Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/139

 * S. III. FEB. 18, '99.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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and with his teeth tore sticks and straws in his rage. T. P. ARMSTRONG.

Putney.

GIBBET IRONS (9 th S. ii. 448). I saw last summer a set in the yard of a curio dealer at Teddington. They were said to have come from Boston Gaol. A few months later I read in an account of an auction at Mr. Stevens's, Covent Garden, that a set (presumably the same), said also to be from Boston, were sold for a few pounds. These may have some con- nexion with the Lincolnshire set referred to.

ANTIQUUS.

HE CONSONANTAL COMBINATION " ST " (9 th S. ii. 424, 515). It might be inferred from MR. YARDLEY'S instances that Milton habitu- ally used amidst, amongst, and betwixt. This is only decidedly the case with amidst, of which there are nineteen instances (including one of midst) to four of amid, and less so with betivixt, of which there are eleven instances (including four of 'twixt) to seventeen of be- tween (thirteen as preposition and four as adverb). There are but five instances of amongst (including two of Amongst) to sixty- four of among, and five instances of whilst (ignored by MR. YARDLEY) to thirty-two of while. A few instances of the several forms without st may have eluded my notice. Your correspondent, however, misapprehends my remark about the " barbarous ear," which was levelled only at anybody who might maintain that "amongst these," for example, is more pleasing to his ear than "among these." It cannot be proved that Milton's frequent use of amidst and betwixt was dictated by any such liking. His sense with respect to these words was blunted, but probably he had never considered the matter, and the failing is ex- cusable in a writer of two hundred and fifty years ago. We cannot look for the same pitch of melodiousness in him as in Tennyson, who abhorred, with Wordsworth, amidst, amongst, and whilst, though, unlike Wordsworth, he failed to perceive that betwixt, ending in three consonantal sounds, cst, is as ill-sounding as the other three words, and therefore to be banished from the poetical vocabulary. Whether he, too, would have eschewed this word had its discordance with his rule been pointed out by his critics must remain in the region of speculation. F. ADAMS.

106A, Albany Road, Camberwell.

It is certain that Milton preferred amidst to amid, for I find it ten times in his poetry. He has used amid only three times. He has betwixt eight times, and between only three times. He prefers among to amongst, for he has used it at least twenty-nine times. But I

have found amongst four times. He generally uses while, but has whilst in the song of Sabrina in 'Comus,' also in 'L' Allegro.' In my search for these words I may have missed a few of them ; but I am nearly right. I have not looked into the least important of Milton's poems. What I have written above is enough to show that Milton had no dislike to the consonantal combination st, which is exceed- ingly harmonious, as may be seen in such words as Astracan, Astarte, Bubastis, Istakhar. I will add that I have found both amongst and whilst in Shakspeare's 'Tempest' ; and I know no language more euphonious than what is in this play. There is amongst in 'Timon of Athens,' betwixt in 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' whilst in ' Hamlet,' and the ivhilst in ' Cymbeline.' Betwixt and whiht are common in the plays of Shakspeare ; but the other words about which I nave written are not so frequent in his poetry as they are in that of Milton. Finally for it is unnecessary to carry the matter much further I have met with amidst and whilst in the poetry of Shelley, with amongst in the ' Faerie Queen ' of Spenser, with amidst in * Gertrude of Wyo- ming ' and in another poem by Campbell, with betivixt in ' The Princess ' and in several other poems of Tennyson ; and I have concluded that they are m all good English poetry. Though the poets are not always allowed as authorities in questions of grammar, undoubt- edly they are judges of euphony.

E. YARDLEY.

To my "barbarous ear" the condemned forms are more adhesively penetrative and pungent, the others more loosely and dis- tributively locative : I confess a weakness for barbarous forms. THOMAS J. JEAKES.

" HEAR, HEAR ! " (4 th S. ix. 200, 229, 285 ; 6 th S. xii. 346 ; 8 th S. iv. 447 ; v. 34 ; vi. 518 ; xi. 31, 95 9 th S. i. 216.) In the ' H.E.D.' no reference is given to the use of any variant of this form of applause between 1689, when obviously it was very uncommon, and 1762, when it is quoted only from Foote's 'Orators.' At the earlier date it was used in Parliament, but it was not in Parliamentary use ; and it would seem to have come into general vogue in the acute struggle between Walpole and the Opposition in the reign of George II. "Sir Will. Lowther," wrote Col. the Hon. Charles Howard, on 30 March, 1733, to his father, Lord Carlisle, describing a debate in the House of Commons, "spoke short, but close to the purpose, and had very loud heerum's from the Ministerial Bench"; and on 30 January, 1734/5, Sir Thomas Kobinson informed the same nobleman that during the