Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/299

 g»s. vi. SEW. 29, i9oo.) NOTES AND QUERIES. 245 starres" both here and in Job, and he evi- dently means by this the Pleiades, for he gives a marginal note on Job ix. 9 : " Some call these seven starres the cluck henne with her chekens," which is a well-known designa- tion of the Pleiades, and in this rendering he, in fact, follows Luther, who translates the word die Glucke, i.e., "the cluck-hen." Coverdale's translation is followed in the Great Bible and other English versions ; but the Authorized, whilst retaining " the seven stars" (an expression perhaps to some am- biguous) in the passage in Amos, substitutes "the Pleiades" in the two passages in Job. The ' Speaker's Commentary ' on Amos tells us that the cluster " consists of seven large and many smaller stars." Now the word " large" is, of course, comparative in mean- ing, though not in form. The ancients gave seven .na.mes to the stars in the Pleiades, but speak of only six as visible, there being a widely diffused tradition that one had dis- appeared, according to the well-known line in Ovid's ' Fasti' :— Qua; septera dici, sex tamen ease solent. The fact is the seventh is much fainter than the six brighter ones, though persons with keen unaided sight may see it, and, indeed, several other stars in the group fainter still. W. T. LYNN. Blackheath. A NEW SENSE OF " GARLAND."—In the course of my examination of the MS. Visita- tions of the Archdeacons of Canterbury ] came across an unregistered use of the wore "garland" for a parish jollification, as the following extracts prove. This meaning is not in the 'H.E.D.' nor the 'Diet, of the Kentish Dialect.' Preaton - next - Winfjham, 1608. — " We presen John Allen, then also churchwarden of our parish for that he kept a garland in his house on the 24 June last past, being Midsummer Day, the 29 day of th same month, being St. Peter's Day, and the firs day of July following, being Sunday, and thei suffered playing upon instruments and dancing al the said two holy days without intermission, and o the said Sunday, after evensong was ended, unti eight or nine of the clock at night, all which tim there was much tippling ana drinking, as th common fame is in our parish." Recently I found the next:— 1600, Chislet.—"We present Timothy Fugester of Grove Ferry, within the parish of Chislet, fo that they keep open their door in the service time About Midsummer last past, in the afternoon o Sunday, there should have been a garland with minstrel playing there. I went after dinner an gave them warning of it, but yet their door wa kept open and full of people." Preston and Grove Ferry are only two mile part, so that the word might be strictly ocal. It also shows that the present pubhc- ouse at Grove Ferry is successor of one that xisted there in 1600. Grove Ferry is on the Jreat Stour, between Canterbury and Satul- ich. ARTHUR HUSSEY. LONG ADMINISTRATION.—The Yorkshire Post f 22 August had the following two leaderettes, rhich may be interesting to some of your readers :— " A careful examination we have made of poli- ical annals discloses the fact that the present Government has established a record of a ver^ re- markable character. Although Lord Salisbury s is he first Cabinet which has contained so large a umber as twenty members, it has remained intact oncer than any which has existed since the Cabinet vstem was introduced into English Government ibout 200 years ago. No other Administration has vcr gone five years without some change in the nighe? offices of State. Walpole held the Chancel- orship of the Exchequer throughout his long Pre- miership of twenty-one years, but scarcely a year passed without some change in his Cabinet, t itt, during his supremacy of eighteen years, had five Presidents of the Council, as many Lord Pn vy Seals, ind four Home Secretaries, and there were numer- ous other changes. Lord Liverpool had an altera- tion in the penumnel of his Cabinet in eight of the ifteen years of his Premiership. Shorter-lived Ministries have had similar experiences, for even when personal or political differences have not led to resignations, illness or death has caused some change to occur in the course of less than nve years. " Lord Salisbury and his colleagues have been fortunate, not only in the health they have enioved, but in their immunity from dissension. Mr. Evelyn Ashley, in his 'Life of Lor dPfmer- ston ' quotes the statement of one who had been all his life in association with Cabinet Ministers, that he never knew a Cabinet whose members did not quarrel more among themselves than with their opponents. In the case of Lord Salisbury s Govern- ment, however, there has scarcely been a suggestion of any dissensions, and there is no reason to doubt that on all largo questions of policy they have been thoroughly united. Moreover, notwithstanding the disintegrating effect of a large majority, they have been singularly happy in the almost unanimous sup- port which has been nearly always yielded by their followers in the House of Commons. To complete the effect of the picture it is only necessary t« glance at the chaotic condition of the Opposition, which is without parallel during the present cen- tury We may add that Lord Salisbury has now been Prime Minister longer than anv other states- man since the passing of the Reform Bill. I suppose the second half may beoP6" to argument. "• "• " RUE."—Perhaps it is worth noting that, owing to the peculiar sense of the English verb to rue, the Shakespearian jest about the herb rue signifying contrition is so much older than Shakespeare's time that it goes back nearly to A.D. 1320 ; for it occurs in N Bozon's 'Contes Moralises,' ed. Miss