Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/258

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NOTES ANC QUERIES. [12 s. in. MARCH 31, 1917.

England and also the Sum of Four Hundred and fifty pounds since allowed to me on the same account and invested in Navy Bills unto my faithful Servant William Drakeley for his own use with all such dividends as shall be due and unreceived thereon at my death I give all my oxen dogs and guns to my said servant William Drakeley all my sheep of every sort to my butler Samuel Robley and all my horses mares geldings and cows to my groom Richard Abott (?) directing their being delivered to the respective legatees thereof immediately on my decease and all the rest and residue of my personal estate whatsoever and wheresoever of every sort and kind after payment of my debts and funeral expenses I give to my said sister Eleanor Frances for her own use and appoint her sole executrix of this my last will and testament hereby revoking all former and other wills by me at any time hereto- fore made. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 12th day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and one.

WiLL b y DIXIE (seal). (Here follows usual attestation clause.) Witnesses

Samuel Miles

Saml. Alston.

John Sherwin. 30,000.

Proved at London 27th April 1803 before the judge by the oath of Eleanor Frances Pochin widow the sister and sole executrix to whom administration was granted she having been first sworn by Commn. duly to administer.

A word in conclusion as to the genesis of this poetical will. It was printed in a now rather scarce work entitled ' The Warwickshire Hunt,' by John Cooper (Venator), published at Warwick in 1837. I am bound to state that the version then given was infinitely superior as a literary effort to the bowdlerized edition furnished by MB. GRUNDY-NEWMAN ; and it has been reproduced, I hesitate to say how often, in various London and provincial news- papers as the " Will of Sir Willoughby Dixie." Who first concocted it is pro- blematical, and I doubt if any one living can say. It is scarcely probable, however, that it was composed by Willoughby Dixie himself, though he was known to be a genial character and a bit of a wag. The following note is attached to it in Mr. Cooper's book, and is not without interest :

" The above ' Will ' has for some years been read from manuscript for the amusement of private and select companies. The whole of the parties alluded to are now no more, and this is the first time we believe that it has been per- mitted to appear in print."

Anyhow, it is, I think, high time that any belief that it is a genuine legal document should be ruthlessly and finally dispelled. WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

"CADUA" (12 S. iii. 186). " Cadua " does not occur in Congreve alone. ' The Stanford Dictionary,' after defining the word as a " representative name for an elderly woman desirous of admiration or courtship," refers not only to ' Love for Love,' but to an earlier instance in Dryden's ' Wild Gallant,' I. ii., where Loveby says : "Well, this is not the first time my neces- sities have been strangely supplied : some Cadua or other has a kindness for me, that's certain." Saintsbury's note is " Cadua : I have been unable to identify this personage. A connexion with cadeau suggests itself ; a daring etymologist might think of Khadijah. But these are guesses." As regards the suggestion that Cadua might be a misprint for caduca, which seems to have been made on the assumption that Cadua was found in this passage of Congreve, and nowhere else, it may be remarked that a derivative from the Latin, " caduke " (also spelt " cadue " and " caduque "), is given as an obsolete word by the N.E.D/ See " 3. Of persons : Infirm, feeble," with a quotation (from 1510-20), " I am all caduc, and wery for age," and 4. with the meaning epileptic, a quotation from Trevisa (1398), " Caduc men that haue the fallyng euyll." A quotation for " caducous " (epi- leptic) is also given (1684). Can a further , example of " Cadua " be given ? Is it to be found in Continental literature of the seventeenth century ? Is there any evi- dence for its having been a proper name ? EDWARD BENSLY.

FROM LIVERPOOL TO WORCESTER A CEN- TURY AND A HALF AGO (12 S. iii. 21, 63, 89, 106, 133, 178,215). The ' Diary of a Journey from Liverpool to Worcester ' touches upon many points of interest, and in his visit to the china works in Worcester, the diarist mentioned a subject which is not only of importance in itself, but which goes far to support the view that the date of that visit was 1771.

I have long been a collector of old Wor- cester china, and I may add that, as the chairman of the present business, I have some knowledge of the technical details of its manufacture as well as of the points which more particularly appeal to the collector.

One thing which is much debated in respect to old Worcester china is " figures," and until a few years ago collectors and dealers alike held that figures were never made there; but in 1899 a book was pub- lished under the title ' Passages from the