Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/27

 I. JAN. 1,'98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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regards the language British, called later Cymric that it extended as far north as the Cumbraes, the islands of Cymry in the Clyde. Ethelfred and, later, Edwin are said to have severed what is now modern Wales from British Cumbria and Strathclyde. Facing p. 271, vol. viii., is a map showing the divisions of Britain in 597. ARTHUR MAYALL.

J. S. P. will find a short description of the Strathclyde Britons in the 'Gododin' of Aneurin Gwawdrydd ; also a list of about twenty books referring to Strathclyde in the foot-notes. The above is published by the Cymmrodorion Society. E. T.

J. S. P. cannot do better than consult Skene's 'Four Ancient Books of Wales,' 2 vols., and the first volume of his ' Celtic Scotland.' HERBERT MAXWELL.

"PoT LORD" (8 th S. xii. 447). The term " pot landlord " is occasionally heard in this part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is applied to a person who acts as agent or steward for the owner in the management of house property or land. J. W. W.

Halifax.

LEE, EARLS OF LICHFIELD (8 th S. xii. 469). So far as I am aware, this claim was never brought before a Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords. G. F. R. B.

"CAMP-BALL" (8 th S. xii. 425). This game formed the subject of a correspondence in ' N. & Q.' a few years ago (see 8 th S. ii. 70, 137, 213), the sum of which made it tolerably clear that it was a different game from football, being played solely with the hands. If a football were used, the game was known in East Anglia as "kicking-camp." Du Maurier, in the opening chapters of ' The Martian,' makes several allusions to " la balle au camp,' which was a favourite game in French schools forty years ago, and which from his descrip- tion seems to have been a kind of rounders. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. The English Dialect Dictionary. Edited by Joseph Wright, M.A., Ph. D. Parts III. and IV. (Frowde.) NOT less exemplary than the progress made with the 'Historical English Dictionary' is that of the twin undertaking the ' English Dialect Dictionary,' four parts of which, carrying the alphabet as far as the word chuck, have seen the light within a period not much exceeding a year. While, however, the 1 H. E. D.' is splendidly endowed by one of the fore- most of universities, its no less indispensable sup- plement is a work of purely private enterprise, and depends, from the financial no less than from the

iterary or philological standpoint, upon the services of Prof. Wright. Gratifying in the highest degree is it to British pride that what is in fact a national undertaking should come as a product of individual enterprise, and happy must be considered the nation whose scholars, not content with putting into the work their erudition and their trained and dis- iplined powers, embark in it their fortunes also. Under these conditions, not until to-day fully realized by ourselves, we appeal unhesitatingly to our readers for further support, without which the completion on the scale on which it has been begun of a work of supreme importance can only be attained, if attained at all, by imposing upon private means an indefensible, and it might well be an intolerable strain. Where, indeed, except in 'N.&Q.,' where the movement that led to the collection of materials took rise and the importance of dia- lectal speech was first brought within the grasp of the general public, should an appeal for augmented support be made ? On the readers of N. & Q ,' then, we would fain impress the importance of the under- taking and the need of their individual support and of securing that this all-important work shall be put not only on their own shelves, but on those of every public institution which includes in its scheme the possession of a library of reference.

Descending from the general to the particular, we find that the two parts now issued contain 7,000 simple and compound words and 875 phrases, illus- trated by 14,572 quotations, with the exact sources from which they have been derived. In addition to these there are 16,642 references to glossaries, to manuscript collections of dialect words, and to other sources, making a total of 31,214 references. If to these are added the contents of the two previous parts, noticed 8 th S. x. 107 ; xi. 59, the result obtained is 11,861 words, 1,642 phrases, 30,675 quotations, and 28,870 references without quotations, a total of 59,545 references. These figures convey an idea of the vast- ness of the undertaking and the thoroughness and completeness with which it is being carried out. In the compilation of the dictionary and the collection of the references many workers have been con- cerned. ' N. & Q.' has supplied, as may well be con- ceived, many thousand references. The financial responsibilities of the undertaking, amounting to nearly 1,400J. a year, fall wholly upon Prof. Wright, whose position, so far as we know, is as unique as it is princely. So small is the space at our disposal for book notices, and so many claims are there upon it, that we can call attention to but few of the hundreds of articles of philological or literary interest which commend themselves. JBlithemeat, the meal prepared for visitors at the birth of a child, the use of which is recorded in Scotland, is unfamiliar to us, though that of groaning malt, associated with it in Carleton's ' Fardorougha,' is known. Many meanings are given to bob. The first we will supplement by instancing the Ame- rican (?) song, popular near half a century ago, with the chorus, quoted from memory :

I '11 lay my money on the bob-tailed nag,

And you '11 lay yours on the grey. Bobbin in the West Eiding and elsewhere = as is said, " a wooden tube or cylinder upon which yarn is wound in weaving or spinning." It has thence been transferred to an ordinary reel of sewing cotton. This use is, or was, very common. Bride- a<?=wedding feast, and bride-door, for which see the work, have high folk-lore interest. Brief, in