Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/312

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vi. MAY 29,1920.

^description. Again there are the broad and vcheerful Western plains fertile and pros- perous; other plains where neither tree, bush, nor herb, covers the nakedness of the ^red soil. But to the Australian, the man- grove swamps and dense tropical forests of .the north, the tracts of giant-timber in south - western Australia, the " scrub " wastes of the interior where nothing can il ive they all go to make up the bush.

F. A. RUSSELL. 116 Arran Road, Catford, S.E. 6.

There are many definitions given of this in 'N.E.D.' and Morris's 'Austral English' {1898). The bush seems to have been of "Dutch origin, and is synonymous with Jorest or jungle, and applied to all land in its primaeval condition whether occupied by r herds or not. Trollope in ' Australia and 'New Zealand,' page 250, says the " Technical .meaning of the word ' bush ' is the gum- tree forest with which so great a part of Australia is covered, that folk who follow a country life are invariably said to live in -the bush," and Rusden in his ' History of Australia,' page 67, says, " Bush was a -general term for the interior. It might be thick bush, bush forest, or scrubby bush, terms which explain themselves." Else- -where it seems that " nearly every place '[in Australia] beyond the influence of the big towns is called ' bush,' even though there 'Should not bw a tree to be seen around."

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

Plate's ' Lloyd Guide to Australasia ' ^London, Edw. Stanford, 1906), at p. 7, .says :

" The tropical scrubs of the coastal districts

of Queensland are sometimes almost impenetrable,

'and are really virgin forests with palm, tree ferns,

-fleas, climbing plants, lianes, orchids and the rest.

-The ordinary scrub of Australia is of quite a

/different character, being found in regions where

.plentiful rains alternate with periods of drought

. . . .Such scrubs cover immense areas of country,

and among them are the bingalow and myall

^scrubs of Queensland, the mulga scrubs of New

South Wales, and the mallee scrubs of Victoria."

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

. BROWNE : SMALL : WRENCH : MACBRIDE (12 S. vi. 208). Sir Benjamin Wrench, for <sixty years a physician at Norwich, died Aug. 15, 1747, aged 82. He married Ann, jfche widow of Col. Robert Laton (1667-1737) /of Norwich.

According to Musgrave's ' Obituary,' there -were two surgeons named Alexander Small. -tOne died in 1752 (April 8) and was an

eminent surgeon in York Buildings (Gentle- man's Magazine). The other was a F.A.S. and formerly an eminent surgeon in London, who died at Ware, Hertfordshire, in 1794, at the age of 84. He was a writer on " agricultural and physiological improve- ments " in The Gentleman's Magazine, and an accotmt of him will be found in that periodical for September, 1794, page 864. ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

Respecting the 2nd and 3rd names, Chaloner Smith states :

Alexander Small. A native of Scotland, and eminent as a surgeon at Birmingham and at York Buildings, London. Died, 8th April, 1752.

Add : Another eminent surgeon, of the same names, died at Ware in Herefordshire, Aug. 31, 1794, aged 84.

Sir Benjamin Wrench. He died Aug. 15, 1747. His daughter had married in 1736, Harbord Har- bord, Esq., M.P. for Norfolk.

F. B. M.

HARRIS, A SPANISH JESUIT (12 S. vi. 227). This was Father Raymond Hormasa (alias Harris)? S.J., the second son of a genteel but not wealthy Spanish family at Bilbao, where he was born Sept. 4, 1741. He was a priest in Spain from 1756 to 1767, when he was banished to Corsica, and after wandering about for some time he came to England, and became Chaplain at Walton Hall, Yorkshire, and later joined Father Joseph Gittings, alia? Williams, S.J., at St. Mary's, Liverpool. He was three times suspended by his bishop, and died at Liver- pool, May 1, 1789. The title of his pamphlet was : " Scriptural researches on the licitnesa of the slave-trade, showing its conformity with the principles o f natural and revealed religion, delineated in the sacred writings of the Word of God. Liverpool, 1788, 8vo."

A second edition was issued the same year " To which are added Scriptural directions for the proper treatment of slaves, and a review of some scurrilous pamphlets lately published against the author and his doctrine."

A full account of his life and writings will be found in Gillow's ' Bibliographical Dic- tionary of the English Catholics.'

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

The pamphlet is called ' Scriptural Re- searches on the licitness of the Slave Trade,' by the Rev. R. Harris f 1788). The author's Christian name was Raymund, and in his preface he describes himself as " a foreigner unacquainted with the least element of the English language till the /twenty-seventh