Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/479

 ii. DEO. 10,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

471

struction of the verse of which is identica with that of Lear's. The refrain of it is as follows :

Will you come up, come up ? Will you come up to Limerick ? Will you come up, come up ? Will you come up to Limerick ?

The method of singing it was peculiar. One member of the party started a verse, and when he had concluded the whole assembly joined in the chorus. Then the next performer started a second verse, and so on until each one had contributed a verse ; repetitions were not allowed, and forfeits were extracted from those who could not fulfil the conditions. This meant that each one had to supply an original verse of his own. That some of these were highly decorous is quite possible, but that others were not is proved by the fact that the " Limerick" verse to-day bears quite a different significance from ordinary nonsense verse. Who applied this name to the indecent nonsense verse first is hard to say, but I fancy a scurrilous London weekly may have had to do with it. Whence these nonsense verses emanate or who are their authors there are no means of knowing ; perhaps the fathers of many of them are not anxious to avow the paternity.

J. H. MURRAY.

CANALETTO IN LONDON (8 th S. ix. 15 ; xii. 324, 411 ; 9 th S. i. 373; ii. 11). An advertisement relating to Canaletto in London is said to have appeared in the London Journal, 26 July, 1749. This paper is not to be found in the British Museum Newspaper Room. I have a note that a copy of this advertisement would be found in Lysons'.s ' Collectanea,' ii. 161, but I have been unable to discover it. It is possible that the reference is incorrect, or I may have misquoted it, and I shall be grateful if any of your readers will kindly assist me to find where the error lies. JOHN HEBB.

Canonbury Mansions, N.

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY (9 th S. ii. 184, 276). The credit of having been the first to draw attention to the possibility of the above is not due to Strada, as he was anticipated, I do not know with what originality, by Blaise de Vigenere (born 1523, died 1596).

The following passage occurs, col. 1316, in " Les Annotations de Blaise de Vigenere Bpurbonnois, sur la premiere decade de Tite Live, par luy mise en langue Franqoise," Paris, 1583 :

"Joint que je regarde, que tout ce que nous ignorons nous le tenons pour un mensonge, & comme s il n'estoit du tout point : ainsi que si quelqu'un nous mettoit en avant qu'il est non settlement pos-

sible, ains aise" de faire lire travers tine muraille de trois pieds d'espaiz une eacrit.ure qui seroit do 1'autre part : on jugeroit soudain que ce fust songe, ou quelque enchantement : & neanmoins cel& se peut faire par la seule voye de nature sans recourir aux esprits ny revelation : & ce par le moyen de quelque grosse piece d'aymant, & de deux quadrans avec leurs esguilles, adjuster Pun d'une part, 1'autre d'une autre, chacun sur un alphabet trasse' sur le tiers d'un cercle : car telle lettre que la languette de 1'esguille marquera en Pun d'iceux, conduitte par Paymant, celuy qui est de Pautre part fera de mesme.

" Les Gnomes doncques ou Pygmees habitans les concavitez de la terre, de quoy ne s'esloigne pas fort ce que Philostrate en a escrit en leur tableau, sont fort soigneux des minieres, des metaux, & des pierreries : si qu'ils en entassent de grands thresors que par fois ils permettent & laschentaux homines.

The work in question is not in the Bodleian, but there are copies in Balliol and Merton College Libraries, as well as in the British Museum. C. S. HARRIS.

ST. IDA (9 th S. ii. 207, 311). The following list, which others doubtless can supplement, may be serviceable to certain correspondents of ' N. & Q.':

1. St. Ita (called also Ida, Ite, Itha, Itta, Yda, and Mida), abbess of Cluan-credhail in Ireland. Died A.D. 569. See Alban Butler and Bollandists, 15 Jan. : also O'Hanlon, ' Lives of Irish Saints,' vol. i., Jan. 15 (Dublin, Duffy).

2. St. Ita, la, or Hia, not to be considered identical with the preceding, whose name survives in St. Ives, Cornwall. See Bollan- dists, prefatory note No. 4 to life of pre- ceding ; also Cardinal Moran's ' Irish Saints in Great Britain,' chap. i. ; and ' Dictionary of National Biography,' under ' Hia.'

3. St. Itta, mother of St. Gertrude of Nivelles. Bollandists and Alban Butler in notice of latter, 17 March. Alban Butler places her death A.D. 652.

4. St. Ita, widow. Bollandists and Alban Butler, 4 Sept. Died about A.D. 813.

5. St. Ita, of Louvain, a Cistercian nun of the abbey called Vallis Rosarum in Brabant, near Mechlin. Died about A.D. 1300. See Bollandists, 13 April.

6. B. Ida, of Bouillon, mother of Godfrey of Bouillon. Bollandists, 13 April. Died 1113.

JEROME POLLARD-URQUHART, O.S.B. St. Benedict's Abbey, Fort Augustus, N.B.

THE SWALLOW'S SONG (9 th S. ii. 143). That s well known to every careful observer of )ird-life. Mr. W. H. Hudson, in his admir- ible handbook ' British Birds,' thus describes t:
 * he swallow does "sing a considerable song "

" The song, uttered sometimes on the wing, but nore frequently when perched, is very charming,