Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/83

 ii. JULY 23, mi NOTES AND QUERIES.

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HORACE WALPOLE AND HIS EDITORS (8 th S. xi. 346, 492 ; xii. 104, 290, 414, 493 ; 9 th S. i. 91). Letter No. 1734 (to the Rev. W. Mason, Cun- ningham's ed., vol. vii. p. 80), assigned by both Mitford and Cunningham to 10 June, 1778, is misplaced ; it belongs to the previous year, as is evident from the following considerations :

1. Murray's letter, alluded; to in the text, was published in 1777, as Cunningham states in a note on this paragraph, and Mason notices it in his letter to Walpole of 26 May, 1777.

2. Lord Howe's disappointment as to the Treasurership of the Navy is mentioned in a letter to Mann of 18 June, 1777. 3. The re- ception of the Gazettes Litte'raires referred to by Horace Walpole is acknowledged by Mason in his letter to Walpole dated 21 June, 1777. 4. Robertson's 'History of America' first appeared in 1777, and is referred to by Horace Walpole in a letter to Lady Ossory of 15 June, 1777. 5. Lord Orford was attacked by in- sanity in May, 1777. 6. The "Beauclerc Tower " here referred to as almost finished is fully described in a letter to Mason of 6 July, 1777. It is apparent, therefore, that this letter should be dated 10 June, 1777, not 1778, and should be placed between Nos. 1645 and 1646 in vol. vi. of Cunningham's edition.

In his letter to the Rev. W. Cole, dated 26 July, 1781 (vol. viii. p. 69, Cunningham's ed.), Horace Walpole writes, " I think I have somewhere or other mentioned the 'Robertus Comentarius.'" From a letter of Cole to Horace Walpole, quoted in Warburton's

Horace Walpole and his Contemporaries' (vol. ii. pp. 437-8), it will be seen that this name should be " Robertus Cementarius," not " Comentarius." " Robertus Cementarius " was an architect or stonemason of the Abbey of St. Albans, mentioned by Matthew Paris in his life of Paul, Abbot of St. Albans, an extract from which is given by Cole in his above-mentioned letter. Cole, in the same letter, gives another extract referring to the same Robertus from a MS. in the library of Benet College, Cambridge. The mistake of

Comentarius" for Cementarius appears in the original 4to. edition of Horace Wai- pole's correspondence with Cole, whence sub- sequent editors copied it.

HELEN TOYNBEE. Dorney Wood, Burnham, Bucks.

The bishop married secondly, at Totteridge, the Lady Araminta Robartes, a daughter of the Earl of Radnor by his second wife Isa- bella, daughter of Sir John Smith (Chester's 'Marriage Licences,' ed. Foster, p. 708). M.

"FLAM" (9 th S. ii. 28). Thirty-five years ago, in the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusileers, the expression " to flam off" was quite common. It signified the preliminary beats on the big drum as the regiment marched off. The first stroke on the drum was given at the last sound of the colonel's word " Quick march." The word flam would seem to have quite gone out. I have not heard it for many years. ARCH. LESLIE, Col..

THE MAUTHE DOOG (8 th S. ix. 125 ; 9 th S. i. 96, 194, 493). It should not be forgotten that Manx is a living language, and that the moddey doo is still spoken of throughout the island, and not infrequently believed in. I have heard it mentioned numberless times, and the translation will always be given, without any hesitation, as " black dog." It is needless to try to justify Waldron's mis- take, and to suppose that he meant doogh ; he was a foreigner, and blundered with his Manx, as those who live on the spot know very well. If a foreigner, early last century, had visited England and had written about a bird as kok robbing, we should not now try to prove that it was so called in England at that time because of its thievish propensities ; the name still lives in English to guide us, and moddey doo still lives in Manx language and belief. ERNEST B. SAVAGE, F.S.A. St. Thomas's, Douglas.

BISHOP EZEKIEL HOPKINS (8 th S. x. 176, 261 ; xi. 212 ; 9 th S. ii. 17). Bishop Hopkins married twice, as your correspondent believes : first, a niece of Sir R. Vyner, sometime Lord Mayor of London, by whom he had two sons- Charles, a poet and dramatist (1664-1700), and John, born J675, author of 'Amasia.'

THE GREEK CHURCH IN SOHO (9 th S. ii. 2). It is as well to correct a possible mistake about the West Street chapel. Mr. Dibdin was an Anglican clergyman, and in his time the chapel was connected with the Church, and not with the Wesleyans. His ' History,' published about thirty years ago, was quizzed mercilessly by the Church, Times.

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

Hastings.

MASSAGE (9 th S. i. 384 ; ii. 14). I am sorry to contradict ST.SWITHIN when he reports that massage had been practised at Aix-les- Bains in the time of the Romans. It probably is historical folk-lore, collected from the bath servants. I read in the Gazette des Eaux of last winter or last year that massage was introduced at Aix-les-Bains in the beginning of this century by a physician who had parti- cipated in Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt, and had observed the Oriental baths there,