Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/462

 456

NOTES AND QUERIES. ui s. m. JUNE 10, 1911.

WEIGHT OF 1588 (US. iii. 408). EL surmounted by a large crown = Queen Eliza- beth. "1588 A [Anno]"=in the year (sc. of our Lord) 1588. " AR XXX [Anno Regni] "=in the thirtieth year of her reign. JOHN R. MAGRATH.

Queen's College, Oxford.

Surely the inscription " El. 1588 A Ar. XXX." simply means the thirtieth year of Elizabeth, 1588, the year of the Armada.

W. C. B.

CHRISTIAN NAMES USED BY BOTH MEN AND WOMEN (US. iii. 387). The name of my earliest teacher was Christian Bird, her mother bearing the same name. One of the daughters of Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema bears the name of Laurence. Leslie is another name common to both sexes.

WM. H. PEET.

EL SOLTEBO may add Sydney to his list. A country coroner the other day refused to allow that Sydney could possibly be a girl's name. It was, in point of fact, the name of the second wife of the sixth Duke of Manchester, and has been perpetuated in that of her only daughter, Sydney, Countess of Kintore, as well as of her granddaughter, Lady Ethel Sydney Keith-Falconer.

D. O. HUNTER BLAIR.

Fort Augustus.

Sidney and Vivian, with spelling variations Sydney and Vivien, are further names common to both sexes. Hope is another. An aunt of mine was named Christian about eighty -four years ago. E. I. WISDOM.

Sydney may be added: Miss Sydney Owenson (ante, p. 400, col. 2, 1. 28), and more recently Sydney, Duchess of Manchester, wife of Sir S. A. Blackwood. Sidney is also used for men and women.

SYDNEY SAMUEL BAGSTER.

May not the following be added : Syl- vester, Sidney, Jesse or Jessie, and Christian ? I have found many entries of Philip as a girl's name, and in Kent, Bennett and Comfort used indiscriminately ; and Julian from the days of Dr. Harvey to the present Countess of Radnor.

R. J. FYNMORE. Sandgate.

To the list supplied by EL SOLTERO may be added the name of Vernon.

CECIL CLARKE. Junior Athenaeum Club.

The following may be added to the list given : Alison, Hildred, perhaps Lesley, Sydney (e.g., Lady Morgan), Cassie (for a man, see The Times, 24 May, 1911, p. 3, col. 4), and Hilary. M.

One is tempted to wonder whether it is the mere variation of a single letter that has caused the querist to omit the commonest of all such names, Francis or Frances, from the list given. W. McM.

Brevet-Major Caroline Frederick Scott, Royal Artillery, died at Rochester on 21 September, 1794.

Lieut. -General Thomas Ignatius Maria Hog, Madras Artillery, died at Redbridge, near Southampton, on 15 February, 1899.

Col. George Harrison Ann Forbes, Royal Artillery, is still living.

J. H. LESLIE.

COWPER'S ' CHARITY ' : " PORCELAIN " (US. iii. 409). The context shows that the poet's design is to contrast charity in the large philosophic sense with that narrow interpretation of the term which limits it to almsgiving. The truly charitable, he avers with the Apostle, are always well- disposed towards others, while those of the spurious type are utterly selfish and corrupt. To illustrate the baneful influence of the latter tribe he specifies Flavia, who gives of her refuse to the poor, and ruthlessly defames her neighbours. Charity she understands only in the form of alms, if We except her poicelain ornaments, presented, of course, to herself :

Her superfluity the poor supplies,

But if she touch a character, it dies.

The seeming virtue weighed against the vice,

She deems all sate, for she has paid the price :

No Charity but alms aught values she,

Except in porcelain on her mantel-tree.

Porcelain articles would, no doubt, be very expensive in the poet's day, while the self-indulgence proclaimed by their possession would indicate a sharp contrast to his economic habit. THOMAS BAYNE.

The reference in the quotation is pretty obviously to a figure in porcelain (Dresden, Chelsea, or other) of Charity standing on the mantelpiece. JOHN R. MAGRATH.

Queen's College, Oxford.

Flavia will bestow her goods to feed the poor, but she is without true Charity, which she values only in the shape of a china figure on her chimneypiece.

ST. SWITHIN.

[MR. TOM JONES also thanked for reply.]