Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/409

. v-. MAY 19, 1900.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

401

Papers ' of the years of the Dutch war she will find there references to all that is known about this excellent woman.

SAMUEL R. GARDINER.

" INTIMIDATED THRONES " (9 th S. v. 335). A cheap, but incomplete edition of Words- worth's poems, published without date by Gall & Inglis, Edinburgh, contains the single line, " Why do ye quake," &c., in place of the two lines beginning "Ye thrones," which I find in Moxon's edition of 1854, and which are evidently altered from an earlier edition. Wordsworth's continual revisions are, how- ever, given in Prof. Knight's edition, which I have not seen ; and DR. MURRAY may answer his own query satisfactorily by consulting that edition. F. ADAMS.

115, Albany Road, Camberwell.

DR. MURRAY'S conjecture is correct. In the paragraph in the seventh book of ' The Excursion ' which begins

When this involuntary train had ceased, instead of the lines which now run Ye Thrones that have defied remorse and cast Pity away, soon shall ye quake with fear,

the original edition of 1814 has the single line,

Why do ye quake, intimidated Thrones ?

W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

Prof. Dowden, in his notes appended to 'The Excursion' ('The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth,' v l- y i- P- 381 Aldine edition, 1893), states that the two lines (Book vii., 837, 838) quoted by DR. MURRAY were previously in one line, as given in the ' Encyclopaedic Dictionary.'

A. C. W.

OLD AND NEW STYLE OF CHRONOLOGY (9 th S. v. 268, 344). I am much obliged to MR. LYNN for his explanation of what has happened in the case of Lord Mayor's Day. Supposing that it was formerly the festival of SS. Simon and Jude, I naturally concluded that it became 8 November on the change of style, and was automatically transferred to 9 November in 1800. As, however, the day was 29 October ("September" is, of course, a slip), it would become 9 November at once, and clearly neither has been nor will be changed. Thus the identity has been lost. I would submit that this permanent adop- tion of 9 November is a mistake, for, on the change of style, two perfectly logical methods of dealing with anniversaries were admissible. Either the same day could be retained with a new name or the anniver-

sary could still be attached to the day having the same name (e.g., 25 December and other festivals), though the day thus described was not the same. Thus Lord Mayor's Day could have been kept on the same day as before, i.e., 9 November till 1800, 10 November till 1900, and 11 November hence till 2100; for, in order to retain what is actually the same day (29 October O.S.), it would be necessary from time to time to alter the date N.S. Or, on the other hand, if this alteration were thought to be a nuisance, it could be avoided by the second method, viz., adhering to the day called 29 October, in spite of its not being actually the same day. In the former case you would be keeping the same day really, in the latter case the same day nominally. But what has been done is to change the name, apparently with a view to keeping the real anniversary, and then stick with a superstitious reverence to the new name thus adopted, as though that were sacrosanct ! From 1752 to 1800 the day called 9 November was identical with the old Lord Mayor's Day (29 October) ; since 1800 the identity has been lost, and the day thus kept has not been "the morrow of SS. Simon and Jude" either in name or in reality. The same mistake has been made with regard to George III.'s birthday. If he intended to stick to the same nominal date, he should have continued to keep it on 24 May, regardless of the change of style. If he wished to keep the real anniversary, he should have kept it on 5 June N.S. from 1800, and Eton should now observe 6 June as the commemoration. W. E. B.

FAGGOTS FOR BURNING HERETICS (9 th S. v. 269, 326). When I was churchwarden of St. James's, Garlick Hythe, Upper Thames Street, I used to collect the rent of some

E remises near the river which were left by a idy for this purpose. I believe the rent is now paid to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. If MR. HIBGAME will communicate with the rector, the Rev. H. D. Macnamara, M.A., I have no doubt he will be pleased to give further information. R. B. WARRICK.

VOLANT AS A CHRISTIAN NAME (9 th S. v. 229, 293). I have never known any person bearing the name of Volant, but have supposed it to be a name given to men. Should it be feminine, it may be a con- traction of Violante, an Italian name, which, I think, is given to women, and which seems to signify the violet flower. The names lanthe, which is classical, and lolanthe, which does not seem to be so, may have an affinity to this name. There is also an