Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/300

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. II. OCT. 8, '98.

words started by writers of no repute, or by writers of good repute avowedly or obviously for a temporary purpose. KILLIGREW.

I have recently met with two more in- stances of terminations in ess:

Parsoness. " The parson reigned supreme in the church, and the parsoness in the school." Contem- porary Review, January, p. 75.

Usuress. "The defendants, mostly women,

evinced no little hostility to the usuress." Daily Telegraph, 28 May, p. 7, col. 3.

"Impostoress," quoted from Southey, should have been spelt " impostress " ; and Miss Mit- ford really said that she was no "metaphy- sicianess." EDWARD PEACOCK.

" STRENUA NOS EXERCET INERTIA " (9 th S. i. 381 ; ii. 70). The old schoolmaster was re- membering another passage from Horace, Ode xvi. book ii. 11. 19, 20 :

Patrise quis exsul Se quoque fugit?

E. YARDLEY.

Does not "being hard at work doing no- thing " represent this ?

P. J. F. GANTILLON.

TICKHILL : "Goo HELP 'EM" (9 th S. ii. 248). A similar expression is used with regard to Melverly, Pershore, Letton, Saffron Walden, and Tad'ley. See 1 st S. i. 247, 325, 422. H. T.

As one who hails from the neighbourhood of Tickhill, I can give the following as the probable explanation of the phrase. In addi- tion to the words " Tickhill : God help 'em," it used to be said, " That is where all the poor come from." There was a notion abroad in that neighbourhood (whether merely tradi- tional or well based in fact I cannot say) that the general condition of the people was so poverty-stricken that they needed special sympathy and help. Hence the expression " God help 'em." G. W. TURNER.

59, Freehold Street, Hull.

THE SKELTS (9 th S. ii. 163). My wife be- longed to one branch of the family. She has papers in her possession proving it originally came from Brisley, in Norfolk, and there- abouts. WILLIAM CROWTHER.

HONOURABLE (9 th S. ii. 227). HENRICUS'S query is very obscurely worded. If he means by " Scotch law lords " the Lords of Session (properly styled " Senators of the College of Justice ), their children are certainly not entitled to dub themselves "Honourable," and, as far as I know, have never " tried it on." These judges are themselves styled merely " Honourable," not " Eight Honourable "; and

their wives, like those of Protestant bishops, enjoy no title or precedence in virtue of their husbands' official rank. Thus the " Honourable Lord Ardmillan and Mrs. Craw- ford," &c.

I do not know what is meant by "life peers of Scotland." No peers of Scotland (life or otherwise) have been created since the Union of 1707. If HENRICUS means Scottish life peers (quite a different thing), such as Lord Watson or the late Lord Blackburn, their children are, of course, by recent royal warrant, entitled to the prefix Honourable," equally with those of all other life peers, whether English, Scottish, or Irish.

OSWALD HUNTER BLAIR, O.S.B.

Oxford.

No. A full list (erring, if anything, on the side of inclusiveness) will be found in the introduction to Whitaker's 'Titled Persons,' 1898. The fact that the wife of a "lord of seat" remains merely (e.g.) Mrs. Smith, though her husband be Lord Glengarvoch, surely settles the first question. Q. V.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION (9 th S. ii. 227). I know of one English translation of Salverte's ' Les Sciences Occultes.' The title is " Sal- verte's Occult Sciences, Philosophy of Magic, Prodigies, and Apparent Miracles, trans- lated with Notes by A. T. Thomson," 2 vols., 8vo., published at 28s., 1846.

ALF. J. KING.

101, Sandmere Road, Clapham, S.W.

Bentley published an English translation of Salverte's 'Des Sciences Occultes,' in two volumes, in 1846. A copy of this may be con- sulted in the Library of the British Museum (press-mark 1395, h. 52, 53).

EDWARD M. BORRAJO.

The Library, Guildhall, B.C.

POEM ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN (9 th S. ii. 227). The poem on Abraham Lincoln, the author- ship of which MR. ALBERT J. EDMUNDS desires to know, was written by Shirley Brooks. I may, perhaps, add that I have dealt fully with this matter in ' The History of Punch,' and in an article entitled 'Mr. Punch and Brother Jonathan,' in CasselVs Magazine, published about two years ago. M. H. SPIELMANN.

ERA IN ENGLISH MONKISH CHRONOLOGY (8 th S. xi. 387 ; 9 th S. i. 231 ; ii. 29). I do not wish to reopen the discussion with MR. W. H. STEVENSON about whether it is likely that St. Augustine introduced the Dionysian era into England ; but since I replied to his letter in which he invoked the authority of Franz Ruhl on a side issue, that scholar's