Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/539

 o* s. ii. DEC. si,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

531

correct words by sneers that assert them to be vulgar." WALTER W. SKEAT.

For nearly half a century I have known the word rung, and never before heard of round. Now I do, I think it is finicking and inexpressive, and certainly shall never adopt it in the place of the fine sounding and expressive rung. Sound has also the very great disadvantage in ray eyes of being used to express various other things.

RALPH THOMAS.

"SLACK UP "(9 th S. ii. 468). In the course of twenty years' service afloat I have never heard the term " slack up " used in the sense of "pull in." Perhaps MR. THOMAS has heard take the slack up," which does mean " pull in," while "slack up" alone means what it says. " Ease up," "ease out," are also nearly synonymous with " slack up," but the act is to be done more gradually. R.N.

Falconer, the author of 'The Shipwreck,' published his 'Marine Dictionary' in 1769, and by an edition issued in 1815 "slack" implies a decrease in tension or velocity. This explanation is adopted by Arthur Young in his ' Nautical Dictionary ' (Dundee, 1846), and by Admiral W. H. Smyth in his 'Sailor's Word-Book ' (London, 1867).

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

^ THE GENEALOGY OP LORD CURZON (9 th S. ii. 467). William Penn, the Quaker, was son of Sir William Penn, whose great-great-grand- father was a younger son of the family living at Penn. There is no nearer connexion with the main line. The wife of Sir Nathanael Cur- zon, daughter and ultimate heiress of Will. Penn of Penn, must have been daughter of the William, son of John. The latter died 1641. As Sir Nathanael was sheriff of Denbigh in 1700 the dates would tally. The estate of Penn went to" Lord Scarsdale, who married the sister and heiress of Roger Penn, the last male owner of Penn of the name of the family (died 1732). The Quaker was born on Tower Hill. T. W.

Aston Clinton.

CURIOSITIES OF CATALOGUING (9 th S. ii. 206). These are most excellent fooling. To them might be added the following, which, though but crambe repetita, will bear retelling, and may possibly be new to some people. It will be remembered that when Miss Edgeworth published her essay on 'Irish Bulls' (blunders) the secretary of the Agricultural Society forthwith ordered a copy of it for the library of that society, thinking it could not fail to

throw a useful light on the subject of cattle breeding.

Then as to blunders in catalogues. It is on record that an eminent German bookselling firm solemnly classed Rider Haggard's ' King Solomon's Mines ' under the heading of alttes- tamentliche Literatur. PATRICK MAXWELL. Bath.

In one of the monthly catalogues of that most excellent bookseller in Vienna, Gerold, I found under the heading 'Religion and Theology' an unexpected old friend, "Handley Cross 'Selections from." What would our dear Jorrocks have said on finding himself sandwiched between Thomas Aquinas and Dr. Copinger ! MYRMIDON.

In the catalogue of Mr. Frank Hollings, 7, Great Turnstile, W.C. :

" Quiller Couch. Dramatists of the Present Day. Reprinted from the Athenaeum. First edition, 8vo., cloth, uncut, extremely rare."

This book is by the late Thomas Purnell, and has no more to do with Mr. Quiller Couch than with Sir William Harcourt.

In that of Mr. Wm. F. Clay, Teviot Place, Edinburgh :

"Knight (Thos. B., M.D.). Pseudodoxia Epi- demica, &c.

This was at first a teaser. It is, however, the well-known work of Sir Thomas Browne, Knt., the dignity being taken for a surname.

Such things can, of course, be indefinitely multiplied. H. T.

PHILIP THICKNESSE (9 th S. ii. 341, 454, 495). Allow me to observe that a book has recently been published upon this fort and its governors, the 'History of Landguard Fort in Suffolk,' by Major J. H. Leslie (London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1898), which contains an exhaustive account.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

HORACE WALPOLE AND HIS EDITORS (8 th S. xi. 346, 492 ; xii. 104, 290, 414, 493 ; 9 th S. i. 91 ; ii. 75, 332). Horace Walpole's letter to the Rev. W. Mason, assigned by both Mitford and Cunningham to 16 May, 1778 (Cunning- ham's ed., vol. vii. p. 66), is misdated. It belongs to the previous year, as is evident from the following considerations : 1. Horace Walpole refers to the "re-enshrinement of the bones of poor William of Hatfield," and states his willingness to bear the expense of the restoration of the monument. This re- storation was proposed by Mason in his letter to Horace Walpole of 12 May, 1777 (see Mit- ford's edition of the 'Correspondence of Mason and Walpole,' vol. i. p. 291) ; and on 22 May,