Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/34

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. m. JAN. 13, 1917.

To begin with, I should be grateful for notes concerning the following forty similes :

1. As innocent as Moses in the bulrushes. Used by Vachell. Known elsewhere ?

2. As good as gold. Instances earlier than 1845-

3. As good as pie. Some American instances known. Does it occur in British English also ? Does it always refer to good behaviour ?

4. As holy as a horse. Instances known from 1530. Is it found later ?

5. As innocent as a devil of two years old (Swift, ' Polite Conversation '). What is the exact force of the phrase ? Is it known elsewhere ?

6. As bad as Jeffries (Wise, ' New Forest,' 1863). Is this a proverbial phrase current in Hampshire ? Does it refer to Judge Jeffreys of the Bloody Assizes ?

7. As honest as the skin between one's brows. Instances later than 1643 ? It is used in the ' Ingoldsby Legends.'

8. As true as the needle to the pole. Modern instances ?

9. As true as a gun (Ben Jonson). Later instances ? An American writer has " As true as a gun barrel."

10. As true as touch (Spenser). Any later instances ?

11. As true as flint. Known before 1847 ?

12. As true as a dog. Used by Baring-Gould. General currency ? How old ?

13. As honest as the day. How old ?

14. As common as the town sewer. Oppro- briously of a woman. Is this at all used ?

15. As common as Coleman Hedge (7 S. ix. 387,454). Any instances later than 1650. Is the form " As common as Coleman Street " actually known ?

16. As common as the hedge. Meaning ? Instances earlier than 1690 and later than 1725 ?

17. As lecherous as a monkey (Shakespeare) ; As hot as monkeys (Shakespeare) ; More wanton than an ape (1601). Similar references to monkeys before or after the Elizabethan period ?

18. As lecherous as is a sparwe (Chaucer). Known elsewhere ?

19. As false as the first snake (Phillpotts). Known elsewhere ?

20. A falsehood black as Styx (Thackeray). Modern usage ?

It must be added that facts and statements as to individual usage are preferred to the most ingenious conjectures.

T. HlLDING SVARTENGREN. Vasteras, Sweden.

(To be continued.)

STIPENDIARY MAGISTRATES WEARING ROBES ON THE BENCH. Has it ever been the practice for stipendiary magistrates in London or the country to sit in wig and gown, and if so, when did the practice end ? Do any magistrates now sit in robes ? And is there any objection to the adoption of the practice by a magistrate or his deputy ?

E. S. B.

JOHN HENRY NEWMAN : " BATJGHTON," SICILY. I have in my possession a letter- dated " Worcester, 18th December, 1833,' r written by my uncle, Ewen Henry Cameron,, to his sister. He was at the time articled to his uncle, Archibald Cameron, a Worcester solicitor, and was the second son of the Revv Charles Richard Cameron, Incumbent of St. George's, Donnington Wood, Salop. Can any one explain the following words ?

" Will you have the goodness to tell my father that we have lately heard from Mr- Newman that he is in Sicily for the sale of Baughton, and-, that he should be glad to know what debts he [my father] has paid, and what he fa aware o' being due, independently of legacies, &c. The- latter particulars he had better send here, and we- will forward them after adding what we know on the subject."

It seems clear from the allusion, to Sicily that Mr. Newman must have been John- Henry Newman ; I can, however, find no other evidence that his visits to Sicily were for business purposes, or, indeed, that he- owned any property there. " Baughton " is an English name, and the assumption is that if he owned any property there or was the- executor of any one who owned such property, the name must have been given. to it by its English owner.

GEORGE H. CAMERON, Archdeacon of Johannesburg- Box 1131, Johannesburg.

ROGER HANDASYDE, M.P. for Huntingdon,. March, 1721/2, to April, 1741, and for- Scarborough, June, 1747, to April, 1754.. Where can I obtain information about him ?: When did he die ? G. F. R. B.

ISAAC PENINGTON, LORD MAYOR OB" LONDON. Was he ever knighted ? The- ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' xliv. 296, states that " soon after 6 June, 1649, he was knighted by the Speaker of the Commons on the- recommendation of the House." In Shaw's ' Knights of England,' vol. ii. p. 221, however, it is distinctly stated that " the Bill did not pass the House, and the ceremony was not performed." Which authority is correct ?

G. F. R. B.

LiEUT.-CoL. LEWIS (BAYLY) WALLIS. (See- 12 S. ii. 474.) Sir Nicholas Bayly, who, as mentioned, married Caroline Paget (by whom he was ancestor of the present Marquis of" Anglesey), was married twice. His first wife died in 1766. His second wife was Anne Hunter, who outlived her husband (he died in 1782), dying May 18, 1818, when at Mill- field, Surrey, aged 79. By the second marriage Sir N. Bayly had a son who ut