Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/367

 D* s. iv. NOV. is, -99.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 417 think among those pieces should be included a series of verses illustrating types of London character drawn by Kenny Meadows and published by the proprietor of Bell's Life in Lvndon. These verses are very neatly turned, and, I think, bear the impress of Thackeray's careful method. I reruember the first and last verses of a short poem on an old soldier, beginning:— Scarred veteran from many a war, And is it come to this, alas ! To smoke a penny straw cigar, And muse upon an empty glass ? And ending (it is the veteran who speaks):— I never yet disgracetl my corps, And neither want to beg or borrow ; Here, Biddy, bring two penn'orth more— And, faith, I'll call and pay to-morrow. JOHN HEBB. 2, Canonbury Mansions, N. THE SURNAME SHEREWYND.—Nicknames or humorous epithets which describe a man's personal appearance or character are not un- common in old records. On p. 47 of Uanon Green well's 'Feodarium Prioratus Dunel- mensis ' (Surtees Society) I noticed " Willel- mus Sherewynd," which is equivalent to William Splitwind. In the supplement to my 'Sheffield Glossary,' p. 61, "shiver-the- wind " appears as a derisive epithet applied to a very thin person. A woman who applied this term to one of her feminine neighbours also compared her to "a weasel peeping through a kex." It is not easy to see how a weasel could peep through a "kex," but " weasel," as a nickname, goes well enough with "shiver-the-wind." S. O. ADDY. "MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY."—May not the source of this phrase perhaps be traced to La Bruyere, ' Caracteres, chap. i. (p. 12 in vol. i. of the " Bibliotheque Nationale " pocket edition, 1882) ? He there says of Arsene:— " Loue, exalt^ et port6 jusqu'aux cieux par de certaines gens qui se sont promis de s'admirer reciproquement, il croit, avec quelque merite qu'il a, posseder tout celui qu'on peut avoir, et qu'il n'aura janiais." C. LAWRENCE FORD, B.A. Bath. GROOVES ON WALLS OF CHURCHES. (See ' Foot Outlines,' ante, p. 306.)—Deep scratches or cuts on the walls of churches are quite common wherever the stone is suitable for sharpening tools, as at Thirsk, in Yorkshire, where, it is said, they were made by sharpening arrows for Flodden Field. But both there and elsewhere they have probably been made, as a rule, by persons sharpening ordinary tools. J. T. F. Durham. WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. " INFRA DIG."—The earliest example of this, or rather of its uncurtailed form infra, digni- tatem, cited in Dr. Fennell's' Stanford Diction- ary of Anglicized Words and Phrases,' is from Hazlitt's 'Table-Talk' of 1821-2: "If the graduates in this way condescend to express their thoughts in English, it is understood to be infra dignitatem." The colloquial shortened form is in Scott's ' Redgauntlet,' chap. xi. (1824). I shall be glad if readers of ' N. & O.' will supply some earlier instances, especially such as throw any light on the provenance of the expression. Can it have been of uni- versity or public-school origin? The 'Win- chester Word-Book' has it, but with the curious sense "scornful, proud," exemplified by " he sported infra-dig duck," which appears to be slang for " he showed scornful face." J. A. H. MURRAY. " HEER-BREEADS."—This word is said to be used in the neighbourhood of Keighley, in West Yorkshire. It is said to be a term for the back and front cross-bars in the frame of the bottom of a cart. I should be glad to re- ceive corroboration of these statements, to hear of the word being used away from Keighley, and to know its etymology. A. L. MAYHEW. Oxford. DELAY AL.—In March, 1758. Robert Delaval raised "in his own county a company of one hundred grenadiers for service under the East India Company in Bengal. As he died on the voyage out, the command devolved on his brother Henry, late of Lord Effingham's (? 34th, or Cumberland) regiment. This com- pany fought under Col. Olive in his expedi- tion to Patna (April, 1759). and under Col. Forde at the battle of Biderra (November, 1759), in which latter engagement the frenadiers were commanded by Lieut, 'rederick Cobbe Pitman, of the East India Company's service. Can any reader inform me to what county and family the brothers Delaval belonged, and where I can find the best account of the two above - mentioned engagements? H. A. PITMAN. Kensington Palace Mansions, W. JUAN MANUEL ROSAS.—Can any reader help me to particulars of this extraordinary man a career, the Argentine dictator who, after