Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/56

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. m. JAN. 20, 1917.

art considered worth mentioning hx the in- ventory in 1592 of the goods of John's father Richard, and this possibly suggests a Flemish origin. Other items^-such as " one Tow- hand swoorde," "one Battell exe,' "one welshehoke," " a Bow and Arros, with 2 Quiffers," "a herniper," "a litell longe pike," a staff with a pike in the end, and " one muskitt with his furnitxire" indicate that the family, though peaceably inclined, were not unprepared for war.

ANNULET.

JULIUS CJESAR'S REFORM OF THE CALENDAR. What ancient authority is there for the statements, made in the ' Calendar ' articles in ' The Encyclopaedia Britannica ' and in ' Chambers's Encyclopaedia,' that Julius Caesar in reforming the calendar gave 29 days to February (30 in leap years), 30 each to August, October, and December, and 31 each to September and November, and that the existing distribution of days among the various months is due to Augustus ? All other works of reference which I have con- sulted assign to Julius Caesar the present arrangement of the days of the months, and are silent as to any redistribution by Augustus. R. J. B.

JOHN GILBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK (1693- 1761). What were the name and parentage of his mother ? She is said to have been a Brisco of Crofton, but I should be glad of confirmation of this. The ' D.N.B.' is silent on the point. His father would seem to have been John Gilbert of the East India Company (Foster, ' Alum. Oxon.,' and a pedigree in The Connoisseur, 1911). The Rev. John Gilbert, Fellow of Wadham and Prebendary of Exeter, was his grandfather, and not his father as stated in the ' D.N.B.' LAWRENCE E. TANNER.

2 Little Dean's Yard, Westminster.

JOHN LEAKE, M.D. According to the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' xxxii. 321, he was the son of William Leake, a clergyman, and was born at Ainstable, Cumberland, June 8, 1729. Can any correspondent of ' N. & Q.' give me particulars of his mother ? Where was he " educated as a surgeon " ? Did he ever marry ? G. j\ R. jj.

GAMBARDELLA, ITALIAN PORTRAIT- PAINTER. I should be grateful to any reader of N. & Q.' who could give any biographical details of the above Mid- Victorian portrait- painter. He was, I believe, a refugee, and a friend of Giuseppe Mazzini. The two portraits by him that I know are charming

One, that of the Hon. Caroline Dawson (afterwards Lady Congleton), Maid of Honour to Queen Victoria, is reproduced in the just published ' Twenty Years at Court from the Correspondence of the Hon. Eleanor Stanley,' edited by Mrs. Steuart Erskine; and the other, in my possession, is one of Susanna Arethusa, wife of the Right Hon. Thomas Milner-Gibson. I should be very glad to hear of any others.

GERY MILNER-GIBSON-CULLUM, F.S.A. The Athenaeum, Pall Mall, S.W.

VENETIAN ACCOUNT OF ENGLAND. I shall be grateful if any reader can tell me where may be found the original of what is referred to by Bishop Creighton in his Romanes Lecture, 1896, as the earliest account of England from outside, by a Venetian am- bassador in 1497.

The lecture was reprinted in ' Historical Lectures and Addresses,' published by Long- mans, Green & Co., 1903. A. P. A.

"TEREBUS Y TEREODIN." (See 12 S. ii. 507.) In 6 S. ii. 446, of 1880, to which I was kindly referred, there is a cutting from The Newcastle Journal of some few years before, which states that these words are only the corrupted spelling of the A.-S. " Tyr heebie us, ye Tyr ye Odin," meaning " May Tyr uphold us, both Tyr and Odin." No such verb as "heebie" appears in the A.-S. Dic- tionary, nor any of which it might be a misspelling, and my expert friend says he doubts Tyr representing a chief deity, as stated. Can any one throw more scientific light on this refrain ? ALFRED WELBY.

ENGLISH COLLOQUIAL SIMILES. (C~ ntinued from p. 28.)

21. To lie like a Cretan. Cretan lying well known, but is the simile commonly used in present English ?

22. As false as Waghorn (Scotch, in Jamieson, &c.). Who or what was Waghorn ? The ex- planation given not satisfactory. Is it still current in any part of Scotland ?

23. As big a liar as Tom Payne. Any informa- tion as to the origin and, currency of the simile would be welcome.

24. To lie like a friar. Is any such phrase known ?

25. To lie like a lawyer. Any eighteenth- century instances ?

26. To lie like a trooper. Known before 1854 ?

27. To lie like a gas-meter. Is it commonly used ?

28. To lie like a lapwing. Used in modern English ?

29. As slick as molasses (Lowell, 1848). Common ? What does it refer to ?

30. As sane as Satan. Instances of 1896. Known earlier ? Is there any other simile containing " sane " ?