Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/471

 ss. v1.N<>v. 1v.1wo.1 NOTES AND QUERIES. 391 soles of the feet of one of these servitors who was kneeling immediately in front of him. (THIS was long before hand and foot markings had become a subject of minute scientinc investigation.) lrving’s strength of hand and arm was enormous, and to prove his power he one day balanced, standing on his outstretched palm with arm at full length, one of my brothers, a child who had Just learnt to walk. HENRY TAYLOR. liraeside, Tunbridge Wells. CATALOGUE or l:‘InsT Boox AUCTION IN ENGLAND (9°" S. vi. 85, 156, 315).-Maunselfs catalogue, cited at the last reference, has nothing to do with book auctions, any more than have Quaritch’s or eotherans catalogues. Moreover, it is not nearly so scarce as Ma. BOWDEN thinks. There are two copies in the British Museum. W. ROBERTS. 47, Lansdowne Gardens, S. W. FOOTPBINTS or (ions,  (9“" S. vi. 163, 223, 322).*AD absurd modern instance of such reputed footsteps of a great man occurs at Epworth, Lincolnshire. 'l‘he tombstone of balnuel Wesley in the churchyard has two faulty places in it, which are locally said to be the footprints of his son John Wesley, who stood on the stone to preach to the people when refused admission into the church. This may originally have been meant as a joke, but it is accepted as a fact by not a few. U. U. B. ‘ This COMPLETE ANGLER ’ (9°" S. vi. 103, 249, 313).-1 can tell Ms. l'ickroaD why lsaac is spelt with an s instead of z. .lt is the in- duierence, if not contempt, for accuracy which runs through most of our early literature. 'l`lll8 is particularly so with names. A writer in the sixteenth century puts his name as Ohristofer Middleton; the bibliographers take no notice of this, but print it Onristopher. liven in the present day any one desiring accuracy is laughed at as a very particular person. '1‘his carelessness for accuracy is a small matter compared to the vice of plagi- arism which permeates our literature even to D110 present day. l’»Ai.rn 'l`HoMAs. “ VIVA " (9°*‘ S. vi. 266, 311).-My lot having been cast for many years in a remote spot in a remote district OI .East Anglia must be my apology for my surprise at hearing this word. ln these parts we imagine the Oxford Union bociety to be the WUl'KllOl1S€, the bheldonian '1`heatre to be a place where dramatic repre- sentations go on,and the university is called oy the aborigines Oxford Uollege. W nat wonder, UIIBD, that mosses accumulate on the old manse and cobwebs are woven, needing an annual 1 visit to Oxford to clear away? An oldtutor ' Once _observed that the language Of_ gods and ' men is dilieren t. Gods say " res ponsions," men l say " smalls or little-go"’; gods call college ser-, vants " bed-makers," men call them “ scouts ”_; gods call it “reading with a private tutor," men call it “putting on a coach.” Many of the expressions quoted by your correspondent are instances of ellipse .» here the missing link can be easily supplied, as in the names of colleges. Queens, Brasenose, Lincoln, Worcester, are employed in common parlance. A late learned friend of mine used to consider the ellipse and the pleonasm as blots in a language. Many abbreviations now in vogue, lthough looking awkward, have passed into common use, and excite no remark. JOHN Picxrosb, M.A. New bourne Rectory, W ood bridge. I think we may thank Ma. Picxronn for obtaining for us such a clear and interesting exposition of this abbreviation as that of UxoNiAN. With regard to the editorial re- mark at the end, it seems to me curious the abbreviations in er have not got into the language, there being so many thousands of university men all over the country. .Even abbreviations change at Oxford, for I recol- lect a few years ago “ackers " was the usual word for acadeinical dress, 1.. e., cap and gown, but .l have not heard it used of late. Such abbreviations as “ beder” for bedroom, “diner ” l for dming-room, and °°sitter” for sitting-room, dw., seem perfectly natural, but they have not been adopted outside the university. Any one would imagine that with thousands of edu- cated persons all round them, speaknig Eng- lish properly (or fairly so), the natives of Oxford would acquire a reasonable accent, but they do not. l suppose they speak with the same intonation their great-grandfathers used. RALPH 'l‘IIoMAs. OXONIAN should know better than I, but does the Oxford man generally speak of “ New ” when he means New Uollege 'l .l had an idea that the name of that seat of learning was peculiarly exempt from the law of abbre- viation. ln printed lists of degree candidates this is, at any rate, the case. br. 5WITH1N. [We think that UXONIAN has ample justification for his abbreviation. J MEDALLION or WALTER SCOTT (9"“ S. vi. 229, 332;.-'l‘he line quoted bears some resem- blance to one in Virgil, ‘ zEn.,’ viii. 696 :- Regina in mediis patrio vocat aginina sistro, and Propertius, Ill. xi. 43 :- Romananique tubam cfrepitanti pellere sistro. See also J uvenal, xiii. 93. 'l‘he séstru/In was a