Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/495

 9 th S. I. JUNE 18, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

487

frock coats." Very little knowledge of Oriental languages is required to make plain that; ' paejama " is a garment for the lower limbs, and that its nature is not changed by the conversion of the word into "piecharmer"

rany other Hobson-Jobson variant. KILLIGREW. <

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

" HOP-PICKER." Will any one send us a quotation for this word of early date? At present we happen to have nothing before 1880, though we have references to hop- picking back to 1812. Hop-picker ought to occur as early, or perhaps earlier, though I do not know when the annual migration of the London poor to the hop-fields of Kent began. I first saw hop-pickers at work in 1858, and I believe that the annual migration was no recent institution then.

J. A. H. MURRAY.

Oxford.

" HORSE-SENSE." " The latent c horse-sense of the American people," in the New England Journal of Education (1884), vol. xix. p. 377, is the first instance I find in the material for the ' Historical English Dictionary ' of this phrase, which is attributed (in a later quota- tion) to General Grant. Can one of your readers refer me to the locus classicus?

R. J. WHITWELL.

70, Banbury Road, Oxford.

"DOVEALE." In 'Chetham Miscellanies,' vol. v. (1875), a paper is published which is entitled ' A Description of the State, Civil and Ecclesiastical, of the County of Lancaster, about the Year 1590, by some of the Clergy of the Diocese of Chester.' The sixth paragraph is in these terms :

" Wackes, Ales, Greenes, Maigames, Rushbear- inges, Bearebaites, Doveales, Bonfiers, all maner vnlawfull Gaming, Pipinge and Daunsinge, and suche like, ar in all places frely exercised vppon y e Sabboth."

What was a "Doveale"? Was it a festival held at Whitsuntide? I should be glad to hear of any other instance of the occurrence of the word. A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

BOOKS PUBLISHED AT THE BEGINNING OF

THE CENTURY. In what publications did the best or most complete lists of new books appear during the first five years of the

present century? The record in the Gentle- man's Magazine appears to be incomplete, and the Edinburgh and Quarterly ' Lists of New Publications' do not cover the period in question. ANDRONICUS.

PROVIDENCE ON THE SIDE OF THE BIGGEST BATTALIONS. Who is the author of the saying that Providence is on the side of the biggest battalions? It is usually, I believe, attributed to Napoleon, with much pro- bability; but in a life of George Washington which has had a large circulation there occurs the following passage :

"When Washington issued his order for the strict observance of the Sabbath and daily religious service by the army, General Lee, who was a godless scoffer, remarked derisively, ' God is on the side of the heaviest battalions.'"

The author, however, tries to make things lively by narrating the progress of events in a conversational form, so it is quite possible that he has anticipated matters in putting the above words into the mouth of General Lee. T. P. ARMSTRONG.

Putney. [Consult 'N. & Q.,' 5 th S. v. 307, 451; vi. 194.]

A CURIOUS RACE. Mr. J. J. Hissey in * A Holiday on the Road' (1887) quotes the fol- lowing from " a book published in 1808 ":

"At the village of Old Wives Lees, in Chilham parish [Kent], is run an annual race between young maidens and bachelors of good conversation, and between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four; the two victors, a maid and a bachelor, being entitled to the sum of ten pounds each, under the will of Sir Dudley Digges. The race is run on the nine- teenth of May, and is generally attended by a large concourse of people, both gentry and others." Is the above race still run? It would be interesting to know how the village of Old Wives Lees obtained its curious name.

H. ANDREWS.

DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH PROVERBS. Can any of your readers refer me to the best and most comprehensive dictionary of English proverbs 1 I have that of John Ray, the well-known botanist, which has seen a great number of editions since the first of 1670; but is there no better and completer collec- tion, matching, for instance, the great store- house of German proverbs compiled by Wander in five big volumes (Leipzig, 1880)'? Surely the inexhaustible mine of English proverbs deserved to be brought to light and collected in a similar and rival thesaurus.

INQUIRER.

" BURIED FOR TRUTH." At a recent meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society the Hon. Secretary, Mr. L. G. Boling-