Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/80

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. JULY 22,1911.

extenuation of my other default, acknow- ledged above,! gladly adopt MB. MATTHEWS' s dictum, " Bibliography presents many pit- falls for the unwary."

CHARLES HIGHAM.

THE BURNING or Moscow (11 S. iii. 464). Whether the fire was accident or design, whether caused by Russians or French, the secret would have been known to few, and by those few was well kept. Like many another historical mystery, it will, no doubt, remain unsolved to the end of time. But lias it never crossed the mind of historian or pamphleteer to suspect as the incendiary Sir Robert Wilson, then British commissioner at the Russian head-quarters ? A born soldier, brave yet cunning, a skilful organizer, if not, perhaps, a great strategist, he possessed the mind to conceive, the daring to carry out, a desperate venture of this nature. Russian soldiers, valiant and unflinching in the field, have seldom been gifted with the special " knack " of turning dismal failure into glorious victory. " Schwartzem- berg told him [Aberdeen]," says the ' D.N.B.,' " that, conspicuous as were Wilson's services in the field, they fell short of those he had rendered out of the field." Napoleon at St. Helena spoke bitterly of "Wilson," the Englishman who hung upon his flanks during the retreat. Had Kutusov, the Russian commander, acted upon Wilson's .advice, the retreat would have become an unconditional surrender. Later, Wilson greatly contributed to the victory at Leipsic. When the fallen Emperor heard of the escape of Lavalette and the share Wilson took therein, he professed to " forgive " his old enemy, though he did so grudgingly.

Wilson, though his name is now scarcely remembered, save, maybe, for the affray known as the " Piccadilly butchers," was one of those men, made in heroic mould, who have but rarely in later days adorned the page of history.

HERBERT B. CLAYTON.

39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.

"BAST" (11 S. iv. 7). Bast is a Persian word, meaning " he bound or connected," from bastan, " to bind, shut up, enclose " {see F. Johnson, ' Persian Dictionary,' s.v.). The practice of taking sanctuary to avoid the oppression of their rulers is common in Persia. The mausoleum at Kiim is one of the most celebrated sanctuaries.

"Although in general the tombs of all their Imam Zadehs (descendants of Imams) are looked upon as sanctuaries, yet there are some accounted more sacred than others ; without this single

impediment in the way of the Persian king's power, his subjects would be totally at his mercy." J. Morier, ' A Second Journey through Persia,' 1818, p. 166.

The great cannon in the Maidan at Teheran is regarded as a place of sanctuary. The same is the case with the King's stables. This belief has been extended to Europeans' horses. Sir T. Holdich ( ' The Indian Border- land,' p. 333) describes a Persian going into bast behind an ill-tempered horse belonging to Capt. Sykes. Mr. C. J. Wills (' The Land of the Lion and Sun,' ed. 1891, p. 137) tells of his groom taking sanctuary in the Arme- nian Cathedral at Julfa, from which, being a Musalman, he was immediately expelled. MR. MAYHEW will find numerous examples of the custom in Frazer, ' Totemism and Exogamy,' i. 97 ff., and in Westermarck, ' Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas,' ii. 628 ff. EMERITUS.

ST. COLUMB AND STRATTOX ACCOUNTS

(11 S. iv. 7). The references to the " halfe part " and " dim' " of the ' Paraphrasis ' of Erasmus are to the payment by the parishioners of half the cost, in accordance with the Injunctions of Edward VI., No. 7 of which runs :

" Also, that they shall provide within three months next after this visitation one book of the whole Bible, of the largest volume, in English. And within one twelve months next after the said visitation, the 'Paraphrasis ' of Erasmus, also in English, upon the Gospels, and the same set up in some convenient place within the said church that they have cure of, whereas their parishioners may most commodiously resort unto the same, and read the same. The charges of which books shall be ratably borne between the parson and approprietary, and parishioners aforesaid, that is to say, the one half by the parson or proprietary, and the other half by the parishioners."

Many parishes failed to procure the ' Para- phrasis,' and in their presentments in reply to articles of the bishops at their visitations, the churchwardens and parishioners would certify the default and excuse themselves, as did those of Boddington, Gloucestershire, in 1563, by saying " that they lacke a para- phrasis of Erasmus : the parishe is reddy to buy there parte." F. S. HOCKADAY.

Lydney, Gloucestershire.

"WAIT AND SEE" (11 S. iii. 366, 434).- The authorship of this phrase as a " political catchword " is by no means due to Mr. Asquith. It is to be found in the well- known burlesque * The Happy Land,' by F. Tomline and Gilbert a Beckett, which in 1873 overwhelmed the then Liberal Govern-