Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/375

 9" s. iv. NOV. is, >99.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 425 sion to MR. BEESLAR. Being rather long, the full name used to be cut down some- times—not to "Shepherd's Walk," however, but to "Shepherdess Walk." Then, in like manner, I remember the " Fields " were some times called the "Britannia Fields." This was owing to there being another roadside tavern, a tea-garden house, in a line with, and about half a mile east of, the old "Shep- herd and Shepherdess" at the west corner of the same fields. The second house bore the sign of the " Britannia," but it was not nearly so old as the other house. The " Bri- tannia " is, I think, now quite an up-to-date "public." J. W. M. GIBBS. The form was optional, for the walk was a thoroughfare to the "Shepherd and Shep- herdess Fields," once a pleasantcountry resort, where " silly folks" might lie. A. H. "Loon" (9th S. iv. 346).—The very inter- esting note at this reference has suggested that the word "limmer" is also used in another sense than that directly given by Jamieson. He does not classify it as an adjective. Here are three instances in which it is so used :— His brother waa hurt three days before. With limmer thieves that did mm prick. '.Ballad of Rookhope Ryde.' What's that thou say'st, thou limmer loon? ' Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.' Hence with 'hem, limmer lowne. 'Sad Shepherd.' It may be contended, however, that "limmer" here, although qualifying a noun, is not an adjective, but, in spite of the absence of the hyphen, goes to make up a compound noun. In that case, in view of its repeated use with "loon," one may assert that a third and intensified meaning of "loon" exists under the form " limmer loon." There is an inter- esting side-light on the use of " loon" as meaning boy under ' Loun's-piece' in Jamie- eon. ARTHUR MAYALL. "TIFFIN" (9th S. iv. 346). —MR. JULIAN MARSHALL is doubtless quite right in as- suming that the origin of this word lies in English slang, or, rather, in English collo- quial language, but this is not a new disco very. Yule and Burnell, in their ' Hobson-Jobson,' p. 700, gave the same quotation as that which MR. MARSHALL has supplied from Grose's 'Lexicon Balatronicum,' 1785, and they point out that the word does not occur in Anglo- Indian literature until 1810, when, however, it could not have been new. The earlier spelling seems to have been tiffing, which was probably a participial noun from the word tiff, which has the double meaning of (1) small beer, in which sense it is used by Bishop Corbet in one of his poems, and (2) a draught of liquor. Yule and Burnell consider that the word is related to tip and its apparent derivatives tipple and tipsy. The verb to tiff, in the sense of taking tiffin, is found in Elphin- stone's ' Life,' in the year 1803. It seems to have been one of the old words of which the use is abandoned in England, though retained in America and the colonies. W. F. PRIDEAUX. The statements as to this word are recon- cilable. It is certainly Anglo-Indian ; but it was taken to India by Englishmen, being of provincial English origin. I have already said this twice. Its ultimate origin seems to be Scandinavian. WALTER W. SKEAT. FIRST HALFPENNY NEWSPAPER (9th S. ii. 604 ; iv. 270,357).—In the biographical sketch of James Bertram which appears in his volume entitled 'Some Memories of Books, Authors, and Events ' (Constable i Co., 1892), it is said : " In 1856, while managing the North Briton, he had attempted to set up a halfpenny morning paper called the Bawbee—in this venture he wasapioneer—butonly afew num- bers appeared." The proprietors of the Shields Daily Gazette claim for it the honour of being the earliest living published daily paper at a halfpenny. WILLIAM ANDREWS. Hull Press. A GRANITE TRAMWAY (9th S. iv. 263, 350).—Referring to my notes under this heading, ante. p. 350, may I say I believe the West India Company shared the tram- way and warehouses with the East India Company? The hours for commencing the labour of the day at the warehouse were 8 A.M. in summer and 9 A.M. in winter, not 7 A.M. and 8 A.M. respectively. HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter. MAJOR WILLIAM GORDON (9th S. iv. 188,256). —The authority for my statement about Major Gordon for which COL. PRIDEAUX asks is the printed report of the trial, which will be found in the British Museum indexed under Gordon.' I am too far from home to be able to give the exact name of the pamphlet. I still want to know Gordon's origin. J. M. BULLOCH. 118, Pall Mall, S.W. LES DETENUS (9th S. iv. 288, 355). — ! can remember in 1848, on ray first entrance at Oxford, meeting the Rev. John Barnabas Maude, M.A., at that date the senior Fellow of Queen's College, who