Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/239

 12 S. in. MARCH 24, 1917.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

233

curiously rendered it) having more sense than some people :

Sat edepol certo scio Occisam ssepe sapere plus multo suem.

Miles Gloriosus,'- 586-7 (II. vi. 106). 40. " As deep as the North Star." Does not this mean as distant and inscrutable as the North Star ? The description " Deep as Australia," applied by Wemmick to Mr. Jaggers in Dickens's ' Great Expectations,' chap, xxiv., is hardly parallel, as " deep " is there emphasized by Wemmick's pointing with his pen to the office floor in the supposed direction of the Antipodes.

EDWARD BENSLY.

I have collected a few specimens which include several already mentioned. I think the following are, however, additions to the list :

As wise as Walton's calf, that ran nine miles to suck a bull.

You thought wrong, like Hob's hog.

Always behindhand, like the miller's filler.

As crooked as Tecton brook.

In and out like Tecton brook. (A Northampton- shire brook famous for its devious course.)

As clean as a pink.

As cross as Dick's hat-band, half-way round and tucked.

As queer as Dick's hat-band, that went half- way round and tied in the middle.

As queer as Dick's hat-band, made of pea straw, that went nine times round and would not meet at last. (There are several other varia- tions of this curious simile.)

As full as a tick.

As lazy as Ludlam's dog, that leaned its head against a wall to bark.

As busy as Throp's wife.

All of a hank, like Rattley's sprats.

" As drunk as David's sow " is quoted by Scott in ' Redgauntlet,' chap. xiv. ; and " As plain as a pikestaff " is mentioned by Miss Wetherell in ' Queechy,' chap. li.

See also 7 S. ix. 398 ; 8 S. ii. 153 ; iv. 354 ; ix. 294 ; xi. 467 ; xii. 37, 96, 171 ; 10 S. xi. 440 ; 11 S. viii. 468.

I shall be happy to furnish fuller in- formation concerning some of the above if your correspondent so desires.

JOHN T. PAGE. Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

II (ante, p. 116). " As drunk as David's sow." Hone in his ' Table-Book,' p. 190, ed. 1878, has this explanation :

" A few years ago, one David Lloyd, a Welsh- man, who kept an inn at Hereford, had a living sow with six legs, which occasioned great resort to the house. David also had a wife who was much addicted to drunkenness, and for which he used frequently to bestow on her an admonitory drubbing. One day, having taken an extra cup which operated in a powerful manner, and

dreading the usual consequences, she opened the- stye-door, let out David's sow, and lay down in its place, hoping that a short unmolested nap- would sufficiently dispel the fumes of the liquor. In the meantime, however, a company arrived to view the so much talked of animal ; and Davy,- proud of his office, ushered them to the stye, exclaiming, ' Did any of you ever see such a creature before ? ' ' Indeed, Davy,' said one of the farmers, ' I never before saw a sow so drunk as thine in all my life ! ' Hence the term 'as drunk as David's sow.' "

23 (ante, p. 116). " As hoarse as a crow." Rauca is frequently applied to cornix, a crow,, by poets, Ovid, Lucretius, &c.

M.A.OxoN.

With C. C. B.'s 13 (ante, p. 116), " In and out, like a dog at a fair," compare

Here and there, like a dog in a fair, from ' The Jackdaw of Rheims,' in ' The- Ingoldsby Legends ' ; and with MB. SVAR- TENGBEN'S 24 (ante, p. 50), " To lie like a friar," compare

Those rascally liars, the Monks and the Friars, from ' A Lay of St. Gengulphus.'

JOHN B. WAINE WEIGHT.

" Red as rats " seems worthy registration. I have heard it on Cornish lips.

MIDDIE TEMPLAB.

WATCH HOUSES (12 S. ii. 9, 113, 157, 233, 315, 377, 538). In a most unlikely source- I have found a long chapter upon the early history of the night watch and the estab- lishment of watch houses. In vol. ii. of Beckmann's ' History of Inventions ' there- is given a mass of most interesting in- formation upon this subject. I see also that in the B.M. ' Catalogue of Satirical Prints,' No. 3275, there is an engraving dated 1754, showing the interior of a watch house,, which is lit by a lantern suspended from the ceiling, and warmed by a fire which burns under a hood-like chimney.

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

ARGOSTOLI (12 S. iii. 91, 151). The best book from which to obtain full information respecting the sea mills at Argostoli is K. W. M. Wiebel's ' Die Insel Kephalonia und die Meermuhlen von Argostoli,' Ham- burg, 1874. It is in the second (and final) section of this book (pp. 107-154) that there- will be found diagrams and a map, with sectional details of two mills erected at different periods. Wiebel's book gives a large number of references to authors who have alluded to the Argostoli mills. One Stevens appears to have erected -a grist- mill there in 1835, and Migliaressi set up> another in 1859.