BURIAL OF LIVING PERSONS (3rd S. x. 139.)That some, and many, of these stories are unquestionably true, can admit of no doubt. There is a French bishop and senator at this moment living and well who, when a youth, and soon after having been ordained, was struck down by a fit, supposed to have died, and laid out for burial. What is interesting, and highly curious psychologically and physiologically (as he tells the story himself), he lay in a trance amid all the various noises around him, but was awakened by the voice of a young priest and friend, to whom he was particularly attached, calling on him by name in a prayer, breathed softly at some distance from the body. HOWDEN.

STYLE OF "REVEREND," ETC. (3rd S. xii. 26, 78, 98, 116.)-As I am rather rusty in my Scotch ecclesiastical law, I would be obliged by G. informing me if the General Assembly does not appoint annually a committee to arrange its judicial business, which would correspond to the Domini Placitorum of the old Parliament. Perhaps he will be amused with the following passage in regard to the functions of His Grace the Lord High Commissioner, which is the only one I clearly recollect in Aytoun's pamphlet:

"There he sits, not Jupiter tonans, but Jupiter dormiens, till the hour of dinner-bright moment for the

Church Esurient."

DR. ROGERS is wrong in supposing that the title "Mr." was formerly applied to only two persons in a parish-the minister and the schoolmaster. It extended to all who had attended one of the Universities; but, of course, was dropped where the person was entitled to a designation of a higher rank. I have often heard rather an amusing instance of this, which occurred during the visit of George IV. to Edinburgh. The late Sir Henry Moncrieff had fallen into the procession, as one of the Doctors of Divinity; but finding that they were to be preceded by the knights baronets, he tucked up his gown and joined the latter.

I have often heard it disputed, whether a letter to a clergyman should be addressed "To the Rev. A. B-, M.A.," or, "To the Rev. Mr. A. B-," and consider that the former is the more correct form. GEORGE VERE IRVING.

I accept, of course, DR. ROGERS's correction; though, with due submission to him, it is expressed in terms quite unsuited to the importance of the matter. Iought, no doubt, to have recollected that, by the statute 21 & 22 Victoria, c. 83, s. 3, it was provided that laymen might be Prin

cipals of Universities, and that two such appointments had since been made; but that was merely incidental and subordinate to another subject, which is quite unaffected by my mistake. DR. ROGERS is himself not perfectly accurate in saying that the designation of "Reverend" is not used in the Acts of the General Assembly. These Acts contain annually a "Commission to certain Ministers and Ruling Elders for discussing affairs referred to them"; and in giving the names of the Committee (which is one of the whole house) that of the Moderator comes first, and he is uniformly styled "the Reverend "—not so the others. Edinburgh.

G.

VIR CORNUB. P. EDGECOMB (3rd S. xii. 9.)-Is there a possibility of the word, which looks like vir, being vics; for the two, in the writing of the period, would closely resemble one another? Presumably, this man of mark in his county would belong to the knightly family seated at Mount Edgcumbe; and the year 1570 shows the head of the family at that date to have been Peter Edgcumbe, Esq., who was found heir to his father, Sir Richard, in 156, and died at the age of seventy Jan. 4, 1607. His gravestone helps to pave the southern alley of Maker church. The slab was much worn in 1861, the arms then completely effaced, and the rhyming inscription all but illegible. The opening lines

"Lieftenant to my Queen long time, And often for my Shire a Knighte," show his distinction and favour the conjecture that the words appended to his name read at length "vicecomes Cornubiæ."

JOHN A. C. VINCENT.

"YE MARINERS OF ENGLAND" (3rd S. xii. 22, 72, 113.)-I defer to the last remarks of MR. KEIGHTLEY, but will crave his indulgence for a few words on his notice of "Ye Mariners of England." I may be wrong, but I do not understand the poet to refer to the sailor at all as regards his fear of battle or breeze. I think, with MR. KEIGHTLEY, that the British sailor fears neither, more than a breeze may. I fully agree, however, that the word employed is tame. It is the flag that has withstood, or braved, the fierce conflict KEIGHTLEY'S great command of words, and their and the dread tempest. I doubt not that MR. arrangement, would have rendered him successful in accommodating those he has selected for his purpose; but ask his permission to propose two different ones for a further reason. I would read shore instead of seas. Our shores are native, but

it is with some strain that we call our seas so.

Under better correction, I propose

*This beautiful demesne was, it may be remembered, allotted (in imagination) to himself by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, High Admiral of the Spanish Armada.

