Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/259

 9 S.X. SEPT. 27, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES

251

been Nest's only husband. On p. 296 it i shown that there is some reason to believ that Einion was her first husband and Geral her second.

On p. 434 Debrett is mentioned as having stated that Nest had by Henry I. a daughte Aline, who married Matthew de Mont morency. Some writers, while saying tha an illegitimate daughter of *he king marriec this nobleman, do not mention either he name or her mother's name.

Roger Hoveden states that it was Nest (o; Agnes), lawful sister of Henry I., who was put to death with William de Braose, bu there is reason to believe that the state ment on p. 296 is correct.

RONALD DIXON. 46, Marlborough Avenue, Hull.

FASHION IN LANGUAGE (9 th S. ix. 228, 352. 435). I should like to make a few remarks upon this subiect. As a " brother of Bohemia' I pride myself on knowing a good bit aboul slang and cant. I would wish to mention al the first going^ off that the subjoined cutting from the Daily Chronicle of 24 May calls to mind what I fancy to have noticed of late, that " Head or woman?" (as applied to bronze coins only) seems to be once again superseding "Heads or tails ?"-

" The influence of kings and queens extends to many of the minor things of life. Before the accession of Queen Victoria people who tossed with a coin usually cried ' Man or woman ? ' an instance of which is given in the 'Pickwick Papers,' published in 1&37. When Mr. Tupman and the 'imperturbable stranger,' Mr. Jingle, con- ceived intentions of going to the ball at Rochester, they tossed a sovereign for payment of the tickets^ calling ' Man or woman ? ' and it is stated ' the dragon, called by courtesy the woman, came upper- most.' Probably when the Queen's head figured on coins some confusion arose as to the term 'woman,' hence the popular cry became ' Heads or tails ? ' Will the King's accession bring about the revival of the almost obsolete term ?"*

When I was a lad it was all the vogue to call any one who was " a little bit eccentric " or " unlike other people " a " cure " (short for "curiosity"). Nobody ever hears the word now; it is always "juggins" or "mug." Again, during the days of John Leech a fashionably dressed man was described as a " swell "; nowadays it is usually a " masher " or a " toff." " Other times, other manners ! " The word "swell " I cannot trace further back than ' Torn and Jerry,' but in that talented work Pierce Egan uses the word as- one com- monly taken for granted at the period.

[* In Ireland, and with many Irishmen in Eng- land, the alternative fifty years ago was "Head or harp?"]

With regard to "Johnnie" (short for "Johnny Raw "), we have it on the authority of Barrere and Leland that the word ori- ginated at Sandhurst, where the "oldsters" used to ask contemptuously, "Any more Johnnies?" Nowadays it is applied indis- criminately to any male biped, just as "bloke," "chap," "cove," "joker," "Chollie," &c.

At the latter end of 1864 a slang word came somewhat into fashion in London to designate a smartly dressed young fellow in a " top hat"--"muller,"or"inuller-cut-down." Itdid not have a very long run as a street cant, but it was always, meant (while it lasted) to be decidedly derogatory to the dignity of young men thus derided.

HERBERT B. CLAYTON.

39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.

ASTARTE says dogmatically that " if I was " is wrong. She means, I suppose, that if should not be followed by the indicative mood. This was discussed lon^ago iu.'N. & Q.,' and it was shown that the best English writers used if in this manner. In other languages the word si, which has the meaning of if, is fre- quently followed by the indicative. In the first ode of Horace si occurs four times, and in all cases is followed by the indicative mood. The French si always has the indicative. ASTARTE also condemns " reliable," but DR. MURRAY long ago in ' N. <fe Q.' said that the word was a very good one. E. YARDLEY.

[We think "reliable" none the less, and with all respect for the authority named, to be avoided.]

" BUT AH ! MAECENAS " (9 th S. x. 149). The quotation cited is from the ' Shepheardes Calendar' (^Eglogue x. 61 et seq.), by Ed- mund Spenser, written in 1579. There seems to be in it an allusion to Juvenal (Sat. vii. 94-97) :

Quis tibi Maecenas ? quis nunc erit aut Proculeius Aut Fabius? quis Cotta iterum ? quis Lentulus

alter ?

Tune par ingenio pretium : tune utile multis, J allere et vinum toto nescire Decembri.

The idea in the mind of the Roman satirist, nd also in that of Spenser, is that poetry and poverty can never flourish in the same oil :

The vaunted verse a vacant head demandes :

Ne wont with crabbed care the Muses dwell

'Shep. Cal.,' JSgl. x. 100.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

MARJORIE FLEMING'S PORTRAIT (9 tb S. x. 28, 194). There is a portrait of Marjorie leming in "Marjorie Fleming (Wee Marjorie). ty John Brown, M.D. Illustrated by War- ick Brookes. Published by David Douglas,