Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/237

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

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any one who will kindly assist us to obtain a copy of this book. Can any reader of 1 N. & Q.' give us information concerning the author? G. & A. HERRING & Co.

78, Gracechurch Street, E.G.

" LET IT CHECK OUR PRIDE." Can you oblige me with a reference to the following fragment ?

Let it check our pride, The virtue nearest to our vice allied.

I believe it to be Pope's, but cannot disinter it. P. E. GEORGE.

[' Essay on Man,' ii. 196.]

CHARLES HINDE was admitted to West- minster School 13 March, 1782. I should be glad to learri any particulars of his parentage and career. G. F. R. B.

"C.I.F." What is the meaning of the commercial symbol " C.I.F.," which one sees in price-lists, tenders, and such-like docu- ments ? It seems to have been overlooked in the * N.E.D.,' which usually explains all recognized abbreviations under the various letters. For example, the kindred abbrevia- tions "f.a.a." ("free from all average') and 44 f.o.b." ("free on board ") are duly registered under the letter F. I can find no help in the dictionary for u c.i.f." PERTINAX.

PROVERBS RELATING TO LINCOLN. A corre- spondent of 4 N. & Q.' (7 th S. vi. 108) asked for earlier instances of " Lincoln was, London is, and Yorke shall be " than Thomas Decker's mention of it in his 'Wonderful Year, 1603.' Was this query ever answered 1 I am anxious to know on what authority the proverb rests. Whence, too, do we derive The first crown'd head that enters Lincoln's walls, His reign proves stormy and his kingdom falls ?

I have a vague remembrance of hearing it stated that this saying was mentioned by some chronicler in connexion with King Stephen. G. W.

SCOTCH BALLAD : ' HABBIE SIMPSON.' Who was the author of the ballad ' The Life and Death of Habbie Simpson, Piper of Kilbar- chan"? Mr. T. F. Henderson in the 'Diet. Nat. Biog.' attributes the authorship to Robert Sempill (1595-1665?), son of Sir James Sempill, of Beltrees, Lochwinnoch, Renfrew- shire ; but Mr. H. G. Graham, in 'Scottish Men of Letters ' (p. 393), and others ascribe it to Francis Semple (1616-82), son of Robert Sempill, " who is also credited, somewhat indecisively," according to MR. THOMAS BAYNE, "with the ballad of ' Maggie Lauder.' " Which is right ? JOHN HEBB.

CIPHER PRICE-MARKS. In the course of a recent examination of an ancient book of accounts it has become material to ascertain the date when certain entries were made. The entries refer to events of the year 1630 and thereabouts, but after a careful examina- tion I am of opinion, from the wording and spelling and so forth, that they were, in fact, inserted many years after, probably about 1740, and are copies of an older account, genuine enough, no doubt, in its day. I have not traced anything from the watermarks, but I find inside the cover of the book one of the ordinary bookseller's private price-marks or ciphers, such as are in common use in busi- ness, taken from the use of a word, or rather the letters in a particular word, for numerals. The letters are

B u

n

Can any one tell me at what date this cus- tom of private letter price-marks or ciphers came into common use? Would it be likely to be generally used among booksellers in the seventeenth century ? Of course there is nothing magical about the cipher; any one can have his own with a suitable word. I want to fix approximately the date when the book was manufactured and sold. It is a book which might cost 5s. or so.

W. H. QUARRELL.

"WEEP NOT FOR HER." Can any of your readers inform me where I can find a poem which commences with

Weep not for her, she is an angel now ?

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

[A similar thought, " Weep not for him," &c., occurs in N. P. Willis's ' Death of Harrison.']

" AND WHOSE LITTLE PIGS ARE THESE ? "

Can any of your readers tell me the author of the following, and also give the rest of the song 1

And whose little pigs are these, these, these ?

And whose little pigs are these ?

They are Johnny Coke's,

I know them by the looks ;

1 found them among my peas.

Go pound them, go pound them.

I dare not, on my life,

For though I love not Johnny Coke,

1 dearly love his wife.

M. F. H.

ELIZABETH, COUNTESS OF WILTSHIRE, AND MOTHER OF ANNE BOLEYN. Who is the pro- bable painter of a portrait of Elizabeth Howard, Countess of Wiltshire and Ormonde, and mother of Anne Boleyn, which is known to have originally belonged to her daughter