Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/235

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

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until he considered that he had supplied the defect. 'Now,' he remarked on entering, 'now I am in a position to continue the discussion.'"

Who was this " well - known French

theorist " ?

P. C. G.

GBAY'S ' DEATH OF RICHARD WEST ' : " COMPLAIN." In the Aldine edition of Gray's ' Poems,' p. 90, we read :

To warm their little loves the birds complain. Can any of your readers suggest a meaning ?

J. M.

[The birds court their mates by singing in springtime. " Complain " we take to be a Latinism, as in the "Dulce queruntur aves" of Ovid.]

SELDEN'S ' TABLE TALK ' : " FORCE." In Selden's ' Table Talk,' under the heading ' Creed,' what is meant by " force " in the second line, described as not a part of the Athanasian Creed ? J. M.

' GUESSES AT TRUTH ' : CONTRIBUTORS. From the preface to ' Guesses at Truth ' it would appear that only the two brothers Augustus and Julius Hare contributed to the making of them. Yet I find short, pithy, dithyrambic dicta signed " T.," " O. L.," " L.," and one or two longer notes signed "a," also "A." and " R." Were there other contributors ? If so, who were they ? How was the work originally pro- duced ? M. L. R. BRESLAR.

Percy House, South Hackney.

" DURING," " NOTWITHSTANDING," &c. I wish to raise a point of grammar which is not free from difficulty. English gram- marians usually class during among preposi- tions, and notwithstanding among adverbs or conjunctions. In each case the word is taken immediately from the Latin, through the law-books, as durante bene- placito, during good pleasure ; durante viduitate, during widowhood; non obstante veredicto, notwithstanding the verdict. Now I should say that, when a word is thus literally transferred, it cannot change its grammatical character in the act of transfer, and therefore that during and notwithstanding furnish instances of the case absolute, which is certainly not extinct.

With these may be classed except, in such sentences as Milton's

God and his son except, Created thing not valued he, nor shunn'd : that is, Deo ac Filio exceptis ; and Acts xxvi. 29, " except these bonds," exceptis vinculis his. Save comes within the same category, as in the phrase salvo contene- mento.

If it be urged that notwithstanding some- times occurs as the equivalent of never- theless, the answer is that any such case involves an ellipsis.

Perhaps some reader who has made a study of grammars can tell us who intro- duced the classification, which has long been popular. RICHARD H. THORNTON.

36, Upper Bedford Place, W.C.

CHAS. CARDALE BABINGTON. Are any particulars relating to his birth at Ludlow given in the 'Memorials of Charles Cardale Babington,' published in 1897 ?

I have seen the notice of Babington in the Supplement to the ' D.N.B.'

J. K.

Brighton.

" SCAMMEL "= TO TREAD ON. In a road at Lustleigh, on the borders of Dartmoor, a snake was seen wriggling across, when an old woman called loudly to a lady who was passing, " Don't 'ee scammel tap o'en."

When I lived at Exminster, the farm carter came to report himself for not going on duty one morning. He hobbled into my office, and was evidently in pain. " What is the matter, Ponsford ? " I asked. " Oh, doctor, th' ole mare has scammelled 'pon un," he said, referring to his foot. He was a native of Dunsford on the Teign.

What is the derivation of this word, and is it used in any other county than Devon- shire ? G. SYMES SAUNDERS, M.D. 5, Burlington Place, Eastbourne.

LIEUT. C. GORDON URQUHART. Could any of your readers tell me where and when Lieut. Charles Gordon Urquhart of Braelang- well was married, and where his daughter Lilias was born ? C. G. Urquhart was a cornet in the 2nd Dragoons from 1811 to 1814; a lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade from 1814 to 1822 ; and for some months in 1823 he was in the 84th Foot. D. W. G.

JOHN RAINE, c. 1783. At Edlingham, near Alnwick, on 16 September, 1783, Mr. John Raine of Gray's Inn, Middlesex, married Mary Baty, daughter of the vicar there, by licence. Can some reader give me information as to John Raine' s family and career ? A. CARRINGTON.

Northam, N. Devon.

" KNIPPERDOLING " : " NINNY-BROTH " : ' HUDIBRAS REDIVIVUS.' What may be the meaning of " Knipperdoling," which is in a line from * Hudibras Redivivus,' a pam- phlet published in 1708 ? Some lines later