Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/343

 9*8. IX. APRIL 26, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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glass. Her gravestone, it will be remembered, is still to be seen in Brighton Churchyard. Your correspondent will find numerous por- traits of the Chevalier d'Eon, one from the painting by Angelica Kauffmann, in 'The True Story of the Chevalier d'Eon,' by E. A. Vizetelly, 1895. CHAS. H. CROUCH.

5, Grove Villas, Wanstead.

May I direct MRS. EMILY KERB'S attention to a German " woman who fought" 1 She was Eleonore Prochaska, born 11 March, 1785, at Potsdam, as the daughter of a sergeant. After being brought up in the military orphanage of that town, she became a cook in some citizen's house. When the great war against Napoleon broke out in 1813 she was led away by enthusiasm to quit her town secretly ; by selling her poor belongings she procured male attire and weapons, and en- listed under the name of August Renz in the Liitzow Corps. On account of her tall slender figure her sex was not discovered until she was mortally wounded. This happened in the encounter in the Gohrde Forest, Regie- rungsbezirk Liineburg, Kreis Dannenberg (16 Sept., 1813). The Prussians were there attempting to storm a hill occupied by the French, she acting as a drummer. In 1863 a monument in memory of her was erected in the churchyard at Dannenberg, and another in 1889 in the old churchyard of Potsdam. When a boy I often saw cheap illustrations representing her, and my mother told me about her.

Another German heroine was Johanna Staegemann, "the maiden of Liineburg." The allies under Dornberg's command met the French under Morand (2 April, 1813), and the engagement ended in a victory for them. When ammunition became scarce in the front, Johanna, a young peasant girl, helped her fighting countrymen by carrying cartridges in her apron from the rear. If further particulars or references are wanted I will try to provide them. G. KRUEGER.

Berlin.

"ROUT" (9 th S. ix. 65, 198). This word survives also in ** rout-cakes," which are still sold by confectioners. They are sweet biscuits shaped somewhat like a bunch of filberts.

F. J.

" KEEP YOUR HAIR ON " (9 th S. ix. 184). My earliest recollection of this saying traces it no further back than the fall of 1871. At the Lord Mayor's Show in 1869 it was not heard in the streets. On Thanksgiving Day, February, 1872, it became a sudden furore. During the crush at the procession, and the even worse crpsh at the illuminations, people

were sometimes hard put to it to " keep in their rag." But then, as since, the cus- tomary reply from the good-tempered sort (of whom there are numbers in the world), when told to "keep their hair on," was " Haven't lost it yet." Some few years ago Lord Goschen said, in one of his public speeches, that many of the slang or "cant" words in popular use originated in the schools and colleges of this country. He instanced " bloke " and " mug "("mugster "). To show that " keep your hair on " had probably a likewise collegiate (or aca- demic) origin, I should like to quote a few lines from Barrere's ' Argot and Slang : a New French and English Dictionary of Cant Words,' 1887:

" The English public schools, but especially the military establishments, seem to be not unim- portant manufacturing centres for slang. Only a small proportion, however, of the expressions coined there appear to have been adopted by the general slang- talking public, as most are local terms, and can only be used at their own birth- place At Harrow a man who is vexed or

bury he is ' in a swot '; and at Winchester ' front.' " HERBERT B. CLAYTON.
 * ngry 'loses his shirt' or his 'hair'; at Shrews-

39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.

More than twenty years ago I was coming down one of the poorer streets of Hull and met a boy going to school smoking. I vainly
 * ried to snatch the pipe out of his mouth.

When the lad had got a safe distance from me he lifted his right hand to his nose, ex- tended his fingers fan-like, and called out to me, " Keep your 'air on." I am able to fix the Deriod in my mind, as I well remember the louse in which I then lived.

WILLIAM ANDREWS.

Royal Institution, Hull.

I certainly recollect hearing this phrase used in the sense of " Don't be too excited " as far back as 1853, and have no doubt it was then well established. E. F. D. C.

No doubt the slang sense illustrated in N.E.D.' is distinct from the literal meaning n Holcroft. But the underlying thought which gave rise to the expression in 1799 must surely have led directly to the slang sense long before 1883. A man is bidden to "keep his hair on "i.e., not to allow himself to be ruffled by the storm of a sudden passion. The thought, which is exaggeration of fact in the one case, becomes metaphorical in the other, but the thought is the same.

YV. \s* K.

TIB'S EVE (9 th S. ix. 109, 238). Jamieson is correct in saying that Tib or Tibbie is used in Scotland as a variant on Ispbel or