Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/83

 9's.v.jA H .27,i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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1370. He was present at the coronation at Scone of the first Stewart king, Robert II. (1370-90), and was made cardinal in 1381. His name is attached to documents in 1389, though Fordoun, the historian, says he died 1387. He was uncle of Henry Wardlaw, Bishop of St. Andrews, who founded the Uni- versity there in 1410. Besides the copy of the family history mentioned as being at one time in France, it is said there was another at Torrie, brought down to the close of the fifteenth century. See Millar's ' Fife, Pictorial and Historical,' 1895. J. L. ANDERSON. Edinburgh.

HEADING TO A CHAPTER OF THOMAS A KEMPIS (9 th S. iv. 538)." Ama nesciri " is riot, I think, to be found as a heading to any chapter of the * Imitation,' but it occurs in 1. 34 of chap. ii. bk. i. : " Si vis utiliter aliquid scire et discere, arna nesciri et pro nihilo reputari." The phrase is a quotation from St. Bernard's third sermon on the Nativity (St. Bernard, 'Opp.,' torn. i. p. 782, ed. Mabill., Paris, 1690): "Tu ergo, qui Christum sequeris, absconde Thesaurum. Ama nesciri, laudet te os alienum, sileat tuum." The phrase became a proverb among the brothers of common life. Further information as to the use of the phrase will be found in the notes to ch. ii. bk. i. in the edition of the * Imitation ' by C. Hirsche (Berlin, C. Habel, 1891).

J. A. J. HOUSDEN. [Similar replies acknowledged.]

I cannot give any better reference than my memory, but I believe that Matthew Arnold made the disparaging remark which was
 * THE BOOK OF PRAISE,' &c. (9 th S. v. 28).

S noted, the occasion being a lecture at xford delivered in his capacity of Professor of Poetry. WM. H. PEET.

ANKER-HOLES OR ANCHORITES' CELLS (9 th S- iv. 519). Sir Walter Besant, in his 'West- minster,' said that an anchorite had been appointed at Westminster. The statement was made from an unpublished document of apparently the reign of Henry IV. (1399- 1413).

The late REV. W. SPARROW SIMPSON directed attention to this statement, and asked through ' N. & Q.,' 8 th S. viii. 408, where the " unpublished document " was to be seen. No reply was given, and I now repeat the question, possibly with better success.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

THAMES TUNNEL (9 th S. iv. 419, 467 ; v. 35). The tone of MR. CHARLES COBHAM'S note is certainly rather surprising. The opinion of

Ralph Dodd imputed to me is even more surprising in the form quoted. That Dodd was a man of ideas, and only of ideas, I venture to think there can be very little doubt. MR. COBHAM certainly does not even attempt to make him anything else. If he had any other stock-in-trade than ideas, how did it happen that the tunnel from Gravesend proved such a failure? It is ridiculous to think that the Board of Management was entirely to blame. Dodd's original estimates were absurdly in- adequate. When he appeared in the direct conduct of the work he was absolutely in- effective. It took some years of pottering and wasting money to show that he was in- competent, even in the essentials of the work- ing scheme. Brunei was a man of different calibre. It is rather surprising to find him mentioned with Dodd. The canal scheme came to nothing ; the London dock scheme was futile. What are the achievements of Dodd (not of other people) on which MR. COBHAM would lay stress? It is to no purpose to argue about the value of ideas. Some of Dodd's (one notably, about the London water supply) were sound enough. But his performances were scarcely great enough to warrant the erection of a statue to his memory anywhere outside the kingdom of Barataria, where ideas reigned supreme. GEORGE MARSHALL. Sefton Park, Liverpool.

ENIGMA BY W. M. PRAED (9 th S. v. 26). A short article on * Sir Hilary's Prayer,' by Mr. S. T. Whiteford, will be found in Longman's Magazine, December, 1882. The solution sug- gested was "Adieu," and as used alternatively, "A Dieu" and "Aide Dieu." Several other solutions were also offered by correspondents in the following February issue of the same magazine, viz., "Restrain," "Heart Ease," "Pension," " Good - night," "Farewell," &c. The editor, however, adds an expression of his opinion that it is doubtful if any of the solutions suggested will be accepted as final.

WM. H. PEET.

"QUAGGA" AND "ZEBRA" (9 th S. V. 3). I

have no knowledge of the Bantu languages, with the exception of a very superficial acquaintance with Kiswahili, which I picked up at Zanzibar, and I cannot therefore say how far MR. PLATT'S derivation of quagga may be correct. But with regard to zebra, MR. PLATT has been deceived by Isenberg. There is no such word in the Amharic lan- guage, though Isenberg has it in his * Diction- ary.' It is, in fact, a ghost-word, and the only reason for its spectral existence is that Isen- berg in his missionary schools was called on