Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/465

 9 th S. II. DEC. 3, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

457

Let the bight of a hawser fall into the water, and be hauled in afterwards. If an observant landsman does not immediately understand the term " sick as a horse," he must himself have had too sad an experience to enjoy a joke. Then, again, " Paying through the nose." This was originally a common expression on board ship : " Pay out the cable," " pay out handsomely." The nose of a ship is, of course, the bow ; its nostrils are the hawse holes on either side. Now, it does not seem very diffi- cult (at all events, for a sailor) to associate extortionate disbursements with handsome payments such, for instance, as paying out a chain cable (through the nose), especially when the order is conveyed in such language as this, "Pay out handsomely." At all events, I can speak on this matter from personal ex- perience as a midshipman. To my mind "paying through the nose" for anything has always been associated with the rattling of a "payed put" chain cable, after the anchor nas gripped the ground. Whatever the learned may say to the contrary, with me that impression will never fade. Now that the term " paying through the nose " has reached the shore, it is natural that so ob- vious an origin should be lost. In conclusion, I ask to be forgiven for what may seem to be dogmatic in an old sea dog.

RICHARD EDGCUMBE. 33, Tedwortli Square, S.W.

At the last reference MR. C. S. HARRIS suggests that the navy blue with white facings worn by our naval officers was de- rived from the uniform of the 17th Lancers or vice versa. As ' N. & Q.' is consulted for accu- rate information, perhaps I may be permitted to point out that writers on costume Fair- holt and Planche give a very different account of the origin of our naval dress :

" In 1748 George II. accidentally met the Duchess of Bedford on horseback in a blue riding-habit faced with white, and was so pleased with the effect of it that, a question having been just raised as to the propriety of deciding upon some general dress for the Royal Navy, he immediately commanded the adoption of these colours, a regulation which ap- pears never to have been gazetted, nor does it exist in the records of the Admiralty, although a sub- sequent one in 1757 refers to it (vide Journal of the British Archaeological Association, No. 5)." Planehe\

In the reign of Elizabeth naval com- manders were ordered to wear scarlet, and this order was confirmed by James I., but was neglected in subsequent reigns. Naval officers, following their own fancy, armed like the military, and their ships' companies were sometimes clothed, like the land forces, in the colours of their captains. May not this cir-

cumstance have led to the use of the term horse-marines, as a jocular reference to their similarity to the military in their manner of dressing? B. H. L.

TOLSTOI (9 th S. ii. 387). From his earliest chef-d'oeuvre, ' Voina i Mir ' (' La Guerre et la Paix'), down to the present, Tolstoi's prin- cipal works, both in the Russian original and in a French edition, may be found in the Taylorian Library at Oxford. H. KREBS.

ACORUS CALAMUS (9 th S. ii. 305, 377). Your correspondent MR. WOLFERSTAN is evidently unfamiliar with the sweet flag. Its leaf is crimped, not serrated at the edge. It breaks away in one's hand, and could inflict a deep and painful cut. No doubt he refers to some member of the Cyperaceae, most likely to the fen sedge, Cladium mariscus, whose leaf answers almost exactly to his description. This sedge grows in great abundance near Cambridge, and is used for lighting fires and thatching houses. A. B. STEELE.

"FENNEL" (9 th S. ii. 407). Doubting if " Oxford " is sufficient address to reply direct to MR. A. L. MAYHEW, I send to you. This is from Milton :

A sav'ry odour blown more pleased my sense Than smell of sweetest fennel, or the teats Of ewe or goat, dropping with milk at even.

So it may be that fennel is the name given not to the female of a hare, but to the smell from the hare when giving suck.

ALFRED J. KING.

101, Sandmere Road, Clapham, S.W.

JELF AND SLINGSBY FAMILIES (9 th S. ii. 408). Jelf should be spelt Jelfe, and I find that the Jelfes resided at Pendell, Bletchingly. Surrey. The family seat there was called Penhill. Mrs. Slingsby resided at West Cowes, Isle of Wight, and died in or about the year 1818. Mr. Slingsby died some years before that, I believe. This information may facilitate replies. B. R. THORNTON.

ARMS OF GRIGSON OF NORFOLK (9 th S. ii. 287). The arms of the family are Gules, two bars, and in chief three annulets argent. The first of the family who settled in this county was the Rev. William Grigson, M.A., ordained priest by Dr. Edmund Freake, Bishop of Norwich, in 1577, and instituted to the rectory of Hardingham, in this county, in 1584 ; and it is a singular circumstance that descendants of this William Grigson have been beneficed

lergymen in the neighbourhood of Harding - nara ever since. I never heard of any Grig-

ons of Hingham, Norfolk. An account of the Grigson family is given in the fifth edition