Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/499

 s. xii. DEC. 19, i9oa] NOTES AND QUERIES.

491

In Australia, previous to Rowland Hill's scheme, stamped covers were used in pre- payment of postage. In France a similar system prevailed for many years previous to 1840. We know that Edward IV. originated a practical post in 1481. Sir Thomas Ran- dolph was appointed Postmaster of England by Queen Elizabeth in 1581. A quick post between London and Edinburgh was main- tained from 1631 ; and a few years later a regular post was established from London to Chester, Holy head, Ply mouth, Exeter, Bristol, and other places, the rates being 80 miles 2d. ; 140 miles 4d. ; in England above such distance 6cL, and 8d. to Scotland. A penny post was organized in 1681 for London and its suburbs. Dublin had a similar post in 1774. Envelopes of a kind must have been in use,' for I find another note under date 6 July, 1656, Paris : " I enclose you your letter of exchange with- out loss, as you see "; and again four days later, " Tell Mr. C I have received his letter and sent it to London. I forward the en- closed." THORNE GEORGE.

The following is an extract, from Mr. Quaritch's catalogue of November last, from a letter addressed by Charles Lamb to Southey, 10 Aug., 1825 :

"You'll know who this letter comes from by opening slap dash upon the text, as in the good old times. I never could come into the custom of enve- lopes. 'Tis a modern foppery. The Plinian corre- spondence gives no hint of such. In singleness of sheet and meaning, then, I thank you for your little book.''

WM. H. PEET.

HISTORICAL RIME : RHYME (9 th S. xi. 209, 330; xii. 33). I have noticed latterly that when I have had occasion to use this word which I have always spelt as rhyme it has been changed by Mr. Editor or his watchful satellites into rime. Personally, I must say that I do not like the change. I will not stay now to argue which form is the more correct. According to Prof. Skeat (' Concise Dictionary/ ed. 1901), who gives "Rhyme, see Rime," the word was usually spelt rhyme (though by confusion with rhythm, he says. But query ?), at all events since 1550. He contrasts the various forms M.E. rime, F.rime and compares M.F. rithrne, probably from L. rhythmus (rhythm) of Greek origin.

Personally, I would rather risk this con- fusion than be so pedantic as to go back to the spelling of nearly four hundred years ago, with the result, as I cannot help think- ing, that nine persons out of ten when they see the word rime would believe that hoar- frost was intended.

But may I not also put it on a broader

ground? The spelling rhyme has been in common use, it would seem, since the middle of the sixteenth century. Let those who prefer the older form rime by all means go back to it ; but I do not think with great respect that Mr. Editor should by such a correction apparently force all his corre- spondents to a journal which is intended as " a medium of intercommunication for literary men." &c., and which, as such, stands by itself, to come to one common level of spelling, and so lose all individuality, unless it be spelling which the veriest " printer's devil " could venture to correct.

J. S. UDAL, F.S.A.

Antigua, W.I.

[It may be of use to you to know that generally we might say always when Shakespearian editors print rhyme the First Folio gives rime.]

" EULACHON " AND ITS VARIANTS (9 th S. xii.

444). MR. THEO. GILL, of Washington, in his instructive communication upon the various ways in which the name of this American fish has been written, says : "I know of no authority for oolakan, accepted by the 'N.E.D. J as the proper form, outside of the 'Dictionary.'" It is surprising that MR. GILL should have missed earlier authority which lay much nearer to his hand in an American work, the l Standard Dictionary ' of Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls, edited by a number of American scholars, including for spelling the distinguished Prof. F. A. March. No doubt the 'Century Dictionary' of 1890 had the form oulachon, but the 'Standard' has abandoned this, and treats oolakan as the standard spelling, to which it refers the various other forms. And if the pronuncia- tion is really what all three dictionaries make it, oolakan is evidently a better spelling than either oolachan or oolackan, while oulachon is evidently merely a French way of represent- ing the same sound, which may very well be left to the French dictionaries. A. D. A.

"PALEFACE" (9 th S. xii. 366). DR. MURRAY says that his earliest quotation is under date of 1826. Here is one a trifle earlier :

" While he spoke to me, an Indian chief of noble proportions advanced and thus accosted him : ' Ah, Paleface ! what brings you here ? You seem to take pleasure in saying rude impertinencies.'" January, 1823, G. A. McCall, 'Letters from the Frontiers,' 1868, p. 72.

General McCall was describing a masked ball which took place at Pensacola, Florida, on 26 December, 1822, and the person alluded to as " an Indian chief : ' was not an Indian at all, but merely a native of Pensacola masquerading as an Indian. But the passage shows that the term was in use in 1822, and