Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/463

 ii s. vii. JUNE 7, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

455

last page of the book we read : " F. Hack Printer, Commercial Road. East."

The British Museum copy is a 12mo, in which the Preface, Dedication, Index, &c.. occupy pp. xii, and the text, consisting of 241 hymns, 244 pp.

The author in his Preface (signed " J. M. 36 Commercial Road, June 6, 1828 " says :

" Some were composed while the author was painfully afflicted in. body ; and others while he laboured under severe dispensations of pro- vidence. On account of the doctrine of General Redemption in some of the hymns the author .anticipates a cool reception from many whom

he highly esteems He trusts his friends will

forgive the delay of the publication occasioned by his daily occupations."

The hymns are classified and indexed under subjects, e.g., ' Attributes and Perfections of God,' ' Early Piety,' ' Christian Charac- ter,' &c. At the foot of the Index the following note appears :

" It may be thought that the metres of some are top fanciful and not adapted for singing. It was his intention to vary this construction, that what could not be sung might be committed to memory and recited by young people."

The hymn asked for by MR. E. F. STONE SCOTT appears to be that entitled ' The Christian's Sweet Home,' numbered 146 in this collection, the first line reading

While through this world of care and strife. There are five verses, each ending with the chorus or refrain :

Home ! sweet Home ! Oh for that heavenly house above, Our everlasting Home !

except the last verse, which is slightly varied thus :

Home ! sweet Home ! We're now brought to our Father's House

And never more shall roam.

G. YARROW BALDOCK. South Hackney, N.E.

ENGLISH CHANTEYS (11 S. vii. 370). Probably the earliest examples are those in 1 The Complaynt of Scotland ' (Murray, E.E.Text Soc.), chap. vi. p. 40. See also 1888 ; and ' Ships, Sea Songs, and Shanties,' collected by W. B. Whall, Master Mariner, 2nd ed., enlarged (Glasgow, James Brown <fc Son, 1912).
 * The Music of the Waters,' by L. A. Smith,

It may be noted that the three variant spellings, " chantey," " chanty," and " shanty," are used respectively by your correspondent, by Miss Smith, and by Mr. Whall. For the first I find no warrant. In Messrs. Fowler's ' Concise

Oxford Dictionary,' 1911, occurs, " Chanty. Sailor's song while heaving." But neither in the ' N.E.D.' nor in the ' E.D.D.' is this form of the word given. The practice which it indicates was customary in the mercantile marine only, and did not obtain in the Royal Navy. Hence, pro- bably, its absence from Admiral Smyth's ' Sailor's Word-Book,' 1867, where " Shanty, a small hut," is the only meaning noticed. When the ' N.E.D.' has overtaken " Sh " it will be seen if " shanty " is the adopted form. Meantime it may be worth while to quote from the preface to Mr. Whall' s book as above cited :

"As to the spelling of 'Shanty,' I see no reason why, because shore people have fancied a derivation of the word and written it 'chanty,' I should follow. It was not so pronounced at sea, and to spell it so is misleading."

R. OLIVER HESLOP.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

See " Sailors' Songs or ' Chanties.' The words by Frederick J. Davis, R.N.R. The music composed and arranged, upon Tra- ditional Sailor Airs, by Ferris Tozer " (Boosey & Co., 2s. 6d.). WM. H. PEET.

' Music of the Waters,' by Laura Alexan- drine Smith (London, Kegan Paul, Trench- & Co., 1888), may be consulted with pleasure and profit. ST. S WITHIN.

'ECCENTRIC BIOGRAPHY' (11 S. vi. 369, 434 ; vii. 336). I recently acquired a copy (12mo) of this rare little work, which, I find, is full of interesting and out-of-the-way in- formation, and contains a number of por- traits, engraved by Chapman, as well as some specially inserted by a former owner, probably, of the volume. The title-page runs :

" Eccentric Biography ; or, Sketches of Re- markable Characters, Ancient and Modern. Including Potentates, Statesmen, Divines, His- torians, Naval and Military Heroes, Philosophers, Lawyers, Impostors, Poets, Painters, Players, Dramatic Writers, Misers, c. &c. &c. The whole alphabetically arranged ; and forming a pleasing Delineation of the Singularity, Whim, Folly, Caprice, &c. &c. of the Human Mind. Orna- mented with Portraits. Of the most singular Characters noticed in the Work. London : Printed by J. Cundee, Ivy-Lane, For Vernor and Hood, Poultry ; And T. Hurst, No. 32, Pater- noster-Row. 1801."

The " Advertisement " is as follows :

" Little need be said in offering the following pages to the notice of the public. The title imports a deviation from the regular path of life by the persons noticed in the work. Their peculiarities cannot fail to afford Amusement to those who are willing to be pleased ; and it