Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/203

 9 th S.I. MAE. 5, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

195

atter word must be the noun, and so mean < log, he put in the g to make it more clear

Elsewhere in his book, when speaking o t upernatural beings, he mercifully does no Attempt to give the Manx ; for instance, h< f, imply speaks of the "water-bull," which i it, translation of the Manx Tarroo ushtey .fudging from the jumble he makes of modde] tloo, we may be thankful that he did no venture further in that direction. At the latter reference oile'an is used, evidently in the sense of island. The Manx for island is tllan. ERNEST B. SAVAGE, F.S.A.

St. Thomas's, Douglas.

WILLIAM BOWER, OF BRISTOL (9 th S. i. 127) Has MR. BAYLEY ever looked through the old Beading Mercury ? I saw in it references to the Goldwyers. John Goldwyer was a Reading surgeon. E. E. THOYTS.

WORDS AND Music OP SONG WANTED (8 th S x, 176 ; xii. 397, 452, 515). On p. 160 of ' The Illustrated Book of English Songs' (about 1854) is a song called ' The Guinea,' said to be taken from ' The Whim of the Day ' for 1801. The first verse runs : Master Abraham Newland's a monstrous good man But when you 've said of him whatever you can, Why all his soft paper would look very blue, If it warn't for the yellow boys pray what think you?

And the second verse, with a reference to the " one-pound note," &c. :

Then you lawyers, and doctors, and such sort of

folks, Who with fees and such fun, you know, never

stand jokes ;

In defence of my argument try the whole rote, Sure they '11 all take a guinea before a pound note. There are five verses altogether, and at the end is a foot-note, saying : " The music of this song is universally known as 'The Russian Dance Tune.' " The old street song with the refrain

Though a guinea it will sink, a pound it will float, Yet I'd rather have a guinea than a one-pound

note,

dates, I think, from about 1825-6, when one- pound notes were for a time reissued from 16 December, 1825. They were very un- popular, and were withdrawn after much objection had been raised against them. Guineas were not coined after 1 July, 1817. Yet I can quite remember the song being constantly sung when I was a child, nearly thirty years ago. Of course the guinea as a means of payment has been in favour ever since its first introduction in 1663 from gold from Guinea on the west coast of Africa down to the present day, though the coin itself is no longer current.

Since writing the above a relative has just told me of one part of the song or a parody thereof :

Shiver up ! shiver up ! shiver up against the boat, For I'd rather have a guinea than a one-pound note.

If any one could remember the first line of the song I think I could trace it.

S. J. A. F.

'THE PRODIGAL SON' (8 th S. xii. 385, 453; 9 th S. i. 136). We have in our family a relic brought (according to a persistent tradition), with other interesting objects, from Flanders early in the seventeenth century by the founder of the English branch of the Hallen, or Van Halen, family. It is a coverlet, about five feet square, formed of four squares of very fine Flemish tapestry, each surrounded by a border of fruit and flowers. Between the two upper and the two lower squares is a strip composed of fragments of linen embroi- dered in gold and silver thread with the emblems of the Passion, evidently part of some church vestments. The whole is sur- rounded with yellow and red silk fringe. The coverlet was probably made up before it left Flanders, and may be composed of frag- ments, secured by some broker, of torn domestic and church embroidery, the result of a riot or military sack ; and as our ancestor came from Malines about thirty years after the memorable sack of that city by the Spaniards, ind as the city archives describe an action brought against a broker for the recovery of tapestry he had bought after the sack, the theory I have advanced seems probable. The [our squares give scenes from the parable of }he Prodigal Son.

No. 1 (misplaced as No. 2) represents table spread for a meal, the father and mother sitting opposite to each other. The son, on the father's right, appears to pleading for his portion; the mother's aspect suggests that she is supporting his request. On the father's left is a middle- iged man, apparently expostulating. This I /ake to be the steward, careful for the estate, n the background, at the corner of a fine jalatial house, is the elder son, going out, taff in hand, to his work.

2 (misplaced as No. 1). The Prodigal, with i frightened look, is being driven out of doors >y three strapping young women. One is lolding aloft a cudgel ; another, brandishing .bunch of large keys, is vigorously kicking is bare shanks, from which his stockings are anging in tatters. He is holding up both ands to protect his head. Only the door of be house is seen ; there is no sign or other ndication of its being an inn. In the back-