Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/273

 ii s. iv. SEPT. 30, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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WASPS FORECASTING THE WEATHER.

In the treatise on ' British Social Wasps,' by Mr. Ormerod, M.D., the second edition of which appeared in 1868, there is a prophecy of a dry summer in the immediate future, based on the conduct of wasps. In many parts of England similar prognostications might have been made in the present year. A gamekeeper long ago told Mr. Ormerod that the height above the water at which wasps make their nests is a rough index to the rain that is expected to fall during the summer. In a rainy season they make their nests at the top of a bank ; when, on the contrary, it is to be an uncommonly dry year, they do their work near the water- level.

From what we have heard elsewhere from other persons, it seems probable that there is much truth in the above statement.

ASTARTE.

" IN SPITE OF HIS TEETH." The following appears to be a very early illustration of this common expression, if I am right in so translating it. The passage occurs in a Plea Roll of 1 Hen. V. A certain man had been hung up in a peculiar way to extort from him the whereabouts of his brother, whom it was sought to kill, and the entry concludes thus :

" Et eum susperisum detinuerunt quousque ipse essenciam predict! Thome t'ratris sui invitis ejus dentibus detegebat."

C. SWYNNERTON.

" SNIPING " : EARLY INSTANCES. It may be of interest to note that the military phrase origin, as is commonly supposed. It occurs in the military dispatches of the Nepaul War, 1814-16 ; and I have come across it three times in a private diary of the first Mahratta War, 1803-6. It seems to be used in these instances as an ordinary expression, and probably dates from a more remote period.
 * ' sniping " is not of comparatively recent

H. BIDDULPH, Capt. R.E. [An example of its use as early as 1773 was cited by Sm HERBERT MAXWELL at 9 S. xi. 434. See also "Snipers" and "Sniping," 8 S. xii. 128, 150, 237, 438 ; 9 S. xi. 308.1

HELLINGS FAMILY. In Hull there is a family of this curious name, the father and uncle of which came from South Devonshire coast towns.

The Morning Leader of 21 February last also records the marriage on 16 February, at St. Nicholas's Church, Brighton, of " Stanley Clifford, third son of Edward

Hellings, of Oaklands, Dyke Avenue, Brighton, to Norah Katharine, third daugh- ter of the late W. H. Brigden, of Oaklands, Hassocks, and of Mrs. Brigden."

RONALD DIXON. 46, Maryborough Avenue, Hull.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

" SELFIST." I remember having, pro- bably more than forty years ago, read in some modern book a quotation from a seventeenth- century writer, worded (as nearly as I can recollect) as follows : " The divisions among mankind proceed from their being all of one sect, namely, Selfists." My impression was that the quotation occurred in one of Archbishop Trench's works, and that the same book contained the following amusing example of the odd interpretations to which the expressions of old writers are rendered liable by changes in the lan- guage : "There is scarce any man who doth not sometimes allow himself a more ostentatious carriage, a more liberal pro- portion of port, than strict reason would justify." However, Trench's books have been searched for the passages in vain. I should be glad if any correspondent would tell me in what book they are quoted.

I should also be grateful for any early examples of the word selfist ; the material collected for the Dictionary contains only one instance earlier than the nineteenth century (1649, from a translation of Beh- men). The ' Imperial ' and ' Century ' Dic- tionaries give a reference to " Jer. Taylor," but this seems to be miscopied from the ' Webster ' of 1864, which has correctly " I. Taylor " (i.e., Isaac Taylor, ' Nat. Hist. of Enthusiasm,' 1829).

HENRY BRADLEY.

Oxford.

MCCLELLAND OF NORTH DAKOTA. A John McClelland died in North Dakota about 1898 or 1900 ; his property was divided among relatives in England and Ireland.

1. Did he hold the rank of military captain during the American War of the sixties ? I have seen the photograph, and read a short account, of a Capt. John McClelland in the number of Blue and Grey for June, 1895.