Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/413

 9* 8. VII. MAY 25, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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though the colours are faint and it is not easy to be sure, I fancy that the paragraph- mongers have found a mare's nest. D.

" To JOIN ISSUE." (See 4 th S. ix. 14, 128.) The 'N.E.D.,' v. 513, col. 2, has given three instances of the erroneous use of this phrase in the sense of coming to an agreement. In law the parties join issue when they arrive at the point where they begin to differ. It is astonishing to find how widespread is the error, even among writers who had some legal knowledge. Shakespeare, in 'Corio- lanus,' IV. iv., says "fellest foes "

shall grow dear friends, And interjoin their issues.

But this may mean " intermarry." Sheridan, in the * School for Scandal,' II. ii., describing a lady's face, writes, "Her nose and chin are the only parties likely to join issue." Southey, in his ' Life of Wesley ' (1858, ii. 162), states that the founder of Methodism justified his irregularity by an appeal to the Scriptures, and "in this position he joined issue with the wildest religious anarchists." Napier, in his ' Peninsula War,' vi. 33 (book xxiii. ch. v.), alluding to Napoleon's consenting to negotiations for peace, says, "He joined issue with them to satisfy the French people." Dickens, in ' Edwin Drood,' 1870, p. 78, when Edwin agrees to dine with Mr. Grewgious, makes th it gentleman reply, "You are very kind to join issue with a bachelor in chambers." W. C. B.

JOWETT'S LITTLE GARDEN. I had always understood that the well-known lines A little garden little Jowett made, And fenc'd it with a little palisade : If you would know the taste of little Jowett, This little garden won't a little show it,

were applied, in the above or some similar form, to the late Master of Balliol. In turn- ing over the second volume of the Satirist, June, 1808, I find these lines attributed to Dr. W. L. Mansel, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and applied to Dr. Joseph Jowett, of Trinity Hall. Very likely the epigram appeared in print before the Satirist published it. W. ROBERTS.

47, Lansdowne Gardens, S. W.

THE BATTLE OF VARNA AND THE PAPAL FLEET. On p. 145 of vol. vii. of the new edition of Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' we find the following passage :

" It was on this fatal spot [Varna] that, instead of finding a confederate fleet to second their [the Catholics'] operations, they were alarmed by the approach of Amurath himself, who had issued from

his Magnesian solitude and transported the forces of Asia to the defence of Europe. According to some writers, the Greek emperor had been awed, or seduced, to grant the passage of the Bosphorus ; and an indelible stain of corruption is fixed on the Genoese, or the Pope's nephew, the Catholic admiral, whose mercenary connivance betrayed the guard of the Hellespont. *

The editor's (Prof. Bury's) comment on this passage is :

"It is difficult to understand what the Papal fleet was doing. The place where Murad crossed is uncertain. The Turkish sources differ; they agree only that he did not cross at Gallipoli. Ci. Tnury's note, op. cit., p. 21."

The professor has evidently not read Wale- ran de Wayrin's account of the battle between the Christian galleys and the Turkish forces when crossing the Bosphorus, in which the writer was in command of the united Bur- gundian, Ragusan (Hungarian), and Greek " fleet," if an assembly of six galleys may be honoured by that name. The Pope's nephew, Cardinal Francesco Contarini, on the other hand, was in command of the galleys, about fifteen in number (eight Papal, five Venetian, and two Burgundian), which were guarding the Hellespont (cf. ' Szazadok,' xxviii. 686).

There cannot be the slightest doubt that Amurath, helped by the Genoese of Pera, seconded by the troops of Rumili under Khalil Pasha, and favoured also by a furious gale blowing from the Black Sea, crossed the Bosphorus at the place called by the Turks "The Devil's Rapids," where then already stood the castle Anatoli Hissar on the Asiatic shore, and where Mohammed Sultan sub- sequently (in 1451) built the Rumili Hissar opposite on the European side. This is the version of the event adopted by Hungarian historians, including Bishop Frakn6i in vol. iv. of the " Millennium Edition " of Magyar history recently published. Wale- ran's account is fully borne out by other contemporary evidence. L. L. K.

" MAGUEY." The origin of this important and well-known botanical term has been variously asserted to be (1) Cuban, (2) Mexi- can. For the Cuban etymology there is good old authority (Oviedo, 1535), confirmed by the existence of other Cuban botanical names of like termination, copey (Clusia alba), mamey (Mammea americana), &c. On the other hand, all modern dictionaries, including the * Cen- tury Dictionary,' allege the word to be Mexican. In the first volume of the 'History of the New World called America,' by E. J. Payne (reviewed 8 th S. ii. 199), p. 372, we are given the choice of two Mexican etymologies, one from the Aztec mahuey or maguey, won-