Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/454

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. XL JUNE 6, 1908

4 th S. vi. 179 ; it is told of the second, not the first, Duke of Chandos, and the scene of the alleged purchase was New bury. The first duke's third wife was daughter o1 John Vanhattem and widow of Sir Thomas Davall, which 'Greater London' endeavours to reconcile with the story by supposing thai after her rescue she was married to that " city knight," and to the duke after his death, which occurred about the same time as that of the duke's second wife. But it would appear that the story really related to the second Duke of Chandos and his second wife, whose maiden name was Ann Wells, and who died before the duke, leaving only a daughter. The duke afterwards married a third time ; his only son by his first wife succeeded him, and on his death without male issue in 1789 the dukedom became extinct, though it was afterwards revived, in addition to that of Buckingham, in the person of his son-in-law. The estate had be- come sadly encumbered by the extravagance of the second duke, and in 1747, only three years after his father's death, "Canons," near Edgware, a magnificent mansion (popularly identified with the "Timon's Villa" of Pope, though the poet denied the application), had to be pulled down and the materials sold. On the site of part of this mansion a smaller house was subsequently built, and is still called "Canons," but part of the estate is covered by other residences. For an account of the first duke see 'Diet. Nat. Biog.' under ' Brydges, James ' (vol. vii. p. 162). W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

"STAGER." This word generally used now in the colloquial phrase "an old stager," meaning a shrewd old fellow of long experi- ence, "an old soldier" is assumed to be a derivative of "stage," as of one who had long trodden the stage of life, or had travelled over many stages of life's journey. 'Tis true some stagers of the wiser sort Made all these idle wonderments their sport.

Dryden, ' Hind and Panther,' pt. iii. 1. 497. "I'm an old stager, I am. I don't mind the rows between the women." Thackeray, ' The New- comes,' ch. v. p. 44.

It has sometimes occurred to me that it may really be a popular perversion of the old ecclesiastical term stagiarius, a canon who kept his stated residence in connexion with a cathedral (Bailey : Milman, ' Annals of St. Paul's,' p. 312), which is itself a corruption of residentiarius. Very similar is the use in Ireland of residenter for an old inhabitant, who is often the depositary of the local wisdom ; and so in Scotland, " Mr. Bright

found there an old residenter who was full of traditions of Michael Bruce " (J. C. Shairp in Good Words, 1873, p. 791). The Oxford- shire phrase for the venerable native is " old standard," which possibly may represent 'sidenter : " 1 and Master Viner be the uny two old standards left" (Eng. Dialect Soc., 'Orig. Glossaries,' C. p. 92). It being the duty of the stagiarius, as canon in residence, to provide the boy bishop with his robes, &c., according to the old canons of St. Paul's (Warton, 'Hist, of Eng. Poetry,' repr. 1870, p. 834, note 1), this might help to popularize the word. A. SMYTHE PALMER

S. Woodford.

" AND WHICH." The erroneous use of "and which," from which some even of the best of authors are not wholly free, has, I believe, already been discussed in ' N. & Q.' Here is a conspicuously deplorable case of it, occurring on nothing less literary and sacred than the pedestal of the monument of Shakespere in the churchyard of St. Mary Aldermanbury, near the Guildhall in London, and on that side of it which faces the church : "John Heminge lived in this parish upwards of forty-two years, and in which he was married." Here there is no excuse for the and. It is simply an insult to Shakespere and the language which he glorified. Who has power to remove it? There may be cases, of course, where "and which" repre- sents "and one which," where the clause introduced by " which " is one many-worded adjective or epithet. E. S. DODGSON.

[See 9 th S. iii. 129.]

WIT IN UNSUSPECTED PLACES. In perusing lately the case of " Clarke and Wife v. Army and Navy Co-operative Society, Limited," L.R. 1903, 1 K.B. ; 155, I came across a bril- liant example of this, which surely ought to be enshrined in 'N. & Q.' The learned law reporter sets forth certain facts (the case is one of warranty of fitness of goods) in the most prosaic terms, and proceeds to expound the manner in which the female plaintiff had opened a tin of chlorinated lime, from the escape of which article she suffered damage. He says, " On the next day she proceeded to open the tin by prising the lid up in the usual way with a spoon." The italics are mine. Now mark the observance of the learned gentleman who reported the case. He did not slur over the weaknesses of the house- wife race, or their tendency to open by force any metal receptacle with the article nearest or not; he straightway, in the mostconcise and sarcastic manner, nailed this to the counter,
 * o hand, be it a proper one for the purpose