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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. v. JAN. 20, 1912.

that seven petitions had been presented, including one from Broslit, the second city for trade in Lilliput. The London Magazine of the same year on p. 100 refers to a meeting of the West India Merchants at "The Ship Tavern" behind the Royal Ex- change. H. FANSHAWE.

SALAMANCA, 1812 : CAPT. G. STUBBS (11 S. iv. 529). In Cannon's ' Historical Record of the Sixty-First Regiment,' published in 1844, p. 31, Stubbs is mentioned as one of seven officers killed in the battle. Col. Barlow was killed, and Major Downing wounded, early in the action, and there can be no doubt that the command of the regiment devolved from time to time during the action upon the senior officer, and in this way it is more than probable that Stubbs was in command until he was killed. Cannon also states that Capt. Annesley commanded the regiment at the close of the action. Annesley was much junior to Stubbs as a captain. J. H. LESLIE.

"RIDING THE HIGH HORSE " (11 S. iv. 490 ; v. 15). The French have a similar pro- verbial saying, viz., " Monter sur ses grands chevaux." Napoleon Landais in his ' Grand Dictionnaire,' 14 e ed., 1862, s.v. ' Cheval,' writes of the saying :

" Parler avec hauteur ou avec colere. (Des chevaux de bataille, c'est-a-dire d'une tattle elev^e, que, dans les temps de la chevalerie, les ecuyers, au moment du combat, donnaient a leurs maitres, qui montaient alors sur leurs grands chevaux.)"

Leroux in his ' Dictionnaire Comique,' 1718, and Nouvelle edition, 1786, s.v. ' Monter,' gives the saying and quotes Moliere, ' Cocu imaginaire,' i.e. ' Sganarelle,' scene xxi. :

Dessus ses grands chevaux est mont6 mon courage In ' CEuvres de Moliere,' Paris, Firmin Didot freres, 1855, vol. i. p. 201, is a foot-note regarding the line :

" II faut chercher 1'origine de ce proverbe dans les usages de 1'ancienne chevalerie. Les cheva- liers avaient deux especes de chevaux ; ceux qu'ils montaient habituellement e^aient connus sous le nom de coursiers de palefroi : c'elaient des chevaux d'une allure ais^e et d'une force ordinaire. Mais, les jours de bataille, on leur ainenait des chevaux d'une vigueur et d'une tattle re- marquables, que des ecuyers conduisaient a leur droite, d'oii leur est venu le nom de destriers. Ces destriers e'taient presented aux chevaliers a 1'heure meme du combat: c'^tait ce que Ton appelait alors monter sur ses grands chevaux. Depuis, par allusion a cet usage, on a dit monter sur ses grands chevaux, pour, se mettre en colere, menacer, prendre un parti vigoureux ; montrer de la fierte^ de 1'arrogance, du courage."

Henri van Laun in his English rendering of Moliere, 1875, ignores the saying, giving as a translation of the line,

My courage is at its height.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

' DIVES AND PAUPER ' : OTTR LADY'S FAST (11 S. iv. 527). ' Barnes' Visit.' means ' The Injunctions and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings of Richard Barnes, Bishop of Durham from 1575 to 1587,' published by the Surtees Society, and forming vol. xxii. of that Society's publications. The reference to superfluous fasts is as follows :

"6. Item, that no popishe abrogated holly daies be kept holly daies, nor any Divine service publiquely saide or celebrated on any suche daies, nor any superfluous faste be used, as those called the Lady Faste, or Saint Trinyon's fast,* the Blackefast.t Saint Margaret fast, J or suche other, invented by the devill, to the dishonouringe of God and damnacion of the sowles of idolatrous and supersticious persons."

" * Trinyon is a northern corruption of Ninian. As St. Ninian was a popular saint along the western side of the Island, from Wales to Whithern in Galloway, of the cathedral of which he was the founder, it is probable that his name had found its way into the monitions of Bishop Barnes in the see of Carlisle, and had not been removed upon his translation to Durham.

"t A Black Past implies abstinence not only from flesh-meat, but also from the lacticinia. The first is observed during the ordinary Lent ; the latter characterises what is called a Black Lent. The abstinence from lacticinia is enjoined in England only on Ash Wednesday and the four last days of Lent.

" J The sainted Queen of Scotland, in high repute in the diocese of Durham."

RICHARD WELFORD.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

[MR. W. P. COURTNEY is also thanked for reply.]

HOLED STONES : TOLMENS (11 S. iv. 463 533). A standard reference to " the Spirit which presides over the ancient Circle of Stennis " occurs in Sir Walter Scott's ' Pirate,' chap. xxii. In order to convince her ardent suitor, Cleveland, of her un- questionable sincerity, Minna Troil offers to bind herself " by the promise of Odin, the most sacred of our northern lites which are yet practised among us." In one of his characteristic and invaluable notes, Scott thus elucidates the passage :

" it appears from several authorities that in the Norse ritual, when an oath was imposed, he by whom it was pledged passed his hand, while pronouncing it, through a massive ring of silver kept for that purpose. In like manner, two persons, generally lovers, desirous to take the promise of Odin, which they considered as peculiarly binding, joined hands through a circular hole in a sacrificial stone, which lies in