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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. m. APRIL 22,

The play, as surmised, touches on some peculiarities of the old and happily abolished judicial procedure. H. E. M.

St. Petersburg.

ARCHBISHOP VESEY. In the new volume of the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' in the notice of Archbishop Vesey (p. 291), is the following passage :

"He was buried there [-sc. at Holy mount], and

John Wesley, visiting the place in 1755, copied

from a stone pillar in the garden the following touching inscription :

Linquenda tellus et domus et placens Uxor, cum numerosa et speciosa prole, Chara charse matris subole ; Neque harum quas colis arborum Te praeter invisam cupressum Ulla brevetn dominum sequetur."

Would not the biographer have seen more pathos, perhaps different pathos, if he had been able to distinguish the two strata of the inscription 1 And ought we not to have de- tails of these infants of Postumus ? Could Horace allow but prose to the little Veseys ? Did they paint beautifully in water colours ; and of such is the Kingdom of Heaven ?

J. S.

" MEAD AND OBARNI." This expression, used by Ben Jonson in ' The Devil is an Ass,' has been a crux to his editors and a riddle to our lexicographers. " Origin unknown " says the ' Stanford Dictionary'; " origin obscure " says the * Century '; "etymology doubtful " says a third. Gilford discovered a similar phrase in the tract called ' Pimlico ' (1609), which, curi- ously enough, was alluded to, for another purpose, in the first volume of the First Series of * N. & Q.' (p. 474). It has fortunately been reprinted by the Oxford University Press (1891), and the following is the quotation referred to :

Not all those drinks of northern climes, Whose brewings shall fill up our rimes, Brant, Rensque, and the clear Romayne, The Belo, Crasno, and Patisane, Peeva (to them as is our beer), With spiced meads (wholesome but dear), As Mead Obarne, and Mead Cherunk, And the base Quasse, by peasants drunk, With all the rest that whet the spites Of Russes and cold Muscovites, Not all these drinks, nor thousand moe, Can reach the fame of Pimlico.

It seems to me certain from this that obarni is Russian ; its very form is redolent of such an origin (the prefix ob, the adjectival termination ni), and it can hardly be a coin- cidence that there actually is a Russian word obarni, meaning "boiling," "scalding." I should, however, like to have the opinion of others better versed in the Slavonic idioms

than myself. It might be interesting also if any reader could trace out the other words which occur in the above, especially cherunk. Belo is white (wine), crasno is red (wine), peeva is beer, quasse is a fermented liquor cased on rye or barley, all these four being pure Russian. Rensque is a Slavonian dis- guise for Rhenish. JAMES PLATT, Jun.

AN OXFORD REMINISCENCE. The few Oxford men of nearly fifty years ago who now survive in " the sere and yellow leaf " must have had the "days of auld lang syne" recalled on reading the announcement of the death of Mr. Justice Chitty, at that time one of the most prominent figures in the University, and facile princeps in many accomplishments, both mental and physical. Well has he justified the promise of his youth !

It seems only the other day, though it occurred in the Great Exhibition year of 1851, that I, then an undergraduate, rode over from Oxford in company with a friend in order to witness the boat-race between Oxford and Cambridge. It was in the " leafy month of June " and the weather was charm- ing, the distance was twenty- three miles. Chitty, of Balliol, the deceased judge, pulled stroke in the Oxford boat, perhaps the best oar that ever sat in the thwarts ; but the whole crew was a first-rate one. The result was, after a sharp contest, a victory for Ox- ford. The river banks and the bridge were crowded with spectators "spectatumveniunt veniunt spectentur ut ipsse," to use a hack- neyed quotation. There were afterwards two or three famous four-oar races. Chitty had just taken a first class in classics, and amongst his colleagues in the same class in Term. Pasch. 1851 who yet remain are Samuel Gardiner, the great historian, Charles W. Sandford, Bishop of Gibraltar, and George Ridding, Bishop of Southwell.

But a little prior to that time the interest in aquatic Oxford centred not so much on the forthcoming University contest between Oxford and Cambridge as upon the conten- tion between Balliol and Brasenose colleges for the head of the river. At that time the Balliol boat was head, and Brasenose second. There was much betting upon the point, and the fate of the day entirely depended, in the eyes of the knowing ones, upon the success of the Brasenose stroke oar at Responsions. The ascending gallery in the schools was crammed in order to listen to his viva, voce examination. The stroke ob- tained his " testamur," and then the success of Brasenose became almost an assured fact. The betting in favour of B.N.C. went up,