Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/568

 472 NOTES AND QUERIES. 19* s. vi. DKO. is, 1900. are to be found in Swift ('Journal to Stella '). He hated them :— "It is near ten, and I hate to send by the bell- man."—9 Sept., 1710. " This letter must be sent to the post-house, and not by the bellman."—10 October. " Left them together between nine and ten ; and I must send this by the bellman, which vexes me, but I will put it off no longer."—31 October. " I staid with them till just now, between ten and eleven, and was forced again to give my eighth (letter) to the bellman, which I did with my own hands, rather than keep it till next post." — II November. As a rule, Swift posted his letters "with his own fair hands " before the houses closed. The Act for settling the Post Office, passed in Anne's reign, mentions the unauthorized collectors of letters — " carriers, watermen, higlers, (fee."—who seemed to do a thriving business. It would be interesting to know if Swift's dislike to the bellman was the result of some doubts as to his credentials, or merely the " penny to pay." Towards the close of that century, when Palmer brought in his coach reforms, the bellmen went into violent opposition. The arrangements made included the closing of the Central Office at the absurd hour of 7 o'clock in the evening. The bellmen thus became useless, for they could not post the letters they collected. But the order lived through the temporary storm, and remained an institution in London till 1846, and in Dublin till 1859, after which date "bell- letters " have no place in our literature. GEORGE MARSHALL. Sefton Park, Liverpool. Bells have been used by rural postmen in North Devon until recently. Edward Oapern, the North Devon postman-poet, frequently expressed a hope that his old postman's bell —the one he had so long useu in his round between Bideford and Buckland Brewer- might be buried with him. Capern, it may be remembered, wrote, amongst much else, 'The Lion-flag of England,' a poem that during the Crimean War was equally as popular as is 'The Soldiers of the Queen' to-day. He died 4 Jan., 1894, at the good old ago of seventy-five. Unfortunately, his de- sire was overlooked at the time of the funeral. The identical bell, however, was afterwards let bodily into the grey Dartmoor granite stone that niarks the spot where the gifted poet's remains quietly repose in the romantic graveyard around St. Augustine's ancient church at Heanton Punchardpn, near Braun- ton, North Devon, and there it will probably remain for ages. I saw it there quite recently. HAKKY HEMS. VANISHING LONDON (9th S. vi. 221, 331, 351). —Footer, an idle person, seems to be the same word as that which in Scotland is variously spelt /outer, foutre, fouttour, and denotes a jungler or useless person. It is quite com- monly used in playful metaphor at the present time, especially in the Eastern counties. Jamieson in the ' Scottish Diction- ary ' enters to /outer as an Aberdonian verb signifying to bungle. I have not heard 'amiliar, having heard it hundreds of times n the counties of Fife and Forfar, perhaps especially the latter. Jamieson mentions I trow the Fouttour lyis in ane transs : and he enters as his authority "Lyndsay, S.P.R.,' ii. 90." This, after considerable re- search, turns out to be a reference to one of Pinkerton's publications, ' Scottish Poems Re- printed,' which, in these days of accessible editions of the Scottish makaris, suggests a somewhat circuitous method of reaching one of Lyndsay's lines. Besides, as it turns out, Pinkerton s reading is not that adopted by Laing in what is unquestionably the standard edition of Lyndsay'.s poems. The line which Pinkerton gives as already cited stands thus in Laing's edition ('Lyndsay's Poetical Works,' ii. 212,1. 4411):— I trow the trucour lyis, in ane trance ; and trucour is explained in the glossary as " a rogue." The line is in ' The Sermon of Folly, one of the interludes in the ' Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis.' It is tjuite clear that the illustrations in Jamieson are in urgent need of revision. Meanwhile, whether Lyndsay used fouttour or not, it is common enough still in Scotland, and it seems to be from O.Fr.foutu, "a scoundrel." THOMAS BAYNE. Possibly faitour, a stealthy malefactor; Thus Milton, " So scented the grim faitour, in the description of Satan's breaking into Paradise. Richardson defines faitour, " Foj/a- bundus, iffnavus, & lazy, idle fellow," and cites Sir T. More, ' Works,' p. 134, " My lord bad him walke faytoure, and made him be set openlye in the stockes." Or perhaps faulter, a swindler, from fallen. T. B. WlLMSHURST. Tunbridge Wells. MAJOR BURRINOTON (9th S. vi. 349, 415).— With regard to the quotation from Hume— " The first person who joined the Prince [of Orange] was Major Burringtpn"—perhaps I may be allowed to call attention to the claim
 * he verb used, but with the noun I am quite
 * hat a Fife man, Sir David Lyndsay, has it in
 * he line