Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/353

 9<>' s. ix. MAY 3, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

345

" RUBBER." Rubber, of course, is directly derived from the verb rub, a Gaelic word of the same meaning as the English, but the origin of the particular application of this old term to a set of games, most generally of whist, has never been satisfactorily explained. Dictionaries appear to be silent upon this particular point. The question has been put several times in *N. & Q.,' the conclu- sion arrived at being that the term reached whist through the game of bowls, one ex- planation being the nibbing or contact of the balls. I suggest a simpler and more direct source. Before counters and markers came into general use, the score or tally of games was kept by the players by chalk marks upon the table, especially in taverns, &c., where chalk was used for other scores. When the contest of games was ended and settled for, the " chalks " were rubbed out (like the cleaning of a slate) to make room for a fresh set of marks. Hence the term rub or rubber being applied to the final act of the contest, the obliteration of the scores ; hence its application to the ending or deciding game, when the time for that action arose ; hence its application to the whole contest. This, I have little doubt, is the true origin of the term, which was as likely put into practice originally for card and other games as for bowls. In Cotton's 'Com pleat Gamester 1 (1674) there will be found several references to the scoring of card games by means of chalk marks. J. S. McTEAR.

EPITAPH ON AN ATTORNEY. We are all familiar with the epitaph composed upon Frederick, Prince of Wales, the father of George III. I was, therefore, surprised to find that it was after all only an adaptation. Thus I have recently met with the following (I preserve the spelling) :

ON EDW. HUBLAN, A COENISH ATTORNEY.

I Faith Ned,

I 'm glad thou 'rt dead,

But had it been another,

I could a wisht had been thy Brother ;

And for the good of the Nation,

Thy whole generation ;

But seeing thou 'rt dead

There 's no more to be said.

' Sepulchrorum Inscriptiones ; or, a Curious Collec- tion of above 900 of the most Remarkable Epi- taphs,' &c., vol. i. p. 35. Westminster, 1727.

OXONIENSIS.

[The similar lines quoted by GNOMON at 9 th S. viii. 307 are of earlier date.]

HOT CRESCENT BUNS. Students of the origin of Easter customs, signs, and symbols are frequently confronted with parallel sources connected with pagan rites or the

ceremonies of non-Christian religious systems. It is therefore interesting to note a contra evolution in the adaptation of the hot cross bun to suit the susceptibilities of the large Mohammedan colony located in the East- End of London, by the substitution of the crescent for the cross. Lloyd's Weekly News- paper, dated 30 March, is responsible for the following :

" An East-End baker, finding that certain of his Mahommedan customers objected to the hot cross bun by reason of religious scruples, had on Good Friday a part of his stock stamped with the Pro- phet's crescent. The buns were promptly bought up by Moslem patrons."

G. YARROW BALDOCK.

South Hackney.

THE ORIGIN OF SWEENY TODD. (See 9 th S. vii. 508; viii. 131, 168, 273, 348, 411, 512.) Doubts existing in the mind of some corre- spondents as to the origin of Sweeny Todd, I have made extensive research to discover the fundamental basis, and so far succeeded. The story of Sweeny Todd was first imported from France in 1823 and appeared in a monthly publication, the Tell-Tale, published by Henry Fisher, printer of T. Camden's 'Imperial History of England' (1824). It was entitled 'A Terrific Story of the Rue de la Harpe, Paris,' and described the cruel murder and mutilation of a country gentleman in the boutique of a fiend - like Figaro, who, after appropriating a casket of pearls he carried, disposed of the corpse to his paramour in crime, a pie-maker, whose patties were the rage of Parisian society. The subsequent discovery of the remains, as well as of the skeletons and skulls of nearly three hundred human beings who had become victims to these monsters, diffused disgust and dismay through the French metropolis. Their execution and confession, with the edict prohibiting the erection of any habitations in future upon the accursed spot, duly detailed in Fouche's 'Archives of the Police/ fix the period of the crime in 1800. When Edward Lloyd started his sensational penny library, Thomas Prest, the author of ' Tom Gallant ; or, the Life of a Sailor, Ashore and Afloat,' and many other contributions to fiction of that class, embodied the Gallic details of the Rue de la Harpe, in the Faubourg St. Marcelle, in an exciting tale, changing the trench characters into English, and introducing several fresh individuals. The action was transferred from the Rue de la Harpe to near St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, and the pie-shop to Bell Yard, Temple Bar. I was issued by Lloyd in 1840. The first