Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/426

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

s. VIL MAY 25, uoi.

Hawkins speaks when he says that "it was not unusual to draw a butt of mountain, con- taining one hundred and twenty gills, in a morning " :

" On Saturday last the Corpse of Mr. James Harris, Master of the Crown-Tavern in Thread- needle Street, after having lain in State, about Four in the Afternoon was carried out of Town, and interr'd at Barking in Essex ; he died a Batchelor, and by his Will appointed his Brother and Sister to be his Executors, and to his Servants he bequeath'd for Mourning, viz., to the Bar- Keeper 30/., the head Cook 10/., the under Cook II., the Cellar-Man 101., three head Drawers 1(Y. each, three under Drawers 11. each, the Servant Maids 5/. each, two Porters 51. each, the Oyster- Woman at the Gate 51., and the Laundry- Woman two Guineas."

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

See ' Old London Taverns,' by Ed. Callow (London, Downey & Co., 1899), p. 52.

W. E. WILSON.

Hawick.

This appears to have been the "Crowne" in Threadneedle Street, mentioned in a MS. list of taverns in London and Westminster and ten miles round London, 1690-8, in my possession. W. I. R. V.

Lusus NATURE (9 th S. vii. 288). A nodule of Kentish flint, cut into three slices, each of which shows a remarkable resemblance to the human head, is in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art. It is described in the Edinburgh Journal of Natural History, con- ducted by Capt. Thomas Brown, circa 'l836. WALTER CLARK.

Edinburgh Museum.

" GAST " (9 th S. vii. 308). -There is a barony of Prendergest in Berwickshire which gave name to a family. The Preridergests were liberal donors to the monastery of Colding ham in the early part of the thirteenth cen- tury. The appendix to Raine's 4 North Dur- ham' contains many charters and deeds which give much information as to this family. J. G. WALLACE-JAMES, M.B.

Haddington.

Mr. Flavell Edmunds gives the derivation of Prendergast from the British words pren, a tree, der from dwr, water, and gast tromgwest, an inn or lodging ; i.e., the inn by the tree near the water.

JOHN RADCLIFFE.

ENGLISH PARSIMONY AND THE CAT (9 th S. vi. 206). In the * Castilian Dictionary' of D. Roque Barcia (Madrid, 1881) one finds " Cuatro Ojos, nombre que da comunmente el vulgo a las personas que traen anteojos," and " mas ven cuatro ojos que dos," but not the phrase " de cuatro ojos " which occurs in

the quotation from the novel of B. Perez Galdos published in my letter under the above heading. The dictionary of the Spanish Academy also fails to explain the phrase, as did several Spanish friends to whom I showed it. Prof. I. Bywater, who has travelled a good deal in Spain, thinks it is an imitation of the German "unter vier Augen=seul a seul, en tete-a-tete," or the Italian u a quatro occhi=tete-a-tete. Thus the novelist meant to say that the dog came out " to keep the cat company," " to make two with him." I should have recognized its meaning in German or Italian, but it escaped me in the Castilian, partly, no doubt, because the very next words do describe the dog's appearance, "negro y con las patas amarillas." "Par- simonia " appears to be used in the less usual sense of " circumspection " in the passage in question. E. S. DODGSON.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. By the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, Litt.D. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.)

THE first edition of Prof. Skeat's ' Concise Etymo- logical Dictionary' saw the light in 1882, the year which witnessed also the appearance of his ' Etymo- logical Dictionary.' It has since passed through various editions, each of which has contained cor- rections and additions. In view of the contributions recently made to the study of Indo-Germanic philo- logy, the adoption of "more exact methods of analyzing phonetic changes, and the appearance of works such as Kluge's ' Etymological Dictionary of German,' Franck's ' Etymological Dictionary of Dutch,' Godefroy's 'Dictionary of Old French,' &c., a much clearer and more exact view of the science of comparative philology has been obtained." These considerations have led the professor to the con- clusion that the time for partial emendation is over. He has accordingly written the work afresh from beginning to end, making improvements in almost every article, and introducing into the body of the work words which have hitherto been given in a constantly increasing supplement. The result of these labours has been that we have before us " less a new edition than a new book." This latest or new edition has been collated throughout with the ' Century Dictionary,' and with the ' New English Dictionary on Historical Principles,' so far, prac- tically, as it has progressed. One change which has now been adopted will be of highest advantage to the worker. Abandoning the endeavour by cross- references to arrange derivative words under a more primitive form, a purely alphabetical order has now for the first time been employed. In former editions ex-cite, in-cite, re-cite, and resus-cit- ate were given under cite. This, to our personal knowledge, impeded the full use of the dictionary. A not wholly dissimilar plan adopted by Richard- son half a century earlier had detracted greatly from the utility of a work which at one time was a delight in perusal, if of no special value to the