Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/23

 ii s. iv. JULY i, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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and the Chimera, Perseus and the sea- monster, reappear in Christian hagiology and art in the legends of St. Michael, St. George, and a score of other saints.

D. O. HUNTER BLAIR. Fort Augustus.

FORBES OF SKELLATER (11 S. iii. 467). The ' Dictionary of National Biography ' is wrong. The father of General John Forbes (1733-1808) of the Portuguese Army and Governor of Rio de Janeiro was, as the Minneapolis querist states, George Forbes of Skellater. A biography of the general has been written by Dr. Neil under the title of of Fortune,' published by Wyllie & Son, Aberdeen, 1902. G. S. F.
 * Ian Roy of Skellater : a Scottish Soldier

MILTON AND THE COMPANY OF COOPERS (11 S. i. 244). MR. W. R. B. PRIDEAUX'S reference to a list of London citizens pub- lished by me through Messrs. Hutchings & Romer last year has heretofore escaped my attention. In the course of my com- mentary upon the names of various citizens, I drew attention to that of one John Milton, and suggested a possible identity of the citizen and of the poet. That I was in error was demonstrated in the Congrega- tional Historical Society's Transactions, vol. iv. No. 5. In that issue the Rev. T. C. Crippen shows reason to attribute the signature of John Milton in Harleian MS. 4778 to John Milton of St. Dunstan's-in- the-East, Captain, and afterwards Major, of the Trained Bands.

Having thus acquitted myself of the task of indicating my error, I may be permitted to add that my unfortunate remark that " John Milton, if a cooper, had the oppor- tunity of earning a respectable livelihood, but preferred to become a schoolmaster and a poet," should have been distinguished in some fashion as partly a " joke." I deeply regret that I should have dealt in any frivolous manner with a subject so utterly destitute of humour as the personality of John Milton. THE COMPILER OF

'LONDON CITIZENS OF 1651.'

B AND G CONFUSED IN DOMESDAY AND FEUDAL AIDS (US. iii. 443). Such errors can only be scribal, and the bunch of six Bulled by MR. HAMBLEY ROWE from the MS. of the Feudal Aid of 1306 is extremely interesting. The error got into print very early, and in the ' Morte d' Arthur ' we find " Grandegoris " and " Grastias " colliding with " Brandegoris " and " Brastias." It even survived 'down to'modern times : for

in the seventeenth-century copy of the 'Cog- nacio Brichani,' Cotton MS. Domitian I., the Old Welsh word bratauc, " treacherous," is written grutauc (where the first u :: a) ; and in one place in this tract the name of Brichan appears as grichan.

In the ' Vita Patricii ' in the ' Hist or ia Brittonum ' the Cotton MS. Caligula A. VIII. (scr. c. 1152) presents the ghost-word agrecoria. In this -grec- stands for the -bget- of " abgetoria," i.e., abecedaria. More- over, all MSS. of this ' Vita ' have Segerus for *Seberus, i.e., Severus (episco- pus ?).

In the ' Historia Brittonum ' itself all MSS. collated by Mommsen give Argabaste (cap. xxix.) for Arbogaste ; while the Harley MS. of the ' Historia Brittonum,' which was written not very long after Domesday Book, actually has grittones once (cap. xxviii.) for Brittones. ALFRED ANSCOMBE.

"O. K." (11 S. iii. 266, 390, 458). I remember being told some years ago of an amusing incident which happened in a City law court. An American was being much worried in cross-examination by a K.C. as to the precise meaning of the letters O. K. At last he replied : " Well, I guess O. K. means ' all correct,' just as you might say K.C., ' conceited cuss.' '

SHERBORNE.

Sherborne House, Northleach.

PETER THE GREAT'S PORTRAIT (11 S. iii. 447). It is stated in the ' Life of Peter the Great' in "Murray's Family Library" that William III. persuaded the Czar to sit for his portrait to Sir Godfrey Kneller, and that this portrait, of which an engraving appears as a frontispiece to the "Family Library " volume, was hung at Windsor Castle. A later authority, however, assigns it to Hampton Court.

If this portrait be the only one ever taken of Peter the Great, it must have been fre- quently engraved. There is an engraving by J. F. Bause, another by P. de Gunst, and another by J. C. Edwards, the latter two being engraved from Kneller' s portrait.

W. SCOTT.

PIGTAILS IN THE BRITISH ARMY (11 S. iii. 466). The General Order " to dispense with the use of queues until further orders " was dated Horse Guards, 20 July, 1808. See ' Curiosities of War,' by Thomas Carter, Adjutant -General's Office, published in 1860, p. 184. How the order was received on -24 July by the 28th Regiment is shown by Carter from a "Narrative of the Cam-