Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/83

 9 th S. III. JAN. 28, '99.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

77

secretary, to the great Dean of St. Patrick's), for exhibition in a case in the Forster Room, South Kensington Museum, described Mr. E. L. Swifte who sold the book to John Forster as " a descendant o/ the Dean " / now, however, think it only right to mention that the authorities at the Museum have amended the erroneous statement. There has lately been affixed to the work named an entirely new label, in lieu of the very objectionable one, and the public are now informed thereby that Mr. E. L. Swifte was " a relative of the Dean." The italics are mine.

By the way, would not the title of "The Victoria and Albert Museum " be much more appropriate than the present unmeaning appellation 1 HENRY GERALD HOPE.

Elms Road, 8.W.

TETE-A-TETE PORTRAITS (9 th S. ii. 448). Some queries and many replies containing much information on the subject of these portraits have already appearea in the pages of * N. & Q.' If your correspondent will turn to 3 rd S. xi. 87 ; 7 th S. v. 488 ; vi. 10, 136, 175 ; vii. 55, he will find that many of the portraits have been identified. To the present date no complete list has appeared.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

"RUMMER" (8 th S. x. 452; xi. 270, 395; xii. 17, 198; 9 th S. iii. 36). As my remarks on this word have been somewhat misunderstood, I shall be glad to be allowed to explain.

The guess that rummer is derived from rum is quite modern, and mere popular etymology of the obvious but useless sort. When Addi- son said in 1703 that he could find no rime to rummer, he clearly shows that the pronuncia- tion was not that now in use, which so obvi- ously rimes to summer. The u was doubtless like the oo in foot ; and this is w T hy Bailey, in his 'Dictionary,' when taking a shot at the etymology, never thinks of run., but only of room, and therefore defines it as "a broad- mouthed drinking-glass."* In precisely the same way our modern rummage was formerly roomage, and really is derived from room, as Bailey likewise suggests. If, according to Bailey's evidence, the u was somewhat long, then the difficulty as to finding a rime is real enough. Even if it had been as long as the oo in roomer, the available rimes are not many. Rumour supplies no rime, but only a coinci- dent sound ; whilst humour and tumour have a, sound like the ew in dew, which does not recommend itself to the fastidious ear. A

mouthed drinking-glass."
 * " Rummer (q. d. a roomer, from room), a broad-

true rime is supplied by Bloomer, but Addi- son could not use a word which was not yet invented.

Moreover, the usual name of rum at an early date was not the curtailed form now so familiar, but rumbullion or rumbowling. As late as Smollett's time it was still usually called rumbo.

But I long ago quoted the line about "Rhenish rummers" from Dryden's poetical epistle to Etheredge, the date of which is now known to be 1686 (see Etheredge, 'Works/ ed. Verity, p. viii). And Dryden's expression shows that the word was a foreign one, im- ported from the Continent. Indeed, it is perfectly well known that rummer is merely the Dutch word roemer done into English.

Hence I never said that the English rummer was of any other origin. But I ventured on the speculation (not at all my own, but fre- quently given elsewhere) that the Dutch, not the English word, might have been connected with the German Romersaal, carefully using the phrase " I have been told so." It seemed not unlikely, because the German for rummer is Romer. Of course, neither the Du. roemer nor the G. Romer can possibly be derived from the English rum.

However, Dr. Franck, in his ' Dutch Ety- mological Dictionary,' says that this is pro- bably a mistake. He is not quite certain about it, but prefers to derive it from Du. roem, boasting, glory, praise ; as if it were a glass from which to drink toasts, to the glory of the person toasted. However this may be, there is no doubt about the English word, as it is merely borrowed from Dutch.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

The word was in use in 1845, when Disraeli wrote : " The delicate rummers of the Mow- bray slap-bang for the girls" ('Sybil,' chap. x.). EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

Hastings.

A CHILD'S CAUL (9 th S. iii. 26). In ' Merry Pictures by the Comic Hands of H. K. Browne, Crowquill, Doyle, Leech, Meadows, Hine, and others ' (no date, about 1855-60), on folio 12, appears a very large sailor on a very small expanse of coast, with a few yachts in the distance. His exclamation is, "Shiver my timbers ! I 'm lost ! Ain't no one seen my child's caul 1 " Much about cauls has already appeared in ' N. & Q.'; see the Indexes to 1 st , 2 nd 6 th 7 th an( } 8 th g. . especially 7 th S. ii. 145; 8 th S. xi. 144. W. C. B.

This ancient and widely spread superstition has been frequently noticed in the pages of ' N. & Q.' (see 1 st S. v., vii. ; 2 nd S. iii. ; 6 th S. x. ; 7 th S. ii., viii.). Brand, in his ' Popular