Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/463

 9* 8. IX. JUNE 7, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

455

excellence of the brand for which Alexandria was once famous to the care and encourage- ment given to the manufacture by Arsinoe, one of the wives, and Berenice, probably the mother of Ptolemy Philadelphia. If, some think, Psalm xlv. was composed in honour of this prince, there would be a special appropriateness in the reference it makes to " robes (scented with) myrrh and aloes and cassia.

It seems, however, to be undecided whether the Berenice of the epigram was Soter's wife, whose character is eulogized by Plutarch ('Pyrrh.,' 4), and who appears, indeed, not to have been unworthy even of the courtly praise of Theocritus, or her granddaughter, the wife of Euergetes. J. M. C.

GORDON RIOTS (9 th S. ix. 68, 233, 350). Barnaby Rudge,' referred to in one of the replies, is hardly to be depended upon for historic information. Dickens threw a glamour over the somewhat sordid story of the riots, allowing himself a novelist's licence in dealing with facts. Whence came his ever- memorable record of the rioters' visit to Chigwell ? Certain strong negative evidence tends to prove that no such visit was paid.

I. C. GOULD.

LADY NOTTINGHAM (9 th S. ix. 128, 213). This lady's thirty children, and Mrs. Green- hill's thirty-nine children, do not appear to state the limit of maternity :

" In Aberconway Churchyard, Carnarvonshire, a stone records

Here lyeth the body of Nicholas Hooks of Conway, gent,

who was

the one-and-fortieth child of his Father

William Hooks, Esq. by Alice his Wife

and the father of seven-and-twenty children

he died the 20 th day of March, 1637." From " Here lies : being a Collection of Ancient and Modern Humorous and Queer Inscrip- tions on Tombstones. Compiled and edited by W. H. Howe. New York, A.D. 1901."

JOHN TOWNSHEND.

"DuKE" (9 th S. ix. 329). This word, as also French due, Italian duca, and Latin dux, are from Latin duco, "I lead." Welsh, with its natural tendency to assimilate Latin has its equivalent due. There

Benares and elsewhere. 1860-63, we used a " fly-flapper " with which to kill the common house fly swarms of them infesting bunga- lows in the hot weather. The fly-flapper was a short cane wand, having a stiff piece of leather attached to the top, wherewith a fly, when settling anywhere (and they settled everywhere), was promptly smashed.

GEORGE ANGUS. St. Andrews, N.B.

BISHOP WHITE KENNETT'S FATHER (9 th S. ix. 365). In stating that the bishop was born in August, 1660, at Dover, and was son of Basil Kennett, vicar of Postling, the 'D.N.B.' followed Wood, 'Ath. Oxon.,' iv. 792 (Bliss). The statement that the bishop's mother was Mary White apparently comes from another source. According to I lasted 1 * 'Kent,' iii. 404, 429, Basil Kennett, M.A., became vicar of Postling in 1668, and rector of Dimchurch in 1676, and died, while in- cumbent of both livings, in 1686. He is not in 'Graduati Cantab., 1660-1823,' nor in Foster's 'Alumni Oxon.,' except as father of White Kennett, the bishop, and of Basil Kennett, who became president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 5 th S. viii. 117 it is said that his will was proved at Canterbury 3 December, 1686, and some particulars of its contents are given : " He left his son White Kennett lands and tenements at Folkestone and elsewhere." It is further said that "his wife's will is also at Canterbury (viz., Eliza- beth), proved Aug. 23, 1694-5." Did the bishop's father try two wives as well as two walks in life 1 H. .C.

"COMICALLY" (9 th S. ix. 285, 370). Miss Baker gives the local meaning of " comical " as "odd, singular, ill-tempered." It is still used in this sense here, and also, probably more frequently, as indicating a slight illness or sudden qualm. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

PINS AND PINCUSHIONS (9 th S. ix. 209, 333). Pins of bone and bronze have been fre- quently encountered in British sepulchral mounds, but far more frequently in circum- stances making it evident that they were in general use for the hair (acus crinahs) as well as for those purposes of dress to which the Romans during

nouns, has its equivalent auc. mere is a

Welsh root dyg-, formerly ^c-, with the idea I Jh^jS iTpIIi toJv^bJf of "leading, the third pers. sing. perf. md. t h e ir occupation of this country. Seven hair- whereof is dwg ; but this is an indigenous ing in blue an( j green g i ass wer e found near root, cognate with, but not derived from, the Dorchester in 1835 (Roach -Smith's 4 Collec- Latin ducere. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS. tanea Antiqua > anc i 'Illust. of Roman Lon- Town Hall, Cardiff. don ,j The wag passe d through the back FLAPPER," ANGLO - INDIAN SLANG (9- of the hair after it had been plaited ^turned S. ix. 266, 373).-In my day in India, at | up, in order to keep it neatly arranged, as