Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/433

 9 s. vn. JUNE i, i9oi.j NOTES AND QUERIES.

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called a convention, and met at Groton, thirty miles from Boston, in August, 1840. There were present townsmen and countrymen, preachers, literary men, farmers, and Cape Cod fishermen. Theodore Parker was there, and Ripley, and Alcott. The " Gome-Outers " had no church edifices and no regular ministry, and soon went to pieces, herein exemplifying Sir Thomas Browne's remark about those who are

" naturally indisposed for a community, nor will be ever confined unto the order or ceconomy of one body; and therefore, when they separate from others, they knit but loosely among themselves." I take my facts from chap. vii. of Frothing- ham's * Life of Parker,' and wish I could add an early citation of the use of the word in question. RICHARD H. THORNTON.

Portland, Oregon.

"LA-DI-DA." (See ante, p. 299.) Your re- viewer is not far wrong in his surmise. There was an old song, much appreciated in certain circles some thirty or forty years ago, the refrain to which ran nearly as follows : The La-di-da with the ladies, That is the style that suits The glorious name and the matchless fame

Of Humphry de Wellington Boots. Roughly the date might be 1865 ; at any rate, it was much before 1883. The editors of the 'H.E.D.' need make no apology for not being acquainted with this class of literature. HOLCOMBE INGLEBY.

THE ORNITHOLOGY OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE. We have good authority for saying that " there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion," but as a rule one would not class quadrupeds with birds. It is a little startling to read the following in the rules and regulations of a society which has its headquarters in Cambridge :

" I. That this Society be called ' The Cambridge- shire Ornithological Society, and consist of Members subscribing 5s., or upwards, per annum. Members subscribing One Guinea per annum shall be eligible as Vice-Presidents of the Society. This Show will be held under the Revised Rules of the Kennel Club.

" II. That its object be to encourage competition in the breeding of Dogs."

Never a word is said throughout about the bipeds with feathers ; the whole goes to the dogs. ST. SWITHIN.

PORTALL OR SCREEN. From Monkton, in the Isle of Thanet, on 28 October, 1678, the churchwardens appeared in the court of the Archdeacon of Canterbury and stated " that the parish church of Monkton is seated in a very cold place, and that the door leading into the same doth open into the north side of the said

church, whereby the cold winds did drive into the same, to the annoyance of divers of the parishioners ; and to prevent the inconvenience thereof, they or some of them have unadvisedly, and without due order first obtained, caused a portall or screen to be placed in the said church against the said door, and that the said portall is placed without damage or inconvenience to any persons, seats, or pews."

ARTHUR HUSSEY. Tankerton-on-Sea.

" UTILITARIAN." In chap. xxxv. of Gait's 'Annals of the Parish' the reverend auto- biographer is represented as recounting his difficulties in 1794 because his people had become separated into the two sections of Government men and Jacobins. This, for the anxious pastor, was nothing short of a calamity. " I told my people," says he, " that I thought they had more sense than to secede from Christianity to become Utilitarians." This is a classic passage, with a certain epoch-making dignity. In a note to chap. ii. of his * Utilitarianism,' Mill says that he has reason to believe that he was "the first person who brought the word Utilitarian into use. He did not invent it, but adopted it from a passing expression in Mr. Gait's 'Annals of the Parish/" Mill wrote 'Utili- tarianism ' in 1854, and it appeared in Fraser's Magazine in 1861, and was published as a volume in 1862. It is curious enough to find that a writer of a very different cast from John Stuart Mill seems to have anticipated him in adapting Gait's felicitous term. In book iv. chap. v. of ' Tancred ; or, the New Crusade,' 1847, reflecting on the patent difference between Damascus and other cities of old time, Disraeli writes, " You have explained then, says the Utilitarian, the age and flourishing fortunes of Damascus." The employment of the word by Disraeli in this practical sense does not, of course, affect in the least Mill's position as a pioneer in its philosophical application. But the mere sequence in the case is interesting, especially in respect of the form given by Mill to the ntroductory part of his note.

THOMAS BAYNE.

TRINITY HALL CHAPEL. (See ante, p. 355.) Under the title of ' The Bishop of London's Funeral' MR. K. CLARK asks if LORD MEL- VILLE refers to a certain "Trinity Hall, Aldersgate," as being in London. There can, I think, be no doubt of the fact. In the arge-scale maps of London printed for Stow's Survey' in 1755 Trinity Court is plainly shown as being the second on the left in Aldersgate Street outside the gate, and in Stow's 'Survey,' 1618, p. 570, describing Aldersgate Ward, the writer says :