Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/452

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NOTES -AND QUERIES. [9* s. vm. NOV. so, 1901.

ture " 1 I had always understood that " avere qual cosa in petto " meant having a certain matter in one's mind, with the sense of its being kept secret, but I lately saw a quota- tion from ' A Journey to Nature ' (Constable & Co.) in one of our literary weekly papers, in which it evidently bore the sense of k 'iri miniature," without comment from the re- viewer. The passage runs as follows :

" One hot day we lay flat on our stomachs under the shade of a beech, among the June grass and the daisies, peering down into a magic spectacle, and yet it was the planet's history in petto. The great loom of the universe was working there with miniature continents," &c.

This use of in petto appears to be such a case of Italianized French as is described so amusingly by Mr. Carmichael in 4 In Tuscany,' and the author of ' A Journey to Nature ' has evidently jumped to the conclusion that in petto is equivalent to en petit. As Mr. Carmichael says :

" One of the first happy thoughts of the beginner is to Italianize French words. It answers so often. He knows, to begin with, that if he changes the French eau into ello (e.g., agneau, agnello) or the French eur into ore (e g., vapeur, vapore) he will probably be right. He is tempted to soar beyond these ascertained rules, garqon, garzone ; jardin, (jiardino ; hitr, ieri ; jamais, giammai ; how smoothly the system works. He goes into a piz- zicheria and asks the price of jambon, giambone, pointing to a small juicy ham of the Casentino cure. ' Questo giambone/ says the courteous shopman, 'costa novanta centesimi la libbra.' The ham is bought on the spot, and sent home : the cook is asked what she thinks of the giambont. ' The what ! ' she asks, in bewildered astonishment. ' The giambone which 1 myself sent home from the piz- zicheria.' 'Ah!' she gasps apologetically, 'it is excellent giambone. Will the signore have some of it fried with eggs after the manner of the Americans ? '

" And so, thanks to an infamous conspiracy of courtesy between a shopman, a cook, a parlour- maid, and a serving-man, it was six months before I found out that there was no such word in the Tuscan tongue &s giambone, and that the Italian for ham wis&prosciutto!"

H.

[The use of in pttto in such a sense is simply a common error.]

DUNNET AND DuNNETT. Is there any con- nexion between the families of the Scotch Dunnets of Caithness and the English Dun- netts of East Anglia, and which is the correct or original form of the name ? L. F. D.

[A query on the Dunnet family appeared ante, p. 45, but elicited no reply.]

ENGLISH DETENUS OF WAR IN FRANCE. Where can I find an account contemporary, if possible of those British merchants and others of our citizens who, being in France when war was renewed in 1803 after the

breaking of the peace temporarily secured by the Treaty of Amiens, were detained in that country by order of Bonaparte, and, though not prisoners of war in the ordinary sense, were not allowed to return to their homes until his fall eleven years later 1

POLITICIAN.

COPPERPLATE CUTS. I have always asso- ciated the word "cut" with woodcut, and I was surprised to meet with it in the title of an eighteenth-century book. ' The Art of Swimming,' by Thevenot, 1764, is said to be " illustrated by forty copperplate cuts." Is it not unusual to use the word for copper- plate engravings ? RALPH THOMAS.

BOWYER WILLS. I seek to know where the wills of William Bowyer, Senior, printer, who died in 1737, and of his son William Bowyer, Junior, printer, who died in 1777, were proved. The Gentleman's Magazine for 1778 gives extracts from the latter's will, but does not state when and where it was proved. The wills do not appear to be at Somerset House. P. A. BOWYER.

65, Brigstock Road, Croydon.

ADAMS CHINA. I want information con- cerning old china marked "Adams," more especially in the jasper, " blue ground with white reliefs of classical subjects," black basalt, early printed, and fine stoneware. It is often classed as Wedgwood, but the name Adams being impressed makes it easily dis- cernible. It was made at Tunstall in Stafford- shire, 1787 to 1820, and is highly praised by Chaffers in his ' Keramic Gallery ' and later editions of l Marks and Monograms,' &c.

Descriptions of pieces in private collections are wanted for a work which is being written upon the subject.

Also can any one give information as to a portrait medallion in the blue jasper with white relief of this potter (William Adams, born 1745, died 1805), said to have been sold in London some twenty -five years ago?

Any information on this subject will be gladly received. P. W. L. ADAMS.

Moreton House, Wolstanton, Staffs.

HORN DANCERS. Through the kindness of a lady at Uttoxeter I have received a photo- graph of a group of so-called horn dancers, the performers in an annual function still kept up at Abbot's Bromley in Staffordshire. There are six men, whose principal costume consists of spotted breeches all alike, each mounting on his shoulders a large pair of stag's horns (pronounced to be reindeer's), so that his head appears between them. There are besides our old friend the " hobby