Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/359

 ii s. iv. OCT. 28, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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in parts, but I have a bound copy, and, on comparing it with the description given by Messrs. Maggs, found that it agreed with it in every particular. I do not think that so full an account of this scarce book has been given in any bibliography of Dickens ; and if this should meet the eye of Messrs. Maggs, I think they would render a useful service to collectors if, with the Editor's permission, they reproduced it in the pages of ' N. & Q.,' instead of allowing it to remain among the more ephemeral contents of a catalogue. So far as I can judge from the description given by MB. ROBERT PIER- POINT, the two copies of ' Pickwick ' in his possession with the date 1837 on the title- page probably belong to the first issue.

W. F. PRIDEATTX.

An interesting paper by Mr. Percy Fitz- gerald in The Academy of the 30th of last month, entitled ' Pickwick Riddles,' dis- cusses the readings of the dates 1817 and 1827, and explains the difficulties experienced, by Dickens in reconciling their connexion. A second paper in the issue of the 7th inst. deals with further curious " noddings " as Mr. Fitzgerald happily puts it in the book. ROLAND AUSTIN.

Gloucester Public Library.

In the first edition Lord Mutanhed at Bath uses the highly offensive expletive " Crucify me." In a later edition this was changed to " Crush me " ; but it is now restored to its original form.

The chapter in which the scene occurs is XXXIV. in some editions, and XXXV. in others. F. VERISOPHT.

HICKS FAMILY (11 S. iv. 89). I believe that the Hicks boys who went to West- minster School were members of the well- known family of that name. Let me suggest that the volume of Mrs. W. Hicks Beach which is called ' A Cotswold Family ' should be consulted, especially pp. 256-62. W. P. COURTNEY.

GYP'S ' PETIT BOB ' : " ROBE EN TOILE A VOILE" (11 S. iv. 170, 214). I am much obliged to ST. SWITHIN for his kind attempt to solve the problem ; possibly the garment was an overall, or a tunic. But did tunics exist then ? I think that in England they were not reintroduced until a much later date. On the other hand, overalls certainly were used in the early eighties ; I remember wearing a brown holland one, although I do not think that I still did so when I was eight. But the practice differs

very much in different families. Last year, when I asked a small boy of six if he wore overalls, he replied with obvious surprise, " O no ! Don't you think I'm too old ? " When I informed him that I knew a boy who was still in overalls at ten, he smiled sweetly, and ejaculated, " Rats ! "

But if the robe were merely an overall to keep Bob's clothes clean, ST. SWITHIN does not explain why the boy had to be careful " pas faire de taches a sa robe." It is true that I have heard of an unfortunate boy who, when nine years old, had not only to wear overalls, but at meals had also to wear a bib to keep his overall clean ; I have, however, always looked on this as a unique instance of parental carefulness. Again, though eight seems an unlikely age for frocks, if he were not in petticoats I do not see why Bob should not be allowed to " mettre mes jambes en Fair." I am afraid that my ideas of "la tenue " are lax, for I see no objection to a boy standing on his head or turning somersaults a delightful occupation when one is young and supple.

I suppose that " holland " is not a possible translation for toile a voile.

G. H. WHITE.

St. Cross, Harleston, Norfolk.

SPANISH MOTTO (11 S. iv. 290, 338). The translation of "La cabra ha tornado la granada " is " The goat has taken the pome- granate." This would appear to refer to Don Diego Fernandez de Cordova, second Count of Cabra, and to Boabdil, el Chico, Moorish King of Granada, the State ex- emplified armorially by a pomegranate.

In 1843 Boabdil was taken prisoner after the battle of Lucena, in which the Spanish forces were commanded by the Count of Cabra. In memory of this achievement, the actual capture of Boabdil being disputed between them, the old Count of Cabra, lord of Baena, and the young Alcaide of Los Donceles, lord of Comares (representatives of the second and third lines of the great house Fernandez de Cordova), quartered in their arms the bust of the Moorish King of Granada in chains, surrounding the whole achievement with, in trophy, the twenty- two flags captured from the Moors at Lucena. Comares also took for motto " Omnia per ipso facta sunt," a claim to which Cabra re- torted with " Sine ipso factum est nihil."

The whole story is resumed by Fernandez de Bethencourt in his * Historia genealogica de la monarquia espanola,' &c., vol. vii. 44- 50. To decide the truth of either claim to Boabdil' s capture is impossible, but it