Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/376

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 8 . m. JULY, 1017.

There is a curious error in J. M. C.'s reply on p. 341. He refers to a certain, ceremony as -having been " carried out at the conse- cration of the Westminster Cathedral, June 19, 1893."

At that time the building of the cathedral had not begun. The foundation stone was laid on June 29, 1895 ; the unfinished build- ing was first thrown open (temporarily, and without ceremony) for the Requiem and the funeral services of Cardinal Vaughan, who died on June 19, 1903 ; and the building was consecrated (with the ceremony referred to among many others of great interest and antiquity) on June 28, 1910.

I was present on each of these occasions. PHILIP BUSSY.

ENGLISH COLLOQUIAL SIMILES (12 S. iii. 27, 50,77, 116, 170, 177, 188, 232, 274). On p. 45 of " Hamlet Travestie. . . .By John Poole, Esq. Second Edition " (London, 1811), the Queen says of Hamlet : " Mad as bjutter in the sun (#)." The note upon this, on p. 95, is as follows,:

" Amongst the popular superstitions is one, that butter is mad twice a year ; viz. in summer, when its liquability renders it tenable only in a spoon ; and, in winter, when, no longer intenerate, by its inflexible viscosity, it obstinately resists the knife. Johnson."

In " The Knight an.d the Mason ; or, he who runs may read. A Novel in Four Volumes. London : Printed for Crosby and Letterman, Stationer' s-Court ; By Rowland Hurst, Wakefield. 1801," one finds these " similies," as its author spells the word, namely :

Vol. i. 116, as brisk as a blue-bottle.

Vol. ii. 173, as wanton as a kitten.

Vol. ii. 195, soft as down, and dead as a pilchard.

Vol. iv. 6 (a squall), as thick as mustard.

That interesting book appears to be a posthumous work of William Toldervy, alreadyjnentioned in ' N. & Q.'

EDWARD S. DODGSON.

The following similes I have taken from a few works in connexion with Shropshire which have been published during the last forty years.

A woman was asked how her old man was. " Better," was the reply, "he's bin as lively as a maggot all morning."

" As black as the Devil's nut-bag."

" 'er walks as 'aughty as a toad in tater tops."

There is a large collection of similes in the ' Bye-Gones ' relating to Wales and th e border counties, 1876-1917.

H. T. BEDDOWS.

Shrewsbury.

The reading of MB. JOHN T. PAGE'S list on p. 233 brought to my mind the curious simile : " As ignorant as the pigs of Dublin, which didn't know how to eat," heard by me not only in the British Isles, but also in Australia and Egypt, "the pigs of Dublin " being sometimes varied to " as Paddy's pigs." J. W. FAWCETT.

Consett, co. Durham.

FIELDINGIANA (12 S. i. 483 ; ii. 441 ; iii. 181). If MB. J. PAUL DE CASTRO, when quoting from Arthur Murphy's ' Essays on the Life and Genius of Henry Fielding,' had continued the author's words regarding there being " no picture of him ever drawn," they would have shown that

"Mr. Hogarth. .. .finished that excellent draw- ing which stands at the head of this work, and recalls to all who have seen the original, a corre- sponding image of the man."

May I attempt to unravel the dilemma of dates, evidently caused by the names on the frame of Lord Glenconner's picture, as well as, perhaps, by a painter's licence in the matter of those portrayed ? Sifting the evidence of these names, and taking the years 1746-56, make it possible for all to be rightly included,- excepting Miss Lavinia Fenton (of Quin I am doubtful) ; though Fielding never sat for that portrait said to be his. HAROLD MALET. Col. <

OLD INNS (12 S. iii. 169, 257, 314). I cannot share MR. HIRST'S conviction that "Miss Austen's Emma danced at the Swan, Leatherhead." She lived at Highbury, 16 miles from London (chaps, i. and xi.) ; 18 miles from Manchester Street (chap. xxxvii.) ; 9 from Richmond (chap, xxxvii.) ; and 7 from Box Hill (chap, xliii.). It follows from these data that Highbury must be an imaginary place about halfway between Leatherhead and Esher. B. B.

HEART BURIAL (US. viii., ix., x.), passim ; 12 S. i. 73, 132, 194 ; ii. 33. In connexion with this subject, which was started by me, and has led to so much interesting and valuable matter being recorded in theie pages, let me place on record a relevant incident of the War. Mr. Philip Gibbs, in The Daily Telegraph of April 23, 1917, says:

" By the roadside on my way I saw some English soldiers resting, and close to them was a marble tablet stuck up in a heap of earth. I read the words carved upon it, and it told me that here was the heart of Anne Josephine Barandier, Marquise de Caulaincourt, who died in Paris on Jan. 17, 1830. Poor dead heart of Madame la Marquise. In a vault near by all the