Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/37

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

NOTES AND QUERIES.

standing ranks commence independent firing, &c. ; and in manoeuvre xiv., when the hollow square receives the caution " Prepare to fire," the " remarks " explain that " at the flam the front rank kneels and instantly commences firing, &c." From one of the " remarks " on the seventeenth manoeuvre, " On the 11am at the close of the preparative the rear ranks close up," I think it must have been, and perhaps still is, a term descriptive of a beat or roll of the drum. I believe that I am right in saying that when I joined the service, thirty-nine years ago, bugle sounds were still in existence for each of the " motions " of the old manual and platoon exercises ; and probably the " flam " was of the same class of martial music. Perhaps some of your military readers could tell us whether the pamphlet I quote from was an official exposition of Dundas's drill- book. J. M. T. [Flam is of uncertain origin. See ' H. E. D.']

VANITY FAIR. Is there any mention of Vanity Fair earlier than its occurrence in the ' Pilgrim's Progress ' 1 The first edition of that work appeared in 1678. Sir Walter Scott's 'Old Mortality' relates to the year 1679. Therein the author makes Balfour of Burleigh speak of " a gittern to soothe the ears of the dancing daughters of perdition in their Vanity Fair" (chap, xxiii.). It is not very likely that Banyan's work had made its way into Scotland in so short a time after its publication; and even if it had done so, there was scant space for Vanity Fair to have become a popular phrase representing harm- ful frivolity. ASTARTE.

WHAT CONSTITUTES NATIONALITY 1 In some of the memoirs of Mr. Gladstone he is spoken of as a Scotchman. I am aware that he claimed for himself the name of a Scot ; but this by no means settles the ques- tion. He was born in England. He was undoubtedly of English race. This is proved by his purely English name, his characteristic- ally English physique, and the grave and earnest cast of his mind. There was nothing of the Celt about him. How is nationality to be determined, if not by race and birthplace 1 The Lowland Scots are surely the very flower of the English race. EVANDER.

DR. GEORGE LLOYD, BISHOP OF CHESTER. Of what Lloyd family was he ? He was son of Meredith Lloyd " of Carnarvonshire." Who was his wife ? SIGMA TAU.

"JEREMIAD." Will some reader of 'N. & Q.' give me instances of the early use of this word ; also of its introduction in a sarcastic sense? GUSTOS.

tea*

ERA IN ENGLISH MONKISH CHRONOLOGY.

(8 th S. xi. 387- ; xii. 421 ; 9 th S. i. 10,

92, 231.)

IN my last letter I established the sound- ness of my objections to the method adopted by MR. STEVENSON in his attack upon Kemble, and I indicated the existence of a body of testimony proving that the lloman method of computing Easter by means of the era of the Incarnation was known in Southern Ire- land from 629 and in Northern England from 664 onward. In this one, with your permis- sion, I will shortly review the controversy.

Kemble (' C. D.,' i. p. Ixx) pointed out that "the orderly and digested series of events arrranged according to certain definite and systematic dates commenced with Augus- tine," and he judged, for reasons that have never been refuted, that the era employed was that of the Incarnation, and that it was introduced into England by Augustine. MR. STEVENSON, in the note to the 'Crawford Charters ' so often referred to, attacked Kemble, and asserted that "this era was brought into use by Bseda," and that it is " not likely that Augustine would introduce [it] into England." One of your correspondents, with direct reference to MR. STEVENSON'S views, put the question whether " it is known in what era the English monks dated the year before the use of the era of the Incarnation was known to them." You permitted me to reply to this query ; and after quoting the opinions of French as well as German scholars, and dealing with some of the original authorities, I was able to reaffirm Kemble's belief. MR. STEVENSON replied ; but though he has twice written in the columns of 'N. & Q.,' he has not answered the query with which this discussion commenced. In his first letter he ignored it now he says that the question is " that of the use of the era for legal and historical dating." Having altered the form of the question and restricted it to two categories, he invites me to prove that he is wrong in asserting that Augustine did not introduce the era of our Lord by producing a charter or legal document of the seventh century that is dated in that era. I must decline to advance towards what I regard as a new position. MR. STEVENSON

gives an air of reality to his change of front y thus professing to be ready to defend what I have no intention of attacking, to wit, Prof. Earle's judgment that no undoubted charter of the seventh century is dated in the era of