Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/264

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9*s. m. APRIL i, m

vol. v. p. 331 of Cunningham's edition of his letters he mentions her in connexion with the adventures of Lady Ligonier and Alfieri ; in vol. ix. pp. 58 and 75 he uses this title in writing or and to the adventurous Lady Craven (afterwards Margravine of Anspach), who was then travelling in Eastern Europe.

A letter to a hitherto apparently unidenti- fied correspondent ('Journals and Corre- spondence of Miss Berry,' vol. ii. p. 42) is evidently a draft of Horace Walpole's letter to George Rose, Secretary to the Treasury, dated 18 Aug., 1782, and printed in vol. ii. pp. 388-9 of the 'Collected Works of Lord Orford' (1798). The contents of the letter and draft are identical in substance, though not in words. References in both to Mr. Robinson, one of Rose's predecessors at the Treasury, show that the letter was written in connexion with an inquiry which was made in 1782 on behalf of the Treasury into Horace Walpole's office of " Usher of the Receipt of the Exchequer." An inquiry of a similar nature had been conducted by Robinson in 1777 (see 'Works,' vol. ii. p. 386).

HELEN TOYNBEE.

RIME TO " MONTH " (9 th S. iii. 104, 191). Not such is the exotic grunth, unless so perverted in utterance that a native of India would not recognize the word. Something like its th is heard in the combined t and h of affront him, pronounced affronth im. I have said " something like," for the reason that the th of grunth is dental, whereas the English th is lingual. No Indian language has the sounds or th in this and thing, and no Euro- pean language, so far as I know, has the sounds of th in, for instance, grunth, " book," and honth, "lip." These two words, I am aware, are scientifically translettered granth and honth. F. H.

Marlesford.

KELTIC WORDS (9 th S. ii. 387 ; iii. 193). As I am mentioned at the latter reference, may I beg leave to refer your readers to my chapter on " The Keltic Element " in my * Principles of English Etymology,' First Series? It is misleading to refer to Dr. Whitaker as an authority, as he had no opportunity of know- ing anything about the history of pur language. See, e.g., my preface to 'Piers Plowman,' C-text, where his opinions, if we can call them such, are criticized.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

" WHAT ALL " (9 th S. iii. 188).- This phrase, equivalent to " what not," seems to have been held over by the 'H.E.D.' for insertion under what, since it does not appear there under all. There lie before me quotations

for it dated 1702, 1732, 1767 (two), 1819, 1827, and 1894 (two). Carlyle uses it, and it occurs in Punch. Not only in England and Scot- land, but in the United States, it is more or less current. Surely it is a good enough colloquialism. In the dialects it is not uncommon. F. H.

Marlesford.

Mr. Thomas Hardy a careful writer, not addicted to the use of slipshod English puts the following into the mouth of an educated character in 'The Well - Beloved ' (1897, p. 200) :-

"I am your well, guardian, in fact, and am bound by law and morals, and I don't know what- all, to deliver you up to your native island without a scratch or blemish."

It will be noted that a hyphen is used in this instance. CHAS. GILLMAN.

Church Fields, Salisbury.

ARMS OF GRIGSON OP NORFOLK (9 th S. ii. 287, 457). Four Grigsons were boarders at the Grammar School, Hingham, Norfolk, in the sixties and seventies. Possibly COL. MOORE connects the family with Hingham for this reason. A. G. TURNER.

Leytonstone.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

West Irish Folk-Tale* and Romances. Collected

and translated by William Larminie. (Stock.) THIS interesting collection of West Ireland folk- tales has been gathered by the collector himself from oral narration. It is but an instalment, though a worthy one, of a larger work which is to be hoped for, since Mr. Larminie has, as he avows, many stories not yet published like the tales now given. These belong to the coast of Connaught and Donegal. Of the folk-lore of large portions of Ireland, notably of Munster, we know next to nothing, having to depend upon the "somewhat sophisticated little fairy tales of Crofton Croker." Few of the stories now given can be classed as fairy tales, though Mr. Larminie states that "evidence seems so far to show that the fairy belief is common to all Ireland." Our author is at much pains to trace out the resem- blance between the stories he gives and those of the Scotch Highlands and also the folk-tales of Ger- many. As an appendix, he supplies specimens of the tales in phonetic Irish from various districts. Among points of interest in the stories, one that is noteworthy is the amount of promiscuous killing assigned a hero. In ' The Champion of the Red Belt ' one of the champions holds himself compelled to kill three hundred men a day, and is very much hurt that through sorcery they all come to life again. Magic compulsion, again, is often called "the spells of the art of the druid." In 'The Servant of Poverty ' it is curious to find " the king" dealing "with a merchant from London." A very quaint story is that of ' Beauty of the World,' in