Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/383

 12 S. VII. OCT. 16, 1920.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

315

India Company. The girl might also have reached England from Capetown or the Netherlands. Of what race, by the way, is the oriental -looking girl's head by Verraeer at the Hague, of which a reproduction faces page 2 in Mr. E. V. Lucas's 'Wanderer in Holland ' ? Was she from Java ?

EDWARD BENSLY.

WIDEAWAKE HATS (12 S. vi. 28, 157, 171, 198, 214). I can remember when "wide- awake " seemed to supplant "Billycock"

. as the generic name for a soft hat ; in my early boyhood I used to hear the latter term, but it went out of use. G. A. Sala described s, railway passenger as " something with a wideawake hat in the left-hand off corner,"

.in his ' Gaslight and Daylight, ' published as early as 1859.

Lord Scamperdale's 'Flat Hat Hunt,' and John Leech's illustrations in Surtees' 'Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour ' (1852), will be remembered. W. B. H.

THE LIGHTS or LONDON (12 S. vii. 229, 258, 276). I have always understood that <3harles Reade's 'Wandering Heir ' was founded on ' The Adventures of an Unfor- tunate Young Nobleman,' published at the -time that James Annesley's action against Richard Annesley, 6th Earl of Anglesey was tried. It is a scarce book, but the gist of it may be read in J. Bernard Burke's 'Anec- dotes of the Aristocracy,' vol. ii. (Henry olburn, 1850). It will be seen that Reade followed very closely the incidents here set forth. James won his case, and Burke writes "it is rather singular that he never assumed the family titles, or disturbed his uncle in the possession of them." With regard to this, however, I wrote some years ago to the Heralds' College, and received a reply which stated that

"" in the petition of George, 2nd Earl of Mount- morris, seventh Lord Altham, by a subsequent

"Chancery suit the ' unfortunate young noble- man ' James Annesley was found to be a bastard son of a maid-servant named Joan Landy."

This probably is the reason why Richard Annesley was never disturbed.

W. COURTHOPE FORMAN. Compton Down, nr. Winchester.

The drama with this title was enlarged from a poem by Mr. G. R. Sims. The " glare " of London can be seen from most of 'the high ground around the town. Mrs. A. .Meynell has a note on London's lamps in
 * London Impressions.' J. ARDAGH.

ETYMOLOGY OF "SAJENE" AND "ARS- CHINE " (12 S. vii. 270). Frans Miklosich in his ' Etymological Dictionary of the Slav Languages ' (German, Vienna, 1886), refers " Sajene " and the corresponding words in other dialects to a root seng. O.S1. segnati, "to stretch out the arms." O.S1. sejn "a fathom. " For want of proper type I cannot write the word as he does. The word is undoubtedly Slav and not Scandinavian.

He derives arschine from the Turkish arschen " an ell." The word is also found in Albanian arschin. A.

The 'Slavishes Etymologisches Worter- buch,' by Erich Berneker, Professor at the University of Munich, is not yet complete, bat vol i. (Heidelberg, 1908-1913) contains on p. 31 the etymology of the word "arschine." Berneker repeats without hesitation the statement of F. Miklosich ( ' Etymologisches Worterbuch der slavischen Sprachen,' Vienna, 1886), that it is from the Turkish- " arsen" ell.

L. R. M. STRACHAN.

40 Northfield Road, Birmingham.

PRESIDENT JOHN RICHARDSON HERBERT OF NEVIS (12 S. vii. 129, 175, 232. 251, 273). In my communication referring to the Herberts of Nevis I did not discuss the question as to who the first settler of that family in Nevis was, further than saying that he was not Edward Herbert of Bristol and Montserrat, merchant. I said that the earliest ancestor of John Richardson Herbert of whom I had any knowledge was a Herbert who married Mary Mountstephen, and was father of Thomas Herbert of Nevis who recovered the plantations from Harvey in 1701. I do not know where Thomas Her- bert's father lived, but from other sources in addition to the West Indian records there is some ground for thinking that he may have been of St. Kitts or possibly of Jamaica.

Nor did I refer to the point as to who the wife of Thomas Herbert, the elder, living in 1701, was, but I think it is very probable that she was the Anne Herbert who is recorded in the census of 1707-8 as living at Nevis, and a list of whose servants and slaves is given at that date.

I have no certain proof of the parentage of President Joseph Herbert of Nevis, who died in 1767, but Mr. H. Herbert, a grandson of President Joseph Herbert of Montserrat, and who is I think still living, told me a few years ago that his grandfather Joseph Herbert was nearly related^to Lady Nelson's