Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/429

 ‘e I.. -_ f, ‘-**‘°-"1-tr-'-» - . ._--- ._ __ __ _ _ 9* S- VI- N Ov- 3. 1900-1 NOTES AND QUERIES. 355 representative audience of educated persons listen to two speakers, one saying jest, Sandy, censlzury, and the other just, Sunday, C677/t'lL7?/, and I do not doubt that the large majority would feel instinctively that the atter spoke the better English. W. C. B. A venerable friend of mine invariably says revcn'us illustrate, contem/plate, com >en'sate, dtc. ; also balcdny and bicg/cle. She calls people of her own generation her co-tem- poraries, and, furthermore, speaks of a rise in anything as a rice. Is this latter a personal peculiarity of speech, or was it formerly the correct and general pronunciation of the noun substantive of the verb “ to rise ”? JEANNIB: S. Pormm. At the last reference your correspondent makes a statement against which I must protest. I am not “aged” nor “dignified,” and I may not be “learned,” but with regard to the pronunciation of just as jest, I can say that with a long and varied experience in town and country, at home and abroad, I have never heard a gentleman say jest. The associations of the nursery, &c., where jest is generallly prevalent, may survive among boys and gir s until checked by their elders, it is true, ut the result remains as above stat/ed, so far as my experience goes. Your corre- spondent might go further and advocate jes’, which one ears; but DR. MURRAY must surely maintain some standard. H. P. L. L.Nc1cLo'r Bnows (9"‘ S. vi. 268).-This eminent landscape gardener of his day, who from the constant use of the phrase “This spot has great capabilities” became known as “Calga ility Brown ” was born at Kirk- harle, orthumberland, where he was bap- tized on 30 August, 1716. While yet a boy he developed a taste for gardening, and was taken into the employ of Sir William Loraine. In 1739 he entered the service of Lord Cobham at his princely residence of Stowe, near Buckingham. Upon the death of Lord Cobham, in 1749, he settled at Ham- mersmith, where the possessors of large estates sought his advice and assistance. His reputation brought him under the notice of George II., who made him his head gardener, with a residence at Hampton Court, where for thirty years he reigned supreme. Mason, in his ‘English Garden,’ says:- Him too, the leading leader of thy w’rs, Great Nature ! Him the muse shailo hail in notes Which antedate the praise true Genius claims From just posterity. Bards yet unborn Shall pay to Brown that tribute fitliest paid In strains the beauty his own scenes inspire. Cowper,_ in the third book of ‘ The Task,’ thus satirizes the all-powerful gardener :- Imyrovement too, the idol of the age, Is ed with many a victim. Lo! he comes- The omnipotent magician Brown appears, Down falls the venerable pile, the abode Of our forefathers, a grave whiskcr’d race, But tasteless. Springs a palace in its stead. He speaks. The lake in front becomes a lawn, “Foods vanish, hills subside, and valleys rise, And streams, as if created for his use, Pursue the track of his directing wand, Sinuous or straight, now rapid and now slow, Now murmuring soft, now roaring in cascades, E’en as he bids. Th’ enra tured owner smiles. ` ’Tis finish’d ! and yet iinisli’d as it seems, Still wants a grace, the loveliest it could show, A mine to satisfy th’ enormous cost. Mr. Brown was appointed High Sheriff for the counties of Huntingdon and Cambridge in 1770. His friendship with the noblemen who had employed him continued to his death. One evening in 1783 when returning from a party at Lord Coventry’s he fell in the streets and died (‘ Chron. North-Country Lore and Legend,’ 1889). Evnssnn Home Conmusu. 71, Brecknock Road. In Hodgson’s ‘History of Northumber- land,’ part ii. vol. i. is a long and interesting memoir of “Capability Brown,” who was descended from t e Browns of Ravenscleugh, in Redesdale 5 born at Kirkharle (not Har e- Kirk, as edprinted in foot-note to M. A.’s query); ucated at Cambo; and while em- ployed by Lord Cobham at Stowei in Bucks, married a young woman of the vil age named Mary Holland. He died suddenly on 6 Feb- ruary, 1783, as he was ret-urning from an evening party at Lord Coventry’s to his daughter’s house in Hertford Street, Mayfair. Rican. Wsnroan. [A life appears in the ‘ D.N.B.’] - “Asus Conovns” (9‘*‘ S. iii. 68, 170, 296; vi. 215).-There can be no doubt of the correct- ness of the identification by MB. WILLIAM CROOKE of agam with ajami. The word occurs as azami in Santo Stefano and as azamani in Varthema. But it is always more interesting, if not always more satisfactory, to obtain, if possible, information on such questions from intelligent and educated natives of the East rather than from t-he works of Western travellers in the East. For some time we have had as a visitor to this country His Hi hness the Aga Khan, K.C.I.E., the present iced of the Shiah sect of Ismailians, Batinians, Khojas, or, as enerally called in the West, Assassins, this fast designation of them being derived from