Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/44

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s. in. JA*. is, 1917.

NAMES OF THE MOON (12 S. ii. 429, 478 ; iii. 16). The late Vincent Stuckey Lean in his ' Collectanea,' vol. i. p. 385, gives : The harvest moon : that of September. The hunter's moon : that of October. La luna sole de' Zingari.

The reference appears to be Giovanni Torriano, ' Piazza Universale di Proverbi, or a Commonplace of Italian Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases ' (It. and Eng.), London, 1666.

The last of the three means much the same as " Macfarlane's lantern " at the second reference). For " Mac-Farlane's buat (i.e., lantern)" see Scott's ' Waverley,' 1830 edit., vol. ii. p. 75, chap. ix. See also Note 1 on p. 81.

In Johnstone's abridgement of Jamieson's and "bowat." ROBEET PIERPOINT.
 * Dictionary ' " buat " is also spelt " bowet "

The full moon nearest Sept. 15 is the harvest moon ; the following moon is the hunter's moon. J. P. STILWELL.

ATTTHORS WANTED (12 S. ii. 489).

" A lie travels round the world while Truth is putting on her boots."

Is there any evidence of the saying being o an earlier date than Mr. Spurgeon, who certainly said it some thirty or forty years ago ? It seems eminently characteristic of his style. G. T. P.

Godalnring.

(12 S. ii. 509.)

MB. ALFRED S. E. ACKERMANN will find the equivalent of " God is on the side of big battalions" in one of the letters of Madame de Sevigne. Possibly research will over- throw her claim to be the first writer to make such an obvious remark.

EDWARD S. DODGSON.

EMPLOYMENT OF WILD BEASTS IN WAR- FARE (US. xii. 140, 186, 209, 463 ; 12 S. i. 74, 94, 311 ; ii. 454). The fighting oxen, or bakkeleyer, mentioned in Astley's ' Voyages and Travels ' (1746) as used by the Hotten- tots, were probably a cross between the Cape buffalo and ordinary cattle. The latter's chief use is to draw the ponderous transport wagon through the desert sands, for which as many as sixteen are usually required. They possess no fighting qualities whatever. The Cape buffalo, on the other hand, in his natural state is a peculiarly pugnacious creature, and with a very for- midable pair of horns which at the lower ends are flattened over the frontal bones. He can only be approached by a safe shot with

a good rifle, as he will make straight for a vehicle or human being when he perceives either, and do all the mischief he is capable of. I do not think there are any fighting oxen in South Africa at the present day.

N. W. HILL.

SHEPPARD OR SHEPHERD FAMILY OF BLIS- WORTH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (12 S. ii. 391,. 477). The following is the inscription on a mural tablet in the Parish Church of Blakes- ley, near Towcester, Northamptonshire :

"In memory of Samuel Sheppard Esq. of Blis- worth in Northamptonshire, Who departed this life^ Oct. ye 22 nd, 1759. Aged 47 years. He was a most Affectionate Husband A Tender Father A good Master and A sincere Friend, Who married to his last wife Anne second daughter of Sir James Clarke, Knt. of East Moulseyin ye County of Surrey, who is left to lament his Death, and an only son, Samuel Sheppard a minor.

"And near this place lieth interred the body of Lucy Sheppard wife of Mr. John Sheppard of Blis- worth And eldest daughter of Lewis Rye Esq.'of this parish and mother to the above Samuel Shep- pard Esq. She departed this life June ye 26 th 1758 aged 75 years."

F. H. MENTHA, Vicar.

Blakesley Vicarage, Towcester.

' JONATHAN WILD, THE GREAT' (11 S. ii- 261 ; 12 S. ii. 442). I am much interested in, though as yet unconvinced by, the reasons given by MR. J. PAUL DE CASTRO for dis- agreeing, from internal evidence, with my suggestion of six years since, that Henry Fielding was the hitherto unsuspected author of the two articles in Mist's Weekly Journal of June 12 and 19, 1725, within a month of Jonathan Wild's execution at Tyburn, giv- ing a satirical account of the notorious thief- taker. The late Mr. Andrew Lang no mean critic on such a point wrote to me, after reading my contribution to ' N. & Q./ "Aut Henricus, aut Diabolus " ; and, going over it again very carefully now, I feel I can- not but say the same.

This much is certain : Fielding was par- ticularly well acquainted, when writing ' The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild The Great,' with the ins-and-outs of Newgate at the time his hero was imprisoned there. The knowledge of Blueskin, Jack Sheppard's close associate, shown in Book III. chap, xiv., may have been merely tradi- tional, for that unworthy was a well-known character ; but it is not the same with Roger Johnson " a very GREAT MAN," according to Fielding, just as Wild was " a great man," according to Mist's author. The latter, who- ever he was, can scarcely but have seen the special mention of Johnson and his associa- tion with Wild in Parker's Penny Post of