Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/93

 i2s.iv.ifABOH.i9i8.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

87

In Slater's ' Dictionary of Provincialisms

and Low German ' " msebus " =" a bastion."

The word also occurs in this sense somewhere

in Korner's verses, but I cannot find where.

PRIVATE BRADSTOW.

Probably the word is formed from the initials of the German for " ferro-iron (or steel) concrete gun - emplacement," bus standing for Besetz von Stahl.

WALTER WINANS.

" Mebu " is made up of the initial letters of Maschinengewehr-Eisen-Beton- Unterstand, literally " Machine - gun - iron-concrete-em- placement.'' I should imagine " mebus " was an English extemporized plural of the word. The German plural would be " Unterstande." Compare other German words made up since the war, i.e., " Mik," " Mann im Krieg," nickname for a girl whose husband is at the front.

F. M. M.

[We have been unable to trace "msebus" in Lewis and Short's large Latin dictionary or in Ducange.]

PELL AND MILDMAY FAMILIES (12 S. iii. 418, 517). In a book privately printed in 1871, and entitled ' Genealogical Memo- randa relating to the Family of Mildmay,' I find on p. 16 the following note relating to the marriage of Elizabeth Mildmay, only daughter and heir of George Mildmay, to Henry Eaton :

" Anne, youngest daughter of Henry Eaton, born July 12, 1759, married Paul Pell, Esq., of Tupholme Hall, co. Line. ; died January 14, 1784, buried at Rainham."

The book is very scarce, but there are several copies in the possession of different members of the Mildmay family, and there is also one in the British Museum.

C. H. ST. JOHN-MlLDMAY. The Athenseurn, S.W.I.

IRISHMEN IN ENGLAND IN THE SEVEN- TEENTH CENTURY (12 S. iv. 48). The " briefs " entitling those holding them to beg for pecuniary assistance in any parish were royal letters patent from the Court of Chancery. In the churchwardens' accounts of Swallowfield we find payments made to " an irishe woman which had the King's authoritie," and " to Irishe people which had the Kinge's brod seale." The sepay- ments were not confined to the Irish ; thus we find the Swallowfield congregations asked to give to " two families that came out of New England," and also " for the French pro test ants " and to " Souldiers

which had a passe." Certainly the largest order was for the Irish, as we have an entry of assistance given to one

" John Savage that had authority to gather money throughout the kingdom for one whole yeare towards the relief e of a towne burnt on the borders of Ireland, where many people were burnt and many utterly undone."

In Burn's ' Ecclesiastical Law,' under the head of ' Briefs,' we find that the ministers,, in two months after receipt, " shall on some Sunday, immediately before sermon, openly read them to the congregation ; then the churchwardens and chapel-wardens shall collect the money that shall be freely given, either in the assembly or by going from house to house, as the briefs require."

Pepys writes on June 30, 1661 : " Lord's Day. To Church, where we observe the trade of briefs is come now up to so constant a course every Sunday that we resolve to give no more to them."

The custom was entirely abolished in 1828. CONSTANCE RTJSSELL. Swallowfield, Beading.

[Many articles on church briefs have appeared in ' N. & Q.' See the General Indexes under ' Briefs ' and ' Church briefs.']

MAGIC SQTTARES (12 S. iii. 383, 424, 454, 517 ; iv. 54). My attention has been drawn to L. L. K.'s invitation that I might " try my ingenuity" on the magic square of the fourth order. As I have certainly written a good deal on the subject in my 'Amuse- ments in Mathematics ' and elsewhere (I gave a complete classification of the 880 solutions in The Queen, Jan. 15, 1910), it is not difficult to show that (with 15-14 in the position indicated) the numbers in the corners, taken in pairs, need not sum to 17. Take this square as an example :

16

i

4

13

5



9

12

11

10

7

6

2

15

14

3

I

Here they sum to 18 and 16, or (taken dia- gonally) to 19 and 15. If you exchange the positions of 5 and 11, and, at the same time, of 12 arid 6, you will get another solution, believe it is a fact that Diirer's ' Melencolia " was engraved in 1514, and there is a tradition that the date was intended to be indicated in the square, but it is quite probably a