pretended gem is not in the Vatican, and was practically a vitreous hoax. Coming from him it will set the subject at rest once and perhaps for all time. It is as follows:

ILLMO. SIGNORE,-Nelle collezioni Vaticane non esiste la gemma di cui Ella mi parla. Su questa pretesa gemma fu eseguito un ritratto del Salvatore in una grande medaglia, A Mons. de Waal che mi ha fatto domande a questo proposito ho già risposto che queste tradizioni sono almeno in parte una falsità. Del resto Ella troverà una lunga dissertazione sull' argomento nelle Oeuvres complètes di Mons. Barbier de Montault (mi pare tomo viii.), con facsimili ecc. Devmo.

ENRICO STEVENSON. Monsignore Wilpert, the most eminent authority on the Catacombs living, informs me that the belief in the existence of the gem in question has long died out of every country excepting England, and that from beginning to end it was a pious fraud. I am thus able to agree with W., that neither LADY RUSSELL nor myself has "the smallest knowledge of the emerald in question."

In James Grant's novel 'The Captain of the Guard' the author says that James I. of Scotland presented to Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini, Papal Legate, a Scottish pearl, which is still in the Papal tiara. Is there any foundation for this? Perhaps my friend MR. H. D. GRISSELL can tell

GEORGE ANGUS.

"ADE" (8th S. ix. 47).-The EDITOR OF THE 'ENGLISH DIALECT DICTIONARY' asks whether this word is known anywhere outside Shropshire. The question probably explains the meaning of the name Mill-ades," which was borne by one of my father's fields in South Notts. The field (in which a mill had once stood) had formerly been ploughed into very high ridges, and was drained only by deep furrows between them. C. C. B.

KNECHT RUPRECHT (8th S. viii. 304, 372).—It is scarcely necessary to multiply illustrations of the identity of Knecht Ruprecht with Wodan ; Simrock finds him also in Robin Hood:

"Endlich auch der bekannte Robin Hood, dessen Vorname Robin, unserm Ruprecht entsprechend, ein Beiname Wodans ist, der ihn als den ruhmglänzenden bezeichnet.". -Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie,' 1878, p. 230.

SAMUEL WILLIAM RYLEY (8th S. ix. 87).— One would like rather to trace the literary hisAllusions to him are to be met with in the tory of Knecht Ruprecht's dance. It is apparently 'Memoirs of Charles Mathews' the elder. Mathews, a survival of a Christmas festival, and has nothing writing to his wife from Manchester, 7 Dec., 1819, to do with the superstitions of "Rupertstag," mentions having given, after his performance at the when the fruit trees in Mecklenburg were joyfully theatre, Liverpool, an entertainment at the music-shaken, "weil sie dann keine Raupen bekommen," hall in that town, for Ryley's benefit, which realized 100%. Again, on Mathews's return from his last visit to America, March, 1835, Ryley writes to him from Parkgate, Liverpool, with a pressing invitation for Mathews and his wife to dine with him. "Do come," he appeals. "I'll keep all misery in the background, and make you both as happy as the sight of you will make me. Ryley was Mathews's study, and he took from him his Mundungus Triste, a character in one of his entertainments. The account in the Biographia Dramatica' is copied by Upcott. Facing the titlepage to the fourth volume of the 'Itinerant' is a portrait of Ryley, engraved by Edward Smith

for that is 27 March ('Sagen, &c. aus Meklenburg,' by Karl Bartsch, Wien, 1880, vol. ii. p. 256). Christmas was the recognized time for the appearance of both Ruprecht and Frau Berhta, whose servant he was; both were a terror to children (Grimm, Deutsche Mythol.,' Stally brass's transla tion, 1883, vol. iii. pp. 936-7). What is the connexion of the dance of which Hecker wrote and the "Schwerttanz"; or have we, once again, a relic of the celebration of the winter solstice, the circle of dancers representing the snake (i. e., “die seuchte neblige Winterzeit") overcome by Raprecht (i. e., by Wodan, the shining god)? The custom of dancing to celebrate the winter solstice

passed into the churchyard and church dancing at
Christmas, of which the Church disapproved, and a
mere relic of the old custom is the legend in
Heligoland that on Christmas Eve the witches
dance on the Flagenberg, a mound on the Ober-
land.
But let us get the literary history of
Hecker's dance. Jacques de Vitry does not seem
to have known the story, which would have formed
an excellent addition to his Exempla.'

WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK.

12, Sardinia Terrace, Glasgow.
"RÁÁ DE ST. MAUR" (8th S. viii. 368, 437,
514).-When we read in Proverbs "A rai cloth she
made to her, bijs [=silk] and purpre the clothing
of her," and when we consider the context, we
cannot be far wrong if we conclude that ray cloth
was something ornamental and valuable. This is
confirmed when we read in 'Piers Plowman' that
one of the tricks of Couetyse was—

To drawe the lisure a-longe the lenger it semed;
Among the riche rayes ich rendered a lesson,
Brochede hem with a pak-neelde and pletede hem to-
gedere,

Putte hem in a pressour and pinnede hem ther-inne
Til ten zerdes other twelue · tolden out threttene.
It was evidently a rich stuff, which it was worth
while to cheat purchasers in the measuring of.
"Stragulatā veste fecit" may be translated, "she
maketh tapestry, carpets, or counterpanes." The
Genevan Version gives "carpets," the Authorized
version, "coverings of tapestry," both good.

Neither in Wycliffe nor in 'Piers Plowman' have we much help from the glossaries; they tell nothing but what readers of ordinary intelligence would be able to find out for themselves. Nay, by insisting upon "striped," instead of "variegated" or "divers colours," they rather confuse than help. In the following passages from Fabyan ray can scarcely mean choice and precious clothing, and it seems to be used in anything but a good sense :"And this yere in the moneth of August in London, were two bawdes punyeshed with werynge of ray hodes/ & after .xl. dayes enprysonment, they were banysshed the towne and drynen out with most shame."-Fabyan's 'Chronicle,' 1533, vol. ii, f. 190 verso.

by James Joseph Sheahan (London, 1862), the author, in his description of the church of Ravenstone, p. 593, states :—

"Here is an altar tomb, covered with a very large slab of jet, on which lies the effigy, in white marble, of Lord Chancellor Finch in his robes of office. Above is a canopy, or pavilion, supported by joint Corinthian pillars of black marble with white bases and capitals, the drapery dependent from the frieze being drawn back to display the effigy. At the end of the tomb is a shield of arms, and behind the shield the paraphernalia of the Great Seal, its bag and mace in saltire, finely cut in white marble. The monument is further ornamented with shields of arms, and on the respective basements of the columns which support the canopy is an earl's coronet, of this splendid monument is a very long inscription in surmounting branches of myrtle and palm. On one side Latin, and on the other side an inscription in English. This nobleman died in 1682, aged sixty-one years, and was buried here. Many members of the same family have been interred in the vault beneath this chapel [south side of the chancel]."

I may add that, at p. 590, it is stated :

""Ravenston was for some time a seat of the family of Finch,' say the Messrs. Lysons. The great Lord Chan cellor Nottingham was described as of this place when he was created a baronet in 1660."

C. T. P.

Evans's 'Catalogues,' vols. i. and ii., refer to five engravings from portraits of him: one after Lely in Lodge's 'Portraits,' another in Noble Authors,' and another after Kneller. An engraving is also mentioned of him from a whole-length portrait, sitting in his robes, with seal.

HAROLD MALET, Colonel.

