Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/33

 * s. vm. JULY 6, IDOL] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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voient piquer avec cette aiguille telle piece de viande qu'il leur plaisoit, et 1'emporter."

THOMAS J. JEAKES.

" PAELOUE " (9 th S. vii. 389). Minsheu (1627) has :

"A Parlour or inner roome to dine or sup in. G. Parloir. I. Parldio, a G. Parler, i. locus interior vbi sermones committuntur. I. 2. Oendculo. L. Co3naculum, a ccenando, in quod prcecipue ex- tructum. Triclinium, Biclinium, a tt\ivrj, i. a bed. Quid interdum tres, interdum duos in eo inveniebant lectos accumbentes, sometimes there were three beds, sometimes but two about the table, upon which the guests did sit, or rather lie along in old time," &c.

Littleton (1693) distinguishes between a "parlor, or place to sup in," "an inward parlor," "a little parlor," and "a summer parlor, made of boards," and gives its Latin equivalent to each. In my youth (in the fifties) parlour denoted the best sitting-room, not the one commonly used by the family, but the one reserved for "parties" ana solemn occasions, such as a funeral or a wedding. At other times it was rarely used, even on Sundays, unless damp were suspected, and the room needed " airing " which means, not throwing open to the air, but having a fire put in it. Such a parlour was that in whicn Wordsworth's suppositive "party" "all silent and all d a would assemble. There was something in the very air of these rooms that would reduce any party to silence, and the rest at least until after supper. I could picture one of them, but pity stays my hand. What I have written refers to the better class of farmhouses in the Midland counties. C. C. B.

"Receptions or converse" is suggestive rather of regularly appointed entertainments than of casual interviews with visitors from the outside world on some affair of moment, which was the use of the convent parloir. I suppose the best-known " parlour is that in which Squire and Capt. Shandy sat and talked so entertainingly with Dr. Slop and Yorick and Trim and Obadiah ; that was a "back-parlour." Ordinarily, I think, the "parlour" was a small or moderate-sized room on the ground floor, nearest the front or back door of the house, and preferentially on the right as one entered. It is related of Charles Lamb that he was so struck by certain lines (I forget whose) concluding : " Like a party in a parlour, all silent and all damned," that he one night clung to an area railing, and assailed the revellers within with " You damned party in a parlour ! You damned party in a parlour ! "

THOMAS J. JBAKES. Tower House, New Hampton.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY (9 th S. vii. 484). Perhaps, in addition to what N. S. S. has written, the address from the University to Leo XIII. and the Pope's reply may be thought worthy of record and preservation in'N. &Q.': Pontifici Maximo Viro Sanctissimo Eeverendissimo

Eruditissimo Leoni XIII. Universitas tola Glasgu-

ensis Cancellarius Hector Professores Graduati

Studentes Salutem.

In multo nostro gaudio quippe mox ferias ssecu- lares celebraturi illud potissimum gratis animis recordari libet quod aniplam hanc Universitatem, copiis omnibus hodie ingenii atque operum instruc- tam, ab ipsa sede Apostolica profectam, et cum amantissima Pontiticis Maximi commendatione institutam, a maioribus accepimus.

Doctissimus enim ille Pontifex, Nicolaus Quintus, anno incarnationis Dominicae millesimo quadringen- tesimo quinquagesimo primo, summum suum in Scotos atque artes amorem prseferens, luminibus ipse omnibus et ingenii et liberalium artium illus- trissinms, Studium apud nos Generale institui, et doctpres magistros studentesque nostros libertatibus omnibus quse in Studio civitatis suse Bononiensis, concessse fuerant gaudere atque uti voluit.

Quod tantum beneficium cum sicut pia filia matri carissimse acceptam referamus, illud nos decere arbitramur, ut Sanctitatem tuarn participem fore nostri gaudii speremus, meritasque Sedi Apostolicae grates pro tan to merito proferamus.

Oramus igitur ut hanc nostram felicitatem aucto- ritate tua cumulare digneris ; et si per tempora haec iniqua, p^er tot maris et viarum dUficultates non poterit neri ut Beatitude tua adsistat feriantibus, op tarn us saltern fore ut per alium quemdam bene- volum tuum in nos animum significes, et Universi- tatem hanc nostram, ab erudito Nicolao erectam, a lacobo Scotorum rege fotam, a Gulielmo Episcopo Glasguensi curatam atque defensam, a mult is denique regibus nostris multis auctam beneficiis, eruditissimus ipse litterarumque Latinarum cultor elegantissimus pro humanitate tua amplificare velis, atque ad nova usque saecula commendare.

Dabamus Glasguae, Idibus Maiis, MOMI.

R. HERBERT STORY, Prsefectus et Vice-Cancellarius.

F. G. Herberto Story Prcefecto et Vice-Cancellario item Rectori atque Auditoribus Universitatis Studiorum Glasguensis (Glasgow).

LEO PP. XIII.

lucundas scito Nobis communes litteras vestras fuisse. Memoriam beneficiorum colere, multoque magis ferre prse se palam ac libere, virtus est non humilia nee angusta sentientis animi: atque istius- modi virtutem libet quidem in vobis agnoscere, studiorum optimorum ingeniique decora prseclare cumulantem. Quod enim Lyceum magnum, ubi vestra omnium desudat industria debet Apostolicse Sedi origines suas, idcirco sub solemnia eius sa3cu- laria ad Romanum Pontificem vestra provolavit cogitatio menior, atque ultro arcessivistis Nosmet- ipsos in Isetitise societatem, tamquam desideraturi aliquid, si voluntatis Nostrse significatione in hoc tempore caruissetis. Equidem gratum habemus facimusque plurimi tale officium humanitatis cum iudicii sequitate coniunctum. Memoria autem vetera repetentes, utique diversamur apud vos ammo per hos dies, reique tarn utiliter a Nicolao V.