Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/239

 s. viii. SEPT. 14, loci.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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attempted to grapple with the ambiguous lines in " Nearer, my God, to Thee," but with- out much effect, as witness the result :

Though like the wanderer (the sun gone down), Darkness comes over me my rest a stone, &c.

The first and last references are as quoted in every book I have consulted.

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

I am not concerned to defend the passages condemned by C. C. B., but of rny own know- ledge I can say that the compiler of a hymn- book meets with difficulties which are un- suspected by those who have not attempted that work. Nevertheless, those very errors, obscurities, and inconsistencies which in hymnals easily invite such apparently de- structive and victorious criticism exist in larger numbers in the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. Moreover, we are to sing "with the understanding," and it has been frequently pointed out that unless all such books are wholly written in the most childish manner, so as to demand no exercise of any- body's understanding, children and unedu- cated persons will always make misconcep- tions. I suppose C. C. B. would not relish hymns written after such a pattern as

There was a little man,

And he had a little gun,

And his bullets were made of lead, &c

W. C. B.

'EROS' AND/ANTEROs'^ 11 S. viii. 163). The book inquired after is 'The Gladiators,' written by George John Why te- Melville, and published in 1863. There are later editions. That which I have seen is dated 1892, with Messrs. Longman's imprint, and contains a third section entitled ' Moira.' F. ADAMS.

115, Albany Road, Camberwell.

[Very numerous replies to the same effect are acknowledged.]

PAINTED AND ENGRAVED PORTRAITS (9 th S. vii. 341, 438, 470, 512 ; viii. 72). Some little time ago I saw an appeal in your columns for particulars of any portraits of national interest that might be in the hands of your readers or their friends. I have lately bought Sir Thomas Lawrence's study for the larger portrait of Campbell the poet. It is a very careful piece of work, much better than the engravings of the portrait. For some years I have had the original portrait in oils of George Paul Chalmers, painter, by Sir George Reid, P.RS.A. It is a fine portrait and likeness, better than the Pettie in Mr. Pennington's big book on Chalmers, I believe. Just now I am about to receive a portrait of Sir Walter Scott in which the modelling is

accurately taken from Chantrey's bust, and the colour from the most authentic portraits. Of course this last cannot rank as an ''authority," but I believe it will be one of the most satisfactory likenesses of Scott yet seen. The accuracy of Chantrey is retained, while the want of reality of a piece of sculp- ture is avoided. ROBERT DUNCAN. Whiteh'eld, Govan, Glasgow.

MANX WORDS (9 th S. viii. 83, 152). A maze, or rather a meash or mease, of fish is com- monly spoken of as meaning 500, but it really means 620. The word is used almost, if not quite, exclusively of herrings The hundred of herrings here, in the Isle of Man, is the "long hundred" 120, or six score ; and the fish are counted as follows : After the night's fishing two of the crew work together for the purpose : they take them in threes, using both hands for the ope ration, and they throw them into a basket alternately, one calling the odd and the other the even numbers up to forty for each handful of three. Then one throws in three more, saying " warp," and the other throws in one and says " tally " ; and then a notch is cut on a stick to denote the 100 (but really 124). When this has been done five times a "meash" of herrings has been counted, and it amounts to 620. It is always understood by the fishermen that the " warp " and " tally " are thrown in to make good any possible error in counting. The word "tally" most probably arises from using the tally stick to mark the hundred, but the origin of "warp" I do not know. As to mar-fire, I know nothing about it.

ERNEST B. SAVAGE.

St. Thomas, Douglas, Isle of Man.

"GLORIOUS UNCERTAINTY OP THE GAME" (9 th S. viii. 164). It is no doubt the suspense and uncertainty as to what will be the result of a game of skill like cricket that render it to the sporting mind " glorious " an uncertainty especially characteristic of the national summer pastime. The expression " glorious uncertainty " is said to be origin- ally from a play of Macklin's in the eighteenth century, but I have no means at hand of verifying this. V. R. is perhaps aware of the reference in *N. & Q.' (9 th S. iii. 247) explaining the origin of the phrase "the glorious uncertainty of the law.'

J. H. MACMICHAEL.

Might not this have been suggested by the oft-quoted "uncertain glory" of an April day? G. T. P.

The "glorious uncertainty of the law" is an ironical expression of Jong standing to