Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/421

 * S. IV. Dec. 2, '99.] 461 NOTES AND QUERIES. the whole building, but that fortunately the saintly relics did not share the fate of the general fabric, but were piously removed to a new church which stood upon the site of the present fine old parish church (since mainly rebuilt), dedicated to St. Mary and St. Eanswyth. There, deposited in the thirteenth-century wall, close by the altar, they appear to have rested secure and un- disturbed until unearthed in an unexpected manner (by myself) in June, 1885. Harry Hems. Fair Park, Exeter. The old church at Whitby will soon share this fate. Tradition says that it was built at a distance from the sea. Are not there said to be several churches under the Goodwin Sands ? E. E. Thoyts. 'Sesame and Lilies' (9th S. iv. 380).—The passage quoted will be easily understood if the reader will refer to Ezekiel viii. 7-12. How grateful we and our successors ought to be that Ruskin knew his Bible so well ! How instructive and forceful are his allusions to the sacred Scriptures ! James Hall. Lindum House, Nantwich. [Many other replies are acknowledged.] "As SURE AS THERE IS A HIP ON A GOAT" (9th S. iv. 187).—I find in 'Hudibras' these words:— So shepherds use To set the same mark on the hip, Both of their sound and rotten sheep. Alfred J. Kino. 101, Sandmere Road, Clapham, S.W. " Piert " (9th S. iv. 328).—Charles Kingsley learnt this good old word in the West Country he loved so well, and spelt it after his own fashion, a fashion better than that of Halliwell, peart (q.v.), or of others who have had occasion to write it. No word in literary English precisely expresses the idea of peart, least of any does pert. In this latter there is a decided implication of impudence, and it is anything but a word of praise, whereas peart conveys the impression of sprightly liveliness, of a joyous, healthy, fresh, happy condition, in the person or animal to which it is applied. " So peart's a cock rabbin " is one of our every-day similes, and is but a variant of that in the ' Water Babies.' Of a child who had been drooping and ill I heard it said quite lately, " Her's better, thank'ee—her do look up peartlike again now." F. T. Elworthy. The ' Encyclopaedic Dictionary ' states that peart is still in use in many parts of England ^lively, brisk; applied to both persons and things. Cider when bright and sparkling is said to be peart. Up here in the North (cf. Heslop, 'Northumberland Words') we have peart = pert, lively, forward; also im- proved in health or appearance, said of animals generally—"It leuks a vast pearter." The Pilgrim Fathers carried the word over to America; hence we have in Col. John Hay's 'Little Breeches ' the child of four, who was Peart and chipper and sassy. Always ready to swear and nght; and who, being lost in a snowstorm, was found in the shed "where they shut up the lambs at night " :— And thar sot Little Breeches and chirped As peart as ever you see. See also 'N. & Q.,' 1" S. ii. 276 ; xi. 114, 232, 244, 274. High. Welford. "Per pro" (9th S. iii. 468; iv. 38, 76).—At the last reference early examples of the phrase are said to be desired. Here is one from Peter Candidus December, master of correspondence to Pope Nicholas V. A letter concerning Appian, preserved at Florence (in the Central Royal Archives, among the Medi- cean ecclesiastical parchments, No. 36), dated 7 Dec, 1450, he neads " per procuratione Nicholas V." Prof. Mendelssohn vouches for the accuracy of the transcript. Hippoclides. Polkinghorn (9th S. iv. 108, 214, 311).—No one seems to have thought of comparing this name with similar ones in other Celtic dis- tricts. There is at least one Kinghorn in Scotland, and Kinghorn occurs as a surname amongst us. The old Scotch etymologists maintained that the Fife place of that name meant "Green or Blue Point" (Gael, cinn (form); the new school prefers " Head of the Horn, Bend, or Corner" (Gael, cinn citirn ; nom. corn). The Cornish pol-qan-hoern, '' iron pool," has been shown by a local correspondent to be inapplicable. Polkinghorn is the designation of a small estate only. Is it not quite possible that the latter part of the name embodies the cognomen of an ancient owner of the estate, and that Polkinghorn therefore represents simply Kinghorn's Pool ? I do not think this is an unreasonable suggestion ; but local records should be searcbed for the earliest spellings. We ought, at any rate, to be spared the etymological atrocity involved in "the pool or marsh in the horn-like valley belonging to the king." Hy. Harrison. The Origin of " Tips " (9th S. iv. 308, 352). —Other similar phrases, some of them old, are convincing enough that the coffee-