Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/115

 IIS. V. FEB. 3, 1912. J

NOTES AND QUERIES.

BEATJPUIS. De Quincey in his essay on Wordsworth has an interesting reference to the French patriot Beaupuis. Where can I meet with a detailed account, in French or English, of this distinguished French- man ? W. B.

ARMS FOR IDENTIFICATION. By what family or families have the following arms been used : Arms, argent on a chevron gules two lioncels courant, between three anchors sable. Crest : A lion couchant gules.

R. P.

PANTHERA. I should be glad to have from the many Latinists and Hebraicists who contribute to your columns any infor- mation available with regard to this mascu- line name. Is it of Hebrew, Roman, Syriac, or Greek origin ? Is it a dithematic name {though of three syllables) ? If so, is Pan or Pant the prototheme ? If the division into Pan and thera be accepted, it would, I should think, be difficult to prove the absence of a Greek element. Has any explanation of the name ever been attempted ?

St. John Damascene (' De Fide Ortho- doxa,' iv. 15) gives the man as the brother of Melchi (Luke iii. 24), a name which is Hebraic, by adoption at any rate, if not otherwise (cf. Melchi-Shua, third son of Saul). J. H. R..

KNIVES AS PRESENTS. When I was a boy (some sixty years ago), a cutler made me a present of a pocket knife ; and within the past week one was given me from a Christ- mas tree. In both cases I was asked for a halfpenny in exchange. I should be glad to learn the origin of the custom. G. H. G.

[The present of a knife was supposed to "cut friendship," a danger obviated by the pretence of purchase. ]

DALLAS. Dr. G. W. Marshall, in a query published in The Genealogist concerning one Haslett Powell, records that Elizabeth Powell married Duncan Dallas, and that the will of the latter was proved in C.P.C., 29 July, 1814. I should be greatly obliged for information as to the genealogical con- tents of this will so far as they relate to Dallas ; and also as to the contents of the will of Mr. Charles Dallas, who died in the first half of the year 1812, leaving bequests to Sir Robert Dallas and his sisters. I should further be glad of any information relating to the Dallas family, with a view to the completion of a history of the family upon which I have been engaged for some years. J. DALLAS.

15, Walton Well Road, Oxford.

ffopltes.

THE UNITED SERVICE CLUB.

(11 S. v. 1.)

IT may not be generally known that this club, which was " founded by General Lord Lynedoch, in conjunction with" Viscount Hill and other officers, on 31st May, 1815," was known at its inception, and for some time after, as the General Military Club. The admission of officers of the Navy took place on 24 January, 1816, and the name was, on 16 February following, changed to that of the United Service Club.

The incident narrated below occurred soon after its foundation, and may be worth recording in the pages of ' N. & Q.' So serious was the view taken of this combina- tion of military men to form a club, that a petition full of grave apprehensions regarding the institution was, on 4 March, 1816, presented to Parliament by Col. Foley from the people of Leominster, in Herefordshire. The first part of this petition dealt with the great cost of a standing army, and continued

"that the petitioners have heard, with the deepest regret, of the formation in the metropolis of a military club, under the sanction, and with the approbation, of the present commander in chief of his majesty's forces [the Duke of York] ; that the petitioners humbly hope that the House will watch over, with a true constitutional jealousy, the proceedings of such a formidable military body, which appear to the petitioners to be too well calculated to render the military power of the country a body too distinct from the people, and consequently inconsistent with the true principles of a free government."

Speaking on the petition, Col. Foley said he fieartily concurred with the petitioners, and was, in the debate which followed, sup- Dorted, amongst others, by Mr. (afterwards Baron) Brougham, who said

he had no objection to private clubs founded
 * or local reasons, or whose members engaged to

)ind themselves to a particular beverage. But he club in question was of a most general and comprehensive description. It was formed of, mass of officers gentlemen who were not em- Cloyed on any particular service who were not >rought together by any particular predilections but were united merely as military men." Mr. Brougham added that

he regretted that anything like ridicule was attempted to be thrown on those who felt jealous m this subject because he felt considerable ealousy himself."

ARTHUR MYNOTT.