Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/285

 9*8. XL APRIL 4,1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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mode of speaking will be found in this work which might have been better expressed otherwise.

"In such circumstances, each one among those who are aware to what (class) the thing belongs will remember, we pray, that matters of this kind, above all in a language hitherto without employment,* cannot be put all at once into such perfection as would be necessary. For all that, however, without sticking much at the mode of expression, we make bold (to affirm) that those who desire to follow the pure word of God will find (with toleration) wherewith to be content. And if, as we hope, the Bask (reader) takes any pleasure in, or owes any edification to, this which has so far been achieved, those who have been employed in this will take heart, to revise and to correct, as from this present even they have a mind to do, that which has been accom- plished ; and even more, if God so be pleased, to put in declaratory annotations for the most difficult passages. May God, we pray, making known and confounding every doctrine which may be for His dishonour, alway sustain and advance that which is to His honour in the name of His son Jesus Christ our Lord ! Amen."

E. S. DODGSON.

Oxford.

KEATS : " SLOTH " (9 th S. xi. 187, 232). I have no doubt that PEOF. STRONG is right, and that the animal meant is the glutton. The story about his leaping upon deer from trees, and holding on to his prey, is from Buffon, who seems to have believed it, but on no good authority. But I still desire further light. Where is the name of sloth given to the glutton 1 All I can find is that, in the ' English Cyclopaedia/ s.v. ' Gulo,' the name of glutton is said to have been some- times given to the sloth. But when or where 1 for the 'H.E.D.' does not give glutton in this sense. Neither does the ' Century Dictionary ' give sloth with the sense of glutton.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

"UNRAM"(9 th S.xi. 188,230) -While I agree with DR. MURRAY that the 'Oxford Dic- tionary' should not include "all the possible words beginning with un," I do think that it should contain a dated list of all the un- words sent in by 'Dictionary' readers and collected by the staff, even if space will not allow of each word being defined. In collect- ing un- words nothing has surprised me more than the early dates at which many of them were used. And while we all know that un-

Baskish language were hardly known in 1571. It is, however, probable, or at least possible, that J. de Lei9arraga was acquainted with Bernard Dechepare and the book of Baskish rimes which he published at Bordeaux in 1545, and of which the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris possesses the only copy known to bibliographical research. Of this interesting curiosity no translation has yet been published in the language of Shakespere,
 * This remark shows us that documents in the

can in theory be set before an enormous number of words, we want to have instances of the far less number in which the prefix has been actually found by our searchers. No editor's selection of samples will satisfy a student who wants to know all the facts ; and I believe the generous Delegates of the Oxford Press would not grudge 100/., if need be, to give us the dated list I have mentioned. F. J. FURNIVALL.

So far as my reading goes, the greatest number of un- words contained in any one book, not a dictionary, is in Pollok's ' Course of Time.' W. C. B.

MEMORIAL TO " NETHER- LOCHABER " (9 th S' xi. 186). In the epitaph on the Rev. Alex- ander Stewart, recorded at the above heading, it is said that he was "scholar, naturalist, seannachie, bard." Allow me to ask the mean- ing of the italicized word. The only use of the word which I can find is in * The Legend of Montrose,' when Ranald of the Mist observes to Capt. Dalgetty on their escape from the dungeon at Inverary :

" If you would save your father's son's breath to help his child out of trouble instead of wasting it upon the tales of the seannachies, or if your feet could travel as fast as your tongue, you might yet lay your head on an unbloody pillow to-night. Chap. xiv.

In the " Centenary Edition " of the Waverley novels no explanation is given of the word. JOHN PICKFORD, MA. [The seannachie was the Highland bard.]

MUG HOUSES (9 th S. xi. 67). The weighty issues which these clubs were instrumental in promoting in the political world make it a matter of regret that more is not known of their inner economy. We know that their members had a row of "oaken towels" or "ashen staves 1 ' always available when they sallied forth to break their opponents' heads, and that the clubs were so named from the " penny mugs," as Entick in his ' History of London ' calls them, out of which they drank at their social meetings ; but beyond that little seems to be known of the character of their intercourse and of the songs which were composed expressly to animate their loyalty, one of which, however, is given in Chambers's 4 Book of Days.' These Whig societies apparently had no existence until the acces- sion of George I., Queen Anne having been fairly popular with both Whigs and " Jacks " (see ' Mug House Diversion,' 1719), although their libations of the national beverage were to the memory of William III., Marl borough, and Eugene, and it is a curious reflection|that

ir^ patriotic consumption of ale, to which