Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/442

 366 NOTES AND QUERIES. 19* s. VL NOV. 10,1900. or corolla, and that the second may be the suffix -and. The first quotation in the 'N.E.D.' is dated 1303, the date of the 'Hundred Rolls' being 1279. Mr. Bradley says that "no satisfac- tory origin has yet been suggested of this word." S. O. ADDY. " BOYCOTT AGE "=BOYCOTTING. — Boycottaye as an equivalent for boycotting appears to have been regularly adopted into the French language. I find in the Fifia.ro of 22 August, in an article upon ' Les Chambres de Com- merce Anglaise a 1'Exposition,' the question, "N'avait-on pas parle de boycottaget" ALFRED F. ROBBINS. FEIESIC PROVERB.—The following appears in Hazlitt's 'English Proverbs' as "from Mr. Higson's MSS. Coll. for Droylsden, Ac.":— Gooid brade, better and sheese, Is gooid Halifax, and gooid Frieze. It is really the counterfeit of a Friesic couplet which I find in Scheltema's 'Spreekwoorden,' 1831 ed., p. 3 n. :— Boeytter, Brea in griene Tzis, Iz goed Ingelsch in eack goed Friesch. * This itself is the variant of an older couplet in which the second line read, Wa dat naet sigge kin, dij is nin rjuechte Fries, f and which is said to have been used in 1516 as a shibboleth by a celebrated admiral (caljed Groote Pier by Scheltema) who, having a grudge against the Saxons and Hollanders for murdering one of his dearest friends, ordered all prisoners of these nationalities who could not repeat the words in question to be thrown overboard. The modern form of the proverb is not explained. F. ADAMS. MOTTO ON A HOUSE.—' N. & Q.' has given many instances of this old custom; I there- fore venture to send one which I copied from the front wall of a house in Partenkirchen, Bavaria:— Ich lull' und weiss nicht wie lang— Ifli MIT!.' und weiss nicht wann— Ich fahr" und weiss iiicht wohin— Mich wundert dasa iuh frohlich bin. The inscription seems to me to be peculiarly touching. RICHARD EDGCUMBE. Savignano, Italy. POKER CLUB. (See ante, p. 300.)—An account of this club is to be found in Carlyle's ' Auto- biography,' pp. 419-23. The passage begins thus: "In the beginning of 1762 was instituted the famous club called 'The Poker," which lish and also good Friesic. t " Who can't say that is no true Friese." lasted in great vigour down to the year 1784." The expense, it is said, was moderate for the first seven years, when the house the mem- bers frequented was Nicholson's, near the Cross ; but. owing to an unfortunate quarrel with him, they left his house and went to a fashionable tavern where the dinners were more showy, but not better, and the wines only dearer, so that when they got their " reckoning " they found the bill about three times as much as had been usual at Nichol- son's. This made some members lessen _ the number of days of their attendance, but in a couple of years "The Poker" became again as well attended as before, presumably with some return to the old tariff. Previous to setting up near the Cross of Edinburgh, Nicholson had kept the "Carriers' Inn "at the foot of the West Bow, which Home and Car- lyle and some members of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland fre- quented in 1756, and where they got claret from a Leith wine merchant at eighteen shillings per dozen. W. S. CENTENARIAN VOTERS.—The Daily Newt of the 29th of October gives the names of two cen- tenarians who voted at the recent election —Mr. Davis, of Exeter, and Mr. Henry Richards, who recorded his vote in Flint- shire on the eve of his 103rd birthday. N. S. S. THE UNITED FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. —After an agitation extending over thirty- seven years (for it was in 1863 that the first joint committee was appointed to consider the question of union), the Free and United Pres- byterian Churches of Scotland have now be- come one Free Chu rch, and Princi pal Rainy has been chosen as its first Moderator. It seems appropriate that an event so important in the history of Scotland should have a note in ' N. & Q.' On Wednesday, the 31st of October, the union was commemorated at Edinburgh with due ceremonial, when the members of the supreme courts of both bodies marched in procession to the extemporized hall in the Waverley Market where the meeting was held. The Scotsman of the 1st inst. gives a graphic account of the proceedings, and states that when the adoption of the Uniting Act was moved by the Rev. Dr. Murray- Mitchell, the oldest ordained minister in the Free Church, and seconded by the Rev. Dr. Henderson, of Paisley, the oldest minister in the United Presbyterian Church, " the whole audience, moved by one impulse, rose to their feet: in silence the members of the House, in token of assent, held up their right hands, while the clear voice of the Moderator was heard saying
 * " Butter, bread, and green cheese is good Eng-