Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/17

 9 th S. V. JAN. 6, 1900.]

NOTES AND QUERIES,

9

Scott at the Phillips sale, and formerly belonged to Hugh, Viscount Oholmondeley, of Kells, in Ireland, who was born about 1663, succeeded as viscount in 1681, and was created Earl of Cholmondeley on 29 December, 1706. He died 18 January, 1725. The armorial book plate in the volume describes him as Viscount Cholmondeley, so it maybe presumed that he owned it prior to 1706, when he became an earl. Mr. Scott possesses a MS. of David Moysie's ' Memoirs ' which has the same book-plate of Viscount Cholmondeley. It would therefore appear that he was a collector of Scottish MSS. Can any of your readers inform me how this English nobleman became a collector of Scottish MSS., and how he acquired these two MSS. ?

JEi. J. J. MACK AY.

" BULLY. "This week a hockey match was played in aid of the Reservist Fund at Aberdare, and on the ticket of admission I find the following: "Bully off by David Hughes, High Constable, at 3 P.M. punctually." Is this meaning of the word bully to give the first push to the ball a usual one ? It is not given in ' H.E.D.' D. M. R.

[" Bully " is the opening of play by the crossing of sticks by two players before hitting the ball. The use seems similar to "bully," the scrimmage in Eton football, duly given in ' H.E.D.']

DANDY'S GATE. What is known of Dandy's Gate, an old toll in Bermondsey ? Possibly so named from the family or indi- vidual who farmed it. Any details will oblige. A. H.

"THE BEURRE." In his entertaining 'Voyage au Pays des Mines d'Or,' by Raymond Auzias - Turenne, recently pub- lished, the adventurous author writes as follows (p. 114) :

"Rares sont les Anglais, quoiqu'ils fussent en grand nombre au pied du Chilkoot. Les trois quarts sont retournes au confort du sweet home et la Bible avec du the beurre."

What is the meaning of "the beurre"?

T. P. ARMSTRONG.

Timperley.

t" Une beurree " = " ime tranche de pain sur laquelle on a etendu du beurre." Does this help ?]

"WITCHELT= ILL-SHOD. I am told by an elderly resident in South-East Lancashire that this word was in use there early in the cen- tury. It is related that an old man who travelled on a donkey from village to village (selling blacking, I think) was on one occa- sion taken through a pool of water, wetting the old man's feet, whereupon he exclaimed to his donkey : " What does tha' tak' me

through th' way ter for, when tha' knows I 'm witchelt?" Is the word still in use in any part of England, and is there any standard or dialect word of similar meaning to which it is related ] CHARLES J. BULLOCK.

OLIVER CROMWELL AND MUSIC. (9 th S. iii. 341, 417, 491 ; iv. 151, 189, 276, 310,

401, 499.)

MR. DAVEY makes fresh assertions which prove his want of knowledge of the subject under discussion. In defence of his un- warranted aspersion of organ accompani- ment before the Civil War, he speaks of the Mulliner MS. as one proof. He forgets to tell us where the MS. is; fortunately I can do so with a very certain knowledge, having pur- chased it at Rimbault's sale for 84/., and having subsequently handed it over to the British Museum, where it can be seen (No. 30,513). That book contains a variety of compositions, including the well-known madrigal "In going to my naked bed," by Edwardes, but has no organ accompaniment of any kind. Next, MR. DAVEY asserts that the organist of the Chapel Royal " possessed an old printed score of the well-known service by Orlando Gibbons, as played by Gibbons himself, full of meaningless embellishments." The identical copy possessed by the organist of the Chapel Royal is lying before me ; it is merely an organ part, not a score, and was privately published by Mr. Stainer (now Sir John) in 1864; it was copied from a manu- script in Magdalen College, Oxford. Neither the MS. nor the printed copy has a single word suggesting that it was so performed by Gibbons; but fortunately the MS. explains what the music so arranged was intended for. The headings or indexing in the MS, read as follows : " Tallis in D, organ part varied "; " Te Deum, Mr. Tallis, with varia- tions for the organ "; " Te Deum, Mr. Orlando Gibbons, in f fa ut, varied for the organ," Dr. Hopkins, in Grove's ' Dictionary,' says :

"There is little doubt therefore that the ver- sions under notice were not intended as accom- paniments at all, but were variations or adaptations like the popular ' Transcriptions ' of the present day, and made for separate use ; that use being doubtless as Voluntaries. This explana- tion of the matter receives confirmation from the fact that a second old and more legitimate organ part of those is also extant, for which no ostensible use would have existed, if not to accompany the voices."

I shall not follow MR. DAVBY'S excursion into the field of Coloratur or of German