Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/41

 i2s. vin. JAN. s, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 29 commission as Asst.rSurgeon in. the army and went to India to join the 30th Regt. of Foot. During five years' service in India he acquired a large surgical experience. On his return home in 1833 he took his M.D. degree at Glasgow and began private practice at Cheltenham. He subsequently removed to Mayfair. Was an author of 'Hints on Cholera,' &c. He married Eliza, dau. of D. Johnstone of Overtoun, and died at 28 Bolton Street, Piccadilly, W., on Oct. 12, 1869, aged 67 years. I seek genealogical details of his ancestry. Was he a son of Samuel Dickson, W.S., of Edinburgh, born 1777 ? JAMES SETON-ANDERSON. 39 Carlisle Road, Hove. Sussex. ' Qui Hi IN HINDOSTAN. ' I am anxious to know who was the author of ' The Grand Master, or Adventures of Qui Hi in Hin- dostan,' published in 1816 ; also where Rowlandson got the materials for his illus- trations to the ' Adventures of Qui Hi. ' S. T. S. 'LIFE IN BOMBAY.' Can any of your readers tell me who was the author of ' Life in Bombay and the Neighbouring Out- stations,' published by Bentley in 1852 ? S. T. S. "To OUTRUN THE CONSTABLE." What is the origin of this phrase, which means to exceed one's financial resources ? It appears to have been fairly frequently used during the latter part of the last century. Besant and Rice use it in ' Ready-money Mortiboy, ' 1872 (vol. ii. chap, v.), and R. L. Stevenson used it in one of his letters a few years later. W. ROBERTS. " FRANCKINSENCE. " (See 12 S. vii. 503). Does the entry "for pfumes and Franck- insence, xiiii d ," given by MR. ARTHUR WINN, in his ' Extracts from the Aldeburgh Records ' point to a post-reformation use of incense ? WILFRED J. CHAMBERS. Clancarty, Regent Road, Lowestoft. THE GREEN MAN, ASHBOURNE. I should like to know when this well-known inn with its famous signboard, hanging across the street, was built. Boswell in September, 1777, took his post-chaise from the Green Man which he describes as "a very good inn at Ashbourne," and adds that the land- lady, one M. Killingley, presented him " with an engraving of the sign of her house, to which she had subjoined an address." It is now the principal inn of the town, but according to Bagster's edition of 'The Complete Angler,' published in 1815, the Talbot (see 12 S. vii. 350, 438, 515) "till about sixty years since was the first inn at Ashbourn." G. F. R. B. CARLYLE'S 'FRENCH REVOLUTION.' Car- lyle in his ' French Revolution ' stated that Billaud and Collot in 1795 were "shipped for Sinamarri and the hot mud of Surinam." Is there not a geographical error here in. confusing Dutch Guiana with the French penal colony ? THOMAS FLINT. SPENCER MACKAY, ARMIGER. Jacobus Alexander?] Gordon dedicates his thesis " Tentamen medicum inaugurale de arsenico" (Edinburgh 1814) to his maternal uncle ("avunculus "), Spencer Mackay, armiger, London "tibi omnia post Deum debeo. " I believe Gordon is identical with Meredith's friend Dr. James Alexander Gordon (1793- 1872), father of James Edward Henry Gordon (1852-93), -the electrician. Who was Spencer Mackay? The 'D.N.B.' gets no nearer the origin of James Alexander Gordon than the statement that he was born in Middlesex. J. M. BULLOCH. 37 Bedford Square, W.C.I. THE GLOMERY. Sir John Cheke (tutor to King Edward VI.) is mentioned as being the last Master of the Glomery in Cambridge University. Perhaps some reader of 'N. & Q.' may be able to define his function ? R. B. Upton. [The * N.E.D.' explains " glomery " as "ad. med. L. glomeria, prob. ad. AF. * f/lomerie = gramarie, GRAMMAR,'* instances the Cambridge Magister Glome.riae, and quotes Mullinger, ' University ot Cambridge,' i. 140: "It was customary in the earliest times to delegate to a non -academic func- tionary the instruction of youth in the elements of the [Latin J language. Such, if we accept the best supported conjecture, was the function of the Magister Glomeriae." A pupil at a Cambridge grammar-school seems to have been called a glomerel."] "DAVID LYALL," PSEUDONYM. I have seen this pseudonym recently in a catalogue as being used by Annie S. Swan, afterwards Mrs. Burnett Smith. The British Museum Catalogue, however, records it as used by the late Miss Helen B. Mathers (Mrs. Reeves). 3an it be definitely stated to which of these adies may be attributed the novels written, under this pen-name ? ARCHIBALD SPARKE.