Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/496

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

. XL JUNE 20,

(in Dublin) or had some definite knowledge of the author. Many others, in several volumes, that he did not witness or know about have no name written on scene i. I knew the gentleman in his extreme old age. He never made a marginal note or wrote his name on a title-page of any of the Dublin editions of Shakespeare or other authors always on scene i. or not at all.

JAMES HAYES.

Ennis.

[Neither Genest nor the ' Biographia Dramatica ' gives the name of the translator of ' The Corsicans.' The latter authority attributes the translation from Goethe to William (sic) Scot.]

CARSON. I shall be very much obliged if any one can give me assistance in tracing a family of this name. I have trustworthy evidence back to the year (about) 1750, when John Carson married Mary Carr at Amaduff, co. Lei trim. After this the family were living near Elphin, co. Roscommon, for some time. I believe that the family originally came from Scotland, and I am very anxious to find out if this is so. I have searched a great many parish registers at the Record Office, Dublin, but these do not go back far ; and I have not got any information from wills. H. R. C.

19, Charlton Lane, Old Charlton, 8.E.

1591 PLASTER QUOTATION. A few years ago, when enlarging a room at the '" Waggon and Horses Inn," Bewdley, the workmen had to remove a partition, and at the top of this, against the ceiling, was some plaster on which the following inscription was painted in blue and red. Before noticing this the workmen broke away parts, arid as soon as the landlady knew she had it carefully taken down and put in an attic. Before I could go to Bewdley to inspect it some children had considerably damaged it, and in order that I might try to place it in its original position, it was packed and sent to me in Shrews- bury. Unfortunately, owing to the friable condition of the plaster, the railway journey completely spoilt what remained of the plaster, and after a great deal of trouble, I found it was impossible to piece the remains together and had to throw them away. The inscription was, so far as I was able to make out, as follows : "Stop the beginning and ye shall be sure, and then God will be true and save 1591." 1 shall be glad to know if any one can give me an idea if this is correct, and if it is taken from any book or manu- script. HERBERT SOUTHAM.

THACKERAY'S SPEECHES. Can any one tell me where reports of Thackeray's

speeches were published ? In ' The Life of William Makepeace Thackeray ' I re- print from John Camden Hotten's ' Thacke- ray ' five speeches. They are headed '1849,' '1840,' 'Authors and their Patrons, 1851,' 'Royal Literary Fund Dinner, 1852,' 'The Commercial Travellers' Dinner, 1857.' Can any one tell me on what occasions the first three were delivered, and if a fuller report of any of the five is known? I am aware of the pamphlet ' Proceedings at the Thirteenth Anniversary Festival of the Royal General Fund, 1858'; but Thackeray spoke at a dinner given in his honour before he went to America, and on at least one occasion he responded for " Literature " at a Royal Academy dinner, though I do not know in what year. I have not seen the reports of these. There must also be other speeches. LEWIS MELVILLE.

SINGLE TOOTH. In the 'Annals of Japan,' written in the eighth century, there is an emperor whose name, Midzuhawake, or Prince with Auspicious Tooth, is said to have been given him from his having the so-called teeth in a single piece. When I was yet an infant, I once heard my old master narrate that a knight in this province of Kii, called Hagui Oniemon (Strong-Bites Demon), had a set of teeth of such a conformation that he was able to bite off an iron pan. And in the ' Life of Pyrrhus ' Plutarch says that, " instead of teeth in his upper jaw, he had one con- tinued bone, marked with small lines resembling the divisions of a row of teeth." I am very desirous of knowing whether such monstrosity really happens to exist, and, if possible, the scientific explanation of this sort of anomalous growth.

KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA. Mount Nachi, Kii, Japan.

WM. HENRY, D.D., DEAN OF KILLALOE. In the invaluable ' Index and Epitome of Diet, of Nat. Biog.' just published this author's 'Description of Lough Erne' is said to have been "printed 1873." In ' N. & Q.,' 8 th S. iii. 320, is a review of Dr. Henry's 'Upper Lough Erne in 1739,' edited, with notes, &c., in 1891 (Dublin, McGee) by Sir Charles S. King, Bart. Is this the edition referred to, or was there one in 1873 1

F. BARNES.

"SUFF" AND "STUFF." The word suff is stated in Halli well's ' Dictionary to be a Northern word meaning drain. Is it a variant of the old English sewe (which appears to have passed into Labourdin Baskish)? I am told that it is used also in the Midland Counties. In the Star (of London) for