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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9< h s. v. MAY 19, 1900.

pression in the ninth scene of the second act of his * Nathan der Weise,' where, in describing Saladin's game of chess with Sittah, he makes Al Hofi exclaim,

Gleichwohl gait Es keine taube Nuss.

And yet the stake was " no deaf nut "that is, no trifle.

Lastly, in Horace, 'Satires,' II. v. 35, 36, we have a very close approach to the same idea :

Eripiet quivis oculos citius mihi, quam te

Contemptum cassa nuce pauperet. Which may be rendered thus: "Any man shall pluck my eyes out sooner than he shall slight you, or make you poorer by so much as an empty nut."

The short and the long of it is that the German word taub means not only deaf, but also empty. PATRICK MAXWELL.

Bath.

It does not seem, even yet, to be at all generally understood that the 'H.E.D.' is the right book to consult for the explanation of hard words and phrases. Yet any one who will take the trouble to consult that great work will find that the phrase deaf nut is carefully explained as being "one with no kernel," and two quotations are given of its figurative use. One of these is from Sir W. Scott himself, who, in a letter written in 1808, says : " The appointments are 5001. a year- no deaf nuts." He meant, of course, that they were real and substantial, beyond sus- picion of any mistake.

WALTER W. SKEAT. [Similar replies received.]

ARTISTS' MISTAKES (9 th S. iv. 164, 237, 293 ; v. 32, 317). The following may be added to the lists of the mistakes of artists which have already appeared. In 'The Life of Charles Dickens,' which forms one volume of the nineteen issued by the Daily News as a "memorial edition" of the great novelist's works, there is a very beautiful engraving after Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., of Dickens's grave in Westminster Abbey. Notwithstand- ing the explicit words in Forster's text oppo- site the picture, " Next to him lies Richard Cumberland," the artist or his engraver has placed upon the tombstone adjacent to that of Dickens the words "John Cumberland." It might have been thought that, apart from the text, the Christian name of the famous dramatist would be a matter of common knowledge. R. CLARK.

BOHUN : PLUGENET (9 th S. v. 269). There were only two De Pluguenets of Kilpeck, both

Alans, father and son. The elder was son of Andrew de la Bere by Alice, daughter and ultimate heir of William Waleran, who married Isabella, daughter and coheir of Hugh de Kilpeck. The elder Alan had Kilpeck by gift of his cousin, Robert Waleran. Why he took the name of De Pluguenet I know not. He married a Joan perhaps she was of that family. He died 1299. His only son, Alan, died s.p., and the last Alan's sister married Edward de Bohun, but died s.p. 1327, when Kilpeck went to her cousin, Richard de la Bere. I can give G. H. R. six descents of the main line of Pluguenets, and a good deal of the Bohun pedigree. There does not seem to be much known of the Kilpeck Pluguenets save that the elder Alan was a baron and Constable of Corfe (if it was not the Alan in the main line). The younger Alan is chiefly remark- able for making a rural dean eat his bishop's letter, seal and all, when the bishop called him to account for not burying his mother in Sherborne as she had ordered.

THO. WILLIAMS. Aston Clinton.

In the Journal of the British Archaeological Association, xxvii. 179-191, is a paper by J. R. Planche, ' The Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of the Earls of Hereford.' It appears to be the result of careful investigation. The only other pedigrees of this branch of the Bohun family which I can name will be found in Lipscomb's ' History of the County of Buckingham,' i. 206, and Baker's ' History of Northampton,' i. 544, ii. 239. There is, I believe, a Plugenet pedigree in the Topo- grapher and Genealogist, i. 30. G. H. R. has, no doubt, already consulted the reference lists quoted in the ' Dictionary of National Biography ' under Bohun and Plugenet.

HERBERT B. CLAYTON.

39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.

For the earlier part of the pedigree of Bohun G. H. R. should read an article in Her. et Gen., vii. 289. A note of my own about the Bohuns buried in Westminster Abbey is in ' N. & Q.,' 4 th S. vi. 455 ; and for Plugenet refer to Top. and Gen., i. 30.

A. S. ELLIS.

G. H. R. will find particulars of the Pluge- nets in Collinson's 'Hist. Somerset,' vol. ii. p. 331, under ' Haselbury Plucknet,' and in a recent work. ' Historical Memorials of South Somerset,' oy the present writer, under ' Preston Plucknet.' J. B.

ELIZABETH ALKIN (9 th S. v. 355). If ASTARTE will consult the ' Calendars of Domestic State