Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/74

 NOTES AND QUERIES. o>* s. VIL JAN. a, 1901.

and used near the stern. In shallow wate an alternative method of propulsion, callec "setting," was adopted. This was done b means of long poles, called "puoys," whic the keelmen shot down to the bottom of th river and thrust upon with their shoulders.

About the forties or earlier the square ri had become almost entirely displaced by th introduction of the fore-and-aft rig on single lowering mast. The jib was carrier from the stem without a bowsprit, and th trisail was stretched from a very long spri fastened to the lower part of the mast. Abou the same period carvel building becam superseded, and keels of clinker build, the introduced, have continued to this day Vessels of smaller cargo capacity than th keel, but modelled on its lines, were als introduced with clinker building, and thes are now termed " wherries."

As the coal seams lying on the wester outcrop of the field became worked out, anc collieries were developed with means o direct shipment, and as railway transit wa introduced, the number of keels diminishe annually, so much so' that at the present day as far as the trade of coal shipment is con cerned, they are practically superseded. Ye " keels " of modern build are still in use fo conveying coal to riverside manufactorie and carrying their products.

" Keel-boat," found in some Acts of Parlia ment, is a pleonasm unknown in the spoken language. To a Tynesider "keel -boat sounds ridiculous ; he talks of " a keel invariably, and of a "keel" only.

" Keel," a measure of coal -eight Newcastle chaldrons or twenty-one and one-fifth tons originating in the quantity carried by a keel is not yet quite obsolete. Railing vessels for certain Baltic and Spanish Mediterranean ports are still occasionally chartered " to loaf a full and complete cargo of [so many] keels of coal. Coke, a lighter substance than coal, when reckoned by the keel, is calculated as a measure of fifteen tons. Rut, for freight- age purposes, the usage of referring to ships as of so many keels burthen has, since 1883 gradually become disused, and to-day all' sales of coals and coke are made, and all steamers are chartered, by the ton. And yet the charges made for "trimmage" on the river Tyne and at Blyth for all classes of vessels are still computed by the keel.

R. OLIVER HESLOP.

"lNSURRECTION."-A Curious US6 of the

terms insurrection and insures is to be noticed in a book, "La Guerre de la Sue cession d Autnche, par le Major Z ," pub-

lished by the military library of Chapelot, of Paris, the successors of Baudoin. The Hungarian universal service of ancient days was called in Hungarian Latin (then the official language) indifferently by the names militia or insurrectio. The French author, who is said to be the well-known military writer Commandant Weil, translates in- surrectio personalia that is "personal service," in many passages by the French insurrection, and seems to suggest that Frenchmen in the present day can understand insurrection as used for a general rising on the side of the Crown, as well as in the usual fashion for a rising against the Crown. D.

BURNS. Some time ago I met with a book that had belonged to the poet Burns, with a number of notes in his handwriting. It is a thin quarto, in the original binding, and en- titled " The Patriots ; or, an Evening Prospect on the Atlantic. In which some Noted Political Characters are delineated ; with Strictures on Ladies who have distinguished themselves in the Fashionable Modes of Gallantry. London, 1777." There is no author's name ito it, out a note by Burns says, "By John Inglis, School- master, Canongrate, Edinburgh, an Essay to procure from Gover[n]ment a place or pen- sion." At the foot of the first page of the preface, which appears to have been written with a view to allay the rebellious spirit of the Americans and induce them to return to the obedience of their king (George III.), the following note of Burns's : "We should imagine the author an American, le was a Scotchman. I do not know if he was ashamed of his country, his country might well be ashamed of him."

Further on in his preface the author- praises

a glorious band of men who will long adorn the British annals viz., Lord N th. Lord George

T ne, the acute and ingenious M r Alexander W-ne Solicitor, Hon- H D-s, Lord Advocate

or Scotland, <fcc.

Burns has written in the margin opposite : ''Infernal Villains. No, they are the ministers f him who is called y best of Princes & he is no oubt as much so as he is the Wisest."

At the end of the preface, opposite to "gracious overeign," Burns writes :

" Whom Junius calls y e best of Princes, a man whose Wisdom is only to be equalled by his Virtue we do not know w ch of his Virtues we should dmire most, his humanity, contempt of money, or ve of Peace. The clergy may truely say y* he has saving knowledge."

fter the preface, on a blank page, the poet as written :