Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/135

 9* S. xii. AH. is, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Tenancies I may add, is a feudal term in origin. It means one who cultivates land held of a fief, a franc tenancier being a man who holds such property with the rights redeemed. Now, however, the word some- times signifies the occupier of a small farm dependent on a larger one.

A DESCENDANT OF DUKE HOLLO.

IMAGINARY OR INVENTED SAINTS. Writing of St. Mirin of Paisley, Dr. Metcalfe says :

" Some have gone so far as to doubt his existence altogether ; but there is no reason for doing so. However wild the legends about a saint may be, the saint himself is always the substantial element among them. Imagination may invent the miracles, but it does not invent the saint."

In a foot-note the writer adds :

"The imaginations of some railway officials, however, have managed to do this. In Fife they have invented a ' St. Fort.' " ' Charters and Docu- ments relating to the Burgh of Paisley (1163-1665),' 1902, p. xviii.

Another imaginary or ghost saint is well known here in St. Enoch, who has been evolved from St. Thenew, the mother of St. Kentigern. There is also a modern parish (quoad sacra) in Dundee called St. Enoch's, and this is more mysterious, for there was no cult of St. Thenew in Dundee.

WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK.

Ramoyle, Dowanhill Gardens, Glasgow.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addresged to them direct.

OSPREYS. When was the term "ospreys' first used in place of egrets or aigrettes that is, to represent the dorsal and ventral plumes of the egret herons? These plumes seem to be imported as " egrets" and retailed as"ospreys." R. HEDGER WALLACE.

[The earliest instance in the * H.E.D.' is from the Pall Mall Gazette of 29 Jan., 1885.1

BEYLE : STENDHAL. I recently bought a copy of the ' Lettres Historiques, &c., de Henri Saint-John, Lord Vicomte Boling- broke,' edited by General Grimoard, and published at Paris in 1808 in 3 vols. It came from the library of the Conte Cav. Domenico Vestini, of Naples. On the front cover of vol. i. and on the back cover of vol. iii. is the following address : " Monsieur, Monsieur De Beyle, Commissaire des Guerres, Bruns- wick, troupes fran9aises," with a signature which, I think, reads " B. Farre."

Henri Beyle was at Brunswick from 1806 to November, 1808. A note on p. 331 of Stryienski's edition of the journal says that Beyle was "Intendant des Domaines de 1'Empereur, a Brunswick." I am not aware that Henri Beyle ever used the "De." Pro- bably this was an addition by the bookseller or some one who sent the books. As Beyle left Brunswick in November or December, 1808, these volumes may never have reached him. The sort of life he led did not favour the collection of a library. Is anything known about his books ? J. F. R.

Godalming.

PETER THE GREAT IN ENGLAND. " Lorsque le Czar Pierre le Grand vint en Angle- terre, il y vit M. Halley, et il le trouva digne de la reputation qui le lui avoit annonce." 'Eloge de M. Halley,' ' Memoires de 1' Academic des Sciences,' Paris, 1742, ' Histoire,' p. 186.

" M. Folkes, que ses talens et son scavoir ont place a la tete de la Societe Royale, ami de M. Halley, son successeur dans 1'Academie des Sciences, et a qui nous devons la plus grande partie des Memoires dont nous avions besoin pour cet Eloge "Ibid., p. 181.

It would be interesting to know if the original MS. drawn up by Folkes is still pre- served in the Parisian archives. Can any correspondent refer me to a bibliography of the sojourn of Peter the Great in England ? EUGENE FAIRFIELD McPiKE.

1, Park Row, Room 606, Chicago, U.S.

MODERN FORMS OF ANIMAL BAITING. The following is taken from the Sun of 30 July :

"An illustrated contemporary has a double-page drawing of a Chinese cricket match of a kind quite unknown at Lord's or the Oval. The crickets are of the domestic variety, and are trained to fight single-round contests while betting proceeds briskly. There are, by-the-by, many curious battles fought in English villages of which the outside world never hears. In a Buckingham spot in the hills by Wendover recently I heard of a buck rabbit duel; and 'Billy' Sprague tells a curious story of beetle-killing contests by hedgehogs. And rat- killing is almost a weekly occurrence in London."

So that a record may be made of the "many curious battles fought in English villages of which the outside world never hears," will readers kindly note the details about any that they have seen or heard of 1 R. HEDGER WALLACE.

HOLBORN CASINO. Will some reader of 'N. & Q.' kindly refer me to a book giving some account of this casino? Does the present Holborn Restaurant stand on any portion of the site of the old Casino 1

B. N. T.

NATURE STUDY. When was this term first employed to designate certain aspects of