Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/34

 NOTES AND QUERIES.

. vm. JULY e, 1901.

Pontifice maximo institutes cogitatione delec- tamur. Quo quidem institute certe magnus ille decessor Noster de Scotorum genere immortahter meruit ; prsetereaque et ipse in aperto posuit, Komani Pontificatus virtutem in elegantiam doc- trine, in studia ingenuarum artium, quibus maxime rebus alitur humanitas gentium, ad incre- mentum suapte natura influere. Cetera istud maiorum disciplinarum nobile domicilium con- stanter florere cupimus salutarium ubertate fruc- tuum et gloria nominis: Deumque omnipotentem comprecamur, ut doctos labores vestros omnium genere ad veritatem dirigere, vpsque universes perfecta Nobiscum caritate coniungere benigne

Datum Romee apud S. Petrum die IX. lunii Anno MDCCCCI.

Pontificatus Nostri vicesimo quarto. LEO PP. XIII.

GEOEGE ANGUS.

"COLLATE" (9 th S. vii. 5). Under this heading F. H., instancing words having a similar "back-formation," gives among them "the American nast." Why "American"? Halliwell gives nast as a word of provincial English, but it is doubtful whether it was ever used here. It is amusing and exas- perating by turns to see so many things con- fidently classed as " American " of which Americans themselves know nothing.

M. C. L. New York.

[Dr. Fitzedward Hall was the F. H. in question, an American who presumably knew something of his own tongue. ]

MALT AND HOP SUBSTITUTES (9 th S. vii. 150, 215, 296, 454). I remember in my youth coming across a distich which at one time would appear to have been a familiar axiom, running somewhat to the effect,

Dancing [?] and heresy, hops and beer, Came into England all in a year,*

temp. Reformation, about the middle of the sixteenth century, obviously intended as a " fling " at the Lollard or Gospeller party in religion. After the lapse of three score years, however, I cannot, of course, be certain that my memory serves me truly. Surely dancing was well known and generally practised in England centuries before temp. Hen. VIII, Ed. VI. ! Was the word " beer >1 then invented to describe a malt liquor in which hops were a component in contradistinction to the familiar term " ale " ? I believe the hop was introduced into England at about that date. Do I quote correctly 1 Can and will any reader kindly furnish me with a reference to the metrical saying, or correct or otherwise assist 1

GNOMON.

[* Humorously quoted in 'Ingoldsby' in a mock comment on Shakespeare.]

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (9 th S. vii. 330, 398).

I fancy that what appears at the first reference to be a fifth line, sequent to the four preceding ones found in Bailey's ' Festus,' was not intended as such a continuation by H. J. B. C., who asked after the authorship, but was meant to form a separate quotation and inquiry. Taken in that way, with a slight yerbal difference as given below, it may be found in Ly man's translation of the 'Maxims of Publius Syrus' as maxim 829: "Ib matters not how long you live, but how well."

M. C. L. (9 th S. vii. 330.)

Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident, It is the very place God meant for thee ; And should'st thou there small room for action see, Do not for this give room to discontent, &c.

Sonnet by Archbishop Trench. JAS. CURTIS, F.S.A. (9 th S. vii. 489.)

Sheepskins, beeswax, putty, pitch, and plaster, The more you try to pull them off, they 're sure to

stick the faster.

One of the nonsense verses in the convivial song ' Three Jolly Post-Boys.'

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Memorials of the Duttons of Dutton t in Cheshire. With Notes respecting the Sherborne Branch of the Family. (Chester, Minshull & Meeson ; Lon- don, Sotheran & Co. )

No name of writer appears to this interesting and important record of the Duttons of Dutton. In the place on the title-page ordinarily assigned such name is found an "Acclamation," "God bless the King and the heir of Dutton," which anciently concluded the service in St. John the Baptist's, Chester, at the annual licensing of the Cheshire minstrels by the lord of Dutton. This matter of the licensing of the minstrels one of the most interesting things in connexion with the Dutton pedigree had not long to wait after the establish- ment of 'N. & Q.' before becoming a subject of inquiry (see 1 st S. ii. 21, 77 ; x. 244). References to the subject are found in Ormerod's ' Cheshire,' which supplies a Dutton pedigree from the trust- worthy hands of Sir Peter Leycester, and also in Lysons's ' Cheshire ' ; while Blount's ' Tenures of Lands and Customs of Manors' (ed. Hazlitt, pp. 68-70) gives a full account of this presumably unique distinction of licensing the minstrels and players of Cheshire, with other disorderly characters whose condition since the days of Ford and Hey- wood is generally indicated by the employment of a euphemism. Its origin, briefly indicated, is as fol- lows. Randle, third Earl of Chester, being distressed by the Welsh, sent to the Constable of Chester, Roger Lacy (known for his fierce spirit as " Hell"), for immediate assistance. Gathering from the fair at Chester a nondescript rabble of fiddlers, players, and others of both sexes, Roger marched to the earl. The Welsh, seeing the approach of what seemed a multitude, raised the siege and dispersed.