MR. KEIGHTLEY objects that it is a small compliment to our gallant sailors to describe them as braving the breeze-a pleasure to court, not a danger to shun; but Campbell does not really apply the meaning expressed in "Ye Mariners of England" to the sailors themselves, but to the flag, and only to the flag, which braves battle and breeze. The word breeze here is meant to convey the meaning of wind in all its varieties, including of course the fiercest gusts of the tempest. H. "HOHENLINDEN" (3rd S. xii. 114.)-At the conclusion of this very fine poem we might use a modification of the word sepulture, mode of burial," which I think is really meant; not sepulchre, a place of burial, which implies that the body shall be actually immured in some sort of superstructure, scarcely consistent with the description given in the poem, where the bodies rest on the turf enveloped in snow.

Now, if we substitute sepultury, we have the proper termination for rhyme; and, being pronounced sepultry, the proper allowance also of eight syllables for rhythm-ex. gr.—

"Shall be a soldier's sepult'ry,"

as expressive of the mode of interment more particularly than of the place literally enturfed, but not interred. No doubt Campbell has been over all this ground before us, but he has not left us his reasons. A. H.

STRANGER DERIVED FROM "E" (3rd S. xi. 295, 431.) As ex terra is the origin of the words strano in Italian, stranno in Russian, estranhatge in the language of the Troubadours (Reynouard, ii. 222), and estrange in Norman French, as well as strange, stranger, and extraneous in English, it is clear that stranger is not derived from étranger in modern French. The above words, which may be traced to the Sanscrit, existed in their respective languages long before Europeans acquired any knowledge of the Chinese tongue. E by itself has no meaning in English, although it has 1165 simpliciter, or combined with other monosyllables, in Chinese (Morrison, part II. vol. i. pp. 127-144). The Chinese have three words for stranger, according to Morrison (part III. p. 412), wae-kwoteih-jin, e-jin, and yuen-jin. Philology is clear on the point that the monosyllabic languages of Asia are of an entirely distinct family from the Indo-Germanic (Indo-European), to which the Latin belongs. Amongst their 1781 monosyl

lables (Marsham, p. 177), some Chinese words accidentally correspond in meaning with some English monosyllables, as e in Chinese means he in English; but there is no ground from history or philology to consider them as derived from a common source, or from each other. Since intercourse has been established betwixt the English and Chinese, both have borrowed from the other's vocabulary, and may continue to do so; nevertheless, the wide difference of grammatical construction must always preserve them as distinct languages. There is no ground for the supposition that Moses had any knowledge of the Chinese; although, as the historian of the emigrant Abram and of his family, he possessed some traditions of Babylon and its plain of Shinar, whence Abram was expatriated-of which he has preserved a memorial, confirmed by profane history and modern research. T. J. BUCKTON.

Streatham Place, S.

"NEVER A BARREL THE BETTER HERRING": COAT CARDS (3rd S. viii. 540; xii. 44.)-In Clark's Ecclesiastical History is a Life of John Bruen of Bruen-Stapleford, who died 1625. From ten objections of his to cards and dice, I send two for insertion in "N. & Q." from their reference to the above headings:

"Cards seem less evil than Tables, but there is never a Barrel better Herring, there is so much craft in packing," &c.

"The Coat Cards were in times past the Images of their Idols."

S. L.

PORTRAIT OF CHENEVIX, BISHOP OF WATERFORD (3rd S. xi. 438.)-In reply to MR. TRENCH, I beg to say that there are several likenesses of good Bishop Chenevix of Waterford. Mrs. H. Fleury of this city (whose father-in-law was the bishop's favourite chaplain) has one. A second I know was lately sold by a print collector in London. From the latter several copies were engraved, one of which is in my possession. THOMAS GIMLETTE.

Cathedral Library, Waterford.

BAIRN (3rd S. xii. 62.)-Your correspondent is not far wrong in supposing that the above word is dwindling into a contemptuous designation, at least in Yorkshire. I remember an old gentleman in the East Riding exclaiming, when his first grandchild (a girl) was born, "It's nobbut a bairn,"-meaning to express his disappointment at its not being a boy. Can any of your readers tell if the word is used generally, in Yorkshire or Scotland, to signify a female child? J. C. J.

Worcester.

