Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/623

 n s. v. JUNE 29, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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HENRY SEYMOUR (11 S. v. 389). G. F. R. B. quotes the ' D.N.B.' as his authority for giving 1805 as the date of death of this Henry Seymour. That date is inaccurate. He died on or about 14 April, 1807. His age is given in The Gentleman's JMagazine as 76 ; if that is correct, the ' D.X.B.' date of birth (1729) is wrong, but I have no means of deciding which of the two is in error. ALFRED B. BEAVEN.

Leamington.

CAMDEN SOCIETY : ' LONG" AGO ' (11 S. v. 328, 434). My friend the late Alexander Andrews was projector and editor of Long Ago, to which I believe I contributed. Besides writing the books mentioned in Boase's that seems to be all too generally ignored), he was a voluminous contributor to periodicals. Andrews wrote articles for Bentley's Mis- cellany, Colburn's New Monthly Magazine, London Society, The Oentieman's Magazine, and ' X. & Q.' Mr. Boase does not give the date of his birth : it was 4 Aug., 1824.
 * Modern English Biography ' (a dictionary

RALPH THOMAS.

STONES' END, BOROUGH (11 S. v. 289, 396). As there appeared some uncertainty in the replies of your correspondents to my inquiry whether this place took its name as the end of the milestones from Dover and Portsmouth, or the end of the paving- stones from London Bridge, I wrote to the Town Clerk of the Borough of Southwark, in which the point is situated, and have received the following reply :

Borough of Southwark Town Hall,

Walworth Road, S.E. DEAR SIR, June 4, 1912.

I duly received your letter of the 20th ult. regard- ing Stones' End, Borough High Street, and have made inquiries relative thereto.

I am informed by pur Chief Librarian that " the prevailing local opinion is that Stones' End in the Borough marked the end of the paved way from London Bridge." Yours faithfully,

PERCY H. GRAY, Town Clerk.

This would seem as nearly decisive as pos- sible. J. LANDFEAR LUCAS.

MESO-GOTHIC (11 S. v. 369). The spelling Meso-Gothic is quite consistent with many others. Our spelling was really founded on a Norman-French basis, which treated the Latin ce and ce alike, reducing both to e. The alterations to as and ce are pedantic and unnecessary, and very awkward in writing. The man must write clearly who tries to distinguish them. I have treated this subject in my ' Primer of Classical and

English Philology.' The lists I there give are as follows. The Latin ce has been sensibly altered to e in demon, ether, enigma, meander, phenomenon ; medieval and peony are also common. As for OB, no one, surely, wishes to revive it in cemetery, economy, epicene^ esophagus, phenix, solecism.

Let me add that " Gothic " is enough. The prefix "Meso-" is better dropped.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

DISEASES FROM PLANTS ( 1 1 S. iv. 530 ; v. 56, 158, 257, 398). In this part some old folks entertain a traditional belief that the winter cherry (Physalis alkekengi) delights in sickly groans of mankind, so that diseases neither lessen nor cease wherever this herb flourishes, and whenever a member of a household is ill their advice is to have all winter cherries growing near eradicated. This vulgar mis- apprehension must not be particularly ridiculed when we take into account the opinion published by Dr. J. H. Salis- bury of Cleveland, Ohio, in The American Journal of Medical Sciences for 1866, which attributed the ague to Botridium granulatum, a perfectly harmless minute alga (see Wm. Archer, ' A Word More on the " Ague Plant," ' Orevillea, vol. ii. pp. 166-9).

I remember having read in Chambers's ' Information for the People,' section ' Systematic Botany,' of a Himalayan rhododendron causing severe headache by the strong scent of its flowers. There are many persons in Japan susceptible to the ill effects of certain plants, e.g., Gingko biloba, Rhus vernicifera, and E. succedanea, just in the same manner as people are affected by the two American species of Rhus noted at p. 158. KUMAGUSU MINAKATA.

Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

SIGNS OF OLD LONDON (11 S. i. 402, 465 ; ii. 64, 426 ; iv. 226 ; v. 4, 77, 286, 416). I did not intend in my communication on this subject (ante, p. 286) to suggest that the "Bear at Bridgefoot " ('Puritan,' I. iv. ; ' Silent Woman,' II. iii.) and the other inns were mere fictions. On the contrary, as my knowledge is very finite, and as I did not remember having heard of these inns outside the drama, I was seeking information such as that supplied by MR. RHODES.

P. A. MCELWAINE. Dublin.

DINNER - JACKET (11 S. v. 7, 115, 297). This garment was, I am informed here, originally known as the Tuxedo, from the fact it is claimed that it was first intro- duced at Tuxedo* a fashionable club, park,