Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/39

 ii S.VL JULY is, Mia.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

was put off. Before the second boarding, to make it uneasy for the Colchester, or fright him from boarding them, the Frenchman shod the inner flook of his sheat anchor, and hung it a- cock-bill over that side on which the Colchester approached them. Upon the Colchester's board- ing, this sheat anchor flook ran into the Colchester's bow, and made so great a hole as to sink her, and drown every man and mother's son. : '

Thus the Colchester was said to have been sunk by a fluke, and it would appear to be the earliest application of the phrase.

J LANDFEAR LUCAS. Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey.

BUXTINGFORD BELL. Many at Bunting- ford will regret " the sound of a voice that is still." According to The Morning Post of 31 May, 1912 :

" It has been decided to discontinue ringing the unique town bell at Buntingford, Herts, which, situated over the gateway of an inn, has for 286 years been rung for divine worship on Sundays, and has been tolled on the occasions of the deaths and funerals of inhabitants during the same period."

Bell-ringing customs are of the most endur- ing, and one wonders why an observance like that mentioned should be abolished, at the same time as one wonders why it should ever have been begun.

ST. SWITHIN.

" VISTO " = " VISTA." It is many years since I first read Burke's ' Reflections on the Revolution in France,' which was pub- lished in 1790. I have never forgotten that splendid passage which begins :

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles : and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision."

A day or two ago I read once more those glowing words quoted in Lord Hugh Cecil's book entitled ' Conservatism,' which has just appeared. But when I came to this sentence (p. 56), " In the groves of their academy, at the end of every visto, you see nothing but the gallows," I was inclined at first to think that the word italicized was misprinted. On second thoughts, how- ever, I resolved to make further inquiry because the author is possessed of great ability, and his book has been " edited " by four learned gentlemen, whose names are given in the prospectus of the " Home University Library " (Williams & Norgate). Not having a copy of the first edition of Burke's ' Reflections,' I turned to Dove's beautiful reprint, which bears no date, but was published in the early years of last

century. There, on p. 93, the word appears as " visto."

Not finding this form in recent dictionaries,

I resolved to look for it in those of an earlier date. In Dr. Johnson's sixth edition, printed in 1785, " vista " only is given, with quotations from Addison's ' Italy ' and Thomson's ' Spring.' Addison, be it noted, was Burke's favourite author, and Samuel Johnson one of his most intimate friends. It is therefore strange that he did not follow their spelling of the word, which is pure Italian, and frequently employed by Dante. It is also the same in Spanish ; but neither in Italian nor Spanish is there a noun " visto," which is a participle in both languages.

N. Bailey, in the sixth edition of his ' New Universal Etymological English Dictionary,' 1776, does not give the word in either form, nor does Thomas Blount in his ' Glosso- graphia Anglicana Nova ; or, a Dictionary.' &c., 1707. In Torriano's edition of John Florio's ' Dictionary, Italian and English,' " revised and corrected by J. D., M.D.," printed in 1688, " vista " appears as a noun in the Italian part, but nowhere is there a hint that it had been adopted into our lan- guage.

I had almost concluded that " visto " instead of " vista " was Burke's own blunder when I thought of an old volume presented to me by a friend about a year ago. Its title is ' A New General English Dictionary,' &c., " originally begun by the Reverend Mr. Thomas Dyche, and finished by the late William Pardon, Gent." It is in the eigh- teenth edition, and is dated 1781. From this evidently popular dictionary I quote as follows :

"Vista or Visto (S.), an alley or walk of trees before a gentleman's house, which stands at the head of it, or a path cut through the trees in a wood, for the advantage of seeing a river, or taking a view of the plains, hills, or country round about."

This was printed nine years before Burke's ' Reflections ' ; consequently that great writer was not the first to use the vitiated form of the word " vista," which Addison was one of the first to introduce into our language in the sense defined above. His book, entitled ' Remarks on Several Parts of Italy,' was published in the year 1701. JOHN T. CXTRRY.

FATHER CONSTABLE, O.S.B. Dom David (or Thomas) Benedict Constable is said by Mr. Gillow, in his ' Bibliographical Diction- ary,' to have died in prison at Durham,

II Dec., 1683; but under date 12 Dec.,