Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/415

 ii s. iv. NOV. 18,1911.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

409

Is not this in direct contradiction to John son's utterances as recorded in the unim peachable pages of Boswell's ' Life '?

If the statement is not a lapsus calam for another writer, surely many reader and lovers of the old philosopher would b glad to know on what authority he is said to have passed these strictures on Bunyan. FREDK. CHARLES WHITE.

26, Arran Street, Roath, Cardiff.

DRY WEATHER IN NINETEENTH CENTURY I shall be glad to learn if any of you readers know of any contemporary account stating that the years 1805 and 1815 wer

exceptionally dry.

G. L. KENNEDY.

SURREY INSTITUTE. Writing under the date 4 Dec., 1819, Joseph Severn invited his friend John Keats to come and see his correspondent's picture hung at the Roya Academy in competition for a gold medal Accepting this invitation two days later the poet invited the painter " to return the compliment by going with me to see a Poem I have hung up for the Prize in the Lecture Room of the Surrey Institute," adding, " ] have many rivals ; the most threatening are ' An Ode to Lord Castlereagh,' and a new series of Hymns for the New new Jerusalem Chapel." This citation is from the letter No. CXLVL, p. 436, in the ' Collected Corre- spondence of Keats,' London, 1895.

The Surrey Institute was situated at the northern end of Blackfriars Road, a few doors from Blackfriars Bridge, and the building, known later as " The Rotunda," still remains. Nearly four years before the date of Keats' s letter, viz., on 3 April, 1815, there had been founded " in a large upper room in Obelisk Yard, near the Obelisk in St. George's Fields " i.e., at the extreme southern end of Blackfriars Road, and less than half a mile from the Surrey Institute a Society of the New-Church (Sweden- borgians). On Whit Sunday, 30 May, 1819 i.e., six months prior to Keats' s letter a new place of worship erected for this Society in Waterloo Road, also less than half a mile from the Surrey Institute, had been in- augurated (9 S. v. 52). There can be little, if any, doubt that this was the " New new Jerusalem Chapel " for which the said hymns were written.

I have appealed in vain to present-day Swedenborgians, through their monthly and weekly periodicals, for guidance to the text, or the titles, or the authorship of these hymns they appear to have completely disappeared. May I now address the in- quiry to the readers of ' N. & Q.' ? Possibly was.

one of them may have access to the printed or MS. records of the Surrey Institute, should such documents exist.

CHARLES HIGHAM. 169, Grove Lane, Caniberwell, S.E.

BURGH-ON-SANDS : ITS PRONUNCIATION. Can any one say how Burgh-on-Sands (near Carlisle), where Edward I. diedfof dysentery in 1307, on his way to Scotland, comes to be pronounced as though spelt

Bruff-on-Sands ?

T. S.

CAPT. MARRYAT : ' DIARY or A BLASE.' In the German Supplement, p. 49, of Hugo's French Journal of 16 February, 1901, is the first part of a short story about the great ruby of the King of Pegu. It is said to be taken from the 'Diary of a Blase,' one of Marryat's " less-known books."

Did Marry at write a book with that title, and if so, is it to be found by itself or with other writings of his ?

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

' SLANG TERMS AND THE GIPSY TONGUE.'

-In Baity' s Magazine for November, 1871, vol. xxi. p. 20, there is an interesting article with this title, signed J. C. M. H., and it seems possible that this and another article >y the same writer have been overlooked }y our philologists. Suggestions are made for the derivation of so-called slang terms which the author takes upon himself to ustify as being words derived from the words, chum and dust, may be taken as xamples.
 * ipsy language and from Hindostanee.

nd the statement that chuma is the Hindo- tanee word for a kiss, and tschummer, with the same pronunciation, is its gipsy. quivalent, and the suggestion that thence we get the word chum as a slang term for
 * Hob son- Job son ' does not mention chum ;

near and dear friend, are not noticed in he 'N.E.D.'

Again, to quote from the article," 'To come own with the dust ' is the slang term for o produce the money. ' Duster ' in gipsy nd Hindostanee signifies money." This uggestion is not noticed in the ' N.E.D.'

There are many other words mushroom s one for which derivations are suggested which appear to be as likely as those to be xrnnd in our dictionaries, and I am curious o know whether these articles have been onsidered and rejected as unworthy of erious notice, or whether they have been overlooked, and also to know who J. C. M. H.

J. J. FREEMAN.