Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/160

 152

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. v. FEB. 24, 1900.

attention of the congregation, was not objected to. His name was Sheriff. He died a number of years ago, and his sketches were secured by a bookseller with a view to their publication, but I do not know if this ever took place. He certainly never wrote the 'Travels of Dr. Syntax,' although his having borne the name may have caused parties to ascribe the composition to him, and to throw doubts as to Mr. William Combe being the real author. Alike doubt was thrown upon the authorship of ' The Burial of Sir John Moore' by a Durham farrier laying claim to its composition ; but, so far as 1 am aware, Dr. Syntax of Edinburgh never laid claim to being an author. A. G. REID.

Auchterarder.

The reference here to a magazine article has probably been misleading. 'Modern Athenians ' (A. & C. Black, 1882, pp. 2 and 3) speak about John Sheriff, on whom the name of "Dr. Syntax" was bestowed, "from the remarkable likeness he showed to the figure so called in Rowlandson's coloured prints, published about the year 1815." G. L.

The authorship of the * Three Tours of Dr. Syntax' has been so fully discussed in the pages of * N. & Q.' that, unless any new light can be thrown on the subject, they may, without doubt, be attributed to the pen of William Combe (see 4 th S. ii., iii., iv.).

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

THE KNIGHTS OF BRISTOL (9 th S. iii. 321). I have been much interested in the account of the Knight family of Bristol. I am quite sure that if the writer of it had examined the will of Francis Knight, " one of the Aldermer of the City of Bristol/' he would have founc that the testator does not mention a son George. The will is dated 8 August, 1616 and was proved 12 October of the same year (P.C.C. Cope, 112). In Le Neve's 'Knights, p. 175, it is distinctly stated that George Knight, of Bristol, merchant, father of Sir John Knight, Mayor, &c., was a son of John Knight, of Com. Oxon.

I am interested in trying to find the ancestry of a certain Christopher Knight, a good account of whom will be found in Oliver's 'History of the Island of Antigua In my search I have gathered a good deal o information concerning the family of Knight HOWARD WILLIAMS LLOYD.

Germantown, Philadelphia.

THE SURNAME JEKYLL (9 th S. iv. 415, 483 I am afraid that I do not understanc A. H.'s position. The Welsh luddew is, o

ourse, merely borrowed from the Latin Judceus, and is entirely unconnected with he Indo - Germanic root yudh. It has, aturally, no connexion with the Celtic personal names derived from this root, which cannot be brought into relationship with O.E. guS, "battle." That, as is well mown, has lost a nasal before the spirant, n accordance with a familiar law of O.E. philology, and therefore corresponds to an Ider gwnp (O.H.G. gund=O.^. f gunnr, from uriSr). Its Greek cognate is <ovos, &c. The uffix had represents an older saglo-, and has herefore nothing to do with English hale, Greek KaAos and Sanskrit khalu, which are not related to one another.

W. H. STEVENSON.

THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER" (9 th S. V. 65).

PROF. SKEAT'S paper on this subject is nteresting- no doubt his conclusions are correct. The subject of colour has not re- ceived the attention which it deserves. Much las, I need not say, been done from the point of view of art and physical science, though even there further investigation will lave to be made; but the students of history, philology, and folk-lore have hitherto given .t little attention.

Green is very noteworthy ; sometimes it seems the symbol of the springtide, and con- sequently of hope, mirth, and gladness, at others it is connected with immodesty and jealousy. It is notably a rare tincture in our older English heraldry. This may be because it was regarded as of evil import. Can it have been connected with the evil eye 1 We are told that the cloak of Death was of green (Ballad Soc., xxi. 27), and in Caithness it was unlucky to wear green on a Monday (Scott, fairies' fatal green" ('Lady of the Lake,' iv. 13). Green stockings for women were formerly considered a sign of an evil life. Marlowe, describing a woman of loose cha- racter, speaks of
 * Border Min.,' iii. 345). We hear also of " the

Her green silk stockings and her petticoat Of taffeta, with golden fringe around.

' In Gellam,' xxvi.

This colour is still used as a social badge by the women of Greenland. The hair is fastened up in a knot by ribbon, " being red for girls, blue for married women, black for widows, and green for those who were neither widows nor maids "(A. Riis Carstensen, 'Two Sum- mers in Greenland,' 22). At times in France it has been a political symbol. On the occasion of the murder of Henry III.

" so great was the general joy that the people put on green mourning, la livrde desfous, and Madame de Montpensier, the daughter of the murdered