GALLETT (8th S. viii. 8, 97, 212, 271).Galette has several meanings, both in ordinary and slang French. It has been suggested (8th S. viii. 212) that the Birmingham slang word "gallett' is the same word misspelt. The first meaning of the word galette given by Landais in his 'Grand Dictionnaire' is "Pâte étendue en forme de gateau, sur laquelle on met du beurre et du sel.” After giving a meaning in natural history, Landais says "Il se dit aussi dans la marine des pains de biscuit, durs et plats, dont on fait provision pour les voyages de longs cours. Espèce de bourre de soie. Fig., mauvaise peinture. Homme, femme faible ou méprisable. Il est familier." As meaning something like a ship's biscuit the word is much used in Paris. In the good restaurants 66 R. R. une galette" means a round cake of white bread, about seven inches in diameter and about one inch thick, baked rather hard as to the crust. NOT-"Petit pain rond et plat qu'on sert dans certains restaurants" (Supplément par Gustave Fustier du Dictionnaire de la Langue Verte'). In slang it means "Imbécile, homme sans capacité, sans épaisseur morale. Matelas d'hôtel garni. Mauvais soulier. Monnaie" (see 'Dictionnaire de la Langue Verte,' Nouvelle Édition, par Alfred Delvau, Paris, no date, but recently published, and 'Dictionnaire d'Argot,' par Jean La Rue, 12me. édit., no date).

"This mayre [Thomas Bledlow] aboue all other corrected sore bawdes & strumpettes/ & caused them to be ladde aboute the towne with raye hoddes vpon theyr heddes dyuers & many and spared none for mede nor for fauour y' were by the lawe attayned."—Id., f. 221.

Boston, Lincolnshire.

SUPPOSED PORTRAIT OF FIRST EARL OF TINGHAM (8 S. ix. 2).-Whether the subjoined would enable MR. JOHN H. JOSSELYN to obtain the information he seeks by comparison of the features sculptured on the monument with those of the portrait of the supposed Lord Chancellor Finch, I cannot say, though those of the effigy may presumably be considered as trustworthy. In the History and Topography of Buckinghamshire,'

lines" I understand to be an allusion to the oracle J. B. Normanton, a Manchester printer, also a at Delphi. Milton means that the leaves of respectable"heavy" actor)? Also can he tell us Shakespeare's "unvalued [i. e. invaluable] book" the parentage of Miss Kate Saville, a popular may be considered to be as authoritative and, so actress of the sixties? to speak, inspired as the oracles of Apollo delivered by the Pythia at Delphi.

The epitaph on Shakespeare is not strictly a sonnet, as it consists of sixteen lines and is in couplets. JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

Properly speaking, this is not a sonnet, but a poem of sixteen lines. Mark Pattison says of the couplet—

Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving,

Dost make us marble with too much conceiving"a frigid conceit in the style of Marini. We, the readers, are turned into marble monuments to the memory of Shakespeare-a far-fetched fancy, which deadens, instead of excites, awe and admiration." Milton's meaning appears to be that Shakspeare's greatness so overwhelms us that fancy exhausts itself in trying to conceive it, and we can only receive its impress, but cannot express it again.

C. C. B.

As the utterances from Delphi were inspired by the god Apollo, so "those Delphic lines" may mean simply "those inspired lines":

Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving,

Dost make us marble with too much conceiving.

I think that the following is the meaning of the above lines. The imagination of Shakspeare is so powerful that it paralyzes our imagination. It takes our fancy away. His conception is so great that it makes us as inert as marble when we also would conceive. He conceives too much; and therefore we despair of conceiving anything after

him.

poem

These verses admit also of another interpretation. "Delphic lines" may mean obscure lines," and the verses quoted may signify that Shakspeare was obscure through depth of thought. This on Shakspeare-it is not a sonnet-is one of Milton's first productions, and undoubtedly one of his worst; and he has expressed his meaning badly, whatever that meaning may be.

E. YARDLEY.

I cannot but marvel that few correspondents of N. & Q.' seem to know, except at second hand, Thomas Warton's edition of Milton's Minor Poems,' 1785, Dodsley. It is a delightful work, very rich in illustrations and parallel passages, and should, I think, be consulted regularly by every student of Milton.

