Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/292

 356 . iv. OCT. at. -99. NOTES AND QUERIES. passed on to the editor of the Times, has no existence. Cambronne, the hero of Victor Hugo's imagination, died peacefully in his bed—I believe in England—after having given up his sword to Hugh (afterwards General) Halkett on the field of battle ! The only possible "mot" which Cambronne can rightly claim must be cryptograinmatically sought in the following dialogue :— Camltronne : Are you an officer ? Halkelt: Yes. Cambronnt: Then take my sword. I cannot find any particular " mot" in all this: but as most Frenchmen care very little for historical accuracy, and are notoriously fond of romantic fiction, they will prefer Victor Hugo's fiction to victor Hugh Halkett's facts. Probably the editor of the Times was too polite to recall this incident. RICHARD EDGCUMBE. Athenaeum Club. CORNISH ARMOURY (9th S. iv. 207).—The earliest visitation of Cornwall is the one made by Benolte in 1530; so if CORNISHMAN wishes for coats of arms of the gentry before that date he will have to consult the Rolls of Arms. In the Genealogist, vol. v., is a list of the various Rolls of Arms, with full informa- tion respecting them, also stating which have been published. The majority of the rolls are lists of arms and their owners, but do not state the county. ' The Roll of the Peers and Knights, temp. Edward II.,' edited by Sir N. H. Nicolas, 1828, also in the Genealogist, vols. xi. and xii., gives a list of fourteen for the counties of Cornwall and Devon. JOHN RADCLIFFE. RUSSIAN LANGUAGE (9th S. iv. 208).—The best English book for beginners is Riola's 'How to Learn Russian' (Triibner). For advanced students there is Morfill's 'Grammar of the Russian Language,' published by the Clarendon Press. The Cambridge University Press publishes as a reading-book (edited by Schnurmann) Lermontoffs novel ' A Hero oi our Time,' Russian and English on opposite pages. A German firm (Gerhard, of Leipzig), publishes this same novel and many others with an interlinear German version("Russische Nationalbibliothek mit deutscher Interlinear Uebersetzung"), a useful series. There is a good grammar in German by August Boltz. JAMES PLATT, Jun. The following works may be recommended ' A Grammar of the Russian Language,' by Mr. Morfill (Oxford, 1889), the University Lecturer in Russian (to whose special efforts we owe likewise the first scientific compila .ions in English of the other Slavonic lan- uages besides Russian, viz., Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Polish, and Cecn or Bohemian); Asboth's 'Russ. Grammatik und Chresto- mathie,' 2 vols, Leipzig, 1889-90, which are of great service to the beginner ; ' Les Racines de la Langue Russe,' par Leger et Bardonnaut, 3aris, 1894, a perspicuous synopsis of the roots and compounds in Russian; and Miklosich's Etymologisches Worterbuch der slavischen iprachen, Wien, 1886, an indispensable and reliable guide to those students wanting to inow the original connexion between the Slavonic and the other Indo-European lan- guages. H. KREBS. Oxford. ARMS OF ARDAGH (9th S. iv. 307).—According to 'Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Pour Masters,' St. Mel, a disciple and nephew }f St. Patrick, was the founder and first bishop of the monastery of Ardachadh, that is, High Field, now known as Ardagh, where lie died and was interred A.D. 487. His festival is annually celebrated 6 February. The date of the death of St. Mel's fifteen successors, the battle of Ardachadh in 1095, and the burning of the place in 1137, will be found in the above-named work. Of the modern history of this ancient place there is an amusing anecdote. Goldsmith's comedy ' She Stoops to Conquer' derives its plot from an incident that occurred at this village to the author, who, on passing through it, having inquired for the "head inn," was directed oy a humorous individual to the residence of the proprietor of the place, Mr. Fetherston, who, perceiving the delusion, nevertheless indulged it, and hospitably entertained his guest, so that it was not until next morning that, on finishing his breakfast and calling for the bill, the poet discovered his mistake. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. In the Rev. Dr. Woodward's 'Treatise on Ecclesiastical Heraldry' the arms of the diocese of Ardagh are stated to be "Or, a cross gules between four trefoils slipped vert, on a chief sable a key erect of the first." A. A. H. " BLEACHFIELD HORN " (9th S. iv. 309).—The strident boom of the horn blown as a signal for beginning or stopping operations at a Paisley bleaching work would l)e painfully familiar to the sensitive ear of Tannahill. Thus the persistent and penetrating mono- tone, characteristic of manufacturing centres, gets a place in the poet's description of a virago, beside other illustrative features that