Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/323

 ,

S. I. APRIL 16, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

315

" "ellowhammer). According to ' K . viii. 333, 404, there is a family whose name ( ccurs as Rottonburgh. Rottonbury, Ratten- 1 erry, Rotenberg, Rothenburg, Rottenberg. [ 'he redness may have been in the soil, or in i ew red-brick nouses. Why not a Red Row a s well as a Red Sea 1 I may also call atten- tion to some possible (or impossible) deriva- tions in Hone's 'Ancient Mysteries,' p. 146.

WC. B.

AUTHOR OF BOOK WANTED (9 th S. i. 168). I have in my possession a small volume which may probably be the same work as that MR, PIGOTT inquires about. On the title-page the description is : " The I Campaigns | of | Wellington. | by | H. W. Montagu, | Author of the ' Life of Napoleon,' the I ' Life of Nelson,' &c. &c. &c. [ London : | G. Berger. | 1833." On p. 1, however, the heading is ' The Life and Campaigns of Wel- lington.' The back of the cover also bears the legend ' Life of Wellington.' It seems to me that MR. PIGOTT'S is an earlier or a later copy of the same book, although it is curious to find in his copy the author s name is not given. The points of difference are that in mine there is no such illustration (although the book has several depicting battle scenes) at p. 59, and that the book was printed by Manning & Co., printers, 4, London House Yard. But of course mine may be a later edition, and I am not sure, as regards the illustrations, that it is perfect, there being no description of them given.

C. P. HALE.

VERBS ENDING IN "-ISH" (9 th S. i. 86, 136).

My object in referring to receive was to try

to throw a side light on the derivation of

(these verbs. PROF. SKEAT, however, evidently

'Considers their derivation as a chose jugee,

jand for some inscrutable reason refers me

jto a book which, being an historical French

grammar, says, naturally, nothing at all about

English words derived from French, but a

?reat deal about the derivation of French

Tom Latin, upon which latter subject I had

'aised no question. He then proceeds to

Uscuss the derivation of receive as a separate

natter, thus missing the whole point of my

jirgument. Briefly, I understand PROF.

KEAT'S position to be that the verbs from

tie French are formed upon the stem, and

hat the frequent occurrence of -iss- in the

onjugation of some verbs in -ir led, in

ome of these cases, to -iss- being treated as

>art of the stem. My point is that all the

erbs from the French should be considered

ogether, and that as in the case of verbs in

wive this frequent occurrence in he conju-

gation does not obtain, the theory built upon it is not wholly satisfactory. PROF. SKEAT cites occurrences of -iss- which amount to 27 in the 51 parts of the verb, and to 7 of -ceive in 51. But as 2 of the 7 and of the 51 viz., the sing, and plur. of the third pres. sub- junctive and the same of the third imperative are virtually the same in French, the propor- tion should really be taken as 5 in 49. If we consider the verbs from the French as a whole, we may take it as a rule that, so far as form is concerned, they might easily be derived from these same five parts of the French verb which alone give us -ceive-. Four of these parts are in the subjunctive, but PROF. SKEAT evidently leans towards the solitary fifth part, which is in the indicative, thus supplementing his advocacy of a derivation based upon frequency of occurrence in the conjugation with an opinion in favour of a derivation apparently supported by the most extreme infrequency, i. e., one occurrence in the whole conjugation.

For the purpose of easy illustration of the derivation of verbs in -ish I should have thought the third pers. sing. pres. subjunctive decidedly better than either the pres. par- ticiple or the third pers. plur. pres. indicative, as in using it neither the terminal -ant nor -ent has to be dealt with. H. RAYMENT.

Sidcup, Kent.

" MEDICUS ET POLLINCTOR" (9 th S. i. 141). For a longer time than I can remember I have been familiar with a version of this epigram which MR. AXON does not quote. Perhaps he can tell me whose it is. It was given in the first reading book in poetry I ever used at school, and I have not seen it since :

Sure surgeon Pythias, sexton Damon,

Carry a profitable game on.

The sexton from the plundered grave

With lint supplies his brother knave ;

The surgeon, not to be outdone,

Murders his patients every one,

Plies them with potions to destroy meant,

And gives the sexton full employment.

I used to think the surgeon, at least, was a fool for his pains. C. C. B.

"So PLEASED" (9 th S. i. 188). This early instance, in the draft of a lady's letter, of the vague sincerity of a so is interesting. Of its present popularity, similarly situated, there is no doubt. But I have not seen it more thickly sown than in a recent notice in the Queen of Mr. Grant Allen's * Guide to Florence.' The sentence, " He is so saturated with informa- tion gained by close observation and close study," must be taken in connexion with