Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/197

 s. vm. AUG. si, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

189

large type, "Express, Friday, August 22, 18 "; whilst in small type on the device stands the word " Daily" At the top of the letter the editor referred to its having been written shortly before Mr. Perrin's death in March, 1877, the year in which Mr. Perrin himself dates it. On the back of the column con- taining the letter are a number of Irish and other scholastic advertisements, one of which mentions 1880 as a future date; this refers the appearance of the letter to 1877, 1878, or 1879. Now, as the calendar shows that 22 August fell on a Friday in 1879, the only question remaining regards the exact title of the newspaper. With a view to ascertaining this the librarian of the Dublin National Library kindly searched the Dublin Daily Express for the date 22 August in the .years mentioned, but without success.

All that can be said, therefore, is that the letter appeared on Friday, 22 August, 1879, in a daily newspaper, part of the title of which was Express. Thus far certainty. The strong probability is that the Express in ques- tion was published in Ireland. Can any of your learned correspondents suggest its full designation? 0. C. DOVE.

Birkdale.

"VEIRIUM" (9 th S. viii. 120). The passage quoted from the French edition of the Gascon Rolls by O. O. H. is incorrectly printed by the French editor. In the original roll the word is veicii, not "veirii." I have never seen either word, but it is possible that " veicium " is connected with " vehere," and may mean a conduit or pipe. 0. T. M.

NAPOLEON'S LIBRARY (9 th S. viii. 145). See Helene,' by Victor Advielle (Paris, 1894, 16mo, Lechevalier editeur). Napoleon II. never came into possession of those four hundred volumes.
 * La Bibliotheque de Napoleon a Sainte-

BARON ALBERT LUMBROSO, D.L.

Frascati, Italy.

" PENNY IN THE FOREHEAD " (9 th S. viii. 104). The phrase "wheedled as children with a penny in the forehead " recalls a prac- tical joke of old standing which 1 have seen played in the following manner. The per- petrator selected an unsophisticated youth from several present, and induced him to allow a coin to be placed on his forehead When this was firmly pressed it adhered to the brow, and the company were invited to look intently at the experiment. Under pretence of adjusting it more firmly the operator then deftly removed the coin. Bui trie sensation produced by the pressure ol

he piece remained after the coin was gone, and the youth imagined that he still carried /he coin itself in his forehead. He was then /old to show the spectators the tenacity of .he supposed adhesion by wrinkling his brow, ihaking his head, &c. The grimaces made n doing this provoked much merriment, and t was not until the laughter of the audience )ecame immoderate that the nature of the oke revealed itself to its dupe. Has the proverbial phrase originated in an allusion
 * o this old and well-worn trick? Many

variations in the method of the performance lave been current, and a coin may have been stuck on the forehead without any suggestion of making a butt of its exhibitor. This might )e inferred in the citation from Burton's Diary,' which suggests the enactment of this ittle by-play to the family group as the ocular friend appears: "Look me in the lorehead." An old silver penny is the most suitable coin to use for the purpose.
 * ace, children, to see if I have a penny in my

R. OLIVER HESLOP. Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

With regard to the circumstances of a coin, the forehead, and the eyes, there is such a coincidence that one may cite the practice known as " shaking the shilling " as supplying bhe information wanted. The incident occurs in this way. The statement having been made that a coin can be pressed on to an individual's forehead in such a way that he cannot shake it off, a cold coin is applied thereto by a second party, with the request that the victim of the practical joke shall look the operator straight in the eyes. With the attention so fixed it is easy to withdraw the coin surreptitiously when removing the hand ; and the victim being asked to try to shake off the coin will attempt to dp so, mis- taking the cold feeling still remaining for the coin itself. The phrase "shaking the shilling" has come to be used loosely as descriptive of any piece of folly ; for example, undue enthusiasm for football is said to be "as bad as shaking the shilling."

ARTHUR MAYALL.

SOURCE OF QUOTATION (9 th S. vii. 8, 292, 332).

He, dying, bequeathed to his son a good name.

This line begins the third stanza of Farmer Blackberry's song in John O'Keefe's opera 'The Farmer,' Act I., with music by Wm. Shield, performed at Covent Garden Theatre in 1787. Sung by Mr. Darley, it was deservedly popular. It is a sound -hearted lyric, of a class far superior to the rubbish which a