Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/240

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NOTES -AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vm. SEPT. u, iwi.

encourage a litigant to hope, however des- perate his case may be, and I suppose sport- ing reporters have borrowed the phrase because the results in cricket matches and lawsuits are equally uncertain.

B. D. MOSELEY. Burslem.

FLOWER GAME (9 th S. vii. 329, 397, 474, 511 ; viii. 70). Is not this practice universal 1 ? I cannot remember any locality in which I have not seen children making dandelion chains. I do not think that the word pissabed, which was the only name the dandelion bore among the common people when I was a child in Bucks and Oxon, had any mental association with enuresis. We had several things beginning with the same foresyllable. Thus the common thrift was pissbloom, and the ant was pissemmet, and all these words are to be found in the dictionaries to this day. Respecting the latter, I remember a story of a Sunday-school teacher who was regaling his class at Thame, in Oxfordshire, with the wonders he had seen in London. At St. Paul's he had been up and up till he reached the summit, and then, looking down, he saw the people in the streets appearing like the smallest things that could be imagined. " What do you think they looked like 1 What are the smallest things you can remember 1 " And the answer came from a piping little treble in the corner, " Please, teacher, they was like pissemmets " !

RICHARD WELFORD.

[Pissenlit for dandelion or taraxacum is common in France, and is used by the elder Dumas.]

BOOKS ON MANNERS, DEPORTMENT, AND ETIQUETTE (9 th S. vii. 388, 516).

)' R Brathwaite's The English Gentleman : con- taining sundry excellent Rules, or exquisite Obser- vations, tending to Direction of every Gentleman of selecter Ranke and Qualitie ; How to demeane or accomodate himselfe to the manage of publike or private affaires. 1633."

Also his

' The English Gentlewoman, drawne out to the full Body ; expressing what Habilliments doe best attire her, what Ornaments doe best adorne her, what Complements doe best accomplish her. 1631."

J. G. WALLACE-JAMES. Haddmgton.

MIHM" (9 th S. viii. 45, 128). With the light tin-own upon this inscrip- tion by MR. ANDERSON there need be no difficulty about the M.I.H.M. In Capelli's 'Dizionario di Abbreviature ' one finds that M.H.S.M. stands for "Memoriam hanc sibi mandavit,"or "Monumentum hoc sibi man- davit." If we substitute "ipsi" for "sibi"

we read that V.^.S.A.C. ordered this monu- ment or memorial to himself. Possibly the correct reading is not S.A.C., but SAC, which is the abbreviation for "sacerdos"; and in this case the question is narrowed down to the identity of V.M. Local tradition or record should determine who this particular Roman was. ARTHUR MAYALL.

SURNAMES FROM SINGLE LETTERS (9 th S. vi. 264, 398). This diocese (St. Albans) was at one time (about 1877-80 ?) represented in Convocation by an archdeacon and two proc- tors of the clergy, named respectively Ady (Archdeacon), Kay (Rev. W., D D., rector of Great Leighs), and Gee (Rev. Rd., D.D., vicar of Abbots Langley). The ' Clergy List ' will at any time supply instances not a few ; e.g. (1901), Abey, Beebe, Deey, Eyes, Kew, &c.

C. P. PHINN.

Watford.

LOCKTONS OF LEICESTERSHIRE (9 th S. viii. 122). In 'N. & Q ,' 5 th S. xi. 329, MR. JOHN LOCKTON requested information respecting the family of Locktons of Swineshead, to which two replies were received (see pp. 376, 397).

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

"GOING OUT WITH THE TIDE" (5 th S. vi. 186, 305, 356). This curious superstition can be traced back to a much earlier authority than any hitherto quoted (so far as I can ascertain) in 'N. & Q.' Flavius Philostratus, in his life of Apollonius, represents him as visiting Gades, and tells of the belief that he found prevailing among the inhabitants that a death cannot occur during the flood- tide. His words are (after giving his theory of the tides), TTKTTOVTCU Se avro KO.K roof v Trepi FaSeipa' rov yap xpoVoi> 6V

rovs aTrodvr'jo-KovTas ('Apoll. Tyan.,' vol. ii. p. 166, Teubner edition). ALEX. LEEPER. Trinity College, University of Melbourne.

PECHE FAMILY (6 th S. viii. 409; x. 207, 313). Can any one supply information as to the origin of the ancient family of Peche, with the name and immediate descendants of the younger son of a Due de Peche, who settled in England (county unknown) in the reign of Henry I., and who is said to have been the ancestor of the families of Pechey, Peachey, and Peach ? Robert Peche was Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1121, as was Richard Peche in 1161. " Munsire " Gil- bert Pecche (Baron of Brune, and great- grandson of Hamon Peche, High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire) is included in the Camden Roll, and a Sir John Peche was Governor of