Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/119

 9 th S. IX. Fi-n. 8, 1902.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Ill

the last Scots Parliament, that which dis solved itself in 1707 on the consummation of the Union. Throughout the filigree ironwork in Caroline Park in the balustrades for the staircases and in the railing of a balcony over the south entrance, as well as in the above- mentioned gates the rose and thistle are conspicuously worked, symbols of the union of England with Scotland, which the builder of Caroline Park had so much at heart. Tarbat's character is excellently drawn in 1 The Union of England and Scotland/ by my colleague Dr. Mackinnon, Lecturer on His- tory in this university.

DAVID FRASER HARRIS. University, St. Andrews, N.B.

AN HEUSKARIAN RARITY IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY (9 th S. viii. 378). MR. E. S. DODGSON states that " the late Mr. Llewelyn Thomas,

Vice-Principal of Jesus College marked

(illegally) in pencil upon the margin of the Bodleian copy of M. Vinson's ' Bibliography ' some useful corrections," &c. The corrections were not written by Mr. Thomas, but by a member of the staff of the library, and I do not understand why MR. DODGSON, who knew Mr. Thomas's handwriting, should charge him after his death with an "-illegal" act. REGINALD L. POOLE.

Magdalen College, Oxford.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR'S HALF BROTHERS AND SISTERS (9 th S. viii. 199, 293, 525 ; ix. 36). Following up MRS. VADE-WALPOLE'S inter- esting investigations as to the relations of the Conqueror, perhaps some reader could inform me if there be any truth in a state- ment which I have heard that a sister (perhaps own sister) was married to a certain noble- man named Le Nez, who was killed at the battle of Hastings, and whose name appears on the roll of Battle Abbey. I should be glad to know if the story has any foundation.

P. L. N. F.

" ALRIGHT "= ALL RIGHT (9 th S. viii. 240, 312, 413, 493 ; ix. 72). None of the compounds cited by L. L. K. is quite on all fours with alright. To speak only of those of which all forms a part. In these the first element (al-) either entirely alters the meaning, as in already, almost, or gives it force and exten- sion, as in almighty. These words, in short, are needed, and it is merely a question of convenience whether we write all-mighty or almighty. We cannot, however, say "all most hysterical" when we mean "almost hysterical." Look, now, at all right. This phrase, in nine cases out of ten in which it is used, is pleonastic ; the all is not needed, and adds nothing to the force of the phrase. In

such cases, then, nothing can be said in favour of alright ; it does but tend to perpetuate a vicious form of expression. But when all right is needed as when we predicate right- ness of a number of things or of one thing in its totality alright would still be objec- tionable, being ambiguous. It is true that all right may be used ambiguously too, but that is beside the mark. C. C. B.

Is it quite certain that the phrase "all right " has had " such a long lease of collo- quial importance " as MR. BAYNE supposes ? In a letter bearing date 28 April, 1824, from Mr. Robert Hamond, a well-known sporting character, to Selby, the naturalist, and printed in the Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society (vol. ii. p. 400), it is used apparently as a neologism : "I am happy in being able to say I am now in the fashionable term 'all right.'" It would be well to know what earlier instances could be cited. I have not succeeded in finding one in Dr. Murray's 'Dictionary,' and I cannot help thinking that the expression originated in coaching days, when it was certainly the common exclamation of guard or ostler as a signal for the coachman to drive off.

A. N.

BREADCRUMBS AND THE DEVIL (9 th S. viii. 383). When we children were careless with our bread our mother used to admonish us very seriously to be more careful of it, and never to throw away "das liebeGut" (the precious thing), always adding, "Perhaps you will one day eat sharp stones." That was in Anhalt. In Berlin it is regarded as a sin to throw the remnants of bread into the dust-bin ; they should be put on the fire.

G. KRUEGER.

Berlin.

COSSEN OR COSEN (9 th S. viii. 523). A family named Cossens resided at St. Ives, Cornwall, in the seventeenth century. Many refer- ences to them will be found in my ' History of St. Ives,' &c. (Elliot Stock, 1892). One or two families of the same name were resident in Gloucestershire from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. As to these I have many notes. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff.

"GOD SPEED YOU AND THE BEADLE" (9 th S.

viii. 422; ix. 12). MR. MAcMiCHAEL has made an attempt to explain this saying which demands no criticism ^beyond a re- minder that a different meaning is possible if we construe the phrase with both substan- tives in the same grammatical case; the interpretation then is "God and the beadle