Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/500

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 tb S. II. DEC. 17, '98.

My remark was prompted by the fact that, being accustomed to regard 'N, & Q,' as a storehouse of information, I have scanned the colonne danteiane in the hope of coming across matter not already printed elsewhere, or, at any rate, in some sense original, and have experienced a vexatious loss of time and trouble.

Another point. Why does not J. B. S. sign his name to his contributions? That his anonymity has its inconveniences is evident from the remarks which have already ap- peared in 'N. & Q.,' as well as from the communications he naively prints in his last note. PAGET TOYNBEE.

Dorney Wood, Burnham, Bucks.

MOON THROUGH COLOURED GLASS (9 th S. i.

328, 377, 393 ; ii. 13, 152, 233, 375). I have also tried the experiment whether coloured rays can be sent through stained glass by the light of the moon, and the result obtained has been the opposite to that mentioned by C. R. T. I tried the experiment several times, and I found that, with a very brilliant moon, the colours of the glass were faintly, but quite distinctly, thrown upon white paper held a few inches from the glass. A. R. MALDEN.

LENDING MONEY BY MEASURE IN DEVON- SHIRE (9 th S. ii. 367). It was not a rare thing in the early part of the century to put away one's savings in pint and quart pots. Banking, as we bank nowadays, was not the rule amongst the general run of tradesmen or farmers in Devonshire. On the contrary, it was the exception. Whether people lent their accumulated savings in the reckless manner described by Mr. Frank Curson in 1846 I am not prepared to say. But I do know that as the guineas or sovereigns were acquired, they were, by some people, put away in pint and quart pots for a definite object. For instance, in the late thirties my old friend and fellow city councillor, the late Mr. Underbill, saved his gold in a pint (or quart) pot until it was quite full. Then (about 1840) he gave up the situation he held, took the Railway Hotel near the then recently opened St. David's Railway Station, Exeter, married an excellent, managing wife, and lived a prosperous and respected life until his decease a few years ago. One of his sons is the present proprietor. Again, about the same time the "boots" at the Bude Hotel, Exeter (a well-known old coaching house), was also putting his savings in a pot in the same way. The measure full, he too took to himself a wife, and acquired a respectable tavern in this city. There he lived long, brewing weekly some of the best ale in

Exeter, At length he, in this town, died, and the house is now kept by one of his sons. The quaintneas of the idea was in the fact that the ambition was to save upwith a par- ticular reason in view not so many hundred pounds, but so many pints of gold. The two instances quoted are not the only ones known to me. HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter,

" TIPPLER" (9 th S. ii. 428). I should say that tipuler is a very fine specimen of the "scholar- snip " of the Renaissance period, when English- men despised English, and worshipped only Latin and Greek. The objections to spinster were its native origin and its intelligibility ; both were grave faults. But tipula or tippula was Latin for "awater-spyder,"as explained in Cooper's 'Thesaurus.' Hence could be evolved a verb tipule, to spin, and tipuler, a spinster ; because every one then used spider and spinner as synonymous terms. But what rubbish it all is ! WALTER W. SKEAT.

The late Canon Bardsley's "Index of In- stances," at the end of his 'English Surnames,' gives a William Tipeler as mentioned in the Hundred Rolls. ARTHUR MAYALL.

The words tippel, tipel, tippil, tipelar, and, I think, tipulator, if not tipulatrix, occur frequently in the Account Rolls of Durham Abbey (Marescalcia Prioris), and appear to indicate a keeper of a tippling-house, who was sometimes a woman ; e. g., 1420, " Alicia Mut, tipelar, no ve no ost j dis ter bo si ijc." (i.e., non venit, non ostendit, j discura, terciam bonam sigillatam, ijd "she did not come [to the manor court], she did not show [her measures ; she has] one dish, [and] a third part of a gallon measure good [and] sealed. [She is fined] 2c."). I suppose the fine would be either for not appearing and showing her measures, or for not having her dish (a measure) sealed. These very curious rolls are printed in the second volume of 'Durham Account Rolls,' now in the press, and to be issued by the Surtees Society early in next year. J. T. F.

Bishop Hatfield's Hall, Durham.

ROUNDS OR RUNGS (9 th S. ii. 386, 430). May I point out to PROF. SKEAT that etymology has no saving virtue for vulgarity ? A word may bear an ancient and honourable history, and yet be outre'. The test, of course, is not an etymological one, but the use by polite society. Words, like other things, go out of fashion. For instance, Jack, as applied to the knave of playing cards, was frequently- used by our polite ancestors ; but later, until about twenty years ago, it would have been