Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/243

 9* S.V.MARCH 24, 1900.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

235

a nine days' siege, surrendered to Spinel with his English captains (Grotius, ' De Rebu? Belgicis,' p. 802, English version by T. M.) No names are given, but Sir Henry Carej may possibly have been one of these Englisl captains. AYEAHR.

"BIRD-EYED" (9 th S. v. 168). In North Lincolnshire "bird-eyed" means near-sighted See ' English Dialect Dictionary,' s.v. ' Bird, 4 (6). A. L. MAYHEW.

EDWARD CAREY, M.P. FOR WESTMINSTER (9 th S. v. 47, 154). Since my query I have discovered that Sir Henry Carey, of Cocking- ton, Devon (knighted 1644), had two younger brothers, Edward and John, aged respectively five and three years at the Visitation oi Devon in 1620, but of whom nothing further seems to be recorded. The elder might easily have been the M.P. for Westminster in 1656. John Carey, of Somerset, who was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1656, would, I fear, be a

generation too late.

W. D. PINK.

EDGAR A. POE'S ' HOP-FROG ' (9 th S. v. 4, 155). The catastrophe in Poe is caused deliber- ately. It is possible that the same was the case with the historical incident. At any rate, Jean Sans Peur, Duke of Burgundy, when accused of compassing the death of the Duke of Orleans, alleged as his justification among other things that the murdered man had deliberately attempted the life of Charles VI. at the Hdtel de Saint Pol. See Monstrelet, chap, xxxix. ARGINE.

"NONE" (9 th S. iv. 439, 544; v. 38). Lexi- cographers tell us of " ghost-words " that have come into being on the basis of a blunder, and in a similar way the correspondence under this heading may be called a " ghost- discussion." Its basis was an extract credited by ST. SWITHIN in good faith to the ' Century Dictionary,' whereas, in fact, the paragraph never formed any part of that dictionary, nor as a whole, I am sure, except as a quota- tion, of any other book or published matter whatever. But since the wraith is not wholly mist, and there really exists in it at least a windmill, if not the knight in armour to be combated, it may be worth while to explain its appearance. Three years ago the Cen- tury Co., publishers of both the 'Dictionary' and the magazine bearing their name, in- stituted a competition that offered large money prizes for the best answers to a set of one hundred and fifty questions sent to competitors who qualified under the con- ditions. All answers were to be based upon information found in the ' Century Diction-

ary,' but many questions were so framed as to call for judgment and nice discrimination in balancing the pros and cons. Afterwards the answers of the first prize-winner were printed in the Century Magazine, " letter for letter and point for point," without correction of mistakes, and these were the only answers published. The query part contained in the first four lines of the supposed quotation given by ST. SWITHIN is one of the easiest of these competition questions, and what follows is evidently the answer of some unknown con- testant, and has, therefore, only the authority of a private opinion. The last sentence, which drew out ST. SWITHIN'S moot question of veracity, is especially a personal utterance, for the ' Century Dictionary ' does not touch at all the point involved in it. M. C. L. New York.

I think one may fairly object to "any men "; the locution is as ungrammatical and as common as " those kind," " each are," and so forth, which it is to be hoped no persistency of vulgar usage may cause to be accepted as standard English. ST. SWITHIN.

'EXPOSTULATION' (9 th S. v. 127). William Cowper wrote a poem with this title about 1775. Is this the one J. S. M. T. wants ?

A. J. DAVY.

Torquay.

PLASHED HEDGES (9 th S. v. 127). Whether these hedges originated in Normandy or England I cannot say, but they appear to have been known here early in the seven- teenth century. William Browne, in his Britannia's Pastorals,' 1616, book ii. song 4, says :

So though the stubborn boughs did thrust him back, For Nature, loath so rare a jewel's wrack, Seem'd as she here and there had plash'd a tree, If possible to hinder destiny.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

In Sussex these hedges are called " splay -

jhered," pronounced "splashered." The

Century Dictionary ' gives the Old French

' plassier " as one of the forms for " plash."

'Plassier" and "splasher" are very similar

n sound, though it is difficult to see how the

has come in, unless by a confusion with

espalier," to which the " splayshered " hedge

las some resemblance. H. A. HARBEN.

lames quoted names for variola ? Are they lot rather names for varicella (chicken pox) ? Smallpox is not especially a disease of hildren ; and although before the intrp-
 * CHILDERPOX" (9 th S. v. 128). Are the