Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/97

12 S. I. JAN. 29, 1916.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

91 —In 'The Ring and the Book' (book xi. 1. 553), Browning puts into the mouth of Guido the exclamation, "Colly my cow!" It is apparently contemptuous, and even insulting. Can any one explain its origin? Dr. Berdoe, whose 'Browning Cyclopædia' professes to tackle "all difficult passages," passes over it in silence, and the only references to the phrase which I have discovered are not very helpful. They are as follows:—

1. From Dr. Brewer's 'Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,' p. 275:—

2. Dr. Wright's 'English Dialect Dictionary' quotes "Sing, oh poor Colly, Colly my cow," from Halliwell, 'Nursery Rhymes,' 86. It explains that Colly is, in some parts of England, "a term of endearment for a cow."

JAMES GORDON, KEEPER OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE LIBRARY. Mr. R. A. Ingpen ('Middle Temple Bench Book,' p. 397) notes that James Gordon, "third son of Harry Gordon of Gordonfield, Aberdeenshire," was called to the Bar in 1790, and became Keeper of the Middle Temple Library. His services were dispensed with in May, 1827 (1821?), and he was granted a "pension of 40l. a year." Is this the James Gordon of the Middle Temple who tried to prove that his father, Col. Harry Gordon, R.E., of Knockespock, Aberdeenshire, had not married the lady who was the mother of his elder brothers? The case (1818-21) is fully set out in Swanston's 'Report of Cases' (i. 166; ii. 409-82).

BATH CORPORATION SEAL : Du BARRY'S RAPIER. In Vatel's ' Memoirs of Madame du Barry ' it is stated that Jean Baptiste du Barry (dit Adolphe), the only son of the man who planned and carried through the in- trigue by which Jeanne Becu, the daughter of a domestic servant, was brought to the knowledge of Louis XV., was killed in 1778 (Nov. 10) in a duel which took place at Bath. The hilt of his sword, it is asserted, was picked up on the field, and " sert de cachet a la municipalite de Bath." Is there any foundation for this statement, and does the Bath Museum contain M. du Barry's broken pier?

QUEEN ANNE'S THREE REALMS. Pope writes the well-known line in his 'Rape of the Lock':

I wonder what three realms Pope referred to. It is true that Queen Anne's style and dignity was "Queen of Great Britain, France, and Ireland." Are these the three realms to which he referred? Surely an educated man in Queen Anne's reign would not have regarded her as Queen of France. }}

MARQUESS OF CARNARVON. When was the Marquisate of Carnarvon created, and in which year did it lapse?

A COFFIN-SHAPED GARDEN BED. I have just read parts of Eva Lathbury's 'The Shoe Pinches: a Tale of Private Life and Public Tendency.' The scene of chap. vi. is laid in a garden where " there are a number of flower-beds cut into quaint devices, stars and hearts and coffins, full of June flowers." Only this morning I complained of a long bed, on a lawn in which I am interested, not having the lines of its sides parallel to each other. I was told they were as they should be, as the bed was a coffin. This strikes me as being an ill-omened thing to have cut into the sod of one's plaisance. Can any one say whether it be a customary memento mori, or give another reason for the adoption of the form, not otherwise appropriate, or, to my thinking, beautiful?

far, the most famous instance in modern times of coffin-opening has not been referred to. I beg leave to give some details of this and of a few other cases which have not as yet been included in the printed replies.

In 1840, when Thiers was head of the French Government, consent was obtained by him from England for the exhumation of Napoleon's body at St. Helena, and for its removal to the banks of the Seine. The frigate Belle Poule was chartered for the purpose, and at midnight Oct. 14-15, 1840; the opening of the grave at St. Helena was begun. The work proved arduous, and it was not until 2.43 on Oct. 15 that the