Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/170

 136 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i 2 s.ix.AuG.i3,i92i. VERSES WANTED : CONJUGAL SQUABBLES (12 S. ix. 53). This story in verse will be found in No. 2 of The Taller, April 14, 1709. DIEGO. AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL WRITERS : BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS WANTED (12 S. ix. 52, 96). Henry Dethick, Arch- deacon of Carlisle, was collated in October, 1588, and resigned in 1597. He had been ap- pointed Chancellor, Vicar General and Official Principal in February, 1586, but had resigned these offices in 1588, on being appointed Archdeacon. On resigning the archdeaconry, in 1597, he was again appointed Chancellor, and held the office as late as 1606. This information is condensed from an article by the late Chancellor Prescott in the Trans- actions of the Cumberland and Westmor- land Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, vol. xi., new series. According to Anthony Wood, he was M.A. and LL.B. (the titles given him by Chancellor Prescott), but Wood says that, although in 1581 Dethick supplicated for the degree of Doctor of Law, he could not find evidence of his being admitted. I do not know whether he was the man who signed the dedication of the work named by your correspondent. DIEGO. 2. Evelyn writes in his Diary under June 9, 1698: To Deptford, to see how miserably the Czar had left my house, after three months making it his Court. I got Sir Christopher Wren, the King's Surveyor, and Mr. London, his gardener, to go and estimate the repairs, for which they allowed 150 in their report] to the Lords of the Treasury. A note of Mr. Austin Dobson's identifies this Mr. London with George London, and refers to Evelyn's entry under April 24, 1694, where he carries an acquaintance to see Brompton Park, where he was in admira- tion of the store of rare plants, and the method he found in that noble nursery, and how well it was cultivated. Mr. Dobson notes on Brompton Park, " Between Knightsbridge and Kensington," but now built over. It belonged to Henry Wise, 1653-78, afterwards gardener to Queen Anne and George I., and one of the firms of London and Wise, the nursery gardeners mentioned in No. 5 of The Spectator. Evelyn refers to them in his ' Advertisement ' to La Quintinye's ' Compleat Gardener,' 1693. No. 5 of The Spectator is one in which Addison ridicules the Italian opera: I hear there is a treaty on foot between London and Wise (who will be appointed gardeners of the playhouse) to furnish the opera of Binaldo and Armida with an orange grove ; and that the next time it is acted, the singing-birds will be personated by torn-tits. EDWARD BENSLY. AMERICAN ENGLISH (12 S. viii. 449 ; ix. 97). Your correspondent H. C N is pro- bably not aware that in the United States it is incorrect to use the plural number in speak- ing of the United States as a nation, as was the case in President Har ding's Address to Congress. Had he said the " United States mean," it would have denoted the intention of each individual State. He was speaking for the nation as a whole, and consequently used the singular number. The question as to whether the singular or plural number should be used after the words " United States " was thrashed out years ago, and decided that, when speaking of the States as a nation, the singular number was cor- rect. The use of the adverb " illy " is in fre- quent, if not common, use in the United States. WILLIAM F. CRAFTS. 6, Cypress Street, Brookline, Mass., U.S.A. In regard to the use of the word " illy," this extract from a letter of a distinguished member of our United States Senate may be of interest : " Illy " is not to me a good word. I should not use it myself as an adverb, but should use the word " ill " in that capacity. It is, however, an old and entirely legitimate word. I see on glanc- ing at the dictionary that they quote its use in Strype's ' Memorials ' and also from an Eliza- bethan writer, in Arber's ' English Garner,' also they quote Southey, who is comparatively recent and who certainly knew how to write. He says, " I have illy spared ..." Nevertheless I do not admire it, but I think it is entirely correct. C. E. S. GLEANING BY THE POOR (12 S. ix. 70. 112). I think MR. WALLACE wants Rex v- Price (4 Burrow's Reports, 1925), in 1766, and Steel v. Houghton (1 Henry Blackstone's Reports, 51), in 1788. H. C N. TANTARY BOBTTS (12 S. ix. 71). This word is a provincialism in Somerset, Devon- shire, and Cornwall. It appears in the following forms : Tantarabolus, Tankera- bogus, Tantarabobs, Tanterabolus, Tantra- bobus and Tantrumbolus, and represents a name for the devil ; a bogy. I have, how- ever, met with another variant of the word, " tanterboming." meaning crooked ; out of