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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL FEB. 7, 1903.

is in the 'Penny Cyclopaedia' of 1833, in Wood's 'Natural History' of 1861, in Dr. Gray's article 'The Species of Pigs' (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1868), &c. Yet contempo- raneously an improper spelling, taffuicati, had arisen, and has held its own. I find it as early as 1827 in Griffith's English translation of Cuvier's ' Animal Kingdom.' The curious thing is not the original mistake, but that both right and wrong forms persisted side by side. The odds are so far in favour of the survival of the corruption, which is actually the only form admitted to all our largest dictionaries. Webster's is the only dictionary in which the term is correctly printed. The 'Encyclopaedic' is wrong, so is the ' Imperial,' so is even the 'Century.' J. PLATT, Jun.

'EVERYMAN.' A point, perhaps of interest, discovered since ray last edition of the above, is in the line 407 :

Before the highest Jupiter of all. In the ' Boke of Curtesye,' printed by Caxton at Westminster in 1477-8 (and subsequently by Wynkyn de Worde), there is a " ballade " written by a disciple of John Lidgate, monk of Bury, to his master, which has for its re- frain :

Amonge the Muses nyne celestiall,

By fore the hyest lubyter of all.

I shall not venture to make any inference from this similarity. F. SIDGWICK.

"RELEASE" AS A SHIP-SALVING WORD. Just as, if my memory serves me, some five- and-thirty years ago the Americans rather shocked the literary sense of some of us by coining the verb " to collide," as a short way to the expression " to come into collision," so now the word "release" is being commonly met with in American documents and ship- ping reports, more especially from the Lakes to express the " getting off" or " towing off'' of a stranded vessel. Thus to read that such a vessel has been or was "released" apparently means that she was either towed oft, or backed or floated off. It seems likely that before long the new signification will be of common acceptance. ' N. & Q.' may like to note its birth. DOUGLAS OWEN.

VERSES BY COWPER.-! have before me the scrap-book, apparently, of a Cambridge ladv in the earlier part of the last century Among

s interesting contents is a poem by William Cowper as I think, heretofore unpublished. It is introduced as follows : r A party at Lord Macclesfield's agreed one evening to amuse themselves by drawing tickets, on wh ch various vices were written, and they were to be turned into compliments by Cowper.

Vanity: Lord Macclesfield. Be vain, my Lord, you have a right ; For who, like you, can boast this night A group, assembled in one place, Fraught with such beauty, wit, and grace ?

Insensibility : Mr. Marsham. Insensible can Marsham be ? Yes, and no fault we must agree : His heart 'tis virtue only warms, Insensible to vice's charms.

Inconstancy : Mr. Adams. Inconstancy there is no harm in In Adams where it looks so charming, Who wonders, as he well may boast, Which virtue he shall follow most.

Dissimulation : Mr. Conyers, who, after drawing one vice ivhich he did not like, changed it for another. Conyers dissemble? let me see, Would I could say it cannot be ! But he's a mere dissembler grown By taking vices not his own.

A Blank was put in, which was drawn by Legg. If she a blank for Legg designed, Sure fortune is no longer blind, For we shall fill the paper given With every virtue under heaven.

Impudence: The Hon bk Mr. St. John. St. John, your vice you can't disown, For in this age 'tis too well known That impudent the man must be Who dares from folly to be free.

Intemperance : Mr. Gerrard. Intemperance implies excess Chang d though the name, the fault not less ; Yet blush not, Gerrard, there 's no need, In all that 's worthy you exceed.

Cowardice: General Caillard. Most soldiers cowardice disown, Yet Caillard takes it for his own. Bold in whate'er to arms belong [sic], He wants the courage to do wrong.

Celibacy: Mr. Fuller. A married man can't single be ; This vice, cries Fuller, hits not me. Guilty, say all, for 'tis well known He and his wife are truly one.

CHARLES HIGHAM. 169, Grove Lane, Camberwell, S.E.

ABBOTS OF BURY ST. EDMUNDS. The fol- lowing note seems worthy of a permanent record in the pages of ' N. & Q.' :

" During excavations on the site of the chapter- house of the old abbey at Bury St. Edmunds five stone coffins have been unearthed. They are sup- posed to be those of Abbot Sampson, 1182 ; Abbot Richard de Insula, 1229 ; Abbot Henry, 1234 ; Ed- mund de Walpole, 1248 ; and Hugo I., 1157. The coffin-lids are missing, but the names of the abbots are given in the plan of the chapter-house." Daily Telegraph, 3 January.

It will be remembered that Carlyle in his Past and Present,' while discussing the Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda,' gives a