Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/289

 ii s. vi. SEPT. 2i, 1912. j NOTES AND QUERIES.

publisher of the first edition) that the book was by Mr. Piper, and the fact that the authorities of the British Museum also say the same in their Catalogue, would seem to show almost beyond any doubt that Mr. Piper was the author. What, then, was the second edition, said to have been sup- pressed ? Could it have been the one printed by Whitfield referred to above ? Seemingly this edition was in full use at Mr. Piper's church at Banbury in 1852-3, and perhaps later. Why was an edition suppressed, and toy whose action ? RONALD DIXON.

46, Marlborough Avenue, Hull.

"BLUE PETER" (7 S. iii. 477; iv. 116, 237; US. iv. 108, 157). As both of the explanations of this maritime signal that have appeared in these columns seem to be rather unconvincing viz., that " peter " is an abbreviation of the word repeater, or 7nay be regarded as a popular rendering of the French a partir I trust I shall be excused for putting forward a different suggestion in regard to its derivation.

I find in the Oxford Dictionary that the sixth signification of peter is given as portmanteau or trunk, bundle or parcel. This use originated in the vocabulary of thieves during the seventeenth century, and a quotation is added from the year 1668. The same authority, s.v. ' Peter,' 7, cites an example of " Blue Peter " from The Naval Chronicle (1803) :

" She has had Blue Peter's flag flying at the fore, as a signal. . . .for sailing " ;

and under ' Blue,' 13, one from Byron's - Don Juan ' (1823) :

It is time that I should hoist my " blue Peter,"

And sail for a new theme.

Taking, then, this early signification of the present meaning of the word was derived from it on very simple lines pro- bably during the eighteenth century, or perhaps even a little earlier. The captain or the shipping agent of a sailing vessel wishing, as the time of departure from port approached, to get all the cargo on board, formed a rough-and-ready device by running up a flag bearing a white oblong figure, afterwards reduced to a square, to indicate a trunk, case, or cargo in general, drawn upon a blue ground, which represented the ocean ; this was to show all parties in- terested in the vessel that the remaining cargo and personal effects must be shipped immediately, the vessel being ready for sea. Any one conversant with shipping matters will be aware that merchants who dispatch
 * ' peter " as trunk or package, I believe

goods to distant ports always employ a variety of " marks," such as squares, diamonds, parallelograms, &c., which are painted on the cases and bales, together with certain numbers and the initials of the consignees, each series of goods as they are delivered to the stevedore being counted and checked. Hence marks and signs have from time immemorial played a very im- portant part in the history of merchant shipping.

When the signification of the original " peter " as a trunk or case was lost sight of through the flag receiving that name, the signal naturally enough would be called a " blue Peter," in spite of the trunk being painted white, since the predominating colour, which denoted the sea, was blue. And, indeed, we find a converse of this same signal still employed in the pilot's flag, a blue oblong or square upon a white ground. This signal, no doubt, was in- vented about the same time as the Blue Peter. I may note that in the coloured illustrations of flags at p. 276 of 'The Peninsular and Oriental Pocket Book,' pub- lished by A. & C. Black, London, 1908, the oblong rather than the " square " forma- tion of the peter is unmistakable.

Thus it would seem that to the merchant shipping service is due the origin of this much-debated flag, which, after it had once become generally adopted in the British Isles, would in due course be taken over as a convenient and effective signal by the Royal Navy to proclaim the imme- diate departure of a man-of-war. The few quotations that are available in the Oxford Dictionary, and their respective dates, at any rate favour this theory ; though it is, of course, one that might prove very difficult to substantiate step by step at this distance of time. N. W. HILL.

Shanghai, China.

COL. LOWTHEB, 1739(11 S. vi. 131, 176, 217). The appointment of Anthony Lowther, Esq., of the 2nd Regiment of Foot Guards, as colonel of one of six regiments of marines which were about to be raised, is notified in The, Gentleman's Magazine of November, 1739 (p. 606). I think that on investiga- tion DR. MAGRATH may reconsider his suggestion of the identity of Anthony Lowther of the Marines with the Hon. Anthony Lowther, M.P. for Cockermouth and afterwards for Westmorland, who died in 1741. In The Gent. Mag. for February, 1745 (p. 94), the name of the colonel of the 3rd Marines (46th Foot) is given, as in