Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/479

 9* s. x. DEO. 13, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

471

grossen Herren ist nicht gut Kirschen essen " may be traced back to the sixteenth century. It alludes to an historical popular song, by which the Swiss confederate peasants were warned, after having gained a victory, together with Maximilian, Duke of Milan, over Louis XII., King of the French, in 1518, not to boast of their success, and not to side henceforth with the princes :

Wer mit Herren Kirsen essen wil, Der wird dick geworfen mit dem Stil, Den Spott den muss er haben.

See Grimm's 'Deutsches Worterbuch,' v 845

H. K.

ROUBILIAC'S BUST OP POPE (9 th S. x. 408). The bust of Pope by Roubiliac was in the collection of Mr. Watson Taylor in 1833.

CHAKLES GREEN. 18, Shrewsbury Road, Sheffield.

"KIT-CAT" PORTRAITS (9 th S. x. 188, 231, 316, 435). Referring to MR. J. T. PAGE'S query respecting these, I beg to say they are at present in the possession of W. R. Baker, Esq., of Bayfordbury, Herts, in his dining- room, where I saw them two or three years ago. C. T. BAKER.

"NOT HALF" (9 th S. x. 385). MR. F. ADAMS suggests that this "ill phrase" may have come to us from the music-halls. I doubt this ; but, anyway, it is known and familiar in that quarter, as witness a "ditty highly penn'd," yclept "He called me his own Grace Darling, sung with much ac- ceptance at the Tivoli three years ago by Miss Vesta Victoria. I venture to quote one stanza, as MR. ADAMS might like to see the context. Also it is well that posterity, poring on the pages of 'N. & Q.,' shall be enabled thence to gather what sort of "comic" stuff it was at which their forebears were wont to heave their diaphragms : He calls me his own Grace Darling,

He says that I 'm his pet I 've filled each plaice within his sole;

That ain't no cod, you bet ! When he arst me if I loved him,

I said, " What O ! not 'arf; Why, I likes you just for your whiskers, 'Cos they tickles me and makes me larf."

THOMAS HUTCHINSON.

' AYLWIN' (9 th S. ix. 369, 450 ; x. 16, 89, 150). It was recently announced in the Literary World (24 October) that Mr. Watts-Dunton in the preface to the new illustrated edition of ' Aylwin ' deals " with certain points raised recently in ' N. & Q.' concerning *the inner meaning of the book and some topographical matters relating to the Snowdon district." It is very much to be hoped that Mr. Watts-

Dunton will also publish the gist of this preface in the pages of ' N. & Q.'

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

OXFORD AT THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE I. (9 th S. x. 225, 313). On noticing the different dates given for the landing of this monarch and his subsequent coronation, I turned to 'Mr. Salmon's Chronological Historian,' second edition, London, 1733, which ends with that king's reign, and contains a very full account of it, with year, month, and every important day printed in the margin From this useful work I quote as follows :

" King George and the Prince embarked for England, and arrived at Greenwich on the 18th in the evening [Sept., 1714], and was received by the Duke of Northumberland, Captain of the Life-' Guard then in waiting, and the Lord Chancellor Harcourt, at the Head of the Lords of the Regency."

"Octpb. 20, 1714. King George was crowned at Westminster with the usual Solemnity ; but just as the Procession was going by several People were killed and hurt by the fall of Scaffolds in the Palace- Yard." f

_ Now " Mr. Salmon," as he is styled on the title-page, has placed in the margin, where the first quotation begins, the letters "O.S.," which show that the dates are according to the old manner of reckoning. If eleven days be added we shall have them according to " the new style first introduced in 1752, when the English going to bed on the 2nd of Sep- tember did not get up to breakfast again till the 14th," as I learn from Mr. Charles Nisbet's ' People's Select Cyclopaedia,' p. 205. In this way is the problem solved, thanks to the ' Chronological Historian.'

JOHN T. CURRY.

May not the solution of the date difficulty in regard to the coronation of King George I. be simply that both dates viz, 20 October, 1714, and 31 October, 1714 are correct, one being old style and the other new 1 And the same explanation holds good in respect to the landing of that monarch at Greenwich, viz., 18 September old style and 29 September new. C. H.

"BIRMINGHAM'S DRESS" (9 th S. x. 409). The first sentence in the extract from the Times of 1802 should probably read, "The French Consul is said to have taken his aim at the character of the Emperor Charlemagne, just as our English doubles and Birminghams dress after his Royal Highness or his Grace " dress being here a verb, and not a noun. I have consulted Grose and Pierce Egan, but though double with a different meaning is found, the meaning of "dandy" for that word and for Birmingham is not given,