Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/598

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NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. YI. DEC. 21, 1912.

AUTHOR OF QUOTATION : " E'EN AS HE " (11. S. vi. 429). The quotation inquired about by MR. J. BEACH WHITMORE, beginning " E'en as he trod, ' is from the Dedication to Wolcott Balestier (the author's recently deceased brother-in-law) of Rud- yard Kipling's ' Barrack - Room Ballads.' This poem, it may be interesting to record, is an adaptation of an earlier one by Mr. Kipling which appeared either in The National Observer or its predecessor The Scots Observer on the occasion of the prose- cution of a publisher or bookseller for selling the writings of Rabelais. Counsel for the prosecution, who, I believe, was, or rather now is, Mr. Justice Avory, spoke of Rabelais at the police court as a " filthy priest," giving occasion for the panegyric referred to. E. A. A.

[MR. W. M. CROOK, MR. P. A. MCELWAIXE, and MR. H. LEGGE thanked for replies.]

A" DISH "OFTEA(11 S. vi. 370, 433). In the rime of ' Cock Robin,' where it is said the fish "caught his blood," the "little dish " was what is called in modern surgery a, " receiver." In the old days of phle- botomy it was called a " bleeding basin," or bowl. This was a dish, bowl, or porringer, usually with a flat handle projecting from ther rim of the vessel. In hospitals it was made of pewter, and there were horizontal lines in the interior to mark the amount of blood, or purulent fluid, withdrawn by the surgeon. These pewter " bleeding basins " are now becoming scarce.

Machaon, son of Asklepios, when attend- ing the wounded Menelaus, is represented as holding an enormous bowl, with a foot, but no handle. GEORGE WHERRY.

Cambridge.

I often drank tea, sixty or seventy years ago, in cups without handles. The oups were ornamental, with Prince of Wales's feathers, and were said to date from the birth of George IV.

I remember, as late, I suppose, as 1860, that tea was drunk out of " dishes " large cups without handles at the Hummums, Oovent Garden. R. H. C.

"CLUB WALKS" (U.S. vi. 349, 415). In The London Journal of 27 July, 1850, there is given an illustrated article on ' The Foresters' Annual Festival at Southamp- ton.' If such be of the slightest use to ENQUIRER, I shall have pleasure in for- warding it to him on receiving his address.

J. W. SCOTT.

20, Paradise Place. Leeds.

TO BE " OUT " FOR A THING TO Do A

THING (11 S. vi. 409). About two years ago I first noticed this old word in its new sense. An American athletic team had been playing over here, and were accused of unfair play. Their trainer, when interviewed, said, " No doubt the boys were out to win." Since then I have constantly seen the phrase and its variants "out for blood," " out for profits," and the like.

While we are on new phrases let me call attention to " Up against you" and "It stands to you " to do such and such.

DRYASDUST.

By an interesting coincidence I have just come across this expression in two papers, each bearing the date 23 Nov :

1. " But the owner is not always out to win the stable is not always out to win ; the jockey is not always out to win." The Nation.

2. " The ' immense curve of Burke's political thinking ' is one of his neat phrases which show that he is not ' out,' like the usual biographer, to defend a hero against reason and history."- Saturday Review.

It will be observed that The Saturday Review is not in ecstasies over the new arrival, and deems it prudent to query its raison d'etre by placing it between inverted commas. WILLIAM L. STOREY.

I should say that DR. KRUEGER has not rightly paraphrased this expression, and that the ' N.E.D.' does recognize it. The meaning is "to be fighting for," "to be intent on obtaining " a thing. A platform speaker says that his party is " out " for effi- ciency and reform ; a workman who has gone out on strike says he is "out " for better pay ; in the eighteenth century they spoke of men who had been "out in the Forty- five," i.e., the Jacobites who were out for (the sake of) Prince Charlie. See paragraph 15c of the article ' Out ' in the ' N.E.D.' The definition to be illustrated is " away from one's place of residence, abroad, on an expedition ; esp. in the field (for war or sport) ; in arms ; away from work, on strike." The quotations begin with ' Mac- beth,' IV. iii. 183, and include this from The Spectator of 29 Sept., 1890 : " Most of the miners are ' out,' not for wages, but in defence of the grand principle that non- Union men shall not be employed." The recent vise of the phrase to which we have become accustomed seems to me to be a legitimate extension of this.

L. R. M. STRACHAN. Heidelberg.