Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/247

. IX. MARCH 22, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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all which, of course, mean that the matter or promise " on the tapis " is deferred sine die.

A similar saying that has not been noted is " Johnny Pyot's term day" i.e, the day after the Day of Judgment a somewhat profane form of " never " and ** for ever." It is used in Banffshire (see Jamieson's * Dictionary '). J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

CROSS ON THE CARNEDDAU HILLS NEAR BUILTH (9 th S. viii. 505). The following from Camden's 'Britannia,' under 'Radnorshire,' may explain what W. O. wishes to know :

"On the top of Gwastedin hill, near Rhaidr Gwy, are three large heaps of stones, such as are common on mountains in most if not all the counties of Wales, called in South Wales Karnen and in North Wales Karnedheu. They consist of stones from a pound to a hundredweight collected from the neighbourhood and confusedly thrown together in heaps, &c. Most if not all the Carned- hew seem intended as memorials of the dead, &c. It is still the custom to throw heaps of stones on the graves of malefactors and self-murderers."

JOHN RADCLIFFE.

"FLITTINGS" (9 th S. ix. 49). A quotation in the 'E.D.D.,' s.v. 'Flit,' reads (n. Lin.): " Upo' th' east side o' th' Trent sarvants flits the'r plaaces at Maay-da'-time, but e' th' Isle it's at Martlemas." " Lucy's Flittin' " was, of course, a different matter. The word there meant her death. From * The Imperial Diet.' one gathers that the " mop " was the mop- ping-up or second day's hiring. I see that my quotation (ante, p. 56) is given in the 'E.D.D.' in the forms "Better rew sit nor rew flit " and " Hit 's better ta roo-sit den roo- flit." ARTHUR MAYALL.

BISHOPS' SIGNATURES (9 th S. ix. 9, 118). Worcester will be found in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's 'Pastoral Care' (E.E.T.S., p. 3) as Wiogora Ceastre, a cor- ruption of Hwic-wara (Taylor's * Words and Places'). H. P. L.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.

Westminster. By Reginald Airy. (Bell & Sons.) T9 the series of "Great Public Schools" 'West- minster ' has now been added. The writing of the book has, we imagine, been an easier task than some others of the sort, because the literature of the subject is already large and excellent. Mr. Sar- geaunt has written his admirable 'Annals,' while numerous other contributions of merit are available, as was to be expected in the case of a history so notable. Mr. Airy's account is clear and interest- ing, and will suffice for the average parent who has or desires to have a boy at Westminster. For our- selves we wish and we think that old Westminster boys will be with us that more had been made of the school traditions, glorious as they are, than the

scanty opening chapters afford. Other establish- ments of merit now compete with the great schools of ancient days in the training of soldiers and citizens, and the records (more admired by the every-day world) of sport and scholarship. But traditions they have not, and no historian of the older schools should fail to dwell on these as constituting a chief part of his pride and distinction. There is a good chapter on Busby, who enjoys as a type in literature a fame almost equal to that of " plagosus Orbilius." He figures, by the way, by an anachronism, for the Horatian pedant in Bailey's spirited translation of Erasmus's ' Colloquies,' where John says to Sylvius, in the dialogue 'On Scholastic Studies,' of their pedagogue: "He's a greater Whip-Master than Busby himself." Busby has his monument in the Abbey, which is reproduced here. The last time that we were there the lettering on the tomb was by no means distinct, and we hope that due care is taken, by recutting or some other method, to preserve such records, or we maybe soon lamenting ApvSpa ypdnpara like Thucydides. There is a iust though rather too brief appreciation of the work of Dean Liddell as head master, a work all the more creditable because it was difficult and uncongenial to him ; and we are rather surprised to find so little about the strong and excellent head master who has but just left Westminster to new hands. But perhaps it was felt that Dr. Rutherford's work is so much a thing of to-day as to be apparent to all, even the casual outsider.

Will Westminster ever sever herself from the shadow of the Abbey? Some have long expected it, and the writer of this volume recognizes that her growth is hampered by her position. Still, we would not dp anything to encourage the loss of so fine a tradition, and though the numbers of the school have for the last fifty years sunk in com- parison with earlier times, successes of all sorts can be pointed to to-day, and 1901 saw 232 boys as compared with 221 in 1883 and 67 in 1841.

Little more than a page is devoted to. the school slang, a section to which we always turn with interest in these volumes, but we dare say more might be said, and there are only some 160 pages in all. Another feature which we miss here is a short list of more recent old boys who have become eminent in various ways. A few names in sport are supplied, but we expect more e.y., we should certainly mention A. H. Harrison, the best full back we ever saw in the Association game, and we have seen a good many. Here and there famous alumni are mentioned in due course, but more might be done in this way. In the notice of school papers it should be mentioned that Gilbert Abbot A'Beckett, at Westminster from 1820 to 1828, edited, with his brother William, the Censor and the Literary Beacon. Were not Cowper and Warren Hastings, an odd pair, at school here together? Prior is, of course, mentioned, but nothing is said of the unusual circumstances of his schooldays. He went to Westminster, but had only reached the middle of his third term when his father died, and his mother was unable to pay the necessary fees, so he left for the care of his uncle, the keeper of a Rhenish wine house in Westminster, and so early ripe was his graceful scholarship that his transla- tions of Ovid and Horace became, Mr. Dobson tells us, a feature of the said tavern. Dr. Sprat and one of the Westminster masters got to hear of this, and he returned to school at Westminster under the