Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/483

 n s. iv. DEC. 9, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

477

battle of Vimeira, " Now, gentlemen, we may go and shoot red-legged partridges " ; iilso Tilburina's line in Sheridan's ' Critic,' " An oyster may be cross' d in love."

N. W. HILL.

The use of a Scottish expression of the kind by Nelson seems plausible enough. Adam Duncan, Viscount Camperdown, who immediately preceded him as a British naval commander of distinction, must have at- tracted an exceptional number of Scottish sailors to the fleet. And Nelson himself would probably have no inconsiderable body of Scotsmen under his leadership. In my very young days I was acquainted with a venerable Scotsman w T ho had served against the French navy. As showing the mixed nature of his ship's crew, I may add the recollection that, when describing a fight on board a French privateer, he men- tioned as leading boarders with him a couple of Irishmen.

Surely SIB, J. K. LAUGHTON over-estimates the difficulty about the significance of the expression. The comparison of the French fleet to a half-comatose mussel is a rare piece of irony. W. B.

In the miscellaneous section of Andrew Henderson's * Scottish Proverbs ' two con- secutive entries are : " There 's life in a mussel as lang as it can cheep " and " There 's life in a mussel although it be little." In both, of course, the reference to the bivalve is obvious. Nelson may have heard a Scottish seaman use the expression. See Henderson's ' Scottish Proverbs,' ed. J. Donald, p. 140 (Glasgow, Thtomas D. Morri- son, 1881). THOMAS BAYNE.

May I point out that SIR J. K. LAUGH- TON'S reply, at the last reference, suggests another explanation of the phrase " life in a musle " ? The word " musle " is simply an unusual mode of spelling " muscle," the muscles being taken to represent the fleets of France. The French navy had been mauled and battered to such an extent as to be incapable " of moving a muscle." " There's life in a muscle " was an expres- sion borrowed from the prize-ring. It is usual, I understand, for a pugilist who has received a " knock-out " blow to give evidence of coming to his senses by a twitch- ing of the muscles. Here the twitching muscle was the news of French ships seen steering in a certain direction. It indicated to Nelson that his antagonist was coming to his senses and had still " life in a muscle."

W. SCOTT.

FARINGTON OF WORDEN (US. iii. 385). The following notes from the baptismal registers of Leigh (Lancashire) decidedly support the older version of this pedigree as against the revised version printed in Burke' s ' Landed Gentry ' in 1906 : May, 1746. William, son of the Rev. Mr. Farring-

ton, vie., was born the 12, and baptized

June the 4th. Jan. 18, 1747/8. Joseph, son of the Rev. William

Farrington, vicar of Leigh Oct. 13, 1749. Henry, son of the Rev. Mr.

William Farington, vicar. Nov. 10, 1752. George, son of the Rev. Mr.

William Farington, vicar of Leigh. Aug. 27, 1755. Richard Atherton, son of the Rev.

Mr. William Farington, vicar of Leigh. Dec. 20, 1758. Edward, son of the Rev. Mr.

William Farington, vicar. Oct. 10, 1760. Robert, son of the Rev. Mr.

Farington, vicar.

The vicar signed many pages of the regis- ters, including the one containing the first of the above entries, as William Farington, using the ordinary capital for the surname as against the ff affected by his present-day descendants. It may be useful to add that the pedigree will be found in Burke between names beginning with Fe and those with Fi, the form FFARINGTON being used in the heading. J. B.

SPIDER STORIES (US. iv. 26, 76, 115, 137). John Barrow's ' A Voyage to Cochinchina,' 1806, p. 200, has this passage :

" A venomous spider is very common in the thickets of Java. The diameter of the body is nearly 2 inches ; and the length of the fore-legs or claws near 4 inches, covered with hair, the colour black, and the mouth red. The webs spun by this animal gave us considerable trouble, as we traversed the woods about Anjerie point. . . . [Here the author states that the webs are able to capture birds.] A grave gentleman in London observed to me one day how much he was sur- prised to find so marvellous an account of the strength of spider-webs inserted in so valuable a book as the Authentic Account of the Embassy to China. On being told that I could inform him of something not less marvellous respecting the spiders who made them, which was that the nails of their fore-claws were so large and strong, that it was a common practice in Batavia to have them mounted on gold or silver handles and to use them as tooth-picks, I have little doubt he was ready to exclaim with Gray :

The man who with undaunted toils Sails unknown seas to unknown soils, What various wonders feast his sight, What stranger wonders does he write ! "

The Chinese encyclopaedia ' Yuen-kien-lui- han,' 1703, torn, cdxlix., abounds with marvellous spider stories, some of which may be rendered thus :

" A spider that lives in certain islands is as large as a wheel, 12 feet across, variegated with five several colours, and haunts deep wide valleys