Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/233

 9* 8. XL MARCH 21, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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make the name correct ; but we have also in doing so to refer to one of the least, instead of the most, trustworthy of ancient writers. The statement occurs in the eighth and last book (c. xxiii.) of the ' Strategics ' of Polysenus. In no case does he give any of his authorities for the miscellaneous collection of anecdotes which he compiled with very little care or dis- crimination, but we can ourselves in several instances trace the sources and note some of the author's mistakes. For the statement, however, that Caesar took an elephant (an animal nowhere mentioned in the ' Commen- taries ') from Gaul into Britain, and by this means succeeded in frightening away the Britons who were endeavouring to defend the ford of the Thames, Polysenus himself is our sole authority, and it seems to me we cannot possibly accept it on the word of an author who probably confused it with an event which may have happened somewhere else. W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

"COFFEE-LETTER"=NEWS-LETTER. 'N.E.D.' does not give the special combination coffee- letter ; but with coffeehouse letter it was frequently used by Anthony Wood as an equivalent for neivs-letter. Under date 24 February, 1675, "news in the coffey-house letter" is to be found referred to \ both " the public coffey letter " and "the coffey letter" are mentioned in 1680 and 1681 ; and " a letter at the coffee-house ' is quoted in the last-given year. These are only a few such references ; and I should be glad if any others from contemporary sources could be given. ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

" PRIGG." This word is usually explained as meaning to plead hard with a person, to haggle over a bargain, to filch, to steal ; but it occurs in a sermon preached by the Rev. D. Williamson, of the West Kirk, Edinburgh, at the opening of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in March, 1703, where the meaning seems to be different from any of the foregoing. The preacher, referring to evils connected with a system of patronage in the Church, says :

"If a vassal had a son fit for no other imploy- ment, he would sute his patron for a presentation. I pray that none of our nobility or gentry prigg with God in this matter, and that neither covetous- ness on the one hand, nor envy on the other, prompt men to wreath this yoke on us."

The copy of the sermon in my possession bears to have been printed at Edinburgh, in 1703, " by the Heirs and Successors of Andrew Anderson, Printer to the Queen's most Excel- lent Majesty. " I hope the ' Oxford English

Dictionary ' will give several illustrative quotations showing the different senses in which the word has been used by old authors before 1703. W. S.

" LOATHLY." (See ante, p. 60.) In the notice of a section of vol. vi. of ' A New Eng- lish Dictionary' it is remarked that "the ' loathly worm ' = serpent seems to be first used by Besarit (1886), though Thomson (1748) has ' loathly toad,' " arid the writer adds : " We should have thought that ballad litera- ture would supply earlier instances." In ballad literature we have, of course, the well- known instance of 'The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heughs,' which was first pub- lished in book form in 'A View of Northum- berland, Anno 1776,' by W. Hutchinson, 1778, ii. 162-4. Though founded on an ancient theme, this ballad was the composition of the Rev. Robert Lambe. Loathly and laidly are the same word, the A.-S. Idftlic.

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

THACKERAY AND * PENDENNIS.' In Merivale and Marzials's 'Thackeray,' "Great Writers Series," it is stated, p. 155, that "after the publication of the eleventh number of 'Pendennis' in September, 1849, there came a break for four months. Thackeray was ill, sick well nigh unto death, in the latter part of September and during October and Novemoer, and kindly tended by Dr. Elliotson, to whom ' Pendennis ' was afterwards dedicated, and by Dr. Merriman, of Kensington Square."

The thirty-six chapters in the eleven numbers formed about half the story. Mrs. Ritchie, in her introduction to ' Pendennis,' states that Edward FitzGerald "said it was very stupid, and advised my father to give it up.' My father was not satisfied either." Fortu- nately this advice was not taken. Thackeray says in the preface " that this book began with a very precise plan, which was entirely set aside." Without doubt we are indebted to Thackeray's illness for those three most charming chapters li. 'Which had very nearly been the Last of the Story,' lii. ' A Critical Chapter,' and liii. 'Convalescence.' These are chaps, xiii., xiv., and xv. of vol. ii. of the first edition. Thackeray suffered from a bilious fever that almost killed him. Pen also was " in a high fever," "delirious." "The fever, if not stopped, might and would carry off the young fellow," and at one time "his life was despaired of." Dr. Goodenough, of Hanover Square, who was sent for by Major Pendennis to attend Pen, is, of course, Dr. Elliotson, who was then living in Conduit Street close to that square. He is " the good and honest and benevolent man " who " laughed at the idea