Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/121

 9 th S. II. AUG. 6, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

113

and propriety," to whom I have shown MR. WHITWELL'S question, tells me that he once heard the phrase "horse-marine" used in grave earnest by a person who seemed to him quite incapable of making a joke. My friend was present some five-and-thirty years ago at the Lindsey Quarter Sessions, in those days held in this town, when the late Mr. Frederick Flowers (afterwards police magis- trate at Bow Street) was examining a witness who, on being asked what was his business, described himself as a horse-marine, much to the amusement of those who heard him. When asked to explain what he meant, he, after the manner of uninstructed people, at first only repeated the former statement; but in time Mr. Flowers made out that the wit- ness meant to indicate that he belonged to the class of men who are, I believe, described in " book-English " as haulers, whose occupa- tion it is to drag barges up and down canals by the aid of horses, which are sometimes ridden by the hauler, but more commonly led by the bridle along what is known as the " hauling trod." This particular witness was employed on the canal which cuts across the Isle of Axholme, communicating with the river Trent at Keadby.

If such a word be known, might not inquiries among the lock-keepers on the canals of South Yorkshire and the Midland Counties produce further information ?

EDWARD PEACOCK.

Dunstan House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

MR. WHITWELL would find, on referring to the Dress Regulations at the end of the 'Navy List,' that though styled infantry, the above actually are provided with steeds.

On p. 585 of a recent 'Navy List' I find "Royal Marine Light Infantry," equipped with saddles and saddle-cloths, bridles, and breastplates ; the " Royal Marine Artillery " are also provided with horse furniture for service in the field. R. B.

Upton.

From the heraldic "torse," or wreath, it seems a permissible guess that the meaning must be sought within the limits of that science, and that it is some " sea-horse " rest- ing " on " that. There is a set of the London Gazette in the Bodleian, so that the context may help to explain. It seems like a gmnt of a crest or other armorial bearing. But what sort of a "sea-horse" it may be would be a guess too much. Fairbairn's 'Book of Crests ' may perhaps have it.

ED. MARSHALL.

The quotation which MR. WHITWELL gives embracing this term reads very curiously.

In the absence of context, the explanation is none too obvious. But horse - marine may be said to mean an awkward, lubberly person, one who is out of place. "I suppose these explanations must be regarded as the purely nautical significations, inasmuch as they are drawn from Smyth's ' Sailor's Word- Book.' Anciently, and to some degree, per- haps, even now, the "jollies," as the Royal Marines are called, were the butts of " Jack," who invariably made fun of the former's lack of knowledge in matters pertaining to sea- manship. In Farmer and Henley's 'Slang and its Analogues' the explanation is "a mythical corps very commonly cited in ^jokes, and quizzed on the innocent." A horse- marine, which is, of course, an impossibility (see 'Slang Dictionary'), was used to denote one even more awkward than an ordinary "jolly"; such a one in the eyes of "Jack" must have been awkward indeed. I did not know till recently that Scott had exercised his humour on the term, but I see from a quotation in ' Slang and its Analogues ' that he had done so. In ' St. Ronan's Well,' chap, xxi., we read :

"'Come, none of your quizzing, my old buck,' said Sir Bingo. 'What the devil has a ship to do with horse's furniture? Do you think we belong to the horse-marines ?'"

C. P. HALE.

Surely here " horse - marine " = marin horse, the fabulous animals constituting Neptune's team, or more likely the hippo- campus, that odd little fish with a head like a horse's. H. J. MOULE.

Dorchester.

When I was a lad the men who drove the quadrupeds whose painful duty it was to pull the "fly-boats" upon the Regent's Canal were known as " horse-marines."

HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

SHAKSPEARE AND THE SEA (9 th S. i. 504). Shakespeare was a landsman, and wrote for landsmen. He wrote, moreover, for the theatre, and without the aid of scenery. "Can this cockpit hold the vasty fields of France '] " Still less could he " cram within this wooden O" the sea that rages round "the still vex'd Bermoothes." These con- siderations explain much that seems over- charged and extravagant in his descriptions of storms at sea ; but it is impossible, if MR. YARDLEY'S supposition is correct, that even Shakespeare could have brought the very breath of the sea into his plays, as he often does. Brandes calls special attention, and rightly does so, to the magnificent effect of