Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/265

 12 3. II. SEPT. 2.3, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

259

the great battle took place to promote the marriage of Edward VT. and Mary, Queen of Scots, viz. A.-S. pynca, a point.

N. W. HILL.

The word " pink," with its variants "pinkie" and " pinkey." is a common dialect word, used chiefly in Scotland and America, for the little finger and anything diminutive, such as a " *^ee pinkie hole in that stocking" (Scotland), and the smallest candle, the weakest beer (American).

ARCHIBALD SPARKE. [Several other correspondents thanked for replies.]

P. S. LAWRENCE, ARTIST AND SAILOR (12 S. ii. 209). According to ' A Dictionary of Artists,' by Algernon Graves, this artist exhibited three seascapes at the Suffolk Street Galleries between 1826 and 1828, giving a London address. JOHN LANE. Bodley Head, Vigo Street, W.

[MR. ARCHIBALD SPARKE thanked for reply.]

REV. MEREDITH HANMER, D.D. (12 S. ii. 171), was the son of Thomas, commonly called Ginta Hanmer, and was born at Porkington, Salop, in 1543. See ' D.N.B.,' xxiv. 297, for an account of him.

John Hanmer (1574-1629), Bishop of St. Asaph, born at Pentrepant, was of the same family.

" The family of Pentrepant was of a different stock from the more celebrated Flintshire Hanmers, but took their name from the intermarriage of one of them with a daughter of the Flintshire family."

r xr T* '

A. R. BAYLEY.

D.N.

EPITAPH ON A PORK BUTCHER (12 S. ii. 188). This is to be found at Cheltenham in memory of John Higgs, who died in 1825 :

Here lies John Higgs A famous man for killing pigs For killing pigs was his delight Both morning afternoon and night Both heats and colds he did endure Which no physician could e'er cure His knife is laid his work is done I hope to heaven his soul is gone.

H. T. BARKER.

TOUCHING FOR LUCK (12 S. i. 430, 491 ; ii. 13, 112). Charles Dickens was familiar with the idea. Four years before the reference in ' Little Dorrit,' cited at 12 S. i. 491, he had written in 'Bleak House' (185.3), chap, xxxii. :

" When all is quiet again the lodger says, ' It 's the appointed time at last. Shall I go?' Mr. fJuppy nods, and gives him a ' lucky touch' on the back, but not with the washed hand, though it is his right hand. He goes downstairs "

W. B. H.

CHRISTOPHER URSWTCK ( 12 S. ii. 108, 197). Shakespeare's ' Richard III.,' Act IV. sc. v. f introduces Sir Christopher Urswick, a priest, in conversation with Lord Stanley shortly before the battle of Bosworth Field, where the Earl of Richmond became Henry- VII. Urswick was in Richmond's service, for Stanley says : "... .tell Richmond this from me " ; and "... .hie thee to thy lord."

By the way, some railway officials of to-day might learn of Sir Christopher how to pronounce Haverford-west.

S. GREGORY OULD, O.S.B.

CHING : CHINESE OR CORNISH? (12 S. ii. 127, 199, 239.) Mr. Thurstan Peter, in his ' Parochial History of Cornwall,' refers to a series of photographs of Cornish churches by a Capt. Ching of Launceston. W. AVER.

7 Coptic Street, Bloomsbury, W.C.

I would make a correction in my note, ante, p. 127. While Mr. J. L. Ching's father and grandfather, as I stated, were Li turn Mayor of Launceston, the latter was named Thomas not John, as was indicated.

DUNHEVED

A Classical Dictionary. By H. B. Walters.. (Cambridge, University Press,, 11. Is. net.)

MR. WALTERS has accomplished a useful and important piece of work. One of the best features of modern classical scholarship is its insistence upon things as of equal importance' with words and the arrangements of words. There is something highly " uneducational " in letting students use words without taking pains to ascertain and remember their meaning ; but we fancy that, till lately, this commonplace of educational theory has been brought into practice more carefully in regard to metaphors and abstract words than in regard to names of objects. If a sixth -form boy could translate cothurnus by " buskin," and knew its conventional association with tragedy and pompous diction, what the cothurnus actually was like need receive but cursory attention. But the study of "anti- quities " is at least as necessary as the study of words, if the past of Greece and Rome is to 'live again in any profitable way in the minds of classical students : and, since it requires somewhat more trouble and a more elaborate apparatus than the mere study of a text, we may well be grateful to Mr. Walters for the help he here supplies. The letter-press bf this dictionary is illustrated by 580 figures, most of them suitable for their purpose though some require a practised eye to read their meaning. So far as we have tested them the entries which would be comprised under the head of antiquities are exceedingly well done those on laws and constitutional matters are excellent, as are also those relating to religious rites and customs.