Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/491

 9-s.VLNov.24.i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 407 MR. GEORGE MORLEY'S 'SHAKESPEARE'S GREENWOOD.' (See ante, p. 338.)—I very much doubt whether any word or phrase can pro- perly be said to be peculiar to any one county. Certainly none of those quoted in the notice of Mr. Morley'a book is so. Mr. Aforley, as his reviewer suggests, is wrong in giving " to work for" as the meaning of "to fend." "Pro- vide for " is the nearest equivalent I can think of, but sometimes the word seems rather to mean " look after." I suspect that the alleged Warwickshire superstition respecting the robin redbreast is a confusion of the well- known legend of the bird's having tried to pluck a thorn from our Saviour's crown with another, of Welsh origin, to the effect that he flies every day to the infernal pit with a drop of water in his beak, to assuage the sufferings of the little children there tor- mented. This is how his breast was burnt, and the reason why he feels the cold of winter more than other birds. One cannot see why he should go to hell for water, as Mr. Morley's version has it. C. C. B. In your review of this book you refer to several words which are in common use in Tyneside and the north of England generally; for instance, the words " faggot"—in "ye dirty faggot." an expression one sometimes hears— and"fend." f'Go fend for yourself" means "go fish, or look after, yourself." The ex- pression "coal," or "coally black," is also heard at times—say of a very dark night. I have always been under the impression that the word was derived from " coal." E. B-R. 'HISTORICAL ENGLISH DICTIONARY.' (See ante, p. 308 )—Replying to the Editor's excel- lent suggestion that "a society should be formed to supply country centres with this work," I would say that I shall be very happy to permit any one living in East Herts or West Essex (for which this town is central) to refer gratuitously at any reason- able hour to my copies of the ' Historical English Dictionary ' and the ' English Dialect Dictionary.' My full address is Ivy Lodge, Warwick Road, one minute from the railway station, east side. I trust others will give the same facilities. W. B. GERISH. Bishop's Stortford. [This example seems well worthy of imitation.] DR. JOHN WILSON.—This musician was the composer of the music for the 'Masque of Flowers,' 1614, as is shown by the fact that he reprinted it in his 'Cheerful Ayres,' 1660. In the 'Cheerful Ayres' it is arranged for three voices. It is noteworthy that the ' Masque of Flowers ' was "printed by N. O. for Robert Wilson," and was " to be sold at his Shop at Graies-Inne, new gate," 1614. G. E. P. A. PASSAGE IN 'EoTHEN.'— In the introduc- tion to Methuen's recent edition of King- lake's ' Eothen ' I note the following piece of editorial stupidity : — " In chap. xvi. he says that shrouds are dipped in the holy water of the Jordan and 'preserved a» a burial dress, which shall inure ' (later editions 'enuro') 'for salvation in the realms of death.' Some critical scholar of eminence should be called upon to eniend or explain this mysterious passage. At least, if people are allowed to print such things in the nineteenth century, what right have we to emend the classical authors when they choose to be intelligible?'' If the editor was so ignorant as not to know the meaning of "enure," why did he not consult a dictionary 1 The ' N.E.D.' would have shown him that he ought to have left Kiuglake's " inure " in the text. The passage has no difficulty whatsoever. J. S. JULIUS "This was settled by litigation in 1624, on a petition to Sir Julius Caesar, Chancellor of the Court of Exchequer, who referred the question to the Judge of Assize."— Tramactionx of Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological Soc., vol. xv. p. 120, foot-note. " There was a Master of the Rolls with the name of Sir Julius Ciesar, who here in 1815 married Mrs. Hungate."— ' N. & Q.,' 9lh S. vi. 222. Julius Cfesar, 122, St. Mary Street, South- ampton, appears on the 'Register of Chemists and Druggists of Great Britain' as having passed his examination on 13 December, 1876. If the date 1815 in the second case is correct, we have three cases of curiously interesting nomenclature. W. E. WILSON. [A famous cricketer was go named too.] AUTHOR'S ERRORS IN ' LOTHAIR.'— The death of Lord Bute has set people reading ' Lothair ' again, myself among the number, and I have been interested to find a curious instance — not, I think, hitherto noticed — of the author's carelessness in regard to the Christian names of his characters. Lady Moutairy is called by three different Christian names in three sepa- rate chapters. In vol. i. p. 23 (second edition) it is said, A propos of her skill in croquet, " Her sisters used the mallet with admirable skill, hut not like Georaina "; later on (p. 166) the Duke says to Lothair, "There is a large party at luncheon : Auyusta Montairy is there , and in vol. ii. p. 8 we read, "Bertha •it. Aldegondc ana Victoria Montairy came in to give the Duchess a rapid embrace." One remembers Thackeray's slips of this