Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/361

11 s. m. MAY G, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

355 German Lairdie' was not in existence in the time of Burns. At all events, in the 1847 edition of Cunningham's 'Poems and Songs' his son Peter Cunningham, who edited the book, expressly claimed 'The Wee Wee German Lairdie' as his father's production.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (11 S. i. 50, 113, 155, 216). No. 3 of MR. DE VILUEBS'S quotations, " Recte faciendo neminem timeas," looks like a reminiscence or a variation of the adage

Si tu recta facis, ne cures verba malorum, given by W. Binder (* Novus Thesaurus Adagiorum Latinorum ' ) as No. 90 of the ' Monosticha ' of Columbanus. This again resembles iii. 3 of Dionysius Cato,

Cum recte vivas, ne cures verba inalorum ; Arbitrii non est nostri, quid quisque loquatur.

As, according to MB. DE VILLIEBS, his author "quoted pretty freely in two senses," it may be that no closer identification of No. 3 is possible. EDWABD BENSLY.

JAMES GBANT OF BENGAL (11 S. iii. 229). In bibliographies where his book is men- tioned he is usually designated " late Serishtadar of Bengal." The word " Serish- tadar ' ' is said to mean ' { the head ministerial officer of a court whose duty it is to receive plaints, and see that tney are in proper form and duly stamped ; and generally to attend to routine business," See the definition in made to Mr. Grant's appointment. It is not known for certain with which of the numerous Grant families he was connected. A James Grant graduated at Aberdeen Uni- versity in 1773. He was a, son of the minister of Logie-Urquhart, Ross-shire. See ' Officers and Graduates of University and King's College, Aberdeen,' edited for the New Spalding Club by Mr. P. J. Anderson. Another James Grant from Elginshire gradu- ated in 1775. W. SCOTT.
 * Hobson-Jobson,' p. 626, where reference is

4 THE YAHOO ' : WILLIAM WATTS (10 S. xii. 130, 177, 275). Since my previous reply I have been endeavouring to identify Wm. Watts, the author of ' The Yahoo,' but without result. I have, however, been favoured with the following information by Mr. Chas. W. F. Goss, the learned librarian of the Bishopsgate Institute.

In TheAgnostic Journal of 5 January, 1889, p. 14, G. J. Holyoake writes that "the author of ' The Yahoo' was Watts, William \Yutts if I remember rightly. He was a watch- maker or jeweller at Lewes, Sussex where they

burnt ten heretics on gridirons in one day. This probably gave the author of ' The Yahoo ' a distaste for Christianity. Watts lived to a good old age. He is said to have been ninety at his death, which occurred about 1846.... If any directory of Lewes exists now, his residence can be traced. His brother I knew well."

Then Mr. Goss says :

" Mr. Holyoake had good reason for making this statement, for I have before me, at the moment of writing, a letter from Mr. Watts, lent me by Mrs. Holyoake-Marsh, as follows :

45, Cirencester Place, Fitzroy Square. (Undated, but 1846.)

SIB, Should you have any desire to reprint the ' Paradise Lost ' by the author of ' The Yahoo,' I shall have much pleasure in presenting you with a copy for that purpose.

I am, Sir, yours truly,

W 7. WATTS.

" In the Court section of the Post Office Directory for 1846 the name of William Watts appears as occupant of 45, Cirencester Place. This then would probably be the house at which he died according to Holyoake. The name does not appear in the 1847 Directory. William Watts's brother was also well known to Mr. Holyoake, for when he died he left Mr. Holyoake a legacy of 20 or 40, but Holyoake writes that he never had it. It required some legal pro- cedure to procure, and as he could not take an oath, he had to let the bequest ' slide.' Between the years 1843-50 Holyoake and Watts frequently met each other to drink black tea and smoke, at the house of the latter ' in a street off Burton Crescent.' "

Since I received the above information I have twice searched for the probate of Watts's will, but without result. Search on this information has also kindly been made officially, but the reply is that " the information furnished is insufficient to enable it to be "ascertained definitely whether any grant of representation was obtained to the deceased. A careful search of the official in- dices for some years subsequent to the date suggested leads to the supposition that no such grant was obtained."

RALPH THOMAS.

THE CONFESSION OF Louis XVI. (11 S. iii. 185). Father Francois L. Hebert was a Eudist, or a member (in fact the Superior) of the Society of Jesus and Mary, instituted at Caen 25 March, 1643, by the Blessed Jean Eudes, and not a Jesuit, as is suggested by A. B. G.

Father Charles Lebrun, C.J.M., S.T.D., Superior of the Holy Heart Seminary, Halifax, Nova Scotia, writes in ' The Catholic En- cyclopaedia,' v. 597, as follows :

" During the French Revolution, three Eudistst Fathers Hebert, Potier, and Lefranc, perisjied at Paris in the massacres of September, 1792. The cause of their beatification with that of some other victims of September has been introduced