Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/331

 12 S. VI. JUNES, 1920.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

271

Invitation to Stinkomalee.' This is the

third stanza :

" The tinkers soon shall worship Pan while all

the London shavers, Sirs, Disdain the unread Barbari, their quondam

friends ; The cobblers, at Minerva's lap turn sutors for

their favours. Sirs, And leave them, untended, in their stalls, their

soles and ends ; The milkmen publish scores of works on Blanco

White and Paley, The pastry-cooks at Tartarus consign their ice

and jellies, Sirs, And oyster-girls read Milton's works, or bias- j

phemies, by Shelly, Sirs.

Hun Screepers run, 'tis now the time for lecturing Every man must learned be in these evil days.

In these earlier years the administration appears to have been subject to severe criticisms. Before me is a letter from Leonard Horner to the editor of The Spectator inviting a thorough investigation. Dated from the University Feb. 14, 1830, it concludes :

" I am confident that you are a sincere friend to the university; and will therefore see the importance of not giving publicity to inaccuracy in any shape."

The Iconography of the early University is of interest. It includes a large oblong woodcut view. " Presented to the sub- scribers of The Weekly Times, on Sunday, April 29, 1827."

A wash drawing by Wilkins the architect showing the intended right wing is also before me. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

TOWNLEY HOUSE, RAMSGATE. (See 10 S. v. 109.). Anent this historic house, in Chatham Street, many may regret, as I do, to read that

" it has been acquired by a coach and motor-build- ing Company. The fine old elm trees in the grounds are being felled preparatory to conversion into carriage-bodies. The building itself will house the employees."

Townley House was, of course, the residence for a time of Queen Victoria in her girlhood days, and it has often been suggested that a commemorative tablet might we 1 ! have recorded so notable a fact. Even now it is not too late to repair the omission.

CECIL CLARKE.

HURBECS. In a French version of the 105th psalm I find verse 34 rendered as follows : "II commanda, et les sauterelles vinrent, et les hurbecs sans nombre." The curious word hurbecs is not in Littre. On referring to the English version I find that it means " caterpillars." And yet my

translation was printed in 1919. Probably it is an old Protestant version, though there is nothing to show it, except, perhaps, that it has no imprimatur. I should imagine that there is not a single word in the Au- thorised Version of 1611 that would not find a place in an ordinary English dictionary : the mere fact that a word was used in the English Bible is enough to give it a locus standi in the language. Of course, the French have never been as we have, the nation of one book, and so a word that was perhaps in common use in the sixteenth century and was good enoiTgh to be em- ployed by the Protestant translators, soon ceased to be employed at all. And yet I suppose that it is understood by the Frenchman of to-day.

T. PERCY ARMSTRONG. Junior Athenaeum Club.

We must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

AMBER. Is it a well-known superstition that amber worn round the neck will prevent the wearer from catching cold ? A friend was told this in all seriousness, when return- ing from South Africa a few weeks ago, and as she takes chills very easily she is trying it, with good results so far. It would be interesting to know where and how widely this superstition is believed and if amber is considered a remedy for any other ailments. J. H. H.

NURSERY TALES AND THE BIBLE. Is there any foundation for the idea that some old childien's tales are corruptions of Bible stories for instance, ' Jack and the Bean- stalk ' from the story of Jacob's ladder, and ' Punch and Judy ' from Pontius Pilate and Judas ? I. C.

BOMBERS IN CHART.ES II.'s NAVY. In Pepys's ' Memoires ' in the ' Abstract of the Ships of War and Foreships in Sea-pay upon the 18th of December, 1688 '- appears a " bomber," the Firedrake, having a com- plement of seventy -five men. Two others, the Portsmouth and the Salamander, are given along with the Firedrake in the fuller ' List and State of the Royal Navy ' in- cluded in the same work.

I should be glad of a full description of these vessels. What size and sort of bombs