Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/267

 9th S. IV. Oct. 21,'99.] 335 NOTES AND QUERIES. us the declination at all places in France, Belgium, and England south of Oxford. The lines of equal declination are greatly dis- turbed by a fault that, in 1891, reached from Moulins, through Paris and Beachy Head, to London. This has now shifted several miles westward, and passes through Caen and Chichester to Oxford. Irons for vanes ought always to be sec by the Polar star, and not by compass. E. L. Garbett. Sir Edmund Wrioht, Lord Mayor of London, 1640-1 (9th S. iv. 247).—He died in July, 1643, his successor in the aldermanry of Cordwainer being elected 3 August, 1643. On the monument of Sir Richard Atkins, of Clapham, who married his daughter and coheir Rebecca, he is styled "Edmund Wright, alias Bunckley, of Swarely, Midx., eq. aur." He enjoyed his knighthood little more than two years, having received that honour at Whitehall, 20 June, 1641. His administrator was Sir James Harrington, Knt., of Ridlington, Rutland, who married Catherine, another of his daughters. I have not the name of his wife. W. D. Pink. Leigh, Lancashire. "Sent to Coventry" (9th S. iv. 264).—As I am far from books I do not know what are the quotations in ' H.E.D.,' and perhaps re- peat one of them. When a man is sent to Coventry, it surely means that he is regarded as fit only to have been one of Falstaff's regiment of jail-birds and ragamuffins, of whom Falstaff himself was so ashamed that he sent them to Coventry, but would not go there with them. Falstaff, with all his match- less wit, is the personification of drunkenness, profligacy, cowardice, impudence, theft, ana lying, yet he says : " If 1 be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet I '11 not march through Coventry with them, that's flat" (' 1 Henry IV.,' IV. ii.). M. N. G. Orientation (9th S. iv. 261).—It is not only in India that the south is called by a word signifying the "right hand." As the Dekhan, which means the "south country," is from the Prakrit dakkhina (related to dexter), "the right hand," so from the Gaelic deas, "the south," literally " the right hand," we have Dundas in Linlithgow (Gaelic Dundeas), "the southern fort," and Fordyce, " the south land." In the topographic nomenclature of Ireland the same word occurs. The old sub-kingdoms of Munster are represented by the historic peerages of Ormonde, a corruption of Ur- mumhan, which means "East Munster"; Thomond, a corruption of Tuith-mumhnn, "North Munster"; and Desmond, meaning " South Munster." This usage is not confined to Aryan nations. The Arabic word yemin signifies "the right hand,"and also "an oath," oaths being taken by holding up the right hand. Hence it came to mean " the south," the south being on the right hand of one who swears facing the east. For this reason the south of Arabia came to be called El-Yemen. The right hand being considered more lucky than the left, the word came to signify "fortunate," and hence Arabia Felix is a sort of Latin translation of Yemen. The south being considered the most fortunate quarter may also account for villages called Sutton being more numerous than those, called Norton, Weston, or Aston, and for the north side of the churchyard being accounted the devil's side. Egyptian temples were orient- ated to the solstitial rising of their patron star. Isaac Taylor. Bookkeeping (9th S. iv. 169).—The ninth edition of'A New and Improved System of Bookkeeping, suitable to be used in all Businesses,' by R. V. Barnes, was published in 1877. ' Bookkeeping,'in two volumes, by Jones, and ' Commercial Bookkeeping,' in " Weale's Rudimentary Series," may be con- sulted. Everard Home Coleman. 71, Brecknock Road. 'Merchants' Accounts: or, the Italian Method of Book - keeping. (Set forth in so clear a light, that any person, of a tolerable capacity, may easily make himself master thereof.' By Thomas Lazonby. York, 1757, folio, pp. 140. ' The General Counting - House, and Man of Business.' By William Gordon, author of the ' Universal Accountant.' Edinburgh, 1766, 8vo. pp. vi, 487. Mr. Gordon writes from the Academy, Glasgow, and dedicates his book to Alexander, Duke of Gordon. VV. C. B. "Housen" (9th S. iv. 205, 278).—The en plural is in very common use here. Not only does one hear h<msen and placen, but the boys invariably refer to nests as neesen. John T. Page. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. Pinaseed (8th S. xi. 377; 9th S. iv. 205, 257).—Your correspondent Mr. Jonathan Bouciiier quarrels with my description of Henry Carey's satire on Philips as " very coarse." I have reread the lines, and re- iterate the phrase. If Mr. Bouchier will turn to Mr. Money's introduction at p. 7, he will read : " Some lines here and there, seven in all, which are not the wittier for being coarse, have been left out of 'Namby Pamby.'" I am aware that in some second-hand book- sellers' catalogues the phrase is used in the