F. E. TAYLOR.

KER FAMILY (8th S. viii. 509).-On learning that Andrew Ker was buried in Pencaithland churchyard, I visited the place a few days ago, and found the stone, which is situated opposite the east door of the church. On the slab is the following inscription :

"Here lyes Mr Andrew Ker of Hoselaw in Tiviotdale, He died the 2nd of Dec. 1724 aged 103, and Mrs Elizabeth Ker his sister who died the 15th of Sept. 1719, aged 72. Anno 1727 Here lyes James, John, Ann, & Rachel to Mr Andrew Ker and Janet Thompson his spouse." Reid children procreate between Robert Reid nephew

The sexton informed me that the stone, which is on a most elaborate scale, is known out there as the Laird of Blakeby's. I am inclined to think that Andrew was a branch of the Roxburghe family, but I am still at a loss to know who his

father and mother were.

GEO. D. REID.

ST. GASTAYNE (8th S. viii. 508). - All that Father Stanton says about this saint is contained in a single sentence: Gastayne or Gasty (fifth century), patron of Llangasty Talylyn, Brecon (Rees, 326, 157)."

This passage occurs in A Menology of England and Wales; or, Brief Memorials of the Ancient British and English Saints' (p. 704), in an appendix containing "A Catalogue of Ancient British Saints, as well those named in the Menology, as others whose Acts have perished, or were never written, and of whom no account can be found sufficiently authentic for record." This seems to render further search by no means hopeful.

Since the querist mentions Butler, I may say that the name of Gastayne does not appear in the index. To Mr. Baring Gould's 'Lives of the Saints' there is, as yet, no index. W. SPARROW SIMPSON.

A NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE GAME (8th S. viii. 446).-There can be little doubt that the game of "cabsow," formerly played at Grimsby, was a species of hockey, shinny, or shinty. The origin of the name may be a matter for conjecture, but it seems to me that we may identify it with the Cumberland "scabskew" or "skabscew," which, S. "Shinny" in W. Dickinson's 'Cumberland Glossary' (E.D.S.), 1878, is described as "a boyish game; also the crook-ended stick used in the game. Dickinson gives also scop, to hit. In FAUCIT SAVILLE (8th S. viii. 488; ix. 33).- the Teesdale Glossary,' 1849, shinny is described Can MR. DOUGLAS say what was the maiden name as a pastime with a stout stick (curved at the of Mrs. E. F. Saville, whom I can recollect playing the character of Romeo at Manchester, nearly forty years ago, to the Juliet of her daughter, Miss Harriet Saville (who shortly afterwards married

H. T.

striking end) and a piece of wood. It is played between two fixed boundaries, says the compiler, and on reaching either, the knor or wood is said to be alleyed, as in football. This description

corresponds to the account of the game "cabsow," given in the excerpt from the Grimsby News. Cf. also "Shinney" in Halliwell's 'Provincial Dictionary.' In the Gentleman's Magazine, 1837, part ii. pp. 472, 473, there is an account of golf, in which it is stated that:

any kind. Pilmy, dusty. Pilmer, a shower of fine rain. Surely of Anglo-Saxon origin!

Tallet or tallut (common), pronounced tollut. Gorbellied, big-bellied. Another (incorrect) derivation suggests "pig-bellied." But, granted that gor is an intensive prefix of Celtic origin, why should it have come in from Cornwall?

Barthless. Barth, a sheltered place or pasture for calves and lambs. The word seems to have been in general use in the south country. I believe 66 Loan words from it to be of Celtic extraction. the Latin" should (I think) be regarded with suspicion.

