Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/189

 9»s.vLAuo.25,i9oa] NOTES AND QUERIES. 155 have seen it. In Shakspeare alone do I remark passages that raise the doubt. But his land descriptions are both highly poetical and vividly natural. One of his descriptions of what he could have seen from land was lately quoted in'N. & Q.':— t And flecked Darkness like a drunkard reels From forth Day's path. I can testify that no image is more true. I have myself noticed the peculiar way in which darkness disappears before the lignt of day. It seems to reel. E. YARDLEY. LARGEST FIRST ISSUE OF A BOOK (9th S. vi 49, 93).—The following paragraph appears in the Publishers' Circular of 4 Aug., and is an answer to your correspondent's query:— " Messrs. Methuen have decided to publish Miss Marie Corelli'a new book, ' The Master Christian,' on August 29. It may be of interest to note that the number (75,000) printed of this book before publication is, so far as the publishers know, the largest on record." EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. LAMB FAMILY (9th S. vi. 47).—In vol. ii. of the Parish Register Society, 1896, 'The Re- gisters of St. Alban's, City of Worcester,' p. 11, is the following entry :— "Rich: Randall de Ombersly i Ann Lambe, of the fore said p'ish, were married January the 17th, WM. NORMAN. 6, St. James's Place, Plumstead. MiDwrvBS1 EPITAPHS (9th S. v. 453). — In Bitton Churchyard, co. Gloucester, is this epitaph:— "In memory of Hannah Ship, Midwife for 30 years, who brought into the world upwards of 14,000 children, wife of Joseph Ship of this parish, who died 17 April, 1817, age 58 years.1' Allowing that Bitton was a very prolific village, the above number attended by one person is a manifest exaggeration. V. B. HORSE EQUIPMENT (9th S. v. 148, 213, 360). —Allow me to refer your readers who are interested in this subject to the article 'Frenum' in Smith's 'Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,' and to another entitled ' Horse' in the ' Dictionary of the Bible,' edited by the same scholar, where they will find many instances cited. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. been the more prominent man of the two. In the list of representatives in Parliament for Exeter occurs:— " 1640. Simon Snow and Robert Walker. During this long Parliament, Robert Walker, refusing to take the League and Covenant, was dismissed, and Samuel Clarke substituted." I find no other reference to him. Of Christo- pher Clarke, however, we read a good deal; at the Restoration, for instance, upon 11 May, 1660, King Charles II. being proclaimed, Mr. Marshall, the ex-Mayor, dia " cause three hogsheads of good claret wine to be put into the cisterns of the three conduits to be drunk out to his Majesty's health," and a stirring address, signed "Chr Clarke, Mayor," was at the same time voted by the municipal body to his Majesty. It will thus be seen that Christopher was not only Mayor in 1642-3, but in 1659-60 also. Further, the same able authority tells us Christopher Clark (not spelt Clarke in either of the following in- stances) was Sheriff in 1639-40, and again in the years 1654-5. HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter. " TRAFFIC " (9th S. v. 456).—The subject is complex: (1) Dr. Magniisson's suggested terapheka, "a coin," though late, may be generic from tereph, an image, referring to the image or superscription on gentile coins for circulation, not unstamped like Kruger's new dummies. Biblical students know tereph in the plural as the lares and penates of Laban and Rachel, called " teraphim"; and, as a whole, the subject is mixed up with tariff. (2) MR. KREBS should give us the sup- posed root of " teraffuk," which may be con- nected with taraph, rendered agitation; so we also have tarap, "hurry, haste," and, indeed, the " traffic" at a crowded railway station is of that nature. All this assimilates to Scheler's trafi, trafu, traficar, and these forms are con- nected with the Hebrew taraph, to tear, so trifa, torn food, rejected as unclean, and obviously allied to the Greek rptiria. A. HALL. Highbury, N. SAMUEL CLARKE, M.P. (9th S. v. 496).— According to the late Dr. Oliver's ' History of the City of Exeter' (1861)—which, although incomplete, is probably the most trustworthy Christopher Clarke appears to have " BLENKARD" (8th S. vi. 89, 398, 473; x. 116, 160; 9th S. v. 402; vi. 16).—A "blinkard" is a person who blinks too much, and a "drunkard" a person who drinks too much ; and "drinkard " would be much more probable and thorough-going cant for a strong wine than "blinkard." But it does not seem neces- sary to speculate on the subject. Blenkard was very plainly not a " strong, cheap wine," since the price was little below that of canary. The red Rhenish "Bleahard" of Pepys was a " pretty wipe "—ft term, by the