who were saved from it by their acquaintance patentee's son. Charles I. revived it in the person with ancient and modern languages, in of a brother of the first baronet's." which such a form of speech has no place. This queer possessive suggests a number of Coming to modern times, I find that Charles questions which I leave to the consideration Lamb is one of the earliest offenders. In of the reader, not one of which would have his short story entitled 'Cupid's Revenge' arisen if the simple statement had been he says:made that the baronetcy was revived "in the person of the first baronet's brother."

"This foible of the duke's, so long as no evil resulted from it, was passed over by his courtiers as a piece of harmless frenzy."

A little further on we read :

"If he would, however, sacrifice a woman's character to please an unjust humour of the duke's," &c.

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66

66

If Lamb had remembered his Latin grammar, he would not have written such 66 Boeotian nonsense as this foible of the duke's [foible], or an unjust humour of the duke's [unjust humour]." I am pleased that this charming author does not speak of this son of the duke's," for, in that case, he would have been speaking, not of the duke's son, but of the duke's grandson. This possessive case has been much used in conversation, but it is now appearing in the works of notable writers. say it is grammatically wrong, like the word italicized in the following sentence :—

One cannot

"As a philosopher he [Macaulay] had only two thoughts; and neither of them are correct.' G. K. Chesterton's The Victorian Age in Litera-Mr. ture,' p. 32.

If Mr. Chesterton had written "Both of them are untrue," his readers would not have found fault with his English, however much they might have dissented from his estimate of Macaulay's philosophy. On pp. 112-13 of the volume just mentioned there is a striking example of the misleading possessive which I am discussing :

"It can be most clearly seen in that sister of Charlotte Brontë's, who has achieved the real feat -of remaining as a great woman rather than a great writer."

The words that sister of Charlotte
Brontë's "
are equivalent to "that sister
of the sister of Charlotte Brontë." Char-
lotte had two sisters, Ann and Emily, and
as we read on, we gather that the reference
is to the latter. How much more lucid the
author would have been had he said: "It
can be most clearly seen in Charlotte Brontë's
sister Emily."

Another popular writer, Mr. Maurice
Hewlett, in his romance entitled Open
Country' (Macmillan & Co., 1912), supplies
this strange information on p. 10, where he

says:

"There had been a Mauleverer creation by that Sovereign [James I.]; but it expired with the

I hope that all those who value precision of language will condemn this possessive case both in colloquial and literary use. JOHN T. CURRY.

Wigan.

HENRY BRIERLEY.

[For many old names of apples see the General Index to the Tenth Series.]

OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S 'DESERTED VILLAGE.'-Few lines are better known than the couplet,

The chest contriv'd a double debt to pay,
It may be suggestive of an origin, and is
A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day.
certainly worth noting as
that in
a coincidence,

tated, and adapted to the Times.
"The Satires of Juvenal Paraphrastically Imi-
London.
With a Preface.
Street, MDCCLXIII.,'
Printed for J. Ridley, St. James's
whereof a large portion is directed against
the Earl of Bute and his countrymen, the
following occurs on p. 32:-
What if in Scotland's wilds we veil'd our head,
Where tempests whistle round the sordid bed;
Where the Rug's two-fold use we might display,
By night a blanket, and a plaid by day.

This imitation of Juvenal is attributed in
the British Museum Catalogue to Edward
Burnaby Greene, apparently because of the
initials "E. B. G." at the end of the Preface
in the Library copy, which is catalogued as
dated 1764. The 1763 edition from which
I quote has no initials appended to the
Preface; and the notice of Greene in the
D.N.B.' omits
his writings, which, however, does not
Juvenal' from its list of

66

para

claim to be complete. The probability seems in favour of Greene, as he also phrastically" imitated Persius. Goldsmith, according to the authority quoted by the late John Forster in his 'Life,' was engaged exactly two years-from May, 1768, until its publication in May, 1770-in writing The Deserted Village,' and may well have been acquainted with lines which go near to anticipating the "bed by night,' &c., and which he perhaps unconsciously utilized for his own oft-quoted poem.

W. B. H.

bells. The exact time it was effected is not
bells were rung) and the 24th inst., when the loss
known, but it must have been between the 10th
of March (the Prince's wedding-day, when the
was discovered. The missing bell was the second
bell of the peal, and weighed about 5 cwt. It is
probable that the thieves broke the bell up in the
loft, and removed it piecemeal, and a crowbar,
with which the heavy work was done, has been
found in the belfry."
W. H. QUARRELL.

