Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/154

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. XL FEB. 21, 1903.

in the 'Century Dictionary' as another word for pillow-case, should apparently be added " pillow-ber." In the Times of 8 October, 1802, appeared a criticism upon the perform- ance of Stephen Kemble as Falstaff, m the course of which was quoted an address, written by himself, which opened with these lines :

A Falstaff here to-night, by Nature made, Lends to your favourite Bard his pond rous aid ; No man of buckram he ! no scuffing gear ! No feather-bed, nor e'en a pillow-ber ! But all good honest flesh and blood, and bone, And weighing, more or less, some thirty stone. And the spelling of the word in question was repeated in the criticism, it being observed that

" Nature has so amply fitted Mr. S. Kemble for Falstaff, that the Wardrobe-keeper has more occa- sion to let out than take in there is indeed no occasion f9r either k feather-bed or pillow-ber ' he may, without danger of contradiction, affirm of his motley company, that they never learned their bareness of him.

ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

CORNISH RIMES IN AN EPITAPH. The vicar of Paul Church, near Penzance, a Manxman by birth, showed me on 7 January the fol- lowing lines, in the unhappily extinct British tongue, forming part of the mural epitaph of Capt. Stephen Hutchens, who died at Port Royal, Jamaica, 24 August, 1709. It exists in the nave of that church, and is believed by the Rev. W. S. Lach-Szyrma to be the only intramural inscription in Cornish in a church. In the eighth edition of the ' Two- penny Guide to Penzance,' published at Truro in 1897, these verses appear with at least four misprints. It seems, therefore, worth while, in the interest of philologists, to enshrine them in the immortal pages of 'N. &Q.':-

Bounas heb dueth, Eu poes karens wei tha Pobl Bohodzhak Paull han Egles nei.

The comma before, and the capital E in, Eu are mistakes of the stonecutter. Prof. Rhys says that the spelling does not appear to be scientific. Eu and wei inspire him with doubt. It has been suggested that the first five words mean "Life without end is a burden." It appears, however, that the whole may be rendered thus : " Life without end be to you ! my love to the poor people of Paul and to our church !" which reads like a fare- well message from Capt. Hutchens to his fellow-villagers.

Mr. C. F. P. Blatchley, of Exeter College, tells me that there is a recent inscription on a mantelpiece at Polwhele House, near Truro, to this effect, " Karenza wheelad karenza," meaning "Friendship maketh friendship."

There is thought to be another, according to the vicar of Paul, at Llanhydrock.

E. S. DODGSON.

MONTAIGNE'S BIRTHPLACE.! feel sure that the following interesting note from the Paris Figaro of 10 January last will interest many English readers :

"Le chateau de Michel Montaigne, ou sont actuellement 1'ambassadeur de France a Vienne et la marquise de Reverseaux, apres avoir 6te long- temps un fief mouvant de Montravel, qui apparte- nait aux archeveques de Bordeaux, passa, en 1477, aux Eyquem qui 1'agrandirent et en prirent le nom. C'est la que naquit I'illustre auteur des ' Essais.' Le celebre manoir a successivement appartenu a la famille de Montaigne et au chevalier Isaac de begur- Montazeau. Dans les premieres annees du siecle dernier, on le trouve en la possession des du Buc de Marcussy. II devint plus tard la propriety de M. de Beauroyre qui le vendit au baron Curial. M. Magne, ministre des finances, en fit a son tour 1'acquisition et le restaura magnifiquement. Dtruit completement par un incendie, dans la unit du 12 au 13 Janvier 1885, il fut reconstruit par M. Thirion- Montauban, qui avait epouse Mile. Magne, main- tenant marquise de Reverseaux. Du vieux manoir des Eyquem, bati et rebati au cours des ages, il ne reste plus que la tour de la Librairie, chere au delicat essayiste."

W. ROBERTS.

CRAIGCROOK. Referring to the reconcilia- tion of Jeffrey and Moore after the abortive preparations 'for a duel in 1806, a writer in the Edinburgh Review for October, 1902, p. 290, says that " Moore, in later days, wrote for the Review, and became the honoured guest of its Editor at Craig Crook." Jeffrey's country house, however, was named " Craigcrook," and this is the form used by himself in his correspondence. Cockburn, in Jeffrey's ' Life and Correspondence,' i. 234, writes as follows :

" He had left Hatton in the autumn of 1814, and in the spring of 1815 transferred his rural deities to Craigcrook, where he passed all his future sum- mers. It is on the eastern slope of Corstorphine Hill, about three miles to the north-west of Edin- burgh."

THOMAS BAYNE.

LYCEUM THEATRE : GALLERY STAIRCASE. Notwithstanding that the tale has been frequently contradicted, Public Opinion, in an article on the Lyceum Theatre, repeats the silly story that the architect of this theatre forgot the gallery staircase, which had to be erected after the theatre had been opened to the public. As the best means of disposing of this calumny it may be well to reproduce the letter which the architect of the theatre, Mr. Samuel Beazley, addressed to the Times newspaper on the occasion, which is as fol- lows :

SIB, Not supposing that any one would seriously believe that I had forgotten the gallery staircase