., 'Eco- nomical History of the Hebrides,' by John Walker, D.D., Professor of Natural History in Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, 1808. The note occurs under the heading * Preserva- tion of Timber ' :

" The Victory man-of-war was built in a hurry, after the battle of Blenheim, of unseasoned timber ; she therefore passed in the Navy by the name of the Green Bough ; and, though a most magnificent, was never accounted a trusty ship. Her loss proved a national disaster, which was ascribed by the most skilful seamen to this original defect."

w. s.

I have before me a few leaves of an old Britannic Magazine, on which is printed a list (taken from the Royal Library) of the English fleet, with the names of the ships and captains serving under Charles, Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral against the Spaniards in 1588.

No. 9 in the list is the Victory, a ship of 800 tons, and a crew of 400 marines, her captain being Sir John Hawkins. Possibly she was the first vessel known by that name. In an excellent series of articles entitled ' Ships of the Royal Navy,' pub- lished in The Hampshire Telegraph a year or two ago, and now in book form, AITCHO will find a very interesting account.

The Victory wrecked off the Casquets, 4 October, 1744, is said to have been built in 1675, and rebuilt at Portsmouth in 1731 not 1721, as cited from Charnock by the querist. F. K. P.

If AITCHO does not know of an earlier Victory than the one mentioned in 1703, he will be interested to learn that this fine old family name was one of honour in the Royal Navy so long ago as 1582. Many familiar names will be found in the short catalogue of the predecessors of the Dreadnought, Swiftsure, Triumph, Revenge, and others, given by Harrison in his ' Elizabethan England ' (Furnivall's edition, " Scott Library," p. 231). P. A. MCELWAINE.

Dublin.

" LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG " (11 S. ii. 522 ; iii. 51). I am not surprised that objection is made to what I said at the first reference as to Aristotle's statement concerning the ages of dogs. WERNERINA (ante, p. 52) has been led astray by trusting to a poor translation of the Greek original. The whole passage is quoted by Samuel Clarke in his ' Homeri Odyssea, Grsece et Latine '

(6th ed., vol. ii., p. 126), under 11. 326-7 of the seventeenth book of that poem, which describe the death of Argos. The first sentence, to which a simple allusion was made, is important, and should have been given in full. " The male of the Laconian dogs lives ten years, and the female about twelve," says the philosopher. It will be noticed that he attributes greater longevity to the female. He then continues : " But most females [at TrAetcrrai] of other dogs live about 14 or 15 years, a few [cvtcu note the gender] even 20 ; wherefore some persons [rtves] think that Homer was correct when he made the dog of Ulysses [rbv Kvva TOV 'OoWcrews] die in his 20th year " (Aristot., ' De Hist. Animal.,' lib. vi. cap. 20). Being a dog, Argos could not have attained to such an age ; therefore Aristotle, according to his own teaching, could not have come to such a lame and impotent conclusion as the one he mentions.

In Clarke's * Homeri Odyssea,' at the same reference as given above, is quoted the opinion of ^lian, who roundly declares that " the Argos of Ulysses and the story about him [the dog] seem to be one of Homer's puerilities." The same writer states that " the greatest age of a dog is 14 years " (' De Animal,' lib. vi. cap. 40). This must have been one of the instances Horace had in mind when he wrote Indignor, quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus.

JOHN T. CURRY.
 * De Arte Poetica, 1 359.

" Le Livre des Proverbes Frangais, pr6- ced6 de recherches historiques .... parJM. Le Roux de Lincy, seconde edition," fc _1859, has the following :

Tome i. p. 170, in Serie No. IV. : Qui m'aime il aime mon chien.

(Anc. prov., Ms.) XIII* siecle. (Prov. communs.) XV* siecle.

" On dit qui m'aime aime mon chien."

(Trlsor de Jeh. de Meung, vers 1,667.) XIII* siecle.

Tome ii. p. 481 :

Qi me eyme erne mon chen.

The last is in " Appendice No. III. Pro- verbes de Fraunce, d'apres un manuscrlt de Cambridge du Corpus Christi College. (Extraits communiques par M. Francisque Michel.)" LZ1

The Latin " Qui amat me, amat & canem meum," is given in the ' Adagia ' of Erasmus and others, 1599, col. 1984.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.