Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/253

 9-S. II. SEPT. 24, '98.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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barons by feudal tenure ; and we know that the Lord Mayor may sport an earl's robe.

A. HALL.

TENANT AND LANDLORD. Is it not time to protest against a misuse very frequent nowa- days of the word "landlord"? Originally " landlord " signified " lord of the land "; then the word, unfortunately, was employed to denote the owner of an inn ; and to-day it is applied to hundreds of people who do not possess an acre of land, but wno let houses or lodgings.

This use of the word is not only objection- able because it is inaccurate, it gives an utterly false notion of the person to whom it refers. The word " landlord " surely connoted once social position, wealth, perhaps even magnificence and style ideas that it is hard to associate with the personality of owners of jerry-built houses in the nineteenth cen- tury. Nor must the effect of the name on the moral character of those to whom it is applied be forgotten. More than once I have heard a modern landlord a shopkeeper who possessed a house or two dwell with absurd stress and complacency on the last syllable of the word, as if ne really were hedged in with some sort of divinity. Again, "tenant," as con- trasted with " landlord," implies a certain in- feriority, which is often not borne out in the state of society nowadays.

Surely "occupier" and "house -owner" might very well be used more frequently, and the terms " landlord " and " tenant " be reserved for occasions when the possession of land is in question. ROBIN GOODFELLOW.

" CAMELRY." The following extract is from the Daily Chronicle of 9 September. Perhaps Dr. Murray may think it worth while to register the advent of what I think is a new word :

"In the course of the second attack upon the zareba the Camelry, under Major Tudway, had rather a close shave of being cut off. An army of about 10,000 Dervishes, all fresh, came out from the hills, and made straight for the Camelry and Col. Broadwood's Egyptian Cavalry, under the impres- sion apparently that they were infantry. That, at any rate, is the only way that the Dervish tactics can be accounted for."

WM. H. PEET.

[Dr. Murray takes cognizance of the word in the ' H.E.D.']

HAMPTON COURT TAPESTRY. The Surrey Comet of 20 August (p. 5, col. 6), under the heading ' Hampton Court,' has the following :

" The beautiful tapestry in the Queen's Gallery has recently been cleaned and renovated under the supervision of Mr. Brown, curator at the palace, and is now being replaced. This tapestry was dis-

covered more than thirty years ago by the present courteous superintendent, Mr. W. H. Pleasants. A picture having been removed, a defect in the woodwork behind made it apparent that some material was at the back, like tapestry. Mr. Pleasants reported his suspicions to Lord Mount Temple, who at once sent word that he would make an inspection of the palace, and that some of the woodwork was to be removed. Being an ad- mirer of tapestry, he was delighted to find that Mr. Pleasants's suspicions were confirmed." The wood- work was removed, and although dust and cobwebs abounded, and the huge and notable Hampton Court spiders marched out, the tapestry was in good order, and after brushing it was as fresh as ever. It is surmised that it was covered up by Queen Caroline in 1735, for in Hervey's ' Memoirs ' it is stated that she (the Queen) was very fond of pictures, and brought a number from Kensington Palace."

THOMAS J. JEAKES.

DR. JOHNSON AND PALFREY. I enclose a cutting from Scraps (18 June) which in my opinion satisfactorily clears up what Dr. Johnson meant when he recorded the fact in his journal that he had had "palfrey for dinner." I may as well acknowledge the fact that I am the author of the paragraph in question :

"Dr. Johnson in his journal mentions the inter- esting fact that he had on a certain day had ' palfrey for dinner.' Now these three words have caused not a little trouble to the critics, and for this reason, that they know not what palfrey really is. It has been suggested that palfrey is a clerical error made by the Doctor himself for pastry. But the Doctor wrote so legibly, and there is so much difference between the words palfrey and pastry, that this position is not at all tenable. Palfrey is defined in Johnson's celebrated dictionary as ' a small horse fit for ladies,' and some have thought that the Doctor (whose feats as a trencherman Were notori- ous) may have broken a record on the day in ques- tion, and disposed of a small horse. All these and other conjectures are wrong, and we will proceed to give the correct explanation. The word palfrey (sometimes pamfrey by the interchange of I and m) is still in use among the rustics of Scotland and the north of Ireland, and means young cabbage when they, first come to table in the spring. Such cabbage have not begun to ' close,' or become solid in the centre. They are generally spoken of as 'early pamfrey,' and are considered a luxury. Dr. Johnson probably picked up the word from his friend Bos- well, or from some other Scotch acquaintance."

THOMAS AULD.

PARALLEL PASSAGES. It is reserved for readers of ' N. & Q.' to make discoveries at which the man in the street might be inclined to smile. Thus the lines,

Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em , And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum,

would seem at first sight merely to embody an observation which we all make in the routine of daily life. Yet suppose a man of science were to declare that the couplet was