Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/136

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NOTES AND QUERIES. en s. m. FEB. is, mi.

Htpltas.

SIR CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE. (US. iii. 81.)

I MAY perhaps be allowed to amplify a little the very interesting obituary notice written by MB. JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS. He remarks that " it is curious that it should have been thought that he [Dilke] lacked a sense of humour." I quite agree with MB. FBANCIS that this is a mistake. Though I cannot claim to have been intimate with Sir Charles, I knew him for a good many years. One day in the smoking-room at the House of Commons some four or five of us, he being one, were talking about such few witty men as there were in the House. I remember that Dilke said : "I dare say you fellows will be surprised when I tell you who, in my opinion, is the wittiest man in the House Rasch." This was said probably about eight years ago.

I am not sure that I quite agreed with Dilke, but certainly Sir Carne Rasch was, at the least, one of the wittiest. His wit was subtle and dry, and his speeches, always very short, were delivered without nourish and with hardly a vestige of a smile ; but I think that he could put as much caustic into a few words as any man whom I ever heard. Most certainly Dilke had a real sense of humour in this appreciation.

Being very industrious, he was an encyclo- paedia as to the current business of the House of Commons. It naturally happened to me pretty often to receive a letter from a con- stituent inquiring about such and such a Bill, and asking questions thereon. I regret to say that it sometimes happened that I had never heard, or seen, anything of the Bill excepting possibly the title. If I was fortunate enough to meet with Dilke, I used to tell him of the inquiry and ask for information. I do not think that I was ever disappointed. He would tell me what the Bill was about and its objects. In answer to my question, " Well, what am I to say ? " he would reply (I was on the other side of the House), " From your point of view you should say " so-and-so and so-and-so.

A good many years ago I received from a man living at Limasol, Cyprus, who had, or thought he had, a grievance, a terribly long letter written in Greek. I forget whether it was written to Dilke or to me. At all events, there was a request, perhaps in a covering letter written by some one in

English, that I should lay the letter before Dilke (AtA^i;). I either did so or told him of it. It was not the first communication which he had had from the aggrieved man. He said : " Write to him and tell him to write a short letter, and to get some one to translate it into English before he sends it." " But," said I, " the man can't write a short letter." Dilke replied : "Of course, I know he can't that's my artfulness." Surely here was no lack of humour.

I have a memory of a dinner-party at the Garrick Club given by our late 'editor Joseph Knight, "bon chivaler preu et vaillant." Dilke was there, and was one of the stars of a delightful evening. When he chose to dismiss business from his mind, as to which he was very serious, he was an admirable talker. ROBEBT PIEBPOINT.

"TEWKE," " TUKE " (11 S. iii. 87). I think that this word is perhaps identical with obsolete French " teuque, tuque, awn- ing," though I can quote no example of the latter that is not considerably later than the English word. Jal (' Glossaire Nautique') gives the forms ten (1667), teugue (1687), tugue, tuque (1671). The original meaning, according to Jal, is " awning," but the name, is applied later to various deck-houses. Falconer ('Marine Dictionary,' 1771) gives teugue and tugue, but without explanation.

Lescallier (' Vocabulaire des Termes de Marine,' 1777) has " tugue, the poop of a frigate, an accomodation at the stern of French frigates on the quarter-deck, con- taining two cabbins for the captain and the first lieutenant," and " toile de tugue, a canvas covering for the poop of a frigate." Boyer (' French-Eng. Diet.,' 1702) has " tuque, a tarpaulin, or tarpawling," which is reproduced by Ludwig (' Eng.-French-Ger. Diet.,' 1706). It is also in Littr6, but merely copied from Jal.

The earliest dictionary example I have found is in Miege (1688) :

" Tuque, c'est ainsi qu'on appelle une espece de faux tillac, ou de couverte, qu'on fait de caillebotis ou de simples barreaux ; et qu'on eleve au devant de la dunette sur quatre ou six piliers, pour se mettre a 1'abri du soleil et de la pluie."

This is probably copied, like the rest of Miege, from Richelet (1680).

Furetiere (1727) gives the variant tuque and a similar explanation ; he also notes that " les tugues de charpente sont deffendues, parce qu'elles rendent le vaisseau trop pesant, au lieu de quoy on se sert de tentes," which