Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/338

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ 12 s.vi. JUNE 5,1920.

CONGBEVE'S DRAMATIC WORKS (12 S. vi. 227). Allusions to the practice of note- taking in church by apprentices are numer- ous in seventeenth-century literature.

In ' A Bartholomew Fairing,' 1649, Ralph Shorthand, the apprentice of Mr. Woolastone is introduced in the second act, and Mr. Learned addresses him as follows :

" Ralph Shorthand ! what my Stenoerraphicall Sermon catcher, my Imp of Repetitions and Conserves (sic) of my small wares of Divinity, little Pedlar of my Dominical! labours, how doest thou sweet youth ? "

Dryden complains, in the Prologue to ' The Spanish Fryar,' 1680, that the vices and follies of the playgoing public change with such rapidity :

. . . .the Poets of your age Are tyr'd, and cannot score 'em on the Stage, Unless each Vice in short-hand they indite, Ev'n as notcht Prentices whole Sermons write."

John Graunt, the statistician, who was bound apprentice to a haberdasher of small wares, " had several years taken sermon- notes, by his most dextrous and incom- parable faculty in short-writing " (Wood's ' Ath. Oxon.,' ed. Bliss, i. 712).

W. J. CARLTON.

47, Ravenswood Road, Balham, S.W.12.

The Naked Prince was the subject of a notice, undated, but probably belonging to a period near the end of the seventeenth century. I extract the following :

" This famous Painted Prince is the first wonder of the age, his whole body (except face, hands, and feet) is curiously and most exquisitely painted or stained, full of variety of invention, with prodigi- ous art and skill performed. Insomuch that the ancient and noble mystery of painting or staining upon humane bodies seems to be comprised in this one stately piece.

" He will be exposed to publick view every day from the 1 6th of this instant June, at his lodgings at the Blew Boar's Head, in Fleet Street, near Water Lane ; where he will continue for some time if his health permit."

For a full and very interesting account of this pictorial personage, see Chamber's ' Book of Days,' under date Oct. 16.

Upminster. R- H. ROBERTS.

CORRIE OR CORRIE-FISTER (12 S. vi. 251).

This term is usually written " car " or " ker," both forms being given in Jamieson's ' Dictionary,' as is also " ker-handit " = left- handed. It appears to be a survival of the Gaelic cearr, left (in modern Gaelic also meaning awkward). O'Reilly's ' Irish-Eng- lish Dictionary ' gives " cearr left-handed, wrong." HERBERT MAXWELL.

Monreith.

T. F. D. says he has failed to find these words in Jamieson's ' Scottish Dictionary/ No wonder. They are not there. He will, however, find " ker," " kar," " cair," " caar,' " carry," all meaning the same thing, left- handed. Jamieson gives a quotation from Skene's ' De Verb.' signif. : " Upon, his right was placed. . . ." It is derived from the Gaelic cearr, wrong or awkward. An taobh cearr is the wrong side, cearr lamhach is left handed, and so on. J. L. ANDERSON.
 * hand was .... Upon the ker and wrang side

Edinburgh.

THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH (12 S. vi. 210, 255).- Having spent many years in the " Australian Bush " so-called, perhaps I may be able to answer MR. ACKERMANN'S ques- tion. The term " Australian Bush " is intended to apply to those sections of the country which are remote from the large towns, and applies equally to timbered country, untimbered country, and country covered by stunted vegetation called " scrub."

There is no actual " bush " resembling, for instance, the Indian jungle. A drover, shearer, or station-hand will say, " I am working in the Bush," meaning that he does not work in towns or on farms, but upon uncultivated grazing land.

J. MURRAY ALLISON.

The word bush, as a noun, has three slightly different meanings. The city- dweller calls the far-away back-blocks, with their scattered townships (villages), " the bush." The inhabitant of one of these little townships means, by " the bush," the more distant parts of the country around him; whilst the man who works on cattle or sheep stations means the unclaimed tracts outside his own run. Broadly speaking it means wild, uninhabited country. A person who wanders or loses his way is said to be " bushed." A. H. DINSMORE.

The " Bush," covering the tracts of country so called, is in some parts composed of dense foliage, plants so intertwined as to make it difficult of progress, either walking or riding. In other parts the land is more open grass grown, with giant trees like iron bark tree, acacias, mimosa, bottle tree, blue-gum (eucalyptus) grass-trees, wild cherry, &c. I lived in the Bush for a few years on one of our properties thermometer 117 degs. in the shade sometimes.

The Bush, in general, is country when some considerable distance away from main