Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/221

 9- s. V.MARCH 17, 1900. j NOTES AND QUERIES.

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as a certain cure. I had this remedy applied to me when I was a little boy, and it was gravely recommended when in mature age about thirty I suffered from a painful visita- tion of this nature. A lady has just told me that in or about the year 1866 a gold ring was rubbed upon a stye on her eyelid by hei mother, who was a well-educated woman, and by no means under the influence of what is commonly regarded as superstition.

EDWARD PEACOCK. Dunstan House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

' Gideon Giles ' was first published in 1840, not "about forty years ago/' as stated by ME. H. ANDREWS. This correction marks the belief as existing twenty years earlier than the period indicated in the previous note. J. POTTER BRISCOE.

Nottingham.

PRIME MINISTER (8 th S. x. 357, 438 ; xi. 69, 151, 510 ; xii. 55, 431 ; 9 th S. ii. 99 ; iii. 15, 52, 109, 273, 476 ; iv. 34 ; v. 94). On the remarks of MR. A. F. BOBBINS at the last reference I would observe that the phrase under dis- cussion does not occur in either of the quota- tions he jgives dated May, 1711 ; that, were it otherwise, both dates are subsequent to the date of Echard's introduction to the English translation of Pere d'Orleans's ' History,' and consequently, a fortiori, to the translation itself ; that the " prophetic utterance " of 29 Aug., 1704, is of itself sufficient to show that the phrase was not first applied to Harley ; and that I quoted it from ' The Life of James II.,' published in 1702. I subjoin further instances which I have taken from " The | Life | and | Reign | of | King Wil- liam III. | In Three Parts. | Part the Second, | Beginning with the Deatkof King Charles II. j and Ending with King William's | Accession to the Throne. | London : | Printed by It. J. for F. Coggan, in the Inner- | Temple-Lane, 1702."

1. " The Protestant side were wholly Ignorant of any Design to remove the Earl of Clarendon, not questioning but that he stood upon a firm Founda- tion ; namely, the King's late Assurance to the Earl of R ter, who was seemingly prime Minister of State/'-P. 58.

2. " The King depending upon a numerous Army, and a great Fleet, disregarded the feeble Attempts of the Hollanders ; at least, 'tis said, he was taught to disregard them by his prime Minister." P. 193.

3. "That whilst he was in with the Exclusioners he dextrously ingratiated himself with the Dutchess of Portsmouth, by whose Mediation he was soon admitted to the King's Favour, and by him recon- cile! to the Duke of York ; That he was become Prime M ster to the latter since his Accession to the Crown, by pretending to reveal the Secrets of the Presbyterian Cabal." P. 194.

4. " This Account of Skeltpn began to raise Suspicions against the Prime Minister." P. 219.

In 1 the Prime Minister is Rochester ; in 2, 3, and 4, Sunderland. I trust that the statement that Bobert Harley was the first to whom the term "Prime Minister" was applied has now received its quietus.

W. H. DAVID.

HORSE EQUIPMENT (9 th S. v. 148). From the Swiss lake dwellings there is evidence as to the date at which horseshoes and bits were first used in Europe. This I have collected and discussed in my book on the * Origin of the Aryans,' pp. 159, 161. The oldest bits were bits of stags' horn, found at Moringen and Auvernier, which belong to the Bronze Age. Terra - cotta figures found in Cyprus show that the horse was first ridden with a halter rather than with a bit, and the same, if I remember rightly, is indicated by the representations on the monuments of the New Empire in Egypt. All this is much anterior to the abundant evidence of such Roman monuments as Trajan's Column.

ISAAC TAYLOR.

'DR. JOHNSON AS A GRECIAN' (9 th S. iv, 451, 545 ; v. 71). The matter at issue between MR. JULIAN MARSHALL and myself is but trivial, and to discuss it further would be waste of space. "Johnson was never in Paris," says MR. MARSHALL. Good heavens ! Has the man ever read the immortal pages of Bos well? In them, under the year 1775, are printed letters from Johnson, one written from Calais and another from Paris, and a diary (lasting from 10 October to 5 Novem- ber) of his daily proceedings in France, the greater part describing his life in Paris. That Johnson " was never in Paris " is news indeed. C.

Pall Mall.

[Other correspondents point out the same.]

" HURGIN " (9 th S. v. 87). May not this be connected with the Scottish hurk, to slouch, and hurkill or hurkle, to crouch as a lion over his prey f \ Gavin Douglas uses the participle hurkulland when translating accumbens in the vivid simile of the lion in '^Eneid,' x. 727. Virgil has :

Gaudet hians immane, comasque arrexit et hseret,

Visceribus super accumbens,

which Douglas presents in these terms :

Joiful he bradis tharon dispituusly,

With gapand goule, and vprasis in liy

The lokkeris lyand in his nek rouch,

And all the beistis bowillis trymbilis throuch,

Hurkulland tharon quhar he remanyt and stude.

. also " I sit hurkleu in the ase " in the old