Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/293

 ii s. iv. OCT. 7, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

287

J. Gaming Walters, ' The Lost Land of King Arthur '(1909).

Henry Sharpe, ' Britain B.C., as described in Classical Writings ' (? 1910).

RONALD DIXON.

46, Marlborough Avenue, Hull.

WYMONDLEY TRADITION AND JULIUS CAESAR. The celebrated chestnut tree, esti- mated to be between 600 and 800 years old, which stands in the field adjoining Wymond- ley Bury, and was illustrated by Gilpin in his ' Forest Scenery,' 1789, has a tradition attached to it. It is to the effect that the tree was planted by Julius Caesar in B.C. 55 to mark the extent of his first invasion of Britain.

This belief seems worthy of some investiga- tion, as oral tradition nearly always pos- sesses some basis of fact. Csesar, we are told, remained in Britain on the first occa- sion some three weeks only, so it is scarcely possible that he could have advanced so far northwards as this. His camp was in the neighbourhood of the South Foreland, where his fleet lay at anchor.

His second invasion took place the follow- ing year (B.C. 54) : he landed in March, took among other places Verulamium, and returned home in September. It seems quite possible that he did not march further east than Wymondley, and he may have erected some sort of a boundary mark, perhaps of earth, to indicate the extent of his conquest, and the tree in question may stand near the site of it. W. B. GEBISH.

Bishop's Stortford.

' CJESAR'S DIALOGUE, 1601. A rare book is named as among the Church goods of St. Columb, Cornwall, in 1601. In the accounts I find : " one booke called Cesar's Dyologe, one new booke of prayer for the fastinge and cominge to Church on the Wednesday."

This reference to the ' Dialogue ' is the only one I know in parish accounts, and its occurrence may be worth noting. The full title is ' Caesar's Dialogue ; or, a Familiar Consultation, containing the first Institu- tion of a Subject, in allegiance to his Sove- raigne,' London, 1601. On the title-page is " Give therefore to Caesar," &c. The Preface (16 pp.) is signed E. N. ; the * Dialogue ' (on the subject of sedition) runs to 132 pp. The B.M. Catalogue gives E. Nisbet as author.

YGBEC.

" AS DARK AS A STACK OP BLACK CATS " is an expression used by the boatmen of Western America, meaning very dark.

O. H. DARLINGTON.

Pittsburg, Pa.

(SJmms.

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.

"I AM PAID REGULAR WAGES ": THE

PASSIVE WITH AN OBJECT. The sentence " I am paid regular wages " is a curious construction for various reasons. First, for its want of logicalness. Prof. Th. Peck in ' What is Good English ? ' condemns it as "a preposterous locution." It is a passive construction with an object, a thing otherwise unheard of mT grammar. That the part after the verb is such is asserted by Prof. A. Smith, who in his ' Studies in English Syntax ' says :

A man who had adopted two children, Robert

was given ner by ner guardian. To my objective is the only case possible, he and she being absolutely un-English."

The him and her sound to my ear un-English too, but I must leave the responsibility for them to the American scholar.

Grammarians have tried to account for the construction by supposing a misunder- standing of an older one : me wees gegiefen an &6fc = "to me was given a book." The position of the dative in front of the predi- cate, which is the usual place of the subject, led they say to its being taken for the subject ; it was therefore changed to /. The position of book immediately after the predicate that is, in the usual place of the object led to its being taken for the object.

Misunderstandings are common in every language. But one must ask oneself why such a simple construction as the above could ever be misinterpreted, even by very plain minds. And if such a thing ever happened, how came it that the original and logical one was kept by the side of the new one ? It is still good English to say " a book was given to me," and this is by many regarded as the better English. The frequent hearing of this should preserve anybody from misunderstanding clear sen- tences.

But this is not all. Why has the con- struction been restricted to a score of verbs : accord, afford, allow, ask, give, hand, make ("I was made amends"), offer, pardon, pay, promise, refuse, show, spare, teach, tell, and a few more ? Why is one