Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/517

 9* s. v. JUNE 23, looo.j NOTES AND QUERIES.

505

and dico). The meaning is "truth telling, veracious." The authorities quoted are Ur-

Suhart, "This is so veridical history," and arlyle, "For our own part we should say, would that every Johnson had his veridical Bos well or leash of Bos wells." Roget gives "veredical" as an adjectival synonym for " veracity." ARTHUR MAYALL.

[It may possibly be a misprint for "juridical," as MB. H. INGLEBY and other correspondents suggest.]

ROGERS'S 'GINEVRA' (9 th S. V. 3, 92, 154).

C. C. B. is right in supposing that I was not acquainted with the ballad of ' The Mistletoe Bough,' and I am obliged by his calling my attention to it.

I have not yet come across it, but I find a mention of it in 'The Reader's Handbook,' by the late Dr. Brewer, where it is assigned to Thomas Haynes Bayly, who died in 1839. The date of Rogers's * Italy,' containing 'Ginevra,' is 1822-28.

The same useful work of reference says that a similar narrative is given by Collet in his * Causes Celebres.' It also refers to three English country houses with each of which a like tale is connected. The names of these are given, and they are probably among those alluded to by Rogers himself in a note to 'Ginevra,' which I had overlooked. Rogers says :

" This story is, I believe, founded on fact ; though the time and place are uncertain. Many old houses in England lay claim to it. Except in this instance and another (p. 429) I have everywhere followed history or tradition ; and I would here disburden my conscience in pointing out these exceptions, lest the reader should be misled by them."

This note would seem to disclaim any

Italian origin of the tale at all, although in

both Adams's 'Diet, of Eng. Lit.' and the

Handbook ' Ginevra is naturally spoken of

as an Italian lady.

I may add that Shelley's * Poems ' include a fragment of some length, entitled 'Ginevra,' dated Pisa, 1821 (Paris, ed. 1829). It is said to have been founded on a story con- tained in the first volume of a book entitled 4 L'Osservatore Florentine.' The bride, who seems to have married against her inclination, is found dead on her wedding-day, but the incident of the chest is wanting. Shelley died in the same year that the first part of Rogers's 'Italy' was published.

C. LAWRENCE FORD, B.A.

Bath.

"WOUND" FOR "WINDED" (9 th S. v. 4, 95, 177, 277). MR. BAYNE appears to argue as if to blow a horn and to wind it were two different things, I do not for a moment j

believe it. It is, of course, possible to blow into a horn without "blowing" it in any proper sense ; but really to blow it is the same as to wind it. There is no superior skill implied in the latter expression. Even the substantive " wind," Skeat tells us, was "originally a pres. part, with the sense of ' blowing.' " Let us see how the case stands with regard to ordinary usage. When Browning's hero comes at last to "the place," he tells us that

Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set, And blew. "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came."

So, too, in Tennyson's 'Oriana' and the ' Bugle Song ' in ' The Princess.' When the hero of the first-named poem heard " aloud the hollow bugle blowing " a call to battle, and when in the other the command is given, "Blow, bugle, blow," or we are bidden to hear " the horns of Elfland faintly blowing," the mean- ing is precisely the same as if the verb *' to wind " had been used. We are surely not to suppose that any of these " blowings " were less skilful than the performances of Scott's heroes, who " winded " or " wound " their bugles as his metre happened to require.

MR. BAYNE'S ingenious distinction between " wind " and " wind " will not have much weight with any one familiar with our English folk-speech. A haymaker will rake his hay into " windrows " ; but if he is asked why, it is quite a matter of chance whether he replies because the " wind " or the " wind " will thus dry it better. C. C. B.

JOHNSON'S BIRTHPLACE (9 th S. v. 452). To those who would like to compare notes con- cerning the alterations which have taken place in the outer appearance of this house during the last century, I would say that a view is to be found in the Mirror of 20 October, 1832. It was copied from a plate issued in the first volume of the Gentleman's Magazine for 1785, and therefore dates back practically to Dr. Johnson's time. At the time of the sale of the house in 1887 a very good view appeared in the Graphic of 29 October. A comparison of the two pictures will reveal the few structural changes which have been carried out.

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

"THE SPOTTED NEGRO BOY" (9 th S. V. 456).

In 'The Book of Days,' edited by R. Chambers, vol. ii. p. 267, is some account of the spotted boy. There is also a woodcut of the ''"beautiful spotted negro boy,' a child whose skin was naturally mottled with black, and whose form has been carefully delineated