Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/497

 vm. DEC. 14, loci.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

489

Prof. Knapp directs his readers to pronounce the digraph ly like Spanish II or Portuguese Ih. This may be the theory, but in practice no native of Hungary pronounces it so. It is mostly reduced to y (compare French II, once sounded ly, now reduced to ?/) ; thus the word for " king " would be kirdy. But in some parts of Hungary no difference is made between ly and I, which explains why in German bills of fare golasch or gulasch is written for the national dish gulyds. Again, Prof. Knapp supports the derivation of hussar from Hungarian husz, " twenty." This has long been exploded (see 8 th S. ii. 156). In Irish Prof. Knapp is also not happy. Annotating p. 291, he quotes with approval Brooke's etymology of raparee from " reubdir ri, plunderer, robber, freebooter of the king." Had he consulted Skeat's 'Etymological Dictionary ' he would have discovered that it is from Irish rapaire, or rather (if I may be permitted to improve on Skeat) from the plural of rapaire, namely, rapairidhe. My reason for this suggestion is that rapaire is accented upon the first syllable, whereas its plural has the same stress as the English word, viz., on the final, being, in fact, its exact phonetic equivalent. There are other cases known of a plural used for a singular assassin, Bedouin, cherubim, seraphim, &c. JAS. PLATT, Jun.

PRIVATE PRINTING PRESS (9 th S. viii. 384). The following is taken from Mr. Worthy's ' History of the Manor and Church of Winkleigh in the County of Devon ' :

"The Rev. William Davy [misspelt "Davey" in the ' History '], who was thirty-six years curate of Lustleigh [in Devon], when a young man conceived the idea of composing a system of divinity in a course of sermons, and he published six volumes by subscription at Exeter. Thinking the work, how- ever, incomplete, he determined to print an enlarged edition, and being of a mechanical turn, and not finding sufficient encouragement from the publishers, he began to print the work in the parsonage house at Lustleigh, with no other assis- tant than his servant. He constructed a press, and purchased a cast-off set of type. After many years of incessant labour he completed his work. It consists of twenty-six volumes octavo, the subject being the virtues and vices of mankind. He only printed fourteen copies, the greater part of which were given to the universities, the Royal Society, and the Cathedral Library at Exeter. After he had completed his seventy-eighth year he recom- menced his printing, and worked off a fresh volume of sermons.

The 'Bibliotheca Devoniensis' records what is probably the last work mentioned above :

"'Divinity; or, Discourses on the Being of a God,' &c., extracted from 'A System of Divinity.' By the Rev. W. Davy, of Lustleigh. 2 vols.

Portrait. Exeter, 1825. With an account of the Author's struggles against every kind of difficulty in the progress of his works in 26 volumes."

Mr. Davy was preferred to the vicarage of Winkleigh a short time before his death, on 22 March, 1826, being then just eighty- three, for he was born on 4 March, 1743. He died in his new vicarage on 13 June in the same year in which he was inducted, having only held possession for the short period of two months and twenty-two days.

A. J. DAVY.

Torquay.

A resident in Freshford says there was a house called Prospect Villa, but its name has been changed. In 1831 it belonged to a farmer named Dyke, and until quite recently has been a farm. H. P.

STONE PULPIT (9 th S. viii. 325, 394). W P., referring to u the reader's pulpit " (as it is universally known in architectural circles) at Shrewsbury, remarks, "Good authorities consider it to be fifteenth-century work." This is a mistake. The best authorities date it not later than the end of the reign of Edward III., i.e., 1350-60.

HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

No plummet has ever reached the bottom of popular ignorance about the Druids, but FOTIS may be content to learn that the beautiful pulpit in the Shrewsbury coalyard is Decorated work of the fourteenth century.

C. S. WARD. [Similar replies received.]

"CONSERVATIVE" AS A POLITICAL TERM (8 th S. vi. 61, 181 ; vii. 356 ; xi. 494 ; 9 th S. iv. 333). In 4 th S. iii. 143 is a con- tribution on 'The Canning Episode,' which concludes with the idea that the term "Conservative," as used to denominate a party, might have been suggested by a speech which Canning made at Liverpool in 1822, in which he referred to the middle class in these terms : " Of that most important and conservative portion of society, I repeat, 1 know not where I could look for a better specimen than I now see before me." I should be glad of a more precise reference for this use of the word : but meanwhile I may note that in his farewell speech at Liverpool on 21 August, 1822 (as reported in the Liverpool Courier of two days later), Canning twice emphasized the political necessity to conserve, and especially in the exclamation : " Gentlemen, apart from the interests of separate classes, we have all a common interest in the conservation of