Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/434

 426

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. MAY 25, 1000.

that he drove to the railway station as "the devil went through Athlone, by leaps."

M. N. G.

LA BELLE SAUVAGE (9 th S. v. 245). This inn sign is referred to by Timbs as follows :

"Bell Savage, or Belle Sauyage, Ludgate Hill, is a specimen of the players' inn-yard before our regular theatres were built. The landlord's token, issued between 1648 and 1672, bears an Indian woman holding a bow and arrow. The sign is thus traced : ' As for the Bell Savage, which is the sign of a savage man standing beside a bell, I was formerly very much puzzled upon the conceit of it, till I accidentally fell into the reading of an old romance translated out of the French, which gives an account of a very beautiful woman, who was found in a wilderness and is called in the French la Belle Sauvage, and is everywhere translated by our countrymen the Bell Savage ' (Spectator, No. 28). The sign, however, was originally a bell within a hoop, as proved by a grant temp. Henry VI., wherein John French gives to Joan French, widow, his mother, ' all that tenement or inn called Savage's Inn, otherwise called the Bell on the Hoop.' In the London Gazette, 1676, it is termed 'an antient inn.' Stow affirms it to have been given to the Cutlers' Company by one Isabella Savage, but their records state by Mrs. Craythorne." 'Curiosities of London,' pp. 397-8.

Under 'Cutlers' Hall' (p. 362) Timbs says: " In the Hall is a portrait of Mrs. Craythorne, who, in 1568, bequeathed the Belle Sauvage Inn, on Ludgate Hill, to the Cutlers, for charitable purposes."

JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

PYTHAGORAS AND CHRISTIANITY (9 th S. v. 248, 345). As one who is much interested in this poem of Bernard de Morlaix's, I should be glad to know what authority NE QUID NIMIS can produce for his positive statement that the "Via dextera Pybhagorea" is an actual allusion to the symbolic Y of his teaching, mentioned by Ausonius, Persius, Lactantius, and Pope in the 'Dunciad.' I had a con- jecture myself that this may be the reference, but I should like to have it confirmed by good authority. SUUM CUIQUE.

GEO. ROMNEY (9 th S. v. 289). Romney's library, such as it was, was included in the Romney sale at Christie's, 24 May, 1894. Many of the books were presentation copies from the authors to the artist. I purchased several at the sale. W. ROBERTS.

47, Lansdowne Gardens, S.W.

COLLECTION OF BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS (9 th S. iv. 247, 314). The writer of the reply at the last reference speaks of Philemon, verse 1 1, as containing the only instance of humour to be found in the Bible. This is too much to say. There are several other examples of humour to be found in both Old and New

Testaments. One might cite from the Old Testament Elijah's satire of the Baal wor- shippers on Carmel, and the many humorous vignettes of social life in the book of Pro- verbs, such as that of the buyer in xx. 14.

Instances of paronomasia, or plays on words, also abound in both Old and New Testaments. It is a favourite figure with Oriental writers, and many pointed examples could be given from the Hebrew prophets. A good collection of instances of paronomasia in the New Testament may be seen in the last section of Winer's 'Grammar of New Testa- ment Greek.' Prof. Blass, in his ' Grammar of New Testament Greek,' speaks of a 1 ' suggestion of wit " in such passages as 2 Cor. iv. 8, 2 Thess. iii. 11, and Acts viii. 30. He also reminds us that it is not strictly accurate to say that St. Paul plays upon the name of the slave Onesimus, "although he uses (in this passage only) the word ovaLfirfv, Phil. 20. The most that can be said is that the recipient of the letter might make for himself the obvious play of words from '0^- (ri^ov axp^crrov, 10 f." ALEX. LEEPER.

Trinity College, Melbourne University.

THE EARL'S PALACE, KIRKWALL, ORKNEY ISLANDS (9 th S. v. 337). Plans, sections, and drawings of the above will be found in the 'Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland ' (vol. ii. p. 337). T. R.

"JURY" IN NAUTICAL TERMS (9 th S. v. 267). I notice the following in the 'Encyc. Metropolitana ' (1845) :

"A Jury-Mast, as explained by Harris in his ' Lexicon Technicum,' the great forefather of all encyclopedias, ' seems to be properly duree mast, or mdt de duree, a mast made to last for the present occasion. So the seamen call whatever they set up in the room of a mast lost in a fight or by a storm, being some great yard which they put down unto the step of that lost mast, fastening it into the partners, and fitting to it the mizzen or some lesser yard with sails and ropes, and with it make a shift to sail.' To this account Mr. Todd has added, ' It has also been thought that the Norrnan French jur, jura, a day, might give rise to this word, im- plying a temporary mast, a mast for a day.' "

The 'Encyc. Londinensis' (1812) and the 'Encyc. Perthensis' (1816) also accepted without hesitation Harris's decision.

HERBERT B. CLAYTON.

In case the fact should be of any interest to your correspondent, I may say that I once saw it incidentally stated (I forget where) that " jury " in the sense referred to is a corrup- tion of the French duree, "duration." Cer- tainly "jury" in a nautical sense always means " temporary," but duree does not neces- sarily mean a short time. Duree is plausible ;