Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/135

 9- 8. IX. FEB. 15, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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an honorific of this kind ; and if it has been taken, why was the Scottish practice not followed viz., of making him a Right Reverend for a year, instead of assimilating him to the principals of the Scotch univer- sities for that period ?

These questions, [ should add, are not asked in any spirit of controversy. The first has, in fact, become unnecessary, for I have since recollected that Bishop Barry, who was a metropolitan, is always styled "The Right Reverend." A retired archbishop, however, would remain the "Most Reverend." The only instance in the Anglican Church that I can recall is that of the late Archbishop Lewis, of Canada. But if so, why should not a metropolitan, though he did not bear the title of archbishop ? The difference is one of name only.

An archdeacon who, like Archdeacon Diggle, resigns his office and removes to another diocese, would not, I presume, retain the title of the '* Venerable Archdeacon " or the honorific of " The Venerable," as the office is entirely a local one. It is not usually done in the case of colonial archdeacons returning to England. But the same argu- ment might be applied to the case of a retired archbishop, as it is, in fact, to the case of a retired metropolitan who had not borne the title of archbishop. J. P. L.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

" OLIVER." This is the name of a small lift- hammer (of from four or five to fifty or sixty pounds weight) worked by the foot by means of a treadle and spring-pole. It is used by nailmakers, chainmakers, and others. Why is it so called 1 The name looks like a surname perhaps of the inventor. The earliest reference to it we have found is only of 1858, but it was then in ordinary use, and apparently had been for some time. I shall be glad of any information as to its origin. Readers who have friends in the nailmaking districts might help by making inquiries there. J. A. H. MURRAY.

" OMNEITY " : " OMNIETY." This word was used by Archbishop Usher and by Sir Thomas Browne, in the sense of " allness," ** allhood," and has been used by later metaphysicians. I should like to know whether it is an English formation, or whether it occurs in

any mediaeval or modern Latin writer, as omneitas, or omnietas, or (correctly) omnitas. J. A. H. MURRAY.

CHRONOGRAMS. Who was the originator of this form of wit 1 I lately saw a golden key, with an ecclesiastical device, which bore the following inscription : En fIDel nostrse testls plaCet aVrea CLaVIs PrlnCeps nVnC serVos faC frIDerlCe tVos.

This would give the date of the key as 1732. Perhaps some of your readers could throw more light on its history. Addison remarks that this form of wit was very popular in Germany, and quotes a medal struck in honour of Gustavus Adolphus. As the pri- mary object was to include the numeral letters which gave the key to the date, we have not much to look for in the form of the Latin. CECIL H. S. WILLSON.

Weybridge.

[The word "chronogram" is said to have been first used in verses addressed, in 1575, to the King of Poland. See ' Chronograms : Five Thousand and more in Number,' &c., by James Hilton, F.S.A. (Stock, 1882). Many references to chronograms occur in our General Indexes.]

ITALIAN SUNDIAL INSCRIPTION. On the front wall of the Albergo Rossazza, the solitary old inn upon the top of Mont Cenis, is a sundial, whereupon is a half-obliterated inscription. It reads

OMBRAONDEL MEFEGEM.

I carefully copied the characters during a leisurable tramp across the mountain last summer, and the (apparently) two words are displayed precisely as now given. Ombra, of course, is " a shadow," but what of the rest. Is it patois? The tumbledown posada in question is in Italy, but within a mile or two of the French frontier. HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

" ALL COOPER'S DUCKS WITH ME." A short time ago I heard a respectable young master- butcher in London use the following curious saying, viz., "It would soon have been all Cooper's ducks with me," meaning that death would have resulted had he not quickly recovered from a recent attack of influenza. This person was born and bred in Kent ; but, although myself a Kentish man, I have not previously heard the same either there or elsewhere ; nor is any reference to it to be met with in Hotten's ' Slang Dictionary '- unless it have anything to do with a "duck " (otherwise better known as a "faggot"), which that book describes, somewhat incorrectly, as " a bundle of bits of the ' s tickings ' of beef sold for food to the London poor." Can any