American Notes and Queries

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Queries on all matters of general literary and historical interest-folk-lore, the origin of proverbs, familiar sayings, popular customs, quotations, etc., the authorship of books, pamphlets, poems, essays, or stories, the meaning of recondite allusions, etc., etc.—are invited from all quarters, and will be answered by editors or contributors. Room is allowed for the discussion of moot questions, and the periodical is thus a valuable medium for intercommunication between literary men and specialists.

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EDITOR AMERICAN NOTES AND QUERIES.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:-Boycott in Olden Times, 37-Old British Charitable Bequests, 38-Nationality of Great Men, 39.

QUERIES:-Book Rhymes-Letters Used in Music, 39. REPLIES:-Sir R. F. Burton's "Camoens "-Tu quoque Argument, 39-Cental Weight-Shirra and Paul Jones-Narcotics of the World, 40-First American Romance-Canadian Parliament-Whistling and Local Census-Mugwump, 41City of Is-For When All Heads, etc., 42.

REFERRED TO CORRESPONDENTS:-The Last Judgment for a Sale of Slaves, 42-Gloire de Dijon-You WasNative (North American) Food Plants-Marblehead Dialect -Agatha, Mother of Edgar Atheling, 43-Ouija, 44. COMMUNICATIONS: -"Excelsior" in Pidgin EnglishParallel Passages-Spontaneous Human Combustion, 44How Names Grow-Whittier Queries-Tobacco and Animals, 45-Figures of Speech-Regio Baccalos, 46-The Route of the Argonauts-Epithets of Noted People-" The" in Place Names-Devil Literature-Granal-Guano, 47-Letters Used in Music, 48.

NOTES.

BOYCOTT IN OLDEN TIMES.

That "there is nothing new under the sun" has not been supposed to apply to the boycott, an alleged industrial novelty of Irish extraction. But it turns out that those who blacklisted the County Mayo landlord with a military title in the year of our Lord 1880, were consciously or unwittingly only imitators of strikers of the early part of the seventeenth century, whose doings, as summarized by Dr. Gross, with the aid of a chronicler of the works of the old-time guilds, included the following:

"In 1614 the company of Mercers and Iron-mongers, in Chester, ordered T. Aldney to shut his shop. On his refusal two of the company were told off to walk all day before the shop to prevent people from entering it. The Mayor commanded

OLD BRITISH CHARITABLE BEQUESTS. Your notes on eccentric wills have suggested my sending you the following:

Some years ago, when the London School Board saw its field of labor increasing beyond expectation (and to the great de:riment of the already overburdened taxpayer), it constituted a standing committee for the purpose of investigating, among other things, the "City Parochial Charities," and to ascertain the facts concerning any endowment which might be made available for public elementary education within the area of its jurisdiction.

The fact of the poor population of the city of London rapidly decreasing by removal beyond the bounds of the city, coupled with the rapid increased rentals of property held under many of the trusts, rendered the application of the income strictly in accordance with the founders' intentions impracticable, there being no poor residents in some of the parishes, and a very limited number in many (if not most) of them. Thus, to mention but two instances, one whole parish, St. Christopher-le-Stocks (so named from the Church of St. Christopher being contiguous to the old Stock Market, now occupied by the Mansion House), and also parts of two other parishes, St. Margaret's, Lothbury, and St. Bartholomew, Exchange, are almost covered by the Bank of England. The church-yard is still

an open square in the middle of the premises on which the bank authorities are not allowed to build ; while in the parish of St. Mildred, Bread street, the various charities, with a joint income of £866.8.8 per year, could not be applied to their original charitable purposes, there being only two inhabited houses.

In the course of this investigation many a curious bequest, and many a no less singular application of charitable gifts were brought to light.

John Wardell, in 1656, gave to the Grocers' Company the tenement known by the name of "White Bear," in Walbrook, out of which they were to pay to the churchwardens of St. Botolph, Billingsgate, £4 yearly to provide a good and sufficient iron and glass lantern, with a candle, for the direction of passengers to go with more security to and from the waterside all night long. The lantern was to be fixed at the northeast corner of the parish church, from the Feast of St. Bartholomew to Lady-day. Out of this sum of £4 the sexton was to have £1 for taking care of the lantern.

Elizabeth Brown bequeathed a messuage in Warwick Lane, charged with the annual payment of £2. 10s. for the poor of the parish parish of Christchurch, Newgate street,

66

during such time as the stone which then lay over the body of her husband should, after her burial, continue unmoved, or until such time as any other person should be buried under the said stone without the consent of her executors first had in writing; and in case the said stone should be removed after her burial, or any other person should be buried under it without such consent as aforesaid, then the said annuity to cease."

In 1691, John Hall left to the Weavers' Company a dwelling house, with instructions to pay 10s. per annum to the churchwardens of St. Clement, Eastcheap, to provide, on the Thursday night before Easter, two turkeys for the parishioners, on the occasion of their annual Reconciling or Love Feast (settlements of quarrels or disputes).

Giles de Kelsey, in 1377, left money to keep a lamp burning day and night before the high altar of the parish Church of St. Dionis Backchurch, in Fenchurch street.

The present income is £585 per annum, which is applied to church purposes.

William Sevenoak, in 1426, charged 10 marks on his house called the Maiden-onthe-Hoop, and three tenements in Mincing Lane, to pay for the repairs of St. Dunstanin-the-East Church, and the maintenance of the light of the great beam there.

Matthew Ernest left cos. for a like purpose; and id. apiece to five poor persons who should come to his grave on Sundays to pray for his soul.

In 1622, Dr. Thomas White gave to the trustees of his bequest, in St. Dunstan's, for the poor and for church purposes, the residue of the rent of a house in Fleet street (after the parson and the poor had received their dues), to provide a dinner for the vicar, the church-wardens, and as many of the ancient parishioners as it would reