Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/199

 9* s. m. MAR. 11, m] NOTES AND QUERIES.

193

TOM BROWN AND DR. FELL (9 th S. iii. 87). All admirers of our old friend Tom Brown will be pleased with the kindly tone of ME. ADAMS'S letter. For historical accuracy, it will be well to supply the full text of Brown's epigram on Dr. Fell, as given in the first complete edition of Brown's works, printed in 4 vols., 1711. The following is from my copy :

" Tom Brown having committed some great Fault at the University, the Dean of Christ's Church threaten'd to expel him ; but Tom, with a very submissive Epistle, Ibegged Pardon, so pleas'd the Dean, that he was minded to forgive him, upon this Condition, viz., That he should translate this Epigram out of Marshall [sic] extempore.

Non amo te Zabidi, nee possum dicere quare,

Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te. Which he immediately render'd into English thus : I do not love you Dr. Fell, But why I cannot tell ; But this I know full well, I do not love you Dr. Fell." ' Works of Mr. Thomas Brown,' vol. iv. p. 166. JOHN ROBINSON.

Delaval House, Croft Avenue, Sunderland.

"DUCTUS LITTERARUM" (9 th S. ii. 407). If TRANIO refers to the full account of the phrase as in the ' Lexicon ' of Lewis and Short, there is an omission in it of a parallel passage, or, at any rate, a similar use of the phrase, in Pliny (' N. H.,' viii. 3). The context in Quintilian (i. i. 26, 27) appears to imply forms or outlines. First the instruction, as in the manner of kindergarten teaching, is

"eburneas litterarum formas in lucem offerre

Cum vero jam ductus sequi cceperit, non inutile erit eas tabellas quam optime insculpi, ut per illos velut sulcos ducatur stilus."

Quintilian allows of teaching syllables by rote, but not letters, for "quod in litteris pbest in syllabis non nocebit." The passage in Pliny seems to imply certainly the forms of letters. For it is "aliquem ex his et litterarum ductus Grsecorum [sic] didicisse, solitumque preescribere ejus lingupe verbis." ED. MARSHALL, F.S.A.

KELTIC WORDS (9 th S. ii. 387). MR. ACKER- LEY has asked a question which is not at all likely to be answered satisfactorily. It is one on which no two authorities agree. Whitaker, in his 'History of Manchester,' says that there are three thousand Celtic words in our language, besides local appella- tions. Johnson, on the other hand, denies that there are any. A considerable number, it is true, are to be found in his * Dictionary '; but Johnson was not the man to give up a theory on account of a few inconvenient facts. Oh, no ! These words had been intro- duced into Home by the returning colonists in the fifth century, and brought back by the

monks of Augustine in the sixth. This view has been accepted without question by other lexicographers. Prof. Skeat, however, judi- ciously steering between the Scylla of scepti- cism and the Charybdis of credulity, intro- duces about two ^ hundred and fifty words of admittedly Celtic origin into his 'Etymo- logical Dictionary of the English Language.'

J. FOSTER PALMER. 8, Royal Avenue, S.W.

I would direct your correspondent's atten- tion to ' Keltic Tracery ' in ' N. & Q.,' 6 th S. vi. 429 ; vii. 154. EVERARD HOME GOLEM AN.

71, Brecknock Road.

CARON HOUSE (9 th S. ii. 509). Accord- ing to the notes in Nichols's ' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth,' Sir Noel Caron built the house in South Lambeth before 1599. It had a park which extended to Vauxhall and Ken- nington Lane. Queen Elizabeth dined there on 27 July, 1599, and the gold chains weigh- ing over sixty-eight ounces were delivered to M. Caron 15 October following. In 1607 the grounds were extended by a lease for twenty- one years of the Prince of Wales's manor of Kennington, containing 122 acres. The pro- bability is that the first-mentioned property was not in that leased in 1607.

JOHN RADCLIFFE.

The remains of Sir Noel de Caron's house in South Lambeth were pulled down in 1809. It stood on the site of Messrs. Beaufoy's distillery. Sir Noel also endowed some almshouses in Wandsworth Road, South Lambeth, which were taken down in 1852. Water-colour drawings of both buildings are in the Grace Collection of Views of London, in the British Museum.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

CAMELIAN RING (8 th S. vii. 429 ; 9 th S. iii. 75). ST. SWITHIN'S note at the last reference recalls to me that I intended, but neglected, to answer his original inquiry. My files of ' N. & Q.' are not within reach just now ; but, if I remember correctly, the question was drawn out by mention of the ring of unre- cognized material in a story by an Ame- rican writer possibly Miss Wilkins. If so, " camelian " must be simply a mispronuncia- tion (once rather common in rural or slipshod speech) of "cornelian" or "carnelian."

Some years ago the species of chalce- dony called "carnelian" was often cut into finger rings that were much prized by those who could not afford more valuable circlets, and were frequently worn by others for their rich colour. I have