Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/505

 12 s. ix. NOV. ID, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 415 ST. CHRISTOPHER (12 S. ix. 371). In addition to Weeke, this saint will be found on the brass to John Stathum, 1454, at Morley, Derbyshire. A new head has been restored to the Holy Child. Also in the sinister shaft of the St. Maur brass at Higham Ferrars, Northants, 1337, a frag- ment of a saint remains showing the feet in the water, wherein is a fish. The figure of St. Christopher (save the feet) has been lost. These three appear to be all that are known to exist. WALTER E. GAWTHORP. J 0, Long Acre. This appears in nearly every parish church which was frescoed, and the design is said to be Italian and to be still seen in some | of the little hill chapels in that country. No attempt has been made to compare | frescoes. They were designed and done by monks and are general in English parish churches which had belonged to monastic houses. Probably the Weeke brass is ; foreign. E. E. COPE. " BUTTER GOES MAD TWICE A YEAR " (12 S. ix. 330, 375). PROFESSOR BENSLY'S reference in this connexion, " Butter's once a year in the cow's horn," may possibly be explained by the fact that in the late autumn, when cows were milked in the open, it happened that the hands of the dairy- maids were dry and cold when milking-time came. They used then t<3 lubricate their hands. In my youth I have seen the milkers use some fatty ingredient, probably inferior butter, for that purpose. It was procured out of a cow's horn hanging on to one of the milk pails. W. DEL COURT. 47, Blenheim Crescent. W.11. BROTHERS OF THE SAME CHRISTIAN NAME (12 S. ix. 230, 273, 312, 336, 376). MRS. COPE'S contention finds support from Gibbon's ' Autobiography ' : I have enjoyed the right of primogeniture, but I was sicceeded by five brothers and one sister, all of whom were snatched away in their infancy. . . . So feeble was my constitution, so pre- carious my life, that, in the baptism of my brothers, my father's prudence successively i< peated my Christian name of Edward, that, in case of the departure of the eldest son, this patronymic appellation might be still perpetuated in the family. J. PAUL DE CASTRO. AUTHOR, WANTED (12 S. ix. 372). I have all but completed a concordance to Arnold's poems nul can say almost with certainty that the lines arc not Arnold's. A. J. G. ENGLISH ARMY SLANG AS USED IN THE GREAT WAR. (12 S. ix. 341, 378,383.) As one who served as a private soldier for three years (1916-19) in England and France, I have been much interested in the list of slang words and phrases compiled by members of The Times Staff. It is pleasant to see so much of the small change of Army speech preserved in your columns. The great difficulty in dealing with the question in print is that the soldier's actual speech generally out-Masefielded MasefielcT and was quite unprintable ; indeed it was absolutely impregnated with one word which (to use it as a basis for alliteration) the fastidious frown at as " filthy." The philosophic mind, to which no word can in itself be " filthy," would rather em- was every verb to tell objectionable people what to do with themselves, and as an exclamation to express that disgust with things in general that Army ways encourage. Words were split up to admit it : " absolutely " became " abso lutely," and Armentieres became " Armen teers." " Bloody," so popular and helpful a word in civil life, quite lapsed as being too polite and inexpressive. The explanation is, of course, simple : the conditions and regulations of active service were so exasperating that only frequent use of the foulest word in the language could afford any adequate relief to a man's feelings. It conquered all English-speaking armies, and was at least as popular with
 * Americans and overseas men as with our-

I selves. There were, naturally, some choice spirits who did not use it ; but they were not typical. Slang, of course, cannot be a constant quantity throughout a great Army ; it must vary to a considerable extent even in different battalions, and according to the class of men and their place of origin. It naturally developed and changed during five years of war : a " Fritz " of earlier days I was always a " Jerry," for instance, towards j the end, for what reason I cannot say. { Most of the words in the list were probably I common to the whole Army, and I think I j can quote a good many more which were j quite as all -pervading, especially in Class C. It is impossible entirely to separate Army slang from Civil slang, especially as infiltra-