MEDALET OF EDWARD V. (3rd S. xii. 108.) The medalet, as described by your correspondent, is one of a numerous series engraved upon thin plates of silver by Simon Passe in the reign of

SERVIUS: HIS COMMENTARY ON TERENCE (3rd viii. 518.)—In my former note on this subject I quoted, at second-hand, what I then imagined to be an extract from a letter of Muretus; although I had carefully examined the whole collection of his works, edited by Ruhnken and Frotscher, without finding the slightest trace of anything of the kind. I have however recently discovered, in a note on Catullus (ed. Muretus, 12mo, 1554, at fol. 72), the identical words which I quoted.

"THE GUANO ISLANDS.-The broker to the last two Chilian loans notices a paper, read at the meeting of the Highland Society, which stated that a complete exhaustion had taken place of the guano in most of the Northern Chincha Islands, and that the supply from the Southern Islands is of an inferior quality; the exhaustion here mentioned is admitted, but the trade, during the past two years, has considerably exceeded the average, owing to the superior quality furnished by the other islands. As to the extent of the supply for the future, it is added, that even when the Chincha Islands are exhausted, there

PIERSON (3rd S. xii. 108.)-Your correspondent will find notice of the Rev. T. Pierson in the introduction to the Letters of Lady Brilliana Harley published by the Camden Society in 1854. Pierson had been brought up in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and was the friend of the learned Calvinist W. Perkins, whose work he had been engaged in and was known to be a profound scholar and editing as well as Brightman's on the Apocalypse, theologian. He was instituted to Brampton in 1612, and resided there until his death.

The ministrations of Pierson were not at first of Sir Robert, who never adopted the reformed acceptable to the patron, Thomas Harley, father doctrine; but, at the intercession of his son and family, he became reconciled, and continued until his dying hour to entertain the highest esteem and friendship for him. Pierson set up at Brampton Brian the strict observance of Ember Weeks and fast, the resort of many godly persons from remote places, and established a monthly lecture in the adjoining parish of Leintwardyne.

The life and character of Sir Robert Harley, the husband of Lady Brilliana, is well summed up in the Camden Society's publication above mentioned; and his eminent services are recorded in the journals of the House of Commons, especially during the Long Parliament.

THOMAS E. WINNINGTON.

Newcastle-on-Tyne.

CONFUSION OF PROPER NAMES (3rd S. xi. 330.) This may apply to the name of the author of the Shah Nameh, Firdusi, the Persian and Arabic equivalent of Paradise. The Persian vav, or as the Germans write it, waw, is usually a vowel, 00, but often also a consonant v, as in the conjunction ve, and, together with its compounds: in the ordinal numbers, evvel, first; duvum, second; sivum, third in the verb substantive, buvem, buvi, buved, buvim, buvid, buvend, I am, thou art, he is, we, you, they are: in the imperatives, rev, go; shev, come; shinev, understand; ghanev, sleep: in havali, neighbourhood; vesile, reason; vejh, face; yvaz, recompense; vasyte, means, &c.

:

T. J. BUCKTON.

CLUBS OF LONDON (3rd S. xii. 107.)-The two ballads of the old poet Occleve, which I mentioned in my communication more than thirteen years ago (1st S. ix. 383), and for a reference to which your correspondent T. H. now inquires, may be found in Mason's edition of Occleve's Poems, published in 4to in 1796, at pp. 59-70. EDWARD Foss.

"Cupio meliora.”—Mellior.

"Opes sibi faciunt alas."-Wing.

"Festina lente."-Hester (qy. Huster) and Onslow. "Dum spiro spero."-Spiers.

borne by a gentleman who was rector of an OxTo these I beg leave to add a punning crest fordshire parish from 1790 to 1832, the Rev. James Armetriding-namely, a spur, quasi armedriding. W. W.

=

:

In the Literary Gazette occurs one of the strangest of these (Ruggles Brise) "Struggle." Greek words have sometimes been used.

SP. *

SEEING IN THE DARK (3rd S. xii. 106.)—I have known an instance of this in a lady who was often troubled with "blood to the head," which not only produced headaches, but sharpened and lengthened her sight for the time to such a degree that she could read an inscription at a distance which seemed incredible, and could also distinguish objects plainly when the candle was put out at night. This unnatural faculty had something so uncanny about it that she decided on burning a night-light in order to have a reason for being HARFRA.

able to see.

SAINTE BARBE (3rd S. x. 291.)-Sainte Barbe is the name in French for the place, in vessels of war, where the ammunition is kept. In Catholic countries, Sta. Barbara is the patroness of artillerymen, who celebrate her festival. This proceeds, no doubt, from her being considered as preserving those who pray to her from the accidents of lightning, and her name being thus associated with thunder. Hence the Spanish proverb on ingratitude, "No se acuerda de Santa Barbara hasta que truene.”