PETER PETT, 1610-70 (?).—The 'D.N.B.' in a brief notice of this commissary of the Navy (1647-67) says he is lost sight of "CASTALIA INTERDICTUS AQUA, INTERafter being deprived of his office. Some DICTUS ET IGNE PIERIO."-The author of additional information is afforded by two this was "wanted" by S. W. at 10 S. vi. long letters written by him from "London, 149. It was entered on a long list of quota- June 11, 1669 (Old Style)," and "London, tions, part, at least, of which I hoped to October 11, [16]69.” Evidently he still held run down in the course of some miscel- some office at the Admiralty, as they relate laneous reading. The personal construction to a claim by the King against the Assurance of "interlictus" pointed to a post-classical Chamber at Amsterdam for property lost or modern writer, while thought and rhythm in the ship The Abraham's Sacrifice. The suggested that the source was a satirical name of the person addressed is not given, poem. This proves to be the case. The but a reference to "your Uncle Povah words("igne should be igni) are by (not Povey) may help the identification. Menage, and come from 146,147 of Gargilii, It is proposed to give him 501. for his zeal Macronis Parasito-sophista Metamorphosis.' and services in the matter. The second See his Poemata,' ed. 8, Amsterdam, 1687, letter commences :— p. 7, and Epulum Parasiticum,' by Menage, Nicolas Rigault, J. L. Balzac, and others, p. 117, in the Nürnberg edition of 1665. This quotation and another in S. W.'s same query have escaped the Index of volume and series. EDWARD BENSLY.

66

SATIRE": PRONUNCIATION OF WORD. -With reference to the remarks in the 'N.E.D.,' the following may not be without interest :

:

Leonard had candour, honesty, good nature
Unbounded Friendship, quite unmixed with Satyr
Yet so indifferent as to worldly pelf
He was a friend to all but not himself.

M.I., Heston Churchyard, co. Middx.
Leonard Crafts, d. 1752, July 10, aged 23.
M.

CATHEDRAL BELL STOLEN.-The following curious reprint in Berrow's Worcester Journal of 24 May last, from the issue of 30 May, 1863, shows the remarkably lax method of safeguarding cathedral property fifty years ago. Whatever one may think of cathedrals being restored," such an event as the theft of a bell of 5 cwt. can hardly be now anticipated.

66

"The depredations at the Cathedral continue, and the thieves' coolness seems to be on the increase. Last week they stole one of the silver maces used by the vergers, and this week it has been discovered that they have stolen one of the

"To yours from ye Hague of ye 20th of September, S.N. [? unsigned]. I had sooner writ my thanks for ye favour of it [and] returned an answer, indispos'd with ye griping of ye Gutts, ye present but that I have been ever since my receit ther 'of universal disease of this towne, which I never knew any one to have been perfectly free from." him certain books on maritime law, sending He then asks his correspondent to buy for them by some gentlemen coming to London.

"My lodging may be heard of at Mr. Benton's, a Taylors next doore to ye Golden Key in Bow Street, Covent Garden."

The last of several postscripts reads :—

"I had almost forgott to tell you that Captaine Antony Basso (a kinde of Genoese Jew), ye Captaine of ye Abraham's Sacrifice and one Employd by ye Genoese and Dutch to looke after theire claims of ye Cargo of that ship, is lately have give for his sollicitacion is throwne away.” dead, and so I suppose [the] money ye Dutch ALECK ABRAHAMS.

"SARCISTECTIS."-In a confirmation of certain pensions to Ramsey Abbey, which is given in the Chartulary (Rolls Series, No. 79, vol. ii. p. 180), occurs the follow

WE must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interesting:to affix their names and addresses to their queries, "Statuentes, ut ex his pensionibus, prædicto in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

monasterio Sancti Benedicti in sarcistectis, et
luminaribus, et aliis necessariis, sufficienter
provideatur."

What is the meaning of "sarcistectis"
F. PURYER WHITE.

JEREMY BENTHAM.-Many years ago I bought from a Russian or German bookseller Lencquist's treatise 'De Superstitione Veterum Fennorum Theoretica Practica,' published at Åbo, in Finland, in the year 1782.

