Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/243

 .MAK.2V99.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

237

1835. The original portrait is stated to be by Dahl, and in the collection of the Earl ol Liverpool. JAMES PEACOCK.

Sunderland.

CHARADE (9 th S. iii. 187). It is very easy indeed ; answer Blackleg.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

A MONUMENT TO A FLEA (9 th S. ii. 526). Mr. Paton misread the inscription. Correctly read it is : " The last residence of the affec- tionate Fly." The monument was erected to a dog which belonged to an English lady married to a Sicilian noble. THORNFIELD.

" WRITER OF SORTS " (9 th S. iii. 167, 197). The expression, depreciatory, and meaning "of a poor sort," will be found, I think, in some or Mr. Kipling's earlier books.

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

They have a king and officers of sorts.

'Henry V.,' I. ii. 190.

WM. H. PEET.

PARAGON (9 th S. iii. 168). This word was discussed in * N. & Q.' less than eight years ago (see 7 th S. xii. 228, 317, 412), where it is denned as " a model of excellence," and PROF. SKEAT corrects the etymology given in his 'Etyrnol. Diet.,' 1882, from which the defini- tion had been taken. RICH. WELFORD.

From previous numbers of 'N. & Q.' it appears there are places bearing this name both at Bath (erected about 1770) and at Blackheath. The origin of the word from Greek, Latin, and Spanish sources formed the subject of two very long articles in ' N. & Q.,' 8 th S. i. 61, continued at p. 101.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

"GAMBALEERY" (9 th S. iii. 187). As leer means "leather" in the North, I feel sure that MR. MAYHEW is right in suggesting some kind of leather as the meaning. When one guesses, one may as well do it wildly, as is, indeed, the usual practice. So why not "shammy-leather," while one is about it? See * Chamois - leather ' in the 'H.E.D.' WALTER W. SKEAT.

i SURNAMES IN -SON (9 th S. iii. 90, 176). lecessarily of Scandinavian blood. Williarn- on, Watson, Morrison, are more likely derived rom Norman names. Hodgson and Dobson ould not be called anything more exactly han English. The truth is that this whole
 * [ cannot agree that surnames in -son are
 * lass of surnames came into use so lately that
 * hey cannot be any index to blood. If the

Christian name is itself Scandinavian, it is

possible, but no more, that it points to Danish blood ; for instance, Henderson. Nelson is a difficult case. We cannot be sure that the first form in some cases was not Nell's son. The Irish and Scottish Neilson is different, and may point to Danish or Celtic blood. But this is only part of a much larger question, How far are surnames an index to blood? This is the only way in which we can estimate, so far as it is possible, the proportion of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman blood in the modern British people.

C. S.

WILLIAM BOYLE (9 th S. iii. 109). In my copy of ' Lists of Scholars of St. Peter's, West- minster,' are some manuscript notes, and I find the following concerning William Boyle, which may be of use to G. F. R. B. :

"These (Richard Ireland, Henry Child, Peter Smart, Charles Pratt, Roger Durham or Derham, John Matthew or Matthews, Walter Newton, Thomas Owen, John Pucker or Packer, John Whitgift, Gasper or Jasper Swift, and William Boyle), together with Dr. Driwood, Hugh Roberts, and Richard Johnson, were the writers of certain poems in Greek and Latin on the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne. The volume containing them was presented to the Queen by the Scholars of St. Peter's, Westminster (founded by her in 1561), in 1588. And the original MS. in quarto, beautifully written, the capital letters at the commencement of each line in Vermilion, with the royal arms stamped on the cover, was in the Fairfax collection, and in 1831 offered for sale at 211. by Thomas Thorpe, bookseller, of London." E. C. BOSTOCK.

ROGER WILLIAMS (9 th S. iii. 107). In response to MR. WILLCOCK'S query as to the best and latest account of Mr. Roger Williams, of Providence in New England, I would call his attention to 'Roger Williams, the Pioneer of Religious Liberty' (the Century Co. of New York, 1894). The author of this work is the Hon. Oscar S. Straus, now Minister of the United States to Turkey.

B. P.

D.D. (London, 1852); 'Life of Roger Williams,' by J. D. Knowles (Boston, 1834). MR. WILL- COCK will be able to get the above through Messrs. Kegan Paul & Co., Charing Cross Road, London. For other memoirs see Alli- xme, ' Dictionary of British and American Authors.' JOHN RADCLIFFE.
 * Life of Roger Williams,' by Romeo Elton,

"RUMMER" (8 th S. x. 452; xi. 270, 395; xii. 17, 198; 9 th S. iii. 36, 77, 137). The name of "Romer" could scarcely be given
 * o the glasses which bear that title

because they were made of " Romish glass," else to the glasses differing in shape, made of the same glass, the name would be equally