Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/65

 9*8. IX. JAN. 18, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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written Laa yn Ullick, the day of Christmas, the n of yn having attracted and absorbed the N of "" Nolick," very much in the same way as "anadder" has become "an adder " (see ' H.E.D.'). It will thus be seen that the word can certainly be identified with the Gaelic, Irish, and Welsh forms, and with the Latin origin, that are suggested at the above reference (see Manx Society's vol. xxxiii. p. 139). ERNEST B. SAVAGE, M.A., F.S.A. St. Thomas's, Douglas.

There can, I think, be little doubt that Ullig is the phonetic representation of the Gaelic Nollaig. The question is, how came the Nto be lost? I would suggest the following explanation. When the article y (yn) is prefixed (Gaelic an), we get y Nullig= the Nativity, and in process of time the initial N got transferred, making yn Ullig ; just as in English the terms a nadder, a napron, with some others, became an adder, an apron, &c., by transference of the n to the article. C. S. JERRAM.

Oxford.

THACKERAY'S EARLY WRITINGS (9 th S. viii. 383). The sale of ' The Exquisites ' mentioned at the above reference was lot 922 in Messrs. Sotheby's sale of December 17-20, 1898. See
 * Book-Prices Current,' 1899, No. 2,209.

W. ROBERTS.

THE LOWNDES MOTTO (9 th S. ix. 10). The coat of arms exemplified and confirmed in the grant of augmentation of arms made to William Lowndes, Esq., in 1704, is at the present time used by several of the families representing the three original lines of descent, viz., of Winslow, of Astwood, and of Chesham, together with the motto "Ways and Means," which was probably adopted by Mr. Lowndes in relation to his office of Chairman of the Court of Ways and Means. I possess a copy of the grant and also a copy of the essay referred to.

CHARLES LOWNDES.

Stratford-on-Avon.

THE YOUTHFUL YEAR (9 th S. viii. 484). I think the third line should begin " E gia le notti." When I was travelling in Italy, in 1883, I bought in Milan a copy of a very small edition of 'La Divina Commedia,' published by Sonzogno in that year, at the very small price of "una lira." The notes, collected by Camerini, are copious and valu- able, and I have found the _ handy little volume a pleasant and instructive companion during many journeys. The note to the passage quoted at the above reference is, " Giomnetto, di fresco incommciato comin-

ciando 1' anno dal primo di gennaio, secondo lo stile romano." And this note is based on Brunone Bianchi's work on Dante, Florence, 1863. W. S.

Can this be the explanation of Dante's speaking of the sun being in Aquarius when the year was young? The year of Julius Caesar's calendar, 45 B.C., began with January. This would be the civilian's reckoning. The Church year began with Advent, a little before the winter solstice. Dante was a son of the Church and a disciple of Virgil. Was he not likely to think of the year as these authorities thought of it 1 T. WILSON.

Harpenden.

Dante was perhaps referring to the natural new year as perceptible in the sprouting of the new vegetation, just commencing by the end of January or the beginning of February. Or he may have had in mind the ecclesias- tical year, which commences at vespers of Saturday before the first Sunday in Advent, i.e., about the beginning of December.

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff. "THERE IS A DAY IN SPRING" (9 th S. viii.

423, 511). From Miss Smedley's 'Story of Queen Isabel.' In 1887 the editor of the Fortnightly Review (Mr. Frank Harris) in- vited various writers to "name the one passage in all poetry which seems the finest " to them. The Dean of St. Paul's (Dr. Church) gave the ten lines beginning as above as one of the quotations "recurring oftenest to his mind at the present time."

H. S. MUIR, Surgeon-General.

THE COMING CORONATION (9 th S. viii. 485). Fortunately it does not require a great deal of erudition to be able to answer the query of the REV. FATHER ANGUS, but only access to a library and some knowledge as to where to look the subject up. Lingard says in his * History of England ':

" On the feast of St. George, the king [James II.] and queen were crowned by the hands of Arch- bishop Bancroft in Westminster Abbey, after the usual form, but with the omission of the Communion service and a few minor ceremonies, which were confessedly of modern origin and had been intro- duced since the Reformation."

T. P. ARMSTRONG.

PRESIDENT ADAMS (9 th S. viii. 485). John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States of America, was probably of English "extraction," but was born 11 July, 1767, in that part of Braintree, Mass., which was sub- sequently incorporated into a town by the name of Quincy. He was son of John Adams, and died in the Capitol at Washington