Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/615

 us; V.JUNE 29, i9i] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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thrown into the gardens and ponds adjoining all around was strewed with books, leaves, covers, tc. From amongst these I picked up this volume, and have no doubt that others as well as myself will think it not an uninteresting relic. Signed, A. C. Mercer.' (Old note written on fly-leaf.)" RONALD DlXON.

10, Marlborough Avenue, Hxul.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

CARACCIOLI ON CLIVE. I am assisting in the arrangement of the Olive State Papers, and should be glad to know, with reference to some curious remarks upon that celebrated man on p. 424, vol. ii., of Charles Caraccioli's ' Life of Lord Clive,' whether Caraccioli was inspired by General Sir Robert Fletcher, whose letters of which we have several were dated about the middle of the eighteenth century.

FREDERICK A. FLOYER. Oxford Union Society, Oxford.

HYAT OF JAMAICA. A French descendant of this well-known planter a J.P., and member of the legislative assembly of Jamaica at the end of the eighteenth century would be glad to know whether any engraved portrait of him exists.

J. BRAJEUX.

" CREDO QUIA IMPOSSIBILE." On p. 1120 of The Nineteenth Century and After for June a distinguished scholar writes, " A medieval philosopher proudly vaunted his faith in the words ' Credo quia impossibile.' ' Buchmann, ' Gefliigelte Worte,' ed. 20, 1900, under " Credo, quia absurdum " ; Fumagalli, ' Chi 1'ha detto ? ' ed. 4, 1904, under the same heading; and King,' Classical and Foreign Quotations,' ed. 3, 1904, under " Certum est quia impossibile est," all refer to Tertullian, ' De Carne Christi,' cap. 5 :

" Xatus est Dei Filius : non pudet, quia pudendum est ; et rnortuus est Dei Filius : prorsus credibile est, quia ineptum est ; et sepultxis resurrexit : certain est, quia impossibile

fS<."

The phrase " Credo quia absurdum (or quia impossibile) est " is treated as an anonymous development of Tertullian's words. Buchmann suggests that the fre- quent attribution of " Credo quia absur- dum " to St. Augustine is probably due to a passage near the beginning of ' Confess.,'

vi. 5 (7). But neither German, Italian, ner English writer quotes an instance, early or otherwise, of the occurrence of " Credo quia impossibile." 'The Stanford Diet.' quotes " Tertullian's rule of faith, Credo quia impossibile est," from Gray's Letters. Who was the medieval philosopher ? Where or when did he thus vaunt his faith ?

EDWARD BENSLY. [See 7 S. iii. 308, 455 ; iv. 176, 274.]

" DAGGS " : "TOSETDAGGS." Thisschool- boy phrase for performing an audacious or difficult feat and challenging others to do the same is found in Essex, Somerset, and probably elsewhere. The ' Dialect Dic- tionary ' cannot account for the word " daggs." Can it be explained ?

A. SMYTHE PALMER.

S. Woodford.

[The expression was common among boys in London forty years ago.]

SCHAAK, AN ARTIST. We have two family portraits in oils, dated 1766, painted by one Schaak, who was a good artist, as these portraits testify. Was he Dutch ? Is any- thing known of him ?

CHARLES S. KING, Bt.

St. Leonards-on-Sea.

SUCCESSION TO HANOVER AND BRUNS- WICK. Will some reader of ' N. & Q.' inform me who is the next in line to the succession to the kingdom of Hanover and the Duchy of Brunswick after Ernest Augustus, the last surviving son of the Duke of Cumberland ? J. F. J.

Minneapolis.

1. LISCOMBE. I should be obliged if any reader of ' N. & Q.' could give me genealogical or heraldic information with regard to a family of this name.

2. ROBINSON. Thomas Robinson of Middleton St. George, co. Durham, whose will was proved in 1733, had two daughters, his coheirs : Margaret, baptized at Middleton St. George in 1687-8, and Elizabeth, baptized at Middleton St. George in 1696. Is anything known of the ancestry of this Thomas Robinson ?

JAMES DALLAS.

CURRENT ENCYCLOPEDIAS. I should like to have a list of these. Replies can be sent direct. WILLIAM MAC ARTHUR.

79, Talbot Street, Dublin.

DANIEL, CROMWELL'S PORTER. What contemporary writings are extant to throw light upon this man's eccentric life ? Gran- ger and Fox suggest more than is generally known. J- A.