Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/348

 286 NOTES AND QUERIES. [se s. VL om. 13, woo. _Q V “ The Epithet of one sort of Weight call’d Troy is certain y false, and without any foundation ° The word a pears so us’d 1n_no forreign, nor old English Authors. It is certainly a Corruption of Trcne or Tron. See Fleta, hb. 2, c. 12 where Tron- Wei ht plainl signifys the same. Trcna in hun signighes y° Scale beam, and Tronage in c' Statutes signif s a kind of Toll paid for weighing of goods. Vid. &Iestm. 2, c. 25, an. 13 Ed. I.’ But A. J. Knapp. in his ‘Roots and Ramifi- cations’ (privately printed, 1856), pp. 42-3, states that “the ound Troy derived its name from Troyes, a city oi) Champagne, where it was astandard weight. The ounce of this weight was brought from Grand Cairo into Europe about the time of the Crusaders, and was first adopted at Troyes; ‘ la libre de Troy is used with us as early as 1414 in the second statute of 2 Hen. V. ch. 4. In li,ke manner, the towns of Cologne and Toulouse had their pounds, which were standard weights.” It must not, however,  supposed from the above that I am pleading in sugport of Dr. Sharpe’s contention. W. I. . V. “ L’AIGLON.,’-M&d&U16 Sarah Bernhardt is not the lirst actress who has personated that so-called Aiglon the Duc de Reichstadt. I find that in the early months of 1832 a piece written by Deforges and Eugene Sue, entitled ‘Le Fils de l’Homme,’ was produced at the Nouveautés. “Le Roi de Rome” was acted by the brilliant, inimitable Déjazet, and she would naturally lay the greatest stress upon the lighter, gayer, and more lover- ike qualities of the unfortunate son of Napoleon and of Marie Louise, whose fatal heritage was “un nom qui ne lui permet ni la gloire, ni Pobscurité.” I-I. Scnirrz WILSON. AN H1s'roR1c PARALLEL. - In the eighth book of Voltaire’s ‘ History of Charles XII. gf Sweden ’ we find this characteristic anec- ote :- “ Un jour que le roi dictait des lettres pour la Suede A un secrétaire, une bombe tcmba sur la maison, lperca le toit, et vint éclater pres de la cham re méme du roi ...... Au bruit de la bombe et au fracas de la maison, qui semblait tomber, la plume échappa des mains du secrétaire:
 * Qu’y a-tiil d<;nc?’ lui dit le roi, dug air tranquille ;

ur uoi n’ crivez-vous ias. eui-ci ne put rgpbndre que ces mots: ‘ Eli! sire, la bombe I’ ‘ He bien,’ reprlt le roi, ‘ :lu’a de commun la bombe avec la lettre que je vous icte? Continuez.”’ Compare with the above the following incident related in ‘ The History of Napo- leon Buonaparte,’ vol. i. chap. ii. (Murray, 1830):- “ It was during the siege of Toulon that Napoleon, while constructing a batter under the enem ’s fire, had occasion to prepare a despatch, and called out for some one who could use a pen. A young ser- geant, named Junot, leapt out, and, leaning on the breastwork wrote as he dictated. As he finished, a shot struclx the ground by his side, scattering dust in abundance over him and everything near him. ‘Good,’ said the soldier, laughing, ‘ this time we shall Spare our sand.’ The cool gaiety of this please Bucnaparte; he kept his eye on the man; and Junot came in the sequel to be Marshal of France and Duke of Abrantes.” The two scenes are remarkably similar in the general features; the particular difference is that the savzgfrozd is recorded in the one case of the principal actor, in the other of the subordinate one. There is also a strong point of contrast. C. LAWRENCE Fonn, B.A. Bath. SLEEPING IN CHURCH.- “Many Monuments of the Dead in Churches in and about this Citie of London, as also in some places of the Ccuntrey, are couered with seates or pewes, made high an easie for the Parishioners to sit or sleepe in, a fashion of no long continuance and worthy of reformation.”-‘Ancient Funerall Monuments,’ John Weever, London, 1631, p. 701. R. BARCLAY-ALLARDICE. SLANG Wonns Fon GIN. (See ante, p. 161.) “ ‘ What d’ye mean by tape?’ cried Copper. ‘ Read that list,’ answered she, taking a dirty paper out of her bosom, in _which was written the follow- ingbwords: ‘ Tape, glam, rushlight, while port, rasher of acon, gunpowder, .sl-ug, wildjre, knock-me-down and strip-me-naked.’ ‘Ol this last is gin,’ cried Copper; ‘but for mylfmart, I love beer best.”’- g�7g6;am_ Tfgdervy, istory of Two Orphans’ , nn. . He_re in Suffolk gin is often called whores’ drmk. F. H. Marlesford. GAD’S HILL.-In a volume of presentments made to the Archdeacon of Canterbury, now in the cathedral library at Canterbury is the following under date 1612, when Joel Clarke, of Linstead, was presented for abusing the apparitor of the archdeacon :- “ And further said your court (meaning the King’s Majesty’s Ecclesiastical Court at Canterbury) is a ......scurvy court, and there sat a sort of compan of pickpockets, and a man shall find as much conscience at Gadd’s hill (being a notorious place of robbery) as amongst them.” ARTHUR Hussnv. Tankertcn-on-Sea, Kent. Prrcusn BA'r'rLE.--A pitched battle, ac- cording to ‘H.E.D.,’ is one which has been planned and of which the ground has been chosen beforehand by bot sides. If this definition be correct, there never was a Eitched battle when either side was surprised. ut in many great battles, which would be usually described as “ pitched,” there has been a surprise. Nothing forbids our believing