HOWDEN.

PRONUNCIATION OF ROME (3rd S. xi. 26.)—Lord Holland not only, like Lord Lansdowne, pronounced Rome Roum," but he used to call Bordeaux Burdux, which he amusingly justified. Lord Grey always pronounced Jersey "Jarsey," supporting it as an old idiomatic propriety; and I recollect him, on the same day, working himself into a real passion at the introduction of theword "influential," which he could not bear. I once heard Lord Macaulay call Corunna "the Groyne," a name which I thought had long been disused. HOWDEN.

L'HOMME FOSSILE EN EUROPE (3rd S. xi. 456.) I possess a lithograph of a fossile humain, together with a horse's head, found near Moret (Seine and Marne) in the autumn of 1823, and which was exhibited in Paris, Boulevard des Capucines, where I saw it in 1825. It was supposed to be a man and horse buried under a mass of rocks. In striking on what appeared to be the human form, it certainly sounded like a bony substance.

P. A. L.

RULE OF THE ROAD (3rd S. xii. 139.)—With every due deference to LORD HOWDEN's better judgment, and however desirous to chime-in with him (being a Frenchman myself) in deeming "the French rule of passing to the right of the road" as rational, methinks "the left is the right, and the right is the wrong." The rule which obtains in England seems to me far more sensible and safe, inasmuch as each "Whip," passing close to the other's right wheel, can see at a glance, and much better, what distance there is between the two, and so avoid a collision. P. A. L.

PERJURY (3rd S. xi. 497; xii. 187.)—It appears to me perfectly erroneous to give per several meanings, as SCISCITATOR has done. Your correspondent cites perfidus (faithless), perdere (to destroy), and perire (to perish), in order to show that per is a negative prefix unconnected with the preposition per. Perfidus certainly may be explained by this supposition, but, of the other two words, how can "not to give " and "not to go' signify "to destroy" and "to perish"? Taking per in the sense which it bears in all other instances, and which classical scholars have hitherto considered to be the only one, no difficulty is

found. Perfidus (per fides) is "one who breaks through faith," perdere (per dare) is "to let fall through," perire (per ire) is "to run through," to pass away like water running through a sieve, to express which Horace uses this very word in the eleventh Ode of his third book. The Greek Sià sometimes bears a like meaning, as in diaTIOTEN, "to break through belief," "to distrust." As for "perjury," it comes through perjurium, from perjurus. If this latter word and perjuro, or pejero, come from per and jus, "perjury" signifies "breaking through an oath;" if they are from per and juro, it means "swearing through "-i. e. swearing through one's own words, or the facts of the case, just as we speak of "swearing through thick and thin," "swearing through a brick wall." As for the extraordinary περι intensitive, originally statement that in Greek signified bad, I have never heard of it, nor can I conceive on what traditional or philological foundation it rests.

The explanation I have given of the etymology of perjurium is at once consistent with its meaning, and with the classical custom of compounding prepositions, with simplicity, and with general belief. The hypothesis advanced by A. B. and SCISCITATOR has this further objection to it, besides those which I have expressed above, that perjurium would merely mean "swearing the contrary" or "not swearing," from either of which its actual signification could scarcely be deduced. E. B. NICHOLSON.

Tonbridge.

ALMACK'S (3rd S. xii. 139.)—Undoubtedly it is to be regretted the political intolerance or the social prejudice that may have led Scotchmen and Irishmen in London during the last century to disguise their origin by the modification of their names, yet these to a certain extent resembling the jackdaw in the fable that disguised its origin and pretended to be a peacock-afford a fair subject for censure, or more particularly for ridicule and banter. The English professional singer or the dancing-master who assumes a foreign name, or Gallicises a purely English one, comes in for a share of this. In the case of the Scotchman, Mac useless, for Gilly Williams writing to George Caul, this attempt at disguise seems to have been Selwyn (Feb. 22, 1765,) says that "Almack's Scotch face in a bag-wig, waiting at supper, would divert you, as would his lady in a sack, making tea and curtseying to the duchesses."

JEPHSON HUBAND SMITH.

UNKNOWN OBJECT IN YAXLEY CHURCH (3rd S. xii. 128.) — I am inclined to think that the two wheels described by W. H. SEWELL were merely ornaments attached to a massive ring (called in the East Angles a ringle) for raising the latch of a church door. The ring hung on a pivot which