Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/235

 9'iU.MAS.ig,'!*i.) NOfES AND QUERIES.

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WE must request correspondents desiring ihfor- tiation on family matters of only private interest t > affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to t lem direct. _

'DAIMEN." This word is known to all students of Burns, from its occurrence in the compound daimen-icker in the lines 'To a Mouse.' Daimen-icker is explained in the glossaries to mean "an occasional ear of corn." Dr. Murray, in ' H. E. D.,' says that the word daimen is still in use in Ayrshire in such a phrase as " a daimen ane here and there." Is the word still known as a living word in any other part of Great Britain ? I should be glad to hear of any instance of its use before the year 1785. How did daimen get its meaning " occasional, rare " 1

THE EDITOR OF THE 'ENGLISH DIALECT DICTIONARY.' The Clarendon Press, Oxford.

[See 8 th S. x. 43.]

"BY JINGO." In his 'Notes from a Diary' Sir M. E. Grant Duff states (ii. 63) that 'Lyulph Stanley called my attention to a translation of Rabelais of 1691, in which I found the phrase ' By Jingo.' " Can any one furnish the exact phrase, and inform me in what part of Rabelais it is to be found ?

SUBURBAN.

" HIBERNICISM." Swift is credited with the invention of this word. Where does he use

it?

R. J. WHITWELL.

70, Banbury Road, Oxford.

" CRUCIFIXIAL." Who invented this ad- jective? It occurs in no dictionary known to me ; but it may be seen on one or two labels concerning objects in the National Museum in Kildare Street, Dublin, and pre- sumably in the catalogue of that institution where those objects are mentioned.

PALAMEDES.

POEMS. Could any of the readers of 'N. &Q.' supply the name of the author of the following poems, "Which is the happiest death to die?" and ' The Place of All' ? M. CROSBIE.

144, Oakley Street, Chelsea, S.W.

THE WORD "ASCETIC." In reading 'Visits to the Monasteries of the Levant,' by Hon. Robert Curzon (fifth edition, 1865), I came j across what seems an original derivation of the word ascetic. In common, surely, with many, I have always fancied the word con- nected with ao-Keu>, to exercise. Mr. Curzon, however, speaking of Greek monks (p. 20),

writes i " Of the simple monks, one is called ascetic, or CIOVOJTIKOS, because he lives apart in a o-K7/r>y, or cottage." Can any reader of Liddell and Scott will be searched in vain for such a word as O-K^T^. I find in Ducange the Latinized form see ta, with the conjectured meaning of armarium, a chest or cupboard, only one instance being given of its use, viz., a sentence in the life of S. Comgall, Abbot of Benchor : " Aperiensque jam S. Fiachra scetam suam ad ducendum inde librum bap- tismi," &c.
 * N. <fe Q.' inform me whether this is justified?

JEROME POLLARD-URQUHART, O.S.B. Fort Augustus, N.B.

ABRAHAM NEWMAN, 1736-99. Who was Abraham Newman, tea-merchant, of Fen- church Street? He died 1799. How was it he bore the same coat of arms as the Newmans whose baronetcy was extinct 1747 ?

I also seek, for a genealogical purpose, in- formation as to Davison, his partner ; Lee, of Christchurch, Surrey j Richard Turner or Turnor, of Erith ; Thomas Burfoot, of Bucklers- bury ; Anthony Bacon, of Newbury.

E. E. THOYTS.

Sulhamstead Park, Berks.

THE DIARY OF WM. HARRISON. Has any one discovered the diary of the late Wm. Harrison, J.P., of Rockmount, Isle of Man? Wm. Harrison was the author of various Manx books, and his diary is supposed to have been placed in one of his books. Any information with regard to the above would be of great service. S. H. H. B.

CHATEAUBRIAND'S "LAIR ' IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. On what tomb did Chateaubriand pass the night when, at that time a poor emigre, he was accidentally shut up in the Abbey? He says in his ' Memoirs':

"After some hesitation in the choice of my lair, I stopped near the monument of Lord Chatham, at the bottom of the gallery of the Chapel of the Knights and that of Henry VII. At the entrance to the steps leading to the aisles, shut in by folding gates, a tomb fixed in the wall, and opposite a marble figure of death with a scythe, furnished me a shelter. A fold in the marble winding-sheet served me as a niche ; after the example of Charles V., I habituated myself to my interment."

On the occasion of my last pilgrimage to the Abbey, some years ago, I endeavoured to identify the tomb from this description, but could not satisfy myself that I had done so correctly. The " marble figure of death with a scythe" was my chief landmark. Is not this one of the figures of the beautiful Nightingale tomb ? although I am sure that Death is here armed with a spear or javelin