Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/51

 12 s. i. JAN. 15, H)i6 ] NOTES AND QUERIES.

rise to our " ships of post," that is, of 20 guns or more, the commanders of which were post-captains (cf. " Post," ' N.E.D.'). Re- turning to the Pr. tabernacle, originally a diminutive of L. taberna, Fr. taberne, taverne, thus affording matter for profane humour, there is evidence that the first syllable was as loosely connected as that of abitacle ; so the word came to have at least a third sense, as shown in Mistral's ' Tresor ' : (1) the re- ligious sense ; (2) the naval sense ; (3) spec- tacles. This last meaning could only be from the loose attachment of the first syllable, enabling bernacle to be jestingly confused with bericles, berniques, barniques, mod. Fr. besides, spectacles, changed from bericles as chaise has been changed from chaire. Attention to the different meanings of Fr. lunette, also of Du. bril (like bericles derived from "beryl"), will support these curious relations.

The influence of " tabernacle " was pro- bably not confined to French ships, for the ' N.E.D.' shows that the tabernacle exists in English ships, at least in rivercraft, where the mast may have to be lowered : " 1886, The mizen-mast must be stepped in a tabernacle on a false transom in front of the rudder-head," that is, about the position of the tabernacle in a French galley. Some readers of ' N. & Q.' to whom such craft are familiar may be able to trace the story of this term in English.

EDWARD NICHOLSON.

Les Cycas, Cannes.

GENERAL JOHN GUISE: THE REV. SAMUEL GUISE, M.A.

1. THE 'D.N.B.' gives accounts of William Guise (1653-83), Fellow of All Souls, and Professor of Oriental Languages at Oxford, and of General John Guise (1683-1764), Colonel of the 6th Foot ("Guise's"), but does not mention that they were father and son. William Guise was a son of John Guise of Ablodes Court, near Gloucester. He matriculated at Oriel at the age of 16 in 1669, and was elected a Fellow of All Souls in 1674 (Foster, ' Alumni Oxonienses '). He married in 1680 Frances, daughter of George Southcote, by whom he had a son and two daughters (Wood, ' Life and Times,' Oxford Historical Society, vol. iii. p. 68). Hearne (' Collections,' Oxford Historical Society, vol. viii. p. 144) gives some account of the work of this " great young man," as he calls him, and reproduces his epitaph (p. 145). He says,

"Mr. Guise's son is now living, viz., CoL- Guise " (p. 382). Foster ('Alumni Oxoni- enses') shows that there were two John Guises who were contemporaries at Oxford. One is described as John Guise, son of William Guise of Oxford (city), and is stated to have matriculated at Gloucester Hall .on July 6, 1697, aged 14. The other was John Guise, son of William Guise of Winter- bourne, co. Gloucester, matriculated at Merton College, July 12, 1698, aged 15 ; B.A. from Christ Church, March 20, 1701/2;. student of Middle Temple, 1700. Foster says that the first is possibly identical with the second. But this is not so. William Guise of Winterbourne was not William Guise of All Souls. He was a son of Henry Guise of the same place, and a brother of Christopher Guise, whose daughter Eleanor- was Sir Horace Mann's mother (see- 'Letters of Horace Walpole,' Toynbee^ vol. i. p. 25 In.).

According to the pedigree of the Guise family in Burke' s ' Peerage and Baronetage/ William Guise of Winterbourne had a som named John, who was not the General- He may possibly be the John Guise, Esq.,. who subscribed to Hearne' s Camden's ' Eliza- betha' in 1717 (Hearne's 'Collections,' vol. vi. p. 107).

The ' D.N.B.' mentions General Guise's pictures, given to Christ Church ; and his interest in art is shown by his connexion, with an early enterprise for the reproduction of well-known pictures. (See a letter from Lord Percival to his brother of Aug. 30, 1721,. in Hist. MSS. Com. 7th Report, p. 247.) He was Colonel of " Guise's" from Nov. 1, 1738, till his death in June, 1765 (' N. & Q.,' 3 S. vii. 50).

2. There was another Guise, a second cousin of the General, at Gloucester Hall,, about the same time. This was Samuel; Guise, son of Thomas Guise of Burcester. He also matriculated in 1697. In 1711 he was Vicar of Thame, and in 1713 he pro- ceeded to the degree of M.A. Hearne states that he applied for dispensation for one term,, and " only carried it by a small majority, the reason for any one's being against him being his vile principles, he being great with Lord Wharton" (Hearne's 'Collections,' vol. iv. p. 208). In 1719 he became chaplain to Philip, Duke of Wharton (Foster, 'Alumni Oxonienses ' ).

Samuel Guise was buried at High Wy~ combe. His mutilated tablet, taken down when the church was restored, has been cut down to fill a place in the floor, and there remains little more than his name and that