Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/364

 356

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. X. Nov. 1, 1902.

cast in damages. Mrs. S., who had a large West-End connexion, was highly indignant at Mr. Paget's groundless insinuations. Of Mrs. S., in figure and manner, I still retain a distinct recollection. She was a very im- portant personage. R. W.

VERIFYING REFERENCES AND QUOTATIONS (8 th S. xi. 406). Your correspondent stated that the word should be " quotations," not " references." The advice is good as regards both, of course : but Dr. Routh'g advice to Dean Burgon I have verified the quotation in the 1891 edition of the latter's ' Lives of Twelve Good Men ' (p. 38) is as follows :

" Presently he brightened up, and said, 'I think, sir, since you care for the advice of an old man, sir, you will find it a very good practice ' (here he looked me archly in the face), 'always to verify your refer- ences, sir ! ' "

Your correspondent refers to another (earlier) edition, vol. i. p. 73 ; but surely the word has not been altered from " quotations " to " refer- ences." Nor are the words quite correctly given in 5 th S. iv. 274. EDWARD LATHAM. 61, Friends Road, East Croydon.

[Our correspondent at the Eighth Series is correct, as MB. LATHAM will see on rereading the passage.]

"COIN IS THE SINEWS OF WAR" (9 th S. X'

307). Our worthy Editor was right in affirm- ing that a French version of this phrase is to be found in Rabelais. It oo.curs at the end of ch. xlvi. of book i., where Frere Jean thus admonishes Grandgousier : " Guerre faicte sans bonne provision d'argent n'a qu'un souspirail de vigueur. Les nerfs des batailles sont les pecunes." The edition from which I quote is Moland's, published by Gamier Freres.

Bartlett discusses the expression "sinews of war" with reference to the Greek. See likewise King's 'Quotations,' No. 3282, 1889 ed., which also quotes the example from Rabelais. F. ADAMS.

ENGLISH FAMILIES IN KURLAND AND Liv- LAND (9 th S. x. 149, 237). MR. ACKERLEY might find information on the subject of his query by consulting 'The Scots in Germany,' by Mr. Th. A. Fischer, published this year in Edinburgh by O. Schulze & Co. This interesting work deals with the history and ancestry of many Scotsmen who served in diplomacy and war in Germany during the Thirty Years' War and at other periods e.g., Keith, Ramsay, Erskine, Douglas, and others ; but it also recapitulates the names of many humbler persons, engaged in trade, who emi- grated to the Baltic provinces, to Poland, and elsewhere, and whose descendants are

still to be found in considerable numbers merged in the population of those countries. It is the result of immense research in civic and military archives Mr. Fischer resides, I believe, in Konigsberg and is written directly in English, with only here and there a trace of its not being the composition of a native of Britain. W. C. J.

NOTES ON SKEAT'S ' CONCISE DICTIONARY ' (9 th S. x. 83, 221). 7. Jehovah The true pro- nunciation of the JHVH is supposed to be the mystery of mysteries. Several mystical pronunciations of the ineffable name are known to those who have studied occult science up to a certain point, but none of them can be said to resemble greatly the English pronunciation indicated by the above spelling of the Tetragrammaton.

E. E. STREET.

ACHILL ISLAND (9 th S. x. 268). Kildomnet, like Kildownet in ' Murray,' seems to be a misspelling of Kildavnet. This castle, about a mile from the south end of the Sound, is a solitary rectangular tower, perhaps forty feet high. Together with Duna and Carriga- hoqley, on the mainland, it is popularly assigned to the " Queen of the West," who had her headquarters on Clare Island, where her castle (another square tower) commands Clew Bay. So far as I have discovered, there is no history extant of Kildavnet.

C. S. WARD.

Probably some reference to Kildomnet Castle will be found in ' Three Days in Achill Island,' published in Temple Bar, v. 108 (1896). For Grace O'Malley, the famous Connaught chieftainess who defied Queen Elizabeth, see 4 th S. ix. 64 ; 7 th S. x. 208.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

SIGNS (9 th S. x. 169, 292). Bassett's Pole is the name of an inn (and hamlet)on the confines of Sutton Coldfield, and on the great road from London to the North-West. It is named from the Bassetts of Dray ton Bassett, who for several generations were Norman lords of that manor. In ancient times it was a common practice to mark the boundaries of property by a " stapol," i.e., an upright stone or pole of wood. Bassett's Pole lies on the boundary of the counties of Warwick and Stafford ; the manors of Sutton Coldfield, Middleton, Can well, Dray ton Bassett, and the ancient limits of Cannock Forest and Sutton Chase, all meet there. The locality was formerly a vast heath. From time imme- morial a pole had been set up (probably to mark the before-mentioned bounds), which