Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/473

 12 s. ix. NOV. 12, i92L] NOTES AND QUERIES. 387 Lordships' Letter to the Commissioners of the Customs, that he may meet with as little difficulty as possible in getting from the Custom House, where they have been deposited from on board the Hananel from Leghorn his wearing apparel, effects and some few pictures, all of which Mr Hamilton can assure their Lordships are for his own use. WILLIAM HAMILTON. E. H. FAIBBBOTHEB. " THE KING'S ENGLISH " : " GESTURE." A superior person who has written lately of Queen Victoria and is strong on her weaknesses, draws attention to her falli- bility in the matter of grammar. A yet bolder critic, in The Guardian (Oct. 21, 1921), takes King George V. to task for using the word " gesture " as a substitute for sign or for some other synonym. A paragraph in the columns devoted to mis- cellaneous topics under the heading of " The Week " runs : Kings no doubt, like other people who are not purists, sometimes use colloquialisms in private, but we do not expect them to write them in State documents ; and the King of England too ! The King, in his telegram to President Harding, says that the gift of the American Medal of Honour to a British soldier is "a gesture of friendly sympathy and goodwill." The word " gesture " used in this sense is the very latest slang of the up-to-date " literary " gent, of Gallophil tendencies. Un beau geste is good French, but " a fine gesture " is certainly not English pace His Majesty (or his advisers) and The Quarterly Review, in the new number of which we also find the phrase, which, for the matter of that, has for the last few weeks invaded the newspapers with great severity. Personally, I do not consider that the use of the word " gesture " here condemned is slang it is rather a novelty in figurative speech. I do not hold that King George V. or any other monarch is super grammaticam, but I think he is in a position to express himself as he did in the American message without being publicly reproved by The (fuardian in the sloppily written lines that I have quoted. ST. SWITHIN. CHEESES AS AMMUNITION. As so much lias been written in ' N. & Q.' lately anent cheese and cheeses, perhaps the following culled from The New York Mirror of 1848 may be considered suitable for its columns : The greatest ammunition that we have heard of lately was used by the celebrated Commodore Coe, of the Monte Videan Navy, who, in an en- gagement with Admiral Brown, of the Buenos Ayrean service, fired every shot from his lockers. " What shall we do, Sir ? " asked his first lieu- tenant; " we've not a single shot aboard ; round, grape, canister, and double-headed are all gone." " Powder gone, eh ? asked Coe. " No, Sir, got lots of that yet." " We had a darn'd hard cheese, a round Dutch one, for dessart at dinner to-day ; don't you remember it ? " said Coe. " I ought to ; I broke the carving knife in trying to cut it, Sir." " Are there any more on board ? " " About two dozen ; we took them from a droger." " Will they go into the eight een- pounders ? " " By thunder, Commodore, but that's the idea ! I'll try 'em," cried the first luff, and in a few minutes the fire of the old Sante Marie (Coe's ship), which had ceased entirely, was re-opened, and Admiral Brown found more shot flying over his head. Directly one of them struck his mainmast, and, as it did so, shattered and flew in every direction. " What the devil is that which the enemy is firing ? " asked Brown, but nobody could tell. Directly another one came through a port and killed two men who were near him, and then, striking the opposite bulwarks, burst into flint ers. " By Jove, this is too much. This is some new-fangled paixhan or other. I don't like 'em at all," cried Brown ; and then, as four or five more of them came slap through his sails, he gave the orders to fill away and actually backed out of the fight, receiving a parting broadside of Dutch cheeses. This is an actual fact. Our informant was the first lieutenant of Coe's ship. JAMES SETON-ANDERSON. 39, Carlisle Road, Hove, Sussex. OLDEST BRITISH VESSEL. I take from The Launceston Weekly News of Oct. 29 the following paragraph : It is generallv believed that the oldest British vessel now afloat is the Ceres a ketch (32 tons net), now provided with auxiliary engine, which belongs to Mr. W. W. Petherick, the honorary agent at Bude of the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society. She was built at Salcombe in 1811. The foundering of the 4 2- ton ketch Three Sisters off the Longships last month disposed of a yet older vessel, for she was built at Plymouth just 121 years ago. I am interested in this allusion to the Ceres, as I remember her from close upon sixty years since ; and I last saw her leaving and returning to Bude Haven in September, greatly assisted, compared with her old-time efforts, by her auxiliary engine. ALFRED BOBBINS. Swiss VISITORS TO GREAT BRITAIN. Dr. A. Latt has started a series of articles in the September issue of The Anglo-Swiss Review giving short biographical sketches of Swiss visitors to Great Britain, com- mencing with Bishop Armenfredus, the Pope's legate to Edward the Confessor on various missions and later to William the Conqueror. The second article appeared in the October issue and the series is to be continued. L. L. K,