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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9*s.i. APRIL 23,

Peter's-in-the-East at Oxford. The titular feast for Church of the Holy Trinity would be Trinity Sunday, as it is of Canterbury Cathedral. The dedication St. Saviour is that of the Lateran Basilica, the Cathedral of Rome, the "Mother and Mistress of all Churches in the World," 9 Nov. Many feasts in the kalendar have their origin in the translation of relics or the dedication of a church. Thus St. James, 25 July, is the translation of his remains to Compostella. Michaelmas Day is the anniversary of the dedication of the church of St. Michael in the Via Salaria. So of Holy rood Day, 14 Sept., SS. Peter and Paul, 29 June, and others.

GEORGE ANGUS. St. Andrews, N.B.

ORDERS OF FRIARS (9 th S. i. 168). Is MR. ARNOTT correct in saying that the Observant Friars had only two houses in England 1 In addition to the two he mentions, it is a well- known fact that there was a house of Obser- vant Friars at Greenwich, adjoining the old palace, the memory of which survived in the road called Friars' Road, closed in 1834 for Greenwich Hospital improvements. The brothers were very active against the divorce of Katherine of Aragon. AYEAHR.

Boni Homines, in France Bons Hommes. The order founded by St. Stephen Grand- mont in the eleventh century; a branch of the Franciscans atVincennes; a Portuguese Order of Canons ; religious observing the rule of St. Austin all were called Boni Homines. See * The Catholic Dictionary,' by Addis and Arnold. GEORGE ANGUS.

The name of the Boni Homines, with other questions relating to their house at Ash- ridge and its branch or colony at Edenton, receives notice in the * Oxford Diocesan His-

tory,' S.P.C.K., pp. 269-72.

ED. MARSHALL.

DERIVATION OF FOOT'S CRAY (9 th S. i. 169). Samuel Lewis, in his ' Topographical Dic- tionary of England,' London, 1831, says :

" This parish probably derived its name from Fot or Vot, its proprietor at the time of Edward the Confessor, and from the river Cray, which runs by the eastern end of the village, there turning a mill, and then directing its course towards North Cray."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

" DRESSED UP TO THE NINES " (8 th S. xii. 469 ; 9 th S. i. 57, 211). While looking up something else in Grose and Pegge's ' Glossary of Pro- vincial and Local Words used in England,' 1839, my eye caught the following : " Ni !

Ni ! ah exclamation expressing amazement on seeing any one finely dressed. N[orth]." To me this seems to have a connexion with the popular phrase in question. I have not seen it mentioned in ' N. & Q.' previously, and think it worth making a note of. It would be interesting to know whether the exclama- tion arose from the phrase, or can have any- thing to do with the origin of the latter.

C. P. HALE.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Sidney Lee. Vol. LIV. Stanhope Stovin. (Smith, Elder & Co.)

ONCE more, as in one or two previous volumes of the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' the lion's share of the work falls to the editor. Not quite so monumental as the life of Shakspeare, which we are glad to hear is to be reprinted in a separate volume, is Mr. Lee's life of Sterne, which forms the principal feature in the present book. Next to that, however, it comes in both interest and import- ance. Access has been obtained to materials pre- viously unpublished, some of them in our national collection, others in the possession of the Whitefoord family, of Sir George Wombwell, of Newburgh Priory, Yorks, of Mr. Alfred Morrison, and of Lord Basing. From these and other sources Mr. Lee has compiled the most exact and authoritative life of Sterne that has yet seen the light. He has, moreover, brought to bear upon the man and his works his fine critical and judicial gifts, with the result, it may be fearlessly said, that the estimate that is formed will be that by which posterity will be content to abide. The commonly accepted notion that in Mrs. Shandy Sterne depicted his own wife Mr. Lee disputes, and he holds that " in an irresponsible fashion " he was not indifferent to her happiness, though "he never viewed his marital obligations seriously, and his immoral and self- indulgent temperament rendered sustained felicity impossible." It is obviously difficult for us to reproduce the judgments of Mr. Lee. That Sterne was a "scamp," as Thackeray calls him, in any accepted use of the term, is denied. He was, it is said, "a volatile, self-centred, morally apathetic

man of genius not destitute of generous instincts."

Sterne has had the misfortune to be sneered at or | attacked by men so distinguished and so diverse as Dr. Johnson, Richardson, Goldsmith, Walpole, Smollett, Byron, and Thackeray. He can claim, however, supporters only less distinguished, and his influence upon European literature has been greater than that of any of his assailants except Byron. When all has been said concerning Sterne s indecency, buffoonery, mawkishness, plagiarism, and digressions, he remains as a delineator of the comedy of human life among the four or five fore- most humourists. " Uncle Toby, Corporal Trim, Dr. Slop, Mr. and Mrs. Shandy, Obadiah, and the Widow Wadman are of the kin however the degree of kinship may be estimated of Pantagruel and Don Quixote, of Falstaff and Juliet's Nurse, of Monsieur Jourdain and Tartuffe." If Mr. Lee is disposed to scourge with moderation the moral shortcomings or