Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/73

 iv. JULY 15, 53 NOTES AND QUERIES. or negative sense as is usually supplied in French by the context. The usage, how- ever, is so rare in English that its affinity with Gallic idioms is remarkable. W. H. H. /'APHIKOUMON" (9th S. iii. 485). —As a piece of the Passover cake is saved from year to year in some Jewish households, so in some Christian homes a loaf of bread baked on Good Friday or one of the " cross-buns " peculiar to the day is carefully preserved, to be used for styptic and other remedial pur- poses. See, for instance, Brand's 'Popular Antiquities, vol- i- p. 155. George IV.'s Queen Caroline appears to have shared the belief concerning sympathetic shrivelling :— "She was in the frequent habit after dinner of moulding little wax figures, which she supplied with horns, and into which she stuck three pins taken from her dress, previous to roasting them before a fire. She did it half in bravado and half with the superstition that by destroying this curious series of effigies of her husband she would in turn destroy him."—Tytler's ' Six Royal Ladies of the House of Hanover,' p. 280. ST. SWITHIN. A HOY (9th S. iii. 365, 491).—I have already note_d two old quotations for hoy in my dictionary, viz., Spenser,' F. Q.,' ii. 10, 64, and Gascoigne, 'Fruits of War,' st. 136. But I now find that "an hoye of Dorderyght" is mentioned as early as 1495, in 'The Paston Letters,' ed. Gairdner, iii. 338. However, the next part of thel H.E.D.' will tell us all about it. WALTER W. SKEAT. "A religious Hoy sets off every week for Margate." See Sydney Smith's article on Methodism in Edinburgh Review, 1808; ' Works,' vol. i. p. 94 (Longmans, 1859). K. M. SPENCE, D.D. [Uther replies are acknowledged.] 'Goon LINES' (9th S. iii. 466).—A curious use of the word "line" (a variant on that noted by MR. THOMAS) is with reference to selling. " Well," says the hopeful " commer- cial," "you may be able to give us a line some da'y." This really means that the buyer may perhaps find some particular "standard" that just suits his purpose, in which case he is likely to become a steady customer for the " line " in question. In such a thing as sugar it is easy to see the value of the custom, which saves time for both buyer and seller. In this case the origin is surely to be found in the lines of a railway. Dickens, in ' Private Theatres,'has: "His line is genteel comedy —his father's, coal and potato. He does Alfred Highflier in the last piece, and very well he 11 do it—at the price." I think that the general use of the word in this sense has arisen either from the line painted over the windows of a shop, or from the single line, giving name and business or profession (even to "gentleman"), allotted to each name in a directory. GEORGE MAKSHALL. Sefton Park, Liverpool. Unquestionably, as our Editor suggests, a "line originally meant the entry of an order made by a commercial traveller in his order book. A popular article with trades- men would frequently recur in the order book, and so come to be designated a " good line," from the traveller's point of view. But articles popular with the tradesman giving the order would become so owing to public demand for them, hence a traveller's " good line," equivalent to "a good order," would to the tradesman represent "a good article"— that is, an article of ready sale. It is not unusual for a pushing tradesman to advertise certain articles as "good lines" or "cheap lines.' As Good Lines is altogether a class paper, and it is of the utmost importance to commercial travellers to arrange their visits to towns on other than early closing or market days, the list to which MR. THOMAS refers is a valued feature of that paper. The inclusion of such a list in the'ABC'one would have supposed would have suggested itself to the proprietors of that periodical long ago. F. A. RUSSELL. This is a well-known and much-used phrase both by traders and "commercials." The latter tells his customers that he has a new and " good line " to show ; and when he has taken an order, he may say, " You Ve given me a good line." The trader, in turn, tells his customers that he has a good line to offer. A good order is a good line, which may range in value from five to a thousand pounds. Generally a new article of trade is a new line," ana a " commercial," if he is up to date with what he has to show, carries many " good lines." As a rule commercials have no bad lines. THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop. There is yet another sense in which the phrase " a good line " is frequently used. A traveller will say, " I am showing a good line in printed calicoes," meaning not merely a good article, but a good bargain. Is not this the sense intended oy the title of the journal Good Lines ? C. C. B. NOUNS OF SINGULARITY (9th S. iii. 405).— There can be no possible objection, so far as I see, to expressions ("a shot in the leg," ike.), which W. C. B. seems to think less