Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/206

 198

NOTES AND QUERIES, p* s. ix. MARCH s, 1002.

being a Geographical Index.' Echard says in the preface, " The kind Reception the Qazet-

teer has met with induced us to go on

with a second Part." In 1751 there appeared a work entitled 'England's Gazetteer.'

R. B. P.

" ROUT " (9 th S. ix. 65). To the citations of "rout" I beg to add the following earlier examples :

1782. "And, as I have a frank and a subject, I will leave my bothers, and write you and my dear brother Molesworth a little account of a rout I have just been at, at the house of Mr. Paradise. "- ' Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay,' ii. 89 (London, Henry Colburn, 1854, 7 vpls.).

1775. " He told us that the Prince was to dine with Lord Buckingham and a multitude of others, and begged the concert might not wait for him, as he was obliged to go in for a few minutes to Lady Harrington s before he came, it being her Rout Day." ' The Early Diary of Frances Burney,' iii. 94 (London, George Bell & Sons, 1889, 2 vols.).

You 've heard of my Lady Bunbutter, no doubt,

How she loves an Assembly, Fandango, or Rout ;

No Lady in London is half so expert

At a snug private Party, her Friends to divert. ' The New Bath Guide,' p. 97 (London, J. Dodsley, 1766).

E. P. MERRITT.

Boston, U.S.

See 'The Faithful Bird,' by Wm. Cowper, "Fandango, ball, and rout"; and 'Our Ball,' by Praed, " Miss Hyacinth threatens a rout." J. R. FITZGERALD.

L. L. K. in his note talks of " rout-chairs " being advertised by West-End caterers. In the East-End we talk of "rout-seats," and you will find the word listed among the many articles hirable for parties, &c., from catering firms. These "rout-seats" are long forms, the seatings of which are made of cane. They usually afford accommodation for six persons. I presume the reason these are used at public dinners is that they can be more expeditiously handled and stacked up than chairs, and also because they form excellent sittings for those who are tired of waltzing, &c., at the balls that generally follow on at these functions. M. L. R, BEESLAR.

Percy House, South Hackney.

The word comes into the old epigram : Marriage, as some men say and old men note, Is like some public feast or common rout, Where those that are without would fain get in, And those that are within would fain get out.

H. A. ST. J. M.

In 1857, when I resided in Derbyshire, 'Rout Polka' was the title of a pianoforte piece which I heard strummed in every house.

CHARLES A. FEDERER. Bradford.

" FRAIL " (9 th S. iv. 436, 507 ; v. 51, 158 ; vi. 378 ; vii. 33, 177 ; viii. 531 ; ix. 96). The term "frail," or more commonly "flail," is applied to a bag made of brown cord, such as is used by women for shopping. The word is so employed, at least, by people who belong to East Monmouthshire. I have not heard it in London. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff.

MARKOE OR MARCOU FAMILY : RECORDS OF NEVIS, ST. EUSTATIUS, AND SANTA CRUZ (9 th S. ix. 87). Possibly the following extract from Capt. J. H. Lawrence-Archer's * Monu- mental Inscriptions of the British West Indies,' p. 188, may be of use to MR. WADE, viz., "New West Ground (Kingston)," Jamaica, " Francis Marcaud, who obit [sic] April 29th, 1826, aged 77 years." GEO. S. CARY.

Laurel Lodge, Terenure, co. Dublin.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

History of the Church of England. By R. W. Dixon, D.U. Vols. V. and VI. (Oxford, Claren- don Press.)

IT is the too common fate of any literary work projected on a scale of unusual magnitude that it is left a fragment. If the compasses be extended too widely at the start the proposed circle never gets described, and only a partial arc suggests what the completed orb might have been, time and material favouring. But the life of the artist is all too brief for the exacting longitude of art. So it has proved with Canon Dixon's copious ' History of the Church of England.' Taking the abolition of the Roman jurisdiction as his starting-point, in his first three volumes he gave us (1881-84) the history of Church affairs under Henry VIII. and Edward VI ; in 1890 appeared the fourth volume, devoted to the short reign of Mary (see 5 th S. x. 119 ; 6 th S. iii. 399) ; and now we have the fifth and sixth volumes which are also, alas ! to be the last published two years after his death, and covering only the first twelve years of Elizabeth's reign. The " spacious days" of the great queen no doubt demanded a spacious canvas, and Canon Dixon had no lack of interesting matter wherewith to give it life and colour. He loved an ample stage to set out his stirring drama with due effect, and here he has to deal with a critical period, when the National Church assumed its present form, and gained new life by being severed from the Roman Curia, which, with hasty improvidence, itself did the severing.

Canon Dixon is well known to have been a diligent explorer of ancient muniments, and he supplies abundance of "justificative pieces" to establish all his conclusions, which are eminently fair and judicial. Whole pages from contemporary sermons or forgotten pamphlets are made to give actuality and local colour, as well as authentication, to the events chronicled. Indeed, if a trustworthy and impartial account of the Reformation in England is desired, we know not where it can be found sooner than here. Elizabeth's and Cecil's astute