Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/156

 148

NOTES AND QUERIES.

s. v. FEB. 24, 1000.

These were vended by " une jeune capitaine " of the Salvation Army in front of the Grand Hotel, Paris. " I naturally asked her," says the Baron, " what an objet moralisateur was." And it appears that the young woman in- formed him that it was an object of daily use on which some moralizing maxim or text had been reproduced :

" It was then sold at a very moderate price ; so that the profane, attracted by the cheapness, found themselves allured to read these maxims mecha- nically every day, which could not fail to draw them, gently but surely, from the way of perdition."

How the Baron bought a pair of objets moralisateurs ; how, being on his way to the "at home" of a friend, he had no time to decipher their legend ; and how the all too aptly chosen maxim filled with Homeric mirth the salon into which he innocently but indiscreetly introduced them is a story scarcely suited to the sedate pages of 4 N. & Q.' To return to the point, therefore : Are objets moralisateurs really made and sold at the present day for the purpose of con- verting the unbelieving ? M. P.

HORSE EQUIPMENT. I shall be grateful if any of your readers can furnish me with authentic information as to the date and origin of saddles, bridles, stirrups, spurs, and horseshoes. W. A. T.

CAT'S - MEAT SQUARE. I have been told that this fictitious name was given by Dickens to a notoriously insanitary neighbour- hood, but can find no mention of it in his novels. Could any contributor kindly help me ? TABITHA.

[The name is not only fictitious, but real. In a recent coroner's verdict on a death from over- crowding it came out that Wellington Place, Regent's Square, Gray's Inn Road, is locally known to-day as "Cat's-Meat Square."]

" WIDOW'S MAN." Can any reader of man " ? It is used in the list of a ship's crew in 1771. EDWARD E. MORRIS.
 * N. & Q.' explain the expression " widow's

[See Annandale's ' Ogilvie.']

ASTROLABE CLOCK. The inscription " Hen ricus Gratte Invenit & fecit, London," is on an astrolabe calendar clock having a pendu lum, although it goes equally well with th< pendulum detached. Any account of this maker will be thankfully received.

BEDERICKSWORTH.

[The name Henry Gratte does not appear in Mr Britten's 'Old Clocks and Watches and thei Makers.']

GOTHIC " SPAURDS." Can any one supplj the etymology of this word? It = oTaSioj/ ii

}t. John vi. 19. Dr. Jantzen, in No. 79 of he " Sammlung Goschen," * Gotische Sprach- 'enkmaler,' says: "a.h.d. spurt : das Wort ibte im Engl. sport, fort, <fec." Is this a ortuitous coincidence, or can Feist or Wacker- mgel, s.vv.. throw any light on it?

H. P. LEE, Lieut.-Col.

ST. JEROME. Which is the most complete edition of St. Jerome's works? Have the

Epistles ' been translated into English ?

BEN HUR.

[The best edition of 8. Hieronymus is that of Vallarsi, Verona, 1734-1742, 11 vols. folio, reprinted Venice in 1766, 11 vols. 4to. Certain 'Selected Epistles of 8. Hierome,' with his lives of St. Paul, the first hermit, St. Hilarion, and St. Malchus, were translated into English, and published in 4to.,

630.]

ELIZABETHAN TERMS. Can some kind reader of * N. & Q.' give me the meanings of the following words, occurring in documents of the time of Elizabeth ?

Sprangstaf or Prangstaff. A " staff with three sprangs." Used as a weapon.

Welsh hook. Also used as a weapon.

Winbell. Carried by a horseman, perhaps a riding staff sed quaere ?

Counterlyne. Apparently a token or imi- tation coin, to judge from the context.

Lugg. A measure of length, but what ?

C. H.

" ONE AND ALL." To what period can the motto of Cornwall, " One and all," be traced, and is anything known of its origin as applied to that county ? DUNHEVED.

PICTURE BY CRUIKSHANK. I have in my possession an oil painting of a banquet, signed "G. Cruikshank." The size, without frame, is about 50 in. by 28 in. The guests are not seated at the tables, but their names are shown on serviettes stretched from the table to the chairs. There were about 150 present, Mr. C. N. Palmer, M.P., being in the chair. On his right hand at the principal table were H.E.H. the Duke of York, Lord Combermere, Earl Bathurst, Marquess Cam- den, Earl Harewood, and others ; and on his left H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence, Earl of Liverpool, Earl of Westmoreland, Right Hon. George Canning, Right Hon. W. W. Pole, Lord Binning, Right Hon. Wm. Huskisson, Right Hon. Robert Peel, and others. Several of the guests were prominent members of the West India trade. There is nothing on the picture to show the date of the banquet, where it was held, or why ; but there is no doubt it was held in London in 1815, 1816, or 1817. The presence of so many eminent public men shows that the occasion must