Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/195

 9*8. VII. MARCH 9, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

187

method of signalizing the opening of a new century seems to suggest rather a dangerous precedent at the present epoch. Let us hope that the next few years will not hereafter be remembered as the time when the blood- thirsty mosquito or the murderous rattle- snake was naturalized in England by the exertions of some home - sick exile from tropical climes ! CAMILLA JEBB.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD VII. On Thursday, the 28th of February, the English Roman Catholics in Paris commemorated the King's accession by the celebration of high mass at the church in the Avenue Hoche. At the close of the mass the National Anthem was sung. Do readers of ' N. & Q.' know of any similar celebrations ?

N. S. S.

MRS. ARBUTHNOTT I have a miniature, apparently by Andrew Plimer or some artist of nis epoch, of a Mrs. Arbuthnott, a woman of remarkable beauty. It is a well-executed work. Are there any means of tracing the original? T. N.

"PiZE." This word appears to be used in many parts of England in oaths and impre- catory phrases. " What the pize ails 'em 1 " " What the pize is the matter 1 " are phrases still heard in Northamptonshire, Suffolk, and Sussex. " Pize lit on 't ! " is heard in North and East Yorkshire. " A pize upon it ! " " A pize upon thee ! " appear often in the pages of Smollett's novels. Can any of your readers suggest an etymology for " pize " 1

A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

[Annandale's four-volume edition of Ogilvie's 'Imperial Dictionary' defines pize as "an annoying or awkward circumstance : often used inter- jectionally or as a mild oath," and gives the derivation as "O.E. peise, peize, peaze, a weight, a blow."]

JOHN FOY was admitted to Westminster School on 15 January, 1766. I should be glad to obtain any information concerning him

G. F. R. B.

CAMPBELLS OF ARDKINGLASS. Can any of your readers who possess information on the descent of the Campbells of Ardkinglass afford me information on the subject 1 Also

have any of them ever seen a work called ' Genealogies of all Branches of the Camp- bells,' by James Duncanson, published at Inyeraray in 1777 1 Neither the Bodleian nor British Museum library possesses the book. NIALL D. CAMPBELL. 28, Clarges Street, W.

" CURTANA." In 1689 William George Richard, Earl of Derby, petitioned the Court of Claims to be allowed to carry before their majesties at their coronation the sword called curtana, by reason of his tenure of the Isle of Man (see p. 228, Kenyon MS.). Was the claim allowed ? What kind of sword is curtana ? RICHARD LAWSON. Urmston.

["S. Edwardi Confessoris Angl. Regis gladius, vel ensis, qui in Regum Anglorum coronatione a Cestrensi Comite prsefertur inter duos gladios alterum lustitise temporalis, alterum spiritualis. Matth. Paris, ' deApparatunuptiarum Henrici III.' anno 1236." See Ducange, s.v. 'Curtana.' There is also a full account in the ' H.E.D.']

J. W. M., A PAINTER. The owner of a small picture, rather Dutch in style, but apparently under Venetian influence, repre- senting Christ in the kitchen of Martha and Mary, desires to find out by whom it was painted. On the stool by the table in the kitchen are the initials J. W. M., with the date 175g (sic) below them. In Nagler's ' Mono- grammisten ' it appears that Johann Wilhelm Meil, a painter born at Altenburg in 1733, who died in Berlin in 1805, signed his works by these initials. Is it known if he produced, or copied, a painting representing the afore- said scene from the Gospel ?

E. S. DODGSON.

'ODE TO THE NORTH CAPE.' Would some reader kindly inform me who wrote an ' Ode to the North Cape "? It is many years since I read the lines, which I fancied were written by Longfellow ; but neither in ' Birds of Passage ' nor * Poems of the Sea ' could I find It. I do not forget 'The Discoverer of the North Cape,' but the piece I have lost is more of a soliloquy than a narrative.

A. J. BEGBIE.

PRINTER'S PROOF OF POEMS. A parcel of aooks I recently had from town was wrapped up in some proof-sheets of poems (pp. 1-128). These are really very fine, some of them, and worthy of a poet of high repute. They begin with a long poem in blank verse called * Sir Launcelot,' and some of the other poems are

Ode on the Return of Spring/ ' A Ballad of Remorse,' 'Tale of the Coloured Shells,'

The Monk,' 'Sleep,' 'On the Unchanging Mystery and Freshness of Life,' some