Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/373

 9<-.s. iv. Nov. is, m] NOTES AND QUERIES. 423 the training given in their normal colleges and universities, should be required to settle in the south of England for a time to improve their tone and accent! Before such snob- bishness one can only exclaim, with Glasgow's immortal Bailie Jarvie, " Ma conscience ! " Where, one may ask, are Wallace wight and well-skilled Bruce now? See Dr. Murray's ' Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scot- land ' for scholarly and suggestive treatment. Thomas Bayne. Ben Jonson (9th S. iv. 347).—The passages referred to are ' Bartholomew Fair,' IV. i.:— "Talk of him to have a soul? 'heart, if he have any more than a thing given him instead of salt, only to keep him from stinking, I 11 bo hang'd afore my time, presently : where should it be, trow? in his blood? He has not so much to'ard it in his whole body as will maintain a good flea !"— and ' The Devil is an Ass,' I. iii.:— That you are the wife To so much blasted flesh, as scarce hath soul, Instead of salt, to keep it sweet, I think Will ask no witnesses to prove. Percy Simpson. " Bold Infidelity, turn pale and die " (9th S. iv. 268, 332). —This seems to be a common form of epitaph on children. I have met with it in several places with slight variations. I think that its ascription to the Rev. T. S. Grimshawe is at least doubtful. Against the western wall of the churchyard of Beverley Minster is the tombstone of " William Makepeace, aged 4 years and 7 months. Died 181(1)." Then follows the epitaph in question, word for word as Mr. Pickford gives it, save that the singular number takes the place of the plural. Un- fortunately the last number in the date is now quite illegible ; but the inscription was evidently cut between 1810 and 1819. From the appearance of the stone and the forma- tion of the letters, I should incline to the earlier date. Charles Hiatt. I have received from Mr. J. E. Foster, of Cambridge, the following interesting note, which I have his permission to use :— I have always understood that this epitaph was composed by the Rev. Robert Robinson, minister of the Baptist Chapel here, who died in 1790, for the grave of some great-aunts of mine, who died in infancy about 1770, and were buried at Hanxton Churchyard, near here. At all events, it is inscribed on the stone over their graves. J. E. Fostkk. 10, Trinity Street, Cambridge. This carries the date of composition consider- ably further back than that given by Mu. Pickford. Tiios. Katcliffe. Russian Word (9th S. iv. 206, 278).—What a terrible falling-off there would be in the demand for wedding rings and baby clothing if any amount of gazing into tell-tale eyes— And large black eyes that flash on you a volley Of rays that say a thousand things at once— of "spooning," in short—really tended to more than satisfy any man's love, or woman's either ! On this aspect of the matter I would venture, with all due deference, to suggest whether the French gentleman may not possibly have failed to convey the precise meaning of the particular " winged word he instanced which eludes our grasp. The general truth of his panegyric can hardly be gainsaid, and Mr. Marchant has shown in his interesting note at the last reference that the Russian language contains words to the full as tender and beautiful in meaning as the one described. Nor are tolerably tough and uncouth vocables lacking. A lady of the country tells me she has recently seen in print a grotesque adjective snotishibatelnaya, of which the regularly formed superlative, applied figuratively to an anecdote or statement, would signify " in the highest degree calculated to knock a man off his legs," i.e., with astonishment. But I am turning autour du pot, and my real reply to Mr. Bouchier's friendly challenge must simply be, " I don't know/' H. E. M. St. Petersburg. Ailantus (9th S. iv. 347). — Mr. Lynn's "Ailanthus" should be Ailantus. Ailanto is said by Don, 'General History of the Dichlamydcous Plants,' i. 807, to be the name of Ailantus glandulosa in the Moluccas. Des- fontaines was the first botanist to utilize the local name as that of the genus. A reference to Bentham and Hooker's 'Genera Plantarum' would doubtless give the exact reference to the place in which Desfontaines first adopted the generic name. The earlier botanists do not say that it is locally called "tree of heaven " on account of its height. The name Ailanto is probably a fancy one, just as the horse-chestnut in this country. W. Roberts. Mr. Lynn does not note the fact that this is a corrupt form, and that the name of the tree is really Ailantus, from the native Amboyna Aylanto. See the ' H.E.D.' s.v., where we are told that the name is said to mean " tree of the gods," or " of heaven." C. C. B. The Hell of the Poets (9th S. iv. 126, 217, 290, 336).—Almost all spirits, which are not human, are allowed to have the power of transforming themselves. They may become human beings, animals, and things palpable or impalpable. They are generally supposed