Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/136

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th B. x. AUG. ie, im

of a novel published about forty-five years ago containing a very excellent description of Gwrych Castle, near Abergele ?

GRASSENDALE.

PERIWINKLE. Can any one throw light on the following early uses of this word ?

1. En a poem preserved in Harl. MS. 2253, fol. 63, it is said :

The priraerole he passeth, the parvenke of pria : i.e, the pretty precious periwinkle, "of pris" being merely added in .alliteration. Not so in

2. 'Sir Degrevant,' 1. 730 ('Thornton Romances,' Camden Society) :

Corteys lady and wyse, As thou art pervenke of pryse, 1 do me on tni gentryse, Why wolt thou me spyll ?

Where "pervenke of pryse" must certainly mean " supreme," " paragon of excellence." But it is strange to find the periwinkle chosen as an image for this. I would compare an entry in Godefroy's ' O.F. Diet.' :

3. " Pervenke, semble signifier qui surpasse tous les autres :

De tous vins ce est le pervenke.

Jofroi de Watreford, Richel., 1822."

On the other hand, I find the flower spoken of as symbol of dishonour.

4. John Lydgate, Bochas's ' Fall of Princes,' vi. 1 :

Thou hast

Crowned one with laurer hye on hys head set ; Other with perwinke made for the gybet.

Whence comes this association with the gibbet ?

5. In a will, dated 1501 (Somerset House), William Hylle bequeaths " ij of my goblettes of pirwyncles." Can some precious stone be here meant ?

6. In Purchas's ' Pilgrims,' ix. xii. 4 : "The Manamotaha and his subjects weare a white periwinkle in the forehead for a Jewell, fastened in the haire." Here "Jewell" may mean nothing more than "ornament," and the flower may be meant, but by com- parison with the preceding extract one is led to think of a precious stone.

I find nothing in the Indices of ' N. & Q.'

C. B. MOUNT.

MARJORIE FLEMING'S PORTRAIT. Can any one kindly inform me whether the portrait, taken by her sister, of Marjorie Fleming has been reproduced or published ; if so, where it is obtainable 1 The pictures in my edition of the book do not pretend to be genuine por- traits of the little maid, I believe, but simply pretty and fanciful sketches.

LIESE M. SHERRING.

Willesden.

ITALIAN BANKERS AND THE HOLY SEE. I shall be grateful to any reader who has a copy of the fifth volume of the

'Compte rendu du 3 me Congres des Catho-

liques a Bruxelles, 1894,' if he will lend it to me for a few days. I am anxious to read Jordan's article on this subject, and cannot find the book in the Britisn Museum or the Bodleian. ROBT. J. WHITWELL.

70, Banbury Road, Oxford.

GREECE AND GLADSTONE. Can any of your readers refer me to some satirical lines written about fifteen years ago, when an offer was made by Hellas (Greece) to send marble for a monument to Gladstone in London 1

W. R. S.

[.The lines in question, with the authorship of which we are acquainted, have not been printed. If you will give us your full address we will send them to you direct.]

" DIFFERENT THAN." In Truth of 3 July I read : " Future generations will undoubtedly consider Mr. Swinburne's poetry in a different light than the present one does." Is it good grammar to say " different than " \ I observe a similar use made of the words in the City article of the Birmingham Daily Post of 13 July. YOUNGSTER.

[The entire sentence is inaccurate and inelegant.]

FREUND HEIN. In what German folk-tale or folk-tales is death personified under the name of " Freund Hein " ? T.R.E.N.T.

BUGLE AS A SIGNAL INSTRUMENT. When did the bugle take the place of the drum as a signal instrument in the army ?

WILLIAM ANDREWS.

Royal Institution, Hull.

"GENTLEMAN FROM OHIO." Profs. J. B. Greenpugh and G. L. Kittredge (Harvard) write in ' Words and their Ways in English Speech ' :

"Among some savages, it is a deadly insult to call a man by his right name an idea which has left its traces in the parliamentary phrase ' the gentle- man from Ohio.' "

What are the origin and meaning of this phrase? J- J- F.

Halliford.

A. HEPPLEWHITE, DESIGNER OF FURNITURE. Can any reader tell me what is known of A. Hepplewhite, who in 1788 published a book called 'The Cabinet - Maker and Upholsterer's Guide,' by Hepplewhite & Co., and contributed a few plates to the ' Cabinet- Maker's Book of Prices,' 1788? I want to know when Hepplewhite was born, when he died, where he lived, and if he was himself