Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/268

 336 NOTES AND QUERIES. i^s.iv.ocr. 21,-99. sense referred to by Mr. Bouchier, in order to induce men of perverted minds to buy books which a good citizen would burn rather than sell. But I hold that your columns are not the place for nasty and suggestive euphemisms, and hope that spades will be called spades. Bobt. J. Whitwell. C.C.G., Oxford. Your correspondent at the last reference, Mr. Bouchier, has not, I think, noticed Prof. Morley's statement in his introduction to ' Burlesque Plays and Poems.' He there men- tions that "some lines here and there, seven in all, which are not the wittier for being coarse, have been left out of 'Nambv Pamby.'" W. F. II. Hutton Keotory. " Vulgar " (9th S. iv. 288).—' Hamlet,' I. iii. CI, ha«, "Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar." Elsewhere Shakespeare also uses the word in the same sense Arthur Mayall. The Hell of the Poets (9th S. iv. 120, 217, 290).—I do not see that there is any difficulty in supposing that rebellious genii may be confined in material bottles, or that ethereal beings consort with men and women. The spirits, which are not human, such as the pagan gods, devils, jinn, elementary beings, are substantial or unsubstantial at pleasure. The returning, or awakened, dead may be animated corpses, such as vampires, and then they may drink blood, or anything else. But if they are ghosts, they are mere shades, and absolutely unsubstantial. E. Yardley. "As fu 's the Baltic" (9th S. iv. 288).— There can be no doubt that the quaint expression quoted by Mr. Bayne bears reference to the Baltic Sea. It occurs twice in the Waverley novels, though in a some- what distorted form : (1) In ' Peveril of the Peak' (chap, xxvii.), where Chiffinch instructs his servant to overtake Lord Saville's groom and to "fill him as drunk as the Baltic Sea": and (2) in ' Redgauntlet,' where it is sain ('Narrative,' chap, xiii.) that " Nanty Ewart could steer through the Pentland Firth though he were as drunk as the Baltic Ocean." The correct form is, of course, that quoted by Mr. Bayne, for "as drunk as the Baltic" is meaningless. It is a rare thing to find Sir Walter Scott tripping in a colloquial expres- sion, but he is clearly in error in this case. " As full as the Baltic " denotes in a most forcible way the extreme of intoxication. The phrase is still in use among the seafaring population of the east of Scotland, in its homely form of " as fou 's the Baltic "; and its origin is evidently traceable to the long- existing trade between Scotland and the Baltic ports. David MacRitchie. Edinburgh. Sunken Lanes (9th S. iv. 207, 289).—Mr. Addy's interesting article reminds me of the old, so-called " lioman," road from Aber to Caerhun, which for a considerable part of its course can now be traced only because of its depression below the level of its surroundings. This depression is least where the road runs along the side of the hills from Y Foel Dduarth to Yr Orsedd, where it would natur- ally become in time filled up by the soil, <fcc, washed from the heights above; but where it crosses the comparatively level country between Yr Orsedo and the ascent of the Bwlch y Ddeufaen, the road is usually from one to two feet below the general level of the moor. As it has evidently been paved, and the natural tendency—apparent enough in its present condition —would be to' fill up rather than increase its depression, I conclude that it must originally have been dug out. But why 1 It is not a question of easier gradients—at least as regards the greater part of its course. C. C. B. Flagstones, much like those Mr. Addy quotes, still exist along the centre of the old Roman road that leads across the moor, close by Stanage Pole, upon the wild high land between Red meres and Hathersage, and situated rather south of the line of de- marcation between Derbyshireand Yorkshire. When I saw them last (alas ! fully thirty years ago), the stones in question had always en- joyed the reputation of being the original ones laid down by the enterprising Romans themselves. Harry Hems. Fair Park, Exeter. ' The Burial of Sir John Moore ' (9th S. iv. 21, 177).—In ' Poems of the Love and Pride of England,' edited by F. and M. Weduiore (an anthology well repaying perusal), the title of the poem is given as 'After Uorunna.' There are also other variations than those men- tioned at the first reference. This historical note by the editors will be found interesting : "This poem first appeared, without Wolfe's knowledge, in the Neim/ Telegraph, from which it was copied into most of the London and Dublin papers, and finally into the ' Edinburgh Annual Register,' in which the paragraph had appeared that inspired the poem. In this form it was read to Shelley and other friends by Byron, to justify his opinion that it was little inferior to the best which that prolific age had brought forth, the third verse being'perfect.' 'I should have taken the whole,' said Shelley, with hasty and shallow criticism, ' for a rough sketch of Campbell's.' ' No,' replied Lord