Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/435

 9" s. ix. MAY si, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

427

He refers to some unsuccessful attempts at explanation by Hitzig and Horowitz. The case is, I think, not so hopeless if we remem- ber what philologists tell us, that o-o^ia, wisdom, is akin to cra^rjs, clear, manifest, originally full of flavour, tasty, and both from a base sap, to taste (see Curtius, * Greek Etymology,' ii. 64). If O-CK^S was in the original text, or in the mind of the writer, instead of the synonymous word ^avcpa, the play upon words would be natural, and better grounded than paronomasias generally are : " Wisdom is according to her name [viz., tasteful, to the wise or men of taste], and (yet) to many she is not tasty." Or, to use a Latinized version, " Sapientia secundum nomen est ejus, et non est multis sapida " ; sapience (sapidness) to many is insipid ; o-o<ia ov o-a^s. A. SMYTHE PALMER, D.D.

S. Woodford.

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.

DAWBARN'S 'BUILDER'S PRICE LIST.' Can any one say when a series of nine letters on 'Public Health from a Builder's Point of View ' were published in the ' Builder's Price List ' by Messrs. W. Dawbarn & Co.? I have reason to believe they were written by Dr. Metcalfe Johnson, long a very re- spected medical practitioner in this town, and at the time of his death on 18 January last almost the senior member of our borough bench. I am desirous of annotating as fully as possible the copy of the reprint of these letters which it is proposed to place in our local free library with a portrait of the old doctor. T. CANN HUGHES, M.A, F.S.A.

Lancaster.

"SIXES AND SEVENS." Has the saying "Things were at sixes and sevens " ever been satisfactorily explained ? G. KRUEGER.

Berlin.

[See 1 st S. iii. 118, 425; 5 th S. ii. 20. Suggestions are supplied at the second reference, but the question remains unsolved. Consult Brewer's ' Dic- tionary of Phrase and Fable.']

CARTWKIGHT JOHN WILLIAM ELLIS was ad- mitted to Westminster School on 27 January, 1813. Any information concerning his parent- age and career is desired. G. F. R. B.

EUSTON ROAD. What is the history of the New Road, between the Angel, Islington,

and Portland Road (now Euston Road)? Who is responsible for allowing this once fine boulevard to become one of the ugliest roads in London? Who is the ground land- lord, and what were the terms in the original leases respecting building on forecourts ?

A. MASSON.

[The Duke of Grafton and the Earl of Euston have, we believe, no property in the district.]

TALBOYS PEDIGREE. Information required as to the relationship between Thomas Talboys, of Doughton (sometimes spelt Dufton) Manor, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, who died in 1765, and his kinsman Thomas, son of Charles, to whom he left his property. C. T. GETTING & SONS.

4, Corbet Court, Gracechurch Street, E.C.

SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON'S RECTORIAL AD DRESS AT ABERDEEN. Sir (then Mr.) Archi- bald Alison was elected Rector of Marischal College and University, Aberdeen, on 1 March, 1845 (his opponent being the Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay) ; and his inaugural address was delivered on 17 March. In his 'Some Account of my Life and Writings : an Auto- biography ' (Edinb., 1883), vol. i. p. 530, is the statement:

" The speech which I made on my installation, ivhich wax afterward* printed in my Collected E-tsat/x,

bore internal evidence, &c ..The speech, which

will be found in my Collected Essays, was listened to," &c.

In spite of the reiterated assertion which I have italicized, the address is not to be dis- covered either in Alison's ' Essays, Political, Historical, and Miscellaneous ' (3 vols. Edinb., 1853), or in 'Modern British Essayists,' vol. ii. (Philadelphia, 1850). Where was it printed ? P. J. ANDERSON.

University Library, Aberdeen.

" CRADEL GRASS." In Du Bartas's * Divine Weekes,' ed. 1641, p. 130, col. 2, 1. 54 ('The Colonies,' day 2, week 2), " cradel grass " is mentioned. What is it ? some particular sort of grass formerly used for lining a cradle ?

S. L. PETTY.

Ulverston.

[Cradle -dock is the common ragwort. See 'E.D.D.']

MARKS ON TABLE LINEN. I have some table linen with the motto "Nemo me im- pune lacesset," the border composed of thistles and leaves. In the centre is a large thistle, sur- mounted with a crown : on each side ot the crown is a circle, in the border of which there are small squares and crosses. In the centre of this circle is a cross, on which there is the figure of a man. In the lower corners there