Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/103

 9 th S. II. JULY 30, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

95

Transactions among others), yet no edition o the English Bible has yet been so treated Franklin's idea of making our language easier to foreigners must some day be attempted (the sooner the better) ; and I stil hold with him that the revival of this rule (a: in German and Norse) will be the first poin in such an attempt. E. L. GARBETT.

BALLY (9 th S. ii. 26). This word is merely an evasion of the grosser term to which it bears an obvious resemblance. It was sug gested, I believe, by the name of an Irisn village which was once much celebrated in song. I am speaking now of some fifteen years ago ; but this very day I read the allu- sive head-line, 'The Bally Hooley Truth.'

I was present when a well-known comedian made use of the word in one of his startling stage impromptus. I had never heard it before, nor, seemingly, had the audience. It " took on " at once. The gods understood the allusion to the song, and laughed at the eva- sion of their favourite adjective. I do not suggest that the actor in question invented the word, but I feel certain that he made it popular. GUALTERULUS.

This word was first brought into use by the Sportiny T lines, perhaps ten or twelve years ago. There was once an inquiry as to its origin ; and the reply was given that it was brought by Blobbs from Ireland, where every- thing is Bally. "Blobbs" (Shirley Brooks) was an exceedingly gifted member of the staff of that paper; Ke died young. The slang expressions " common or garden " and " oof were probably his invention. " Bally " is, of course, a euphemism for a coarser word.

DEE.

This word is given in Funk & Wagnalls's 'Standard Dictionary of the English Lan- guage': "[Slang English] a euphemistic form of bloody ; usea for emphasis or intensity : as, the bally idiot." GUSTOS.

[' Ballyhooly ' is, we fancy, due to Mr. Martin of the Sporting Times.]

PATTENS (9 th S. i. 44, 336, 413, 471). Pattens for women's feet, as I knew them in Derbyshire, were not quite the same as those so far described. The clogs ST. SWITHIN writes about are not clogs at all, but shoes with wooden soles, with iron plates fastened underneath round the edges of the heels and soles. The use of these is not by any means so common as formerly, when there were many doggers = makers of clogs. They were called " clogs " because the sole was a solid clog of wood. Over-clogs were a sort of shoe made as ST. SWITHIN describes the make of clogs,

These were used on wet days, the foot with ordinary gear being slipped into the toe- cap, the hinder part being secured across the instep by straps attached to the back portion, which rose behind from the heel.

Pattens are quite another article of foot- gear for women, and intended to enable them to go about in wet weather with dry feet, and to " slosh," " slush," and " swill " indoors and out when engaged in the weekly thorough cleaning-up, mostly done on Saturday morn- ings. These may still be bought in some country places. They consist simply of a wooden sole with a piece of leather nailed on each side so as to form a bow, into which the woman pushes her shod foot as far as the in- step, the bow holding the patten in position. Underneath, in the centre of the sole, is an iron ring on two short columns passed through the sole, and clinched on the upper side. This raises the sole about two inches from the ground. In these all women in my youngdays patted about their household work. On wet days they went to the shop and to the well for water dry-foot. If Sunday was wet they patted off to church in their pattens, most of them having a "Sunday pair" of these useful, but now nearly out -of -use articles. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

LATIN EPITAPH ON AN ELEPHANT IN ROME (9 th S. i. 228). MR. FERGUSON will find the reference he desires in Palmer's ' Index to the Times' for 1894, 1 Oct.-31 Dec., 22 d. 7 f., under my name, on 'Elephantine Memory and Manners.' If it is only the epitaph he requires, I herewith have pleasure in enclosing it:

VIonte sub hoc Elephas ingenti contegor ingens, iuem Rex Emanuel, devicto Oriente, Leoni ^aptivum misit decimo ; quod Romula pubes Vlirata est animal, non longe tempore visum, ^idit, et humanos in bruto pectore sensus. "nvidit Latii sedem mihi Parca bead, fee passa est ternos Domino famularier annos ; At quae sors rapuit naturae debita nostrse Fempora, voa, Superi, magno accumulate Leoni.

Vixit annos vii.

obiit anginae morbo

altitude erat palmorum xii.

Jo. Baptista Braconius Aquilanus a cubiculo

et Elephantis curae praefectus

posuit

MDXVI. 8 Junii

Leonis X. Pont, anno quarto,

Raphael Urbinas quod natura abstulerat

arte restituit.

H. D. GRISSELL.

Brasenose College, Oxford.

There are these lines on the death of an .lephant in 'Epigrammata Selecta Catulli, Slartialis, et Aliorum,' Rom., 1670, pp. 159, 60, but I cannot tell whether they are the