"The same game is still practised-though with this difference from the original sport (which consisted in driving the ball, at the fewest number of strikes, into a certain number of holes), in shoving it between two opposite extremities, marked out by lines, by the contending parties-in several of the Northern counties, under the names of bandy, hoky-from bandy, bent, hoky, hooked-from the forms of the bats still in use. In Cumberland this pastime is denominated scabshew, or scobshew, apparently derived from a similar root in German schob, the imperfect of schuben, to shove, denoting." ing the manner in which the ball is urged along by the curved bat; or schob, wad, signifying the method in which the ball was originally stuffed to increase its hardness, and schau, a spectacle."

The A.-S. scufan, sceōfan, and sceaw seem unknown to the writer. What is the derivation of scabshew? Is it known?

F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY.

DEVONSHIRE DIALECT (8th S. ix. 46).-There is a fair glossary of this dialect, with references, at the end of Jim and Nell,' a poem in the North Devon dialect, now reprinted in 'Nine Specimens of English Dialects, edited by myself for the English Dialect Society, and shortly to be published. It gives ackmall; dimmit (from dim); gladdie (probably from A.-S. glæd, brilliant); bullans; arish; gally, to frighten, scare.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

I do not think MR. STRONG could have written as he did if he had known of Mrs. Hewett's 'Peasant Speech of Devon,' published in 1892. It is a most complete and valuable work, and contains nearly all the words mentioned by MR. STRONG.

In addition to this, for many years past a Committee of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art (formed in 1862) have been engaged in collecting and noting provincialisms in Devonshire; who report to the annual meetings of the Association in July of each year; and I notice that the last report contains some words previously recorded by Mrs. Hewett. I am sorry I cannot give the derivation of the words contained in MR. STRONG's last paragraph; but I can give the meanings attached to them in Devonshire.

I question if in any county in England more attention is given to provincialisms than in this. A. J. DAVY.

Torquay.

The following notes may be of interest; but I am afraid they are not likely to be of much use to MR. STRONG.

Pillum, pilam, pilm, or piln (common), dust of

Dimmet or dimmits, "The dumps of the evenCrepusculum vespertinum. Anglo-Saxon. Galliment, (1) fright, (2) a scarecrow. From gall or gally, to frighten. Anglo-Saxon.

I am acquainted with gladdie (the yellow ammer) and arrish (stubble), with the derivatives arrishmow and arrish-rake; but what is the meaning of hackimal, bullums, and colly? GUALTERULUS.

ROBERT ROXBY (8th S. ix. 67), after professional experience in the provinces, appeared at the St. James's Theatre, 1839, under Hooper's management. In 1843 he took the Theatre Royal, Manchester, and played the pick of the comedy parts in the legitimate and general drama. The late Robert Wyndham and Sims Reeves (in the bills as Mr. John Reeves) were members of his company. Roxby's best days were spent at the Lyceum with Charles Mathews and Madame Vestris, from 1847 to 1855, where he was an able stage manager and a very useful actor in eccentric characters. Of a few of his original parts may be mentioned, Ernest Militant, Who Speaks First'; Karl, 'Romantic Idea'; Alphonse, 'Delicate Ground'; Sir Harry Lester, 'Game of Speculation'; Alcide le Fort, 'Chain of Events'; Capt. Brown, 'Lawyers'; and Nobbler, in 'No. 1 Round the Corner.' From the autumn of 1855 till his death in 1866, he was associated with Drury Lane as stage manager. Roxby suffered from a certain hardness of style and weakness of voice; but these shortcomings were counterbalanced by bustle and energy, combined with a thorough knowledge of stage business. The critics of the day-notably G. H. Lewes-mention him with much favour.

Ware Priory.

ROBERT WALTERS.

PITT CLUB (8th S. viii. 108, 193; ix. 13).The annals of Manchester afford some information

of a Pitt Club existing there in 1812. It does not appear to have had any connexion with the London club, but was originated and sustained by Manchester men, and, unlike that brought under notice by Z., its members were not confined to members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Possibly these clubs were plenti ful in the provinces. The following are some of