Any information will be most gratefully On the other side of the paper was written :

"THE MASK,' A HUMOROUS REVIEW.- SIR FRANCIS GALTON IN THE SUDAN.I have The Mask, edited by Alfred Thomp- In the notice of the late Sir Francis Galton son and Leopold Lewis, vol. i., February to in the D.N.B.,' Second Supplement, ii. 71 December, 1868. (1912), it is stated that

In the Preface one reads :

"Our success has exceeded our most sanguine expectations......In January we shall resume our Mask, and with additionally attractive features." A bookseller's Catalogue (1890) says as to vol. i. all published. Did The Mask

66

in fact end in 1868 ?

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

AUTOGRAPH LETTERS OF CHARLES I.From the Taylor Papers' I extract the following:

"After the death of Queen Charlotte on the 23rd of December, 1818, General Taylor, the executor, sends to the Prince Regent a collection of autograph letters of Charles the First and his Queen and others, which were found in an old box deposited in one of the lower passages of the Queen's palace, into which they appear to have been thrown with some useless lumber."

What became of these letters, and where are they now? H. D. ELLIS.

"DUBBING": "ILING."-In a manuscript survey of the manor of Penwortham, Lancashire, dated 1570, these words occur several times, as in the following examples: "One firehowse of iij baies and one dubbinge, one barne of iiij baies and one dubbinge.

"One firehowse of one bay and too dubbings. "One backehowse whereof the moitie standeth upon the Waste with one ilinge.

"One incrochement with a barne of two bayes and two ilings."

66

"in 1844 his father died, and he found himself with means sufficiently ample to allow him to abandon his proposed medical career. He accordingly made somewhat adventurous journey up the Nile to he devoted himself from 1845 to 1850 to sport." Khartum, and afterwards in Syria. On his return This is evidently an error, antedating his visit to the Sudan by a couple of years. In Men of the Time,' 8th ed., 1872, we read that he "travelled in North Africa and on [sic] the White Nile in 1846. In Men and Women of the Time,' 1899, this is altered to read that he travelled in 1846 to [sic] the White Nile." Mr. G. T. Bettany in his Introduction to Galton's 'Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa,' Minerva Library of Famous Books (Ward, Lock & Co., 1889), states, evidently with more accuracy, that Galton "in 1846-7 sailed or rode far beyond all the deserts, temples and cataracts of Egypt into the Soudan." This would date his visit to Khartum probably in the first months of 1847. Did he sail up the White River above Khartum ? And did he publish any account of this visit to the Sudan ? His name does not appear in Prince IbrahimHilmy's 'Literature of Egypt and the Soudan.' FREDK. A. EDWARDS.

ELLIS WALKER, TRANSLATOR OF EPICTETUS.-Is there any biographical reference to Ellis Walker, M.A., author of The Morals of Epictetus made English in a Poetical Paraphrase,' published in 1716? The effort is dedicated to his 'uncle, Mr. Samuel

A firehouse is a house with a fireplace, but what is a dubbing,” and what an iling" ? An experienced land agent thinks that a dubbing is a pent-house or lean-to structure, the word "down-dub " Walker of York," and after the Dedication being still used in parts of Lancashire to are appreciations in verse by Joshua Barnes, express the same thing, and the general Emmanuel College, Cambridge; M. Brian, sense of the word " dub LL.D. Oxoniensis; Ezekiel Bristed, A.M.; seems to be add He points out that "iling," or rather William Clark, of Katherine Hall, in Camhoiling," (hoil-hole) is Lancashire for bridge; and Will. Pierse, Emmanuel Colmaking holes," and he conjectures that the lege. Are these names of notable persons? word probably means cellar." I fancy there must be some other meaning. C. W. SUTTON.

to."

66

Reference Library, Manchester.
ROBERT

66

BURNS'S MATERNAL GREATGRANDFATHER.-Burns told his friend, Ramsay of Ochtertyre, that his maternal greatgrandfather was "shot at Aird's Moss " when Richard Cameron was killed. Can any of your readers give the name of this great-grandfather? I am not aware of any printed pedigree of the forbears of Burns's mother, Agnes Broun. F. A. J.

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

[For Joshua Barnes vide' D.N.B.'] BELL FAMILY.-Wanted for literary purposes some account of the lives of George Grey Bell and Thomas Charles Bell, who wrote papers in the early volumes of Archoologia Eliana. Thos. Chas. Bell's paper is on the Roman station of Rutupiæ, near Sandwich, and is dated 1830; Geo. Grey Bell's is on a cave near North Sunderland, and is dated 1845. Each paper is illustrated by a plan. RICHD. WElford. Newcastle-upon-Tyne.