Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/379

 xii. NOV. 7, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

371

in which it is likely to be found, is, to say the least of it, a "big order." The nearest ap- proach (in this direction) to anything definite that I have met with is as follows :

"On attribue ce dicton a Voltaire (1759), qui apres avoir rompu avec le roi de Prusse Frederic II., auquel il avait rendu des services litteraires, seserait plaint d'avoir travaille pour un ingrat. On ajoute que le meme prince, qui faisait beaucoup batir, payait diffi- cilement les travaux, ce qui excitait les murmures de ceux qui attendaient leur argent et qui pouvaient exprimer leur mecontentement en disant qu'ils avaient travaille pour le roi de Prusse." ' Les Pro- verbes et Locutions de la Langue Francaise,' &c., D. Loubens (1888), p. 259.

May not the expression, perhaps verbal, on the part of a number of people of their discontent at having worked for the King of Prussia have given rise to the saying (which might have been in German originally), as the above would seem to indicate 1 It might easily be that it needed the weight of such a writer as Voltaire thrown into the scale to secure the " droit de bourgeoisie " of the phrase in French, and this was, of course, given, and is on record, although he may not have actually used the phrase named. It, however, sums up the idea, from Voltaire's point of view, of Frederick's ingratitude. This is only hypothesis, but I am disposed to accept it for the present, awaiting further light on the subject. EDWARD LATHAM.

MERGER FAMILY (9 th S. xii. 288). The surname of Joneta, the wife of Sir Andrew Mercer, is not known for certain, but by some authorities she is believed to have been a relative of Margaret de Barclay, wife of Walter, Lord of Brechin, youngest son of Robert II. At all events, this Lord Walter got the wardship of Sir Andrew's lands and estate till his son came of age, and held them from 1390 to 1400. From his having got this gift it is a fair presumption though not by any means certain that he was the nearest relative. Bedfothal or Petfodellis belonged in the early part of the fifteenth century to the Reids, but I cannot say how William Reid was connected with Alexander de Moravia, of Culbin. The Mercers had, how- ever, a Murray or de Moravia connexion, as John Mercer married Ada Murray, of the Tullibardine family, and through her got the estate of Aldie, still owned by the Marquess of Lansdowne, his descendant in the female line. J. B. P.

GRUBB (9 th S. xii. 189). It is highly pro- bable that this surname became such through being an old English word for a dwarf or a short person (see Bailey's ' Diet.'). Halliwell says " grubby" means poor, shrunken, stunted.

Walker says a "grub" is a short thick-set person. This would be quite in accordance with the common custom of bestowing sur- names expressive of some personal peculiarity, as for instance " Cruikshank," "Longman," " Strong -i'-th'- arm," "Wild," "Doughty," " Round," " Heavisides," " Sheepshanks," " Smallbones," " Glutton," " Penny father " (miser), &c. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

JOHN GILPIN'S ROUTE (9 th S. xii. 170, 217, 255). As reference has been made to John Beyer's shop in Cheapside, it may be as well to note that it was demolished so recently as 1900. According to a note in the Daily Mail of 11 September, 1900: "It stood at the north-west corner of Cheapside, and a direc- tory of 1772 gives the entry : ' Beyer, John, linen-draper, 3, Cheapside.' There he died in 1791, aged ninety-eight."

With respect to MR. FRY'S statement, " The name of Cowper's hero was evidently taken from the old tombstone in St. Margaret's Church- yard, Westminster, ' Here lies John Gilpin ' an inscription which until some fifty years ago stared every passer-by in the face, and which must have been seen by Cowper hundreds of times when attending Westminster School,"

I think there must be some doubt. 'John Gilpin' was written probably in 1784, and Cowper's death took place in 1800. From an authoritative contribution to 'N. & Q.' in 1882 (6 th S. vi. 9) it would appear that the John Gilpin buried in St. Margaret's Church- yard, Westminster, did not die until 1838. Unless, therefore, some explanation is forth- coming I am afraid that part of MR. FRY'S interesting communication which I have quoted must be taken cum grano salis.

JOHN T. PAGE.

"YCLEPING" THE CHURCH (9 th S. Vlii. 420,

486 ; ix. 55, 216, 394 ; x. 54, 136). I have noted another form of " clipping." A correspondent of the Guardian (23 September, p. 1404) signing himself '' Tourist," and dating from Somerset, tells us that at a village church near Stroud, in Gloucestershire, the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity is called " Keeping Sunday," " when the children, standing hand in hand, entirely encircle their church and sing appropriate hymns. This," he adds, " seems a happy symbol to emphasize the petition in the Collect, 'Keep, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy Church with Thy perpetual

mercy.

ST. SWITHIN.

FORESTEAL: FORESTALL (9 th S. xii. 287). The extraordinary notion that the former of these spellings indicates some connexion with the modern verb to steal ( !) is such that one hardly knows how to meet it. It is quite