Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/73

 II. JULY 23, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

65

soldier. He made his very first appearance at the beginning of this century. He was a gunner in the Royal Regiment of Artillery. At that time soldiers' accounts were not well kept, and monthly settle- ments of soldiers' pay were not regularly made. Thomas Atkins kept a book in which he balanced his accounts monthly, and so originated the idea of a soldier's pocket ledger, or, as it was called in the Royal Artillery, a ' Tommy Atkins,' for I have heard it so called during my service in the army. It may be certain that several improvements and alterations have taken place since the book was first introduced. I may add that the above-named facts I heard from my father, who knew Thomas Atkins well, for he served in the Royal Artillery at the time."

And in this latter account another writer who signs himself R.A. concurs. He writes :

"I quite agree with the remarks of Capt. J. W. Mills (late 14th Regiment) with respect to the his- tory of 'Tommy Atkins.' My grandfather who was a colour-sergeant in the Royal Artillery the beginning of this century, was present at the taking of the Cape of Good Hope, 1805-6, and was dis- charged to out pension a few years after called his account-book 'Tommy Atkins.' So did my uncle, late gunner R.A. (a Waterloo man). Being born in the artillery, I never heard the account-book called by any other name than ' Tommy Atkins.' It is quite an artillery word. Possibly the word 'pocket ledger ' is used now. Any old pensioner from the Royal Artillery will say that Capt. J. W. Mills's is the most correct account of the word."

Thus while Tommy's birth is at first stated to have taken place in 1845, that date is clearly too recent, and it is not certain from the correspondence that his origin can be dated from the early part of the present cen- tury even, as it may have taken place some time during the eighteenth century or pos- sibly earlier. Capt. Mills's statement that his father knew Thomas Atkins only proves that he knew a gunner of that name, and it does not follow it was " the " Thomas Atkins of proverbial celebrity.

FRED. C. FROST, F.S.I,

Teignmouth.

[See 6* S. viii. 469, 525.]

COL. DALBIAC'S 'DICTIONARY OF QUOTA- TIONS.' The press notices which enterprising publishers append to the advertisements of their wares have generally to be taken cum grano salis ; but a recommendation from ' N. & Q.' has always possessed a value of its own, and when it appeared that Col. P. H. Dalbiac's ' Dictionary of Quotations ' had secured this advantage, the desirability of possessing the book became obvious. Its preface claims for it that it is at once com- plete, up to date, and explicit in references. That it is arranged on a good plan and that its index is the result of much labour may be admitted, but Col. Dalbiac's claim to com- pleteness is so glaringly opposed to fact that

it ought not to pass unnoticed. Starting from Chaucer wnose line

His studie was but litel on the Bible finds no place in the volume through the subsequent course of English literature, the omissions of quotations which stand in the first rank of fame are simply innumerable. Shakespeare has naturally received more attention than most writers, yet such well- known passages as the following are omitted :

I could have better spared a better man.

Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.

A local habitation and a name.

Nothing extenuate,

Nor set down aught in malice.

After life's fitful fever he sleeps well. As examples of the losses which less famous authors sustain, the following, noted at random in a half-hour's search, may be cited to show what this dictionary does not contain : Fears of the brave and follies of the wise.

S. Johnson.

Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage. Ibid. I am a part of all that I have met. Tennyson. A power is passing from the earth. Wordsworth. And when a lady's in the case, You know all other things give place. Gay. The glory dies not, and the grief is past. Brydgea. The women pardoned all except her face. Byron. To sport with Amaryllis in the shade. Milton. No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.

Pope. The parson knows enough who knows a duke.

Cowper.

Who peppered the highest was surest to please.

Goldsmith.

It is unnecessary to prolong the list. Col. Dalbiac's dictionary is very nicely got up and contains a great many quotations, but he must not call it complete. A. G. CARDEW.

THE PRINTER AGAIN? In an edition of Marvell's ' Poems ' issued by Ward, Lock & Co. (no date) I find the following couplet (p. 67, ' The Mower against Gardens ') : Another world was searched through oceans new To find the Marble of Peru.

We used, as boys, to call marbles " marvels," but this conversion of a flower into stone strikes me as particularly comical.

C. C. B.

HISTORIC STONES AT THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. The following extract from the report of the proceedings of the Court of Common Council, held on 23 June, given in the City Press, deserves a corner in ' N. & Q.':

"Mr. R. W. Edwards asked the Chairman of the Gresham Committee if it was intended to replace