beyond those marks at one draught should be severely punished (Strutt in Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities). WILLIAM PLATT. Callis Court, St. Peter's, Isle of Thanet. not power to make of the same gobet o vessel in to With gobbets of thy mother's bleeding heart." Bailey, 1728, gives, "Ad Pinnas bibere [i. e., to drink to the pin], an old Danish custom of drink- The two words are undoubtedly, as Dr. Morris ing, which was having a pin fixed on the side of a has suggested, connected with Gael. gob, the wooden cup, to drink exactly to the pin, or forfeit mouth, a word still so used in Prov. English. something. Hence the saying, 'He's in a merry Gazel is given in the Rev. W. D. Parish's Sussex pin""; but see William Lisle's translation of Dialect, 1875. He has, "Gazels, e. [Groseiller Heliodorus, The Faire Ethiopian, 4to., 1631, (sic) a currant tree]. All kinds of berries, but especially black currants. Gazel tea is a favourite p. 68:remedy for a cold." F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. Cardiff. "I left them, set, then, all on merrie pin, With rudely making faces, body wrying; Derby. ALFRED WALLIS. I think it is worth while noting that this phrase, whatever its origin may be, occurs much earlier than we might infer from your correspondents. A few weeks ago I met with the two following instances of its usage in the sixteenth century: "Now set thy heart on a merry pin, Against these lusty bloods come in, The Interlude of the Four Elements, 1519 (Hazlitt's Cardiff. On a merry pin, Nice Wanton, 1560 (Ibid., vol. ii. p. 166). "GOB" (6th S. iv. 512; v. 114). Some years since it was my misfortune to sit at the table d'hôte of a Swiss mountain pension for some weeks opposite an English woman-a native of Birmingham, I was told-who, among other vulgarisms, frequently made use of the word "gob" in a sense quite new to me. Our host was a very bad carver and tore the meat into large pieces, and this good lady often cried out in a loud tone, "I can't eat my food in great gobs like this," or something to that effect. JOHN HAMERTON CRUMP. Gob is used by English writers much earlier than L'Estrange. Stratmann's Dict. gives, "Gobbe, gob, massa, moles,' Wicl. Is. 40, 12." Prof. Skeat says of the word, s. gobbet, "The short form gob is rare." He quotes, s. gobble, "Gobble up, to eat gobs, or swallow down greedily"; Kersey's Dict., ed. 1715. The form gobet is more common; there are four entries of the word in Promptorium Parvulorum. It occurs also in Piers Plowman, Chaucer, and Wyclif. Cf. Rom. ix. 21, "Whether a potter of cley hath In the following early example of gob, the meaning of the word is evidently a lot, a lump, or heap; and that is the sense in which it is still used here and elsewhere :- "A bodie thinketh hymself well emended in his substaunce and riches, to whom hath happened some good qubbe of money, and maketh a great whinyng, if he haue had any losse of the same. But he that hath gotten a good frende, thinketh himself in no more happie state, then he was afore, nor maketh any mournefull chere, when he hath loste a friende."-Apophthegmes of Eras mus (1542) reprint, 1878, p. 14. Boston, Lincolnshire. R. R. MAGGOTY JOHNSON, FIDDLER JOHNSON, AND LORD FLAME (6th S. iv. 513, 546 ; v. 157).—On my last visit to Gawsworth, in Cheshire, in 1879, I saw the tomb of this eccentric individual, in much the same condition as it used to be in my boyish days, some forty years since. The inscription upon it was then perfectly legible, and was presumably Maggoty Johnson's own composition in his lifetime. Be it observed that "maggoty" is a Cheshire provincialism for "crotchety," like the expression used in other parts, "a bee in the bonnet." By the side of the original tomb was an upright stone, like a gravestone in shape, and bearing an inscription, by way of antidote or corrective to the objectionable epitaph. In former years but few of the villagers would have chosen to pass after nightfall the little wood where the grave was situated, for it was popularly believed that his unquiet ghost haunted the spot, and had never been "laid." It would be rather interesting to ascertain whether any record has been made and preserved of this extraordinary interment in the parish register of Gawsworth; for another legend used to run that his remains had originally been interred in the churchyard of the parish, in (6th S. v. 209.) W. C. B. The Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy, &c.-The author was John Eachard, D.D. He was born in Suffolk in 1636, and deceased in 1697. The above humorous production was addressed, in the form of a letter, to Sir Roger l'Estrange, and its popularity was so great that the eleventh edition was published in 1705. My edition is the ninth, and appeared in 1685. He was the author of several other works, a complete edition of which was published by T. Davies, with a life of Eachard, written by Davies, with the assistance of Dr. Johnson and Dr. Farmer, in 3 vols. 12mo., 1774. J. FULLER RUSSELL, F.S.A. Dr. Eachard was Master of Katherine Hall, and ViceChancellor of the University of Cambridge. EDWARD PEACOCK. Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. A Dictionary of the Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature of Great Britain. By the late Samuel Halkett and the late Rev. John Laing, M.A. Vol. I. (Edinburgh, Paterson.) THE publication of the first volume of this long-expected work is a step towards filling up a void in English bibliography which has long been a disgrace to our literature. While France had its Barbier. De Manne, and Quérard; Germany its Weller and Heilly; Italy its Lancetti and Melzi; England alone was without a comprehensive dictionary of this kind. Indeed, until the publication of this present volume, Olphar Hamst's Handbook of Fictitious Names, which was intended merely to include works of the present century, was the only attempt that had been made in this direction by English bibliographers. In the very first number of "N. & Q.," published on Nov. 3, 1849 (p. 9), Mr. Bolton Corney called the attention of our readers to this matter and earnestly recommended that some systematic arrangement should be made of all that was known about the authorship of our anonymous and pseudonymous books. For some years similar recommendations were made at intervals in our columns by other correspondents. It was not, however, until the year 1856 that Mr. Halkett wrote to us (2nd 8. i. 130) to say that he would undertake this laborious task if no better man could be found. Few men could have been more qualified for this work than Mr. Halkett. As keeper of the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh he had peculiar facilities for this kind of research. Unfortunately, however, he was at this time also busily engaged in the preparation of a printed catalogue of the library, the contents of which amounted to some 200,000 volumes. This Herculean task prevented him from giving much of his time to the dictionary, but yet about 8,000 titles, or nearly as many as appeared in the by the middle of the year 1861 he had collected first edition of Barbier. Much valuable assistance was given to Mr. Halkett by many learned bibliographers, including Messrs. Haig, J. Darling, F. S. Ellis, and especially by our valued correspondent Mr. Wheatley, who generously gave up his idea of compiling a similar had collected in Mr. Halkett's hands. In April, 1871, in work, and placed the whole of the materials which he the midst of his labours, Mr. Halkett died, leaving both the catalogue and the dictionary unfinished. The work of the dictionary was then undertaken by Mr. Laing, the late accomplished librarian of the New College Library, Edinburgh, and continued by him until his death in 1880. The amount of patient work and laborious research of which this volume is the result can only be properly estimated by the few whose literary pursuits have led them into the almost unbeaten tracks of anonymous literature. Though confined to the narrow alphabetical limits of A to E, the volume contains 870 pages of two columns each, and comprises some 11,000 titles. The system on which the dictionary is compiled is both clear and simple. The entire titles are given, and they word of each work, exclusive of the definite and indeare arranged in strict alphabetical order, under the first finite articles and the prepositions of and in. method of following the first word of the title is to our mind far preferable to that adopted by some, of putting each work under the head of the principal or distinguish ing word of the title, a method which often leads to confusion and uncertainty. The transcription of the entire title of each work, though it increases the bulk of the volume also adds much to the usefulness of the work. We have no hesitation, therefore, in saying that as a work of reference this volume will be found indispensable. It is to be hoped that a thorough index of the names of the authors, with references to the titles of those of their works which appear in the dictionary, will not be forgotten. In conclusion we must express our deep regret that neither Mr. Halkett nor Mr. Laing was spared to see the publication of the volume and to receive the well merited thanks of the entire literary world. This The Great Musicians.-Purcell. By William H. Cummings. (Sampson Low & Co.) THIS is the first volume which we have seen of Dr. Hueffer's series, and if the others are as good as this one, the set must be worth having. It is true that there is not much material for a biography of Purcell, but Mr. Cummings has carefully collected all that exists, and has brought together a good many interesting details in that particularly exact way which commands the confidence of the reader. He has also done good service in clearing Purcell's memory from some of the irresponsible utterances of Sir John Hawkins and others. The scant records on the subject afford another instance of the weighty obligation that rests upon those who give the earliest accounts of great men to be painstaking and accurate in the collection of material while materi 1 can still be obtained. If Mr. Cummings could have undertaken the work which Hawkins and Dr. Burney neglected, we should not now have been obliged to content ourselves with so brief a sketch of one of the greatest English musicians. But sketch as it necessarily is, we doubt if it could have been better executed, and we are grateful for it accordingly. As an infinitesimal contribution to the literature of the subject, we present Mr. Cummings with the following reference to Purcell, from a rare satire entitled The Woman of Taste.-Printed for J. Batley, at the Dove in Pater-Noster-Row, 1723: Buy, that the gaping mob may stop and gaze, The Great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages. By W. J. The THE medieval writers who pass under the general title Le Roman de Renart. Publié par Ernest Martin. Vol. I. WHEN M. E. Martin, in his Examen Critique des MSS. not leave plenty of work for a later editor. In the Studies in the History of the Prayer Book. By H. M. Notices to Correspondents. GEO. EDW. HOLTZER, 85, Norwich Street, Cambridge asks to be referred to works on the history of our colonies political and otherwise. PRESBYTER ("Non-graduate Archdeacons"). We know of two archdeacons in England who only hold Lambeth M.A. degrees; very recently one of them received a Lambeth D.D. in addition. MUS RUSTICUS ("Contestant").-See Webster, edited by Goodrich and Porter (Bell & Daldy, n.d), and Ogilvie's Imperial Dictionary (1882). R. W. C.-These so-called coats of arms are well J. A. (Clent). It is to be ascribed to an oversight. NOTICE. Editorial Communications should be addressed to “The Editor of Notes and Queries ""-Advertisements and Business Letters to "The Publisher"-at the Office, 20, Wellington Street, Strand, London, W.C. 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