Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/195

. I. MAR. 5, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

187

VIr. M'Millan proceeds to say that "Burn> something to somebody else, and as a lion was mce indebted on unimpeachable authority to she friendly services of a resolute and indus- trious mouse, so it is undeniable that Burns lad predecessors among Scottish singers to vhose merits and influence he generously uludes. Fergusson was of those glorified in
 * >wed not a little to him." As everybody owe.'
 * his way, arid his memory is all the brighter

,md the greener for the ample recognition accorded to his work by his distinguished admirer and eulogist. But is there any necessity to harp upon Burns's sense oi indebtedness a hundred years after his com- pleted life-work furnished rare evidence oi originality and power? Coleridge believed he could not have been the poet he was but for the glorious exemplar he found in W. L. Bowles. We do not think of disputing the validity of this notion, or of questioning its absolute sincerity ; but it does not constantly interfere with our estimate of the work done by the author of ' ChristabeF and the ode on ' Dejection. ' This being so, it surely savours of pedantry to be constantly recalling the obli- gations that underlie 'Mary Morrison' and
 * Tarn o' Shanter.' THOMAS BAYNE.

We must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

" CUYP." I find the following in Leigh's ' Glossary of Cheshire Words ' (1877) : " Cuyp, v. (pronounced in a peculiar way, something like _ ceighp), to sulk, and show you are sulking ; to cry obstinately and causelessly, but in a subdued way." Leigh is the only authority for the word. Do any of your readers know it ?

THE EDITOR OF THE 'ENGLISH DIALECT DICTIONARY.'

The Clarendon Press, Oxford.

LADY SMYTH. I have a coloured engraving (Sir Joshua Reynolds pinxt., F. Bartolozzi, R.A., engraver). With Lady Smyth are two girls and a boy. What Lady Smyth is this ?

F. C. K.

' ROCKINGHAM.' I have a novel by me called 'Rockingham; or, the Younger Brother,' by the author of ' Electra,' in three volumes. The author was the Count de Jarnac, who died in 1875, and the Illustrated London News for 1875 has a portrait of him and states that when he went into company he passed by

the name of Sir Charles Rockingham. Can any one tell me whether the novel had any- thing to do with the Rockingham family, which is now extinct, or whence the Count de Jarnac got the idea to call himself Sir Charles Rockingham? JARNAC.

" ELEPHANT." What is the derivation of this word ? It is said that pila is a genuine Sanskrit word, and that the Arabs adopted it in the form of al-fil ; the word then became grecized by the addition of -as ; others think that aleph had some influence on the word. Also can some good Hebraist inform me if there is any Semitic word, meaning elephant, from which Csesar may be derived ? HERBERT A. STRONG.

Liverpool Univ. College.

EARLY STEAM NAVIGATION. In Haydn's 4 Dictionary of Dates ' I find the following, under the head of ' Steam Engine and Navi- gation ':

" Rising Sun, a steamer, built by Lord Cochrane. crossed the Atlantic, 1818."

Can any of your correspondents furnish ine with particulars relating to this vessel, the voyage in question, or where I can obtain

them? EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

THE NAME OF MACLEHOSE. This name is interesting to all literary men, on account of its association with Robert Burns ; but I also have a special reason for wishing to know something about its origin. Can any Scotsman tell me from what it is derived, or [what amounts to the same thing) its original Gaelic spelling ? I fancy myself (but this is a mere conjecture) that the syllable Le, which ajives it so unique an appearance, must be an abbreviation of the prefix Gille, so common as the first element in the personal names of Highlanders. If so, it is the only case I know of in which the prefix is abbreviated in this manner. It generally appears as 11 -for example, Macllwraith, Macllwham. What lends colour to my supposition is that
 * he prefix Le, like //, appears to be un-

accented, the stress falling upon Mac, con- trary to the general rule. It is worth noting low, for this reason, that master of nomen- clature Sir Walter Scott delighted in using names of this class for his minor characters, reading into them, by a trifling change of spelling, a meaning which originally they were never intended to convey. MacLehose Decomes Meiklehose (' Heart of Midlothian '); Macllwraith and Macllwham are trans- mogrified into Mucklewrath (' Waverley ' and Old Mortality') and Meiklewham ('St.