Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/499

 a» a. iv. dec. 23, m] NOTES AND QUERIES. 527 for fresh inquiries with regard to these claimants. The new material (it was new at least to me) is contained in Mr. F. Espinasse's ' Literary Recollections,' 1893, and it consists of nothing less than some "autobiographical notes " by Beaconsfield himself. These notes were given by their writer to Mr. Espinasse to help him in a biography which he had then in hand. In describing the notes Mr. Es- pinasse confines himself to saying that in several particulars they correct what had been put forth by other biographers, in- cludingeven Mr. Froude. The corrections deal chiefly with the stories that Disraeli had been a solicitor's clerk, and that he was connected as editor with Mr. Murray's newspaper failure, the Representative. Other matters more or less interesting are disclosed or explained. One of these is that Disraeli claimed as his first venture in print a translation from Theo- critus which he called an "Adonisian Eclogue," though Mr. Espinasse says that no such work had ever before been heard of. (Query, Is this "Adonisian" translation in 'N. & Q.V bibliography of Disraeli ?) The gist of these "autobiographical notes" of Disraeli was duly printed as proposed in the 'Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography ' (Glasgow and London), and it is to the ' Dictionary' version I would suggest reference by those seeking further information on Disraeli's early life generally and the birthplace more particularly. Mr. Espinasse, it seems, was one of the editors of the ' Dictionary' men- tioned. J. VV. M. Gibbs. At 6th S. x. 457 appears a copy of the entry of Lord Beaconsfield's birth in the registry of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Bevis Marks. The date is there given as " 21st December, 1804." Is there any reason to doubt the accuracy of this entry ? A correspondent at 7th S. iii. 442 adds (quoting from the Times of 23 April, 1881) that " the date is confirmed by an entry in an old family Bible belonging to the father of Lord Beacons- field." In his 'Literary Landmarks of Lon- don ' (1885) Laurence Hutton produces some evidence of a seemingly circumstantial nature to prove that Lord Beaconsfield was born at Trinity Row, Islington, in a house now known as No. 215, Upper Street. John T. Page. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. " Barnyard " for " Farmyard " (9th S. iv. 419).—Is this not a survival from the time of the Pilgrim Fathers 1 Friends who have visited the older states mention their surprise to hear over there some of those fine old Eng- lish provincialisms that still greet the ear of the angler and the wanderer in sequestered nooks among our southern and western counties. Now, in the early part of the seven- teenth century, outside of towns and cities, nearly everybody above the rank of a peasant had a barn and a barnyard, and while the word farmyard belonged principally to a farm, the other term was more commonly used and more generally known. In their small holdings the Virginian settlers would give the name they knew best to the en- closure wherein they put up their rough-hewn structures, and so the word may have been preserved and handed down, until now it has spread over all the land. Richard Welford. In Lincolnshire, and I think in other parts of England, barnyard and farmyard had, and still have, somewhat different significations. The farmyard includes all the buildings of the farmstead, with its yards and other ap- purtenances ; the barnyard is the enclosure adjoining the barn where the cattle are confined when not in the pastures. In former days, when thrashing was done with the flail, the barnyard was a necessity. It was usually.on the south side for the sake of warmth. It was a part of the duty of the thrashers to carry, at intervals, the thrashed straw into this yard and to deposit it in the " tumbrels " and " hecks " for the cattle to eat. Edward Peacock. Dunstan House, Kirton-in-Lindsey. Halliwell, in his ' Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words,' describes barnyard to mean a "straw-yard." Annandale, in the ' Imperial Dictionary,' says it is the yard adjacent to a barn, or the enclosure sur- rounding the farm buildings, and therefore doubtless the two words are used synonym- ously. Everard Home Coleman. 71, Brecknock Road. Bleeding Image in CnRisT Church, Dublin (9th S. iv. 127, 311, 407).—In another long note on this subject Mr. Peacock remarks that "your correspondent is evidently of opinion that, notwithstanding the investigations of the late Rev. T. E. Bridgett, this story is worthy of credit." If Mr. Peacock will kindly read my reply, he will find that there is not in it the faintest allusion to the story of the bleeding image ; his remark, therefore, on what my "opinion" on the matter is is utterly unfounded. The purport of my note (as I should have thought superficial reading would show) was a subject of much greater importance. It was to expose the attack made by Father Bridgett upon Robert Ware, an honourable and valuable his- torical compiler—made without the slightest