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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ s. XL JAN. 24, 1903.

of ' N. & Q.' to whom such reckonings are as ABC kindly give me the days on a postcard and greatly oblige ? (Rev.) O. S. WARD. Wootton St. Lawrence, Basingstoke.

"THE TIM BOBBIN." I should be glad to know the origin of the sign of a public-house at Lillieshall Road, Clapham, called "The Tim Bobbin." An answer in 'N. & Q.' would greatly oblige. W. GREEN.

["Tim Bobbin" was originally responsible for Lancashire dialect books. ]

PRECEDENCE. Among the minor diffi- culties of life, few are greater than the solution of questions of precedence, especially when both general and local precedence are involved, or members of various professions are concerned.

Assume, for instance, the case of a borough which is also a county, and more- over the seat of a bishop who is a lord of Parliament. What is the relative precedence of the Mayor (or Lord Mayor) of this borough, the Lord - Lieutenant and the High Sheriff of this county, and the Bishop of this cathedral city, when they meet in public within the area of their respective districts, which is, in fact, one and the same 1 And where would a duke be placed if he were with them ?

Again, suppose the following gentlemen meet : a deputy -lieutenant, a King's Counsel, a dean, a Bachelor of Civil Law, a Master of Arts, a member of Parliament for a borough (in his own borough), a member of Parliament for a county (outside of his own county), a retired major-general, a lieutenant-colonel on active service, a retired rear-admiral, a captain (R.N.) on active service, and the consul of some foreign country what order would these respectively take 1

Questions of this sort could be multiplied ; but if you or any of your readers will answer these two, and give reasons for the answer to the first of them, at any rate, I shall feel greatly obliged. G. H. P.

SALISBURY PULPIT. In the nave of Salis- bury Cathedral the pulpit is called, for some reason, " What, not one hour ! " (Chr. Words- worth, 'Ceremonies and Processions of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury,' 1901, p. 215.) Is this the inscription upon it ? I presume it is a remonstrance addressed to drowsy hearers. A. SMYTHE PALMER.

S. Woodford.

DUCHESS OF MANCHESTER'S ELOPEMENT. Miss Grant of Rothiemurchus tells us that Louisa, the wife of the fifth Duke of Man- chester, ran away with one of her foot-

men. When did this take place ; and where is it referred to ? J. M. BULLOCH.

1 18, Pall Mall, S.W.

QUOTATIONS WANTED. Can any of your readers direct me to the source of the fol- lowing quotations, which occur in an early essay by Ruskin (1837-8)1

"Neat, not gaudy, as the devil said when he painted his tail pea-green."

"The landlord whose tout ce que vous voulez dwindled down into a solitary chop, to be pulled out of the mouth of the house-dog."

E. T. C.

[The first locution was widely current near the middle of the nineteenth century.]

SMYTHIES FAMILY. Do any of the present generation of Smythies care for their pedigree ? There was a Dr. Smythies, curate of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, 1678. He was a founder of some of the religious societies, of which the S.P.G. and S.P.C.K. are survivors. Was he an ancestor of Bishop Smythies of Zanzibar ? (Rev.) F. R. MICHELL.

Ash Vicarage, Dover.

"SHELL" OF A COFFIN. Will any of your readers kindly inform me at what date began the custom of placing a corpse in a coarse- made kind of coffin, called a shell, previous to its being put in the coffin proper in which it is screwed down 1 C. W.

CONSTANTINOPLE. (See 9 th S. x. 336, 475, art. 'Sathalia.') MR. YARDLEY is not singular in his opinion that Stamboul is a corruption of Constantinople. The writer on Constanti- nople in ' Chamoers's Encyclopaedia ' observes:

" European writers have fancifully derived Istam- boul from the Greek expression ts rrjv TroAti/, 'up to town,' but a more probable derivation makes it simply a mispronunciation of Coustantiuopolis."

To this I may add that in a book now in the press the author, a writer of some repute, says in a foot-note :

"It is usually stated^ that^ Stamboul or Istamboul is a corruption of eis rrjv 7roA.ii>, though Dr. Koeller disputes this derivation, and considers that it is a mere shortening of the name Constantinople by the Turks, analogous to Skender or Iskender from Alexander."

Will some student of the Turkish language kindly inform us if the prosthetic / of Istam- boul has analogues in the euphonic ^ some- times prefixed to Italian words beginning with s impura, as istato for stato, and the e in French estomac, Span. est6mago ?

I am not competent to discuss the question. I give the foregoing quotations simply for the behoof of your correspondent.

F. ADAMS.