Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/14

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9* h S. III. JAN.7,'99.

one of which cost him his life in a duel Mi'. W. R. Morfill has recorded numerouj links of connexion between Scotland and Russia, and the establishment of relationship of blood or of genius between these scions of the house of Learmont would add another. FRANCIS P. MARCHANT. Brixton Hill.

THE SURNAME WARD. This is rather a common name. In the 'Brighton General Directory' it fills two -thirds of a page. Smith itself takes only six pages. Did all Wards get their name in the same way ? I have read somewhere that in the earliest documents in which the name occurs it had the prefix "de." Now what was this Ward ? Was it a district, or calling, or what ; and in what language ? W.

Brighton.

" SLEEVES." A short time ago a publican in the Rhondda Valley, Glamorganshire, was ned for selling a "sleever" of beer. This contains about three-quarters of a pint. In several parts of Glamorgan "a square of beer," measuring two- thirds of a pint, is also a favourite drink, so called, I have heard it said, because it is a " square " drink, that is, just enough to take at a draught. Are these measures general in England, and is anything known why they are so called? D. M. R.

"COPPER-TAILED." In the eighty-fifth of the 'Letters from a Citizen of the World,' near the end, Goldsmith describes certain people as "wrangling in the defence of a copper-tailed actress." In the seventy-ninth letter he says, referring to the reopening of the theatres, " The hero resolves to cover his forehead with brass, and the heroine begins to scour up her copper tail, preparative to tuture operations." I do not find copper- tailed in the ' H.E.D.,' rior do I understand with precision what the copper tail was. Can an explanation be given ?

RICHARD H. THORNTON. Portland, Oregon.

REFERENCE TO QUOTATION WANTED So long ago as 1892 a member of Parliament, I think ot Cabinet rank, quoted in a speech the lines descriptive of the tribe of demagogues :

Their life is agitation, and their breath

A sea whereon they ride,

and cited Shakespeare as the author, a refer- ence I of course, knew to be inaccurate nevertheless I confirmed my impression by consulting a concordance. I have just (six years and upwards afterwards) met with the passage attributed to Byron. Unfortunately

so far as I am aware, there is no concordance to the works of the last-named poet, and I have in vain examined the usually met with dictionaries of quotations. Can you, or any of the courteous readers of * N. & Q.,' help me to the poem containing the quotation ?

NEMO. Temple.

REV. ALEXANDER STEVENSON. Can any of your readers inform me regarding the late Rev. Alex. Stevenson, at one time minister at Widdrington in Northumberland, and afterwards at Earlston in Berwickshire % He possessed the farm of Braid wood shiel, a property on the Leader a few miles from Earlston, but latterly he lived in Glasgow. Did he study medicine and practise there? When and where did he die ? His widow died at Glasgow in 1829. W. C.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED.

My dead love came to me and said, "God gives me one hour's rest

To spend with thee upon the earth ; How shall we spend it best ? "

E. W. D.

In the notes to Bloomfield's Greek Testament occurs the following quotation, "The feeling com- pass, navigation's aid." What is the source from which it is taken ? C. B.

You, who never turned your back, But marched straight forward ; Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right was worsted, Wrong would triumph. W. A. LAW.

I wish you health,

I wish you wealth,

I wish you love in store ;

I wish you heaven after death :

I cannot wish you more.

A.

HEXHAM PRIORY AND THE AUGUS-

TALES.

(9 th S. ii. 241, 391.)

I SHOULD like to see some documentary proof of the statement that, according to Germanic law, the " younger son " " merely possessed a 'haw,'" whilst "the elder son inherited the chief house, the 'hof.'" How would it be if a man had ten sons? Who would then "possess" the "haw"? A custom by which the eldest son inherited the chief bouse and the younger sons, if that is really meant, inherited " haws " would have to be strictly proved before it could be admitted as an historical fact. MR. STEVENSON sees the difficulty of using the word " inherit " in the case of the younger son or sons, for that