Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/446

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. JUNE 2, im

Martial is inveighing against one of the "nice idle citizens, surfeiting courtiers, and stall-fed gentlemen lubbers " of his time (to use Robert Burton's language), whose appetite has become depraved by over-indulgence. Hence these two lines :

Capparin, et putri cepas alece natantes, Et pulpam dubio de petasone voras.

With capers, onions in anchovy sauce, And lumps of measly pork you cram your jaws.

Halec or alec I take to be the generic term for the herring family, of which the anchovy is a member ; for this particular condiment was neither the muria nor the garwm, the former of which was got from the tunny-fish, while the latter, which was very expensive, is sup- posed to be of Indian origin. Brillat-Savarin, in his inimitable book (' Physiologie du Gout,' 41), almost identifies it with soy^ which is a sauce produced from fish fermented with mushrooms. The word putre must be here taken in its secondary sense, as, for example, broken up or disintegrated. By the way, a correspondent from the other side of "the herring-pond " has asked (ante, p. 248) what is the force of putrem in Virgil's famous line " Quadrupedante," &c. I hope he will not consider me " saucy " if I say he must have been thinking of a bog rather than of a field. The crumbling is only superficial ; the " solid ground " is there, which is the equivalent of " putrem campum " in Dryden's translation of the * ^Eneid.' The meaning of the word is " dusty," according to Heyne, who refers the student to the 'Georgics,' i. 44, 215, and ii. 204. If ME. THORNTON once hears the thud, thud, thud of a body of horsemen over an open stretch of country, he will instantly understand the truth and the force of the poet's words.

But enough of Nash, who boasts that he is "the first that ever set quill to paper in praise of any fish or fishermen." He makes no arrogant claim, for I think he is as much entitled to be called the " prose poet " of the herring as Fielding was of "human nature." With one last word, I end my contribution to this query. When Sir John Falstaff called Mistress Quickly " an otter," because " she 's neither fish nor flesh "(' 1 Henry IV.,' III. iii.), it is clear that he was playing upon this proverbial expression. Shakespeare's play and Nash's pamphlet were both published near the close of the sixteenth century.

JOHN T. CURRY.

An earlier instance is supplied in the 'H.E.D.':

Wone that is nether flesshe nor fisshe.

1528, ' Rede me and be nott Wrothe,' I. iii. b. J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

REGIMENTAL NICKNAMES OF THE BRITISH ARMY (9 th S. v. 104, 161, 224, 263, 377). There are some details lacking as to the official title of the regiments at the time of their acquisition of a nickname, and as to the reasons for which such names were bestowed upon them.

" Barrell's Blues," the 4th Foot. Also called the "Lions" from their badge, the lion of England. Col. Barrell was their commander from 1734 to 1739. " Blues " because of their blue facings.

The "Bengal Tigers," the 17th Foot, now the Leicestershire Regiment, from their badge, a green tiger.

Bingham's Dandies," the 17th Lancers, owed their designation not so much to the fastidiousness of their colonel, the Earl of Lucan, formerly Lord Bingham, as to the already admirable fit and smartness of their uniforms, a characteristic fostered and en- couraged by their colonel. Now the Duke of Cambridge's Own Lancers. Also the " Death or Glory Boys " (#.?>.), sometimes corrupted to the " Dogs."

The "Black Horse," also called the " Blacks " and " Strawboots," is the unofficial designation of the 7th Dragoon Guards or Princess Royal's Dragoon Guards.

" Blayney's Bloodhounds," now the 2nd Bat- talion Princess Victoria's Irish Fusiliers (the 1st Battalion is the old 87th Foot), were so nicknamed because of the unerring certainty and untiring perseverance with which, under Lord Blayney in 1798, they hunted down the Irish rebels.

The " Blind Half -Hundred," the old 50th Foot, were so called from their great sufferings from ophthalmia when serving in Egypt.

The " Brickdusts," now the 1st Battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry (the 2nd Battalion is the old 85th). So named from the colour of their facings, brickdust red. As the old 53rd the 1st Battalion was known as the " Five-and-threepennies," a play not only upon their number, but upon the pay of the ensigns.

The " Buff Howards," the 3rd Regiment of Foot, now as the East Kent Regiment con- tracted to the " Buffs," were so named from the buff facings of their uniform, and the name of their colonel from 1737 to 1749. Also called the "Nutcrackers," because of their despatch in cracking the heads of the Polish lancers at Albuera. Also the " Resur- rectionists " and the " Old Buffs " from their facings, to distinguish them from the 31st, the Young Buffs." But the most ancient "Old Buffs" were the Duke of York and Albany's maritime regiments raised in 1664,