Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/317

 12 S. VI. MAY 29, 1823.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

^ LATIN AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE (12 S. vi. 202, 234). Any one wishing to speak Latin will find great assistance from ' Nos in Schola Latine loquimur ' Ars. Latine loquendi, by Dr. Thoma Elsaesser, O.S.B., second edition, 1909, published by J. de Meester at Roulers. Other books on colloquial Latin are C. Meissner, ' Phraseo- logie latine,' trad. fran9aise, fifth edition, Paris, 1911, Klincksieck ; C. Dumaine, ' Conversations latines,' Paris, 1913, Tralin.

RORY FLETCHER. 5 Hillside Eoad, Streatham Hill, S.W.

It is perhaps worth pointing out that of the three Latin sentences cited by MR. McGovERN in support of his plea for Latin as an international language two are, measured by syllables, half as long again, and the other a good deal more than twice as long as their English equivalents.

C. C. B.

The REV. J. B. McGovERN may like to know that about 1890 I edited Phoenix, a Latin newspaper. Four numbers appeared, and letters of support came from many countries ; but the enthusiastic friend, for whom I acted could no longer defray the expense. I think there are copies at the British Museum, but I could lend the learned gentleman mine. H. C N.

I remember that when I was living in the Ukraine, I met an Irishman there who knew Latin well. He never could learn Russian, but he told me that on more than one occas- sion, to his own great advantage, he was able to converse with Russian ecclesiastics on account of his knowledge of Latin. A great difficulty often arises through the different ways of pronouncing it. It is said, for instance, that at the Vatican Council of 1871, where the speeches were all in Latin, the ecclesiastics of the various countries were unable to imderstand each other. It is a pity that the colloquial use of Latin is not taught more frequently in our schools, for apart from its possible value in after life half the terrors of translating into Latin prose would vanish away, if boys could be got to realize that Latin is not a dead language. T. PERCY ARMSTRONG.

The Author's Club, Whitehall Court, S.W.

"DlDDYKITES" AND GlPSIES (11 S.

vi. 149, 193, 216). Of course the spelling I adopted " diddykites " is merely phonetic, but the word is no doubt of the same origin as the jword " didicai " or " didicoy " of

Somerset, and of ' The Dialect of the English* Gypsies.' But here at Parkstone the final?, syllable has been emphasised by the addition of the t.

The other word used here for gipsies is-- " gibboos " (the spelling being again phonetic- with the (j soft) and not " gibbies " as I first wrote it. This is evidently the other form of " jippos " as mentioned by MR. MERRICK. What he says about the nurserymen and farmers of his neighbourhood applies equally to Parkstone. PENRY LEWIS

Havenhurst, Canford Cliffs, Dorset.

BISHOPS OF DROMORE, FIFTEENTH CEN- TURY (12 S. vi. 229). The list of bishops quoted by MR. FAWCETT does not quite agree with that given in Harris' edition of Ware, and adopted by the Liber Munerura Publicorum Hiberniae. I take the following from Harris' ' Ware ' :

John Volcan, resigned in 1404.

Richard Messing, succeeded in 1408, died in/ 1409.

John, succeeded in 1410, resigned about 1418-

Nicholas Wartre (sic.), succeeded in 1419.

David of Chirbury, died about 1427.

Thomas Scrope, alias Bradley, succeeded about- 1434, resigned before 1440.

Thomas Radcliffe, died or resigned before 1470.

George Brann, succeeded in 1489, resigned in> 1499.

Harris accounts for the gaps in this list by explaining that owing to the poverty of the See it was very difficult to get any one to accept it. I would suggest that the John mentioned above is the same as the John Dromorens who died in 1433. He- seems to have become Suffragan to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and may have- continued to use his former title as such.

H. J. B. CLEMENTS. Killadoon, Celbridge.

ACTHOB OF QUOTATION WANTED (12 S. vu- 210). I do not think that

Incepto finem det gratia trina labori is a quotation, in the sense of being taken from'ah poem. But whether the scribe who placed this pious wish at the head of the roll was employing a conventional formula or was the actual author o?* the particular line, who can say t

in his chapter on Scribes and their wa-ja in ' Books in Manuscript,' Mr. Falconer Madan gives some interesting specimens of notes at the end of books, " in which the scribe's most inward mind at the moment of the completion of bis long task is often revealed, whether the uppermost feeling be weariness, malignity, religious feeling, animatediexpectancy or humour."

The practice of prefixing a pious remark to ledger lasted down to quite modern times.

EDWARD BEKSLY.