Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/433

 12 S. III. SEPT., 1917.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

427

rime can derive from Anglo-Saxon times, because subsequent dependence or borrow- ing at a later period has to be considered. The popular rime ' Hark the Robbers ' is sung by children in Ireland as follows :

Here are the robbers passing by,

Passing by, passing by ; Here are the robbers passing by,

My fair lady.

What have the robbers done to you,

Done to you, done to you ? What have the robbers done to you,

My fair lady ?

They stole my watch and stole my chain.

Stole my chain, stole my chain ; They stole my watch and stole my chain,

My fair lady.

These verses seem to have become asso- ciated with a game like ' Threading the Needle '* (see ' Dictionary of British Folk- lore,' Part I., p. 228, ed. Gomme ; and Folk-lore, Vol. xvii. p. 101). The rime that in Ireland (one would imagine) ought to be associated with the game of ' Threading the Needle ' is that beginning ' How many miles to Dublin ? ' (see Joyce, ' English as We Speak It in Ireland,' p*. 176.)

With regard to the resemblance between German and English folk-rimes, it may be well to point out the following example :

Maikaferchen, fliege ! Dein Vater 1st im Kriege, Deine Mutter ist in Pommerland, Pommerland ist abgebrannt ; Maikaferchen, fliege ! and

Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home I

Your house is on fire,

And your children all gone.

Myt ho legists profess to see in the German rime an allusion to the final destruction of the land of the gods. It may be mentioned, therefore, that the following line referring to the destruction of the happy otherworld, from the Anglo-Saxon poem ' Phoenix,' is of interest, namely,

It shall abide thus blooming until the coming of fire. (See 'Exeter Book,' ed. Gollancz.)

JOSEPH J. MACSWEENEY. Howth, co. Dublin.

74ra REGIMENT OF FOOT (12 S. iii. 331, 399). SIR HERBERT MAXWELL'S inference is quite wrong. The " 74th Regiment of Foot, Invalids," in the 1765 Army List had no connexion whatever with the 74th Foot which was disbanded in 1763.

The " 74th Regiment of Foot, Invalids," in the 1765 Army List was formed in 1762 (Cliff e's Regiment), three regiments of Invalids (Ackland, six companies ; Cliffe,

five companies ; and Lind, four companies^ being then formed from the fifteen indepen- dent companies of Invalids at that time existing. They were numbered the 116th, 117th, and 118th Regiments respectively.

When the reductions of 1763 took place the number 74 was allotted to Cliffe's Regi- ment, which consisted of fiv* companies of 44 privates each, with a total strength of 261. It was reduced in 1770.

J. H. LESLIE.

GERMANS AS " HUNS " (12 S. iii. 383). E. L. P. asks, " Who first applied to the Germans the opprobrious term of Huns ? " and his mention of Byron in this connexion suggests a reference to a contemporary poet. Keats in ' Otho the Great ' has the welcome of Erminia to Gersa, " Hail, royal Hun ! " (Act II. sc ii.) and this adds interest to other passages in that play which suggest reflections for to-day. Such, for example,, is the proud declaration of Otho, the hero of the drama :

I do not personate

The stage-play emperor to entrap applause, To set the silly sort o' the world agape, And make the politic smile.

Act I. sc. ii.

Further, the absolute obedience to the monarch claimed at Potsdam is set forth in. Gonfred's exclamation :

You know we must obey

The prince from A to Z though it should be To set the place in flames.

Act V. sc. v.

And there are some to-day who would perceive prescience in certain other lines of Keats which allude to

A play-thing of the Emperor's choice, A Man-Tiger-Organ, prettiest of his toys.

' The Cap and Bells,' stanza xxxvii.

ALFRED ROBBINS.

FRANCIS TIMBRELL (12 S. ii. 507 ; iii. 76,. 112). Six of this surname are in Foster's ' Alumni Oxonienses, 1715-1886,' as follows : William Timbrill, son of Edward, of Chelten- ham, co. Gloucester, pleb., matriculated from Queen's CoUege, Oxford, May 22, 1740, aged 16; B.A., Feb. 3, 1743/4; M.A., 1753 (as Timbrell). His brother Edward ma- triculated Worcester College, Jan. 25, 1747- 1748, aged 24. A third brother, Nathaniel,, matriculated Queen's College, Oct. 10, 1753,. aged 16. William Hall Timbrel, son of William, of Reading, Berks, cler., matricu- lated Queen's College, June 17, 1775, aged 23. John Carwardine Timbrill, eldest son of John, of Beckford, co. Gloucester, doctor, matriculated Worcester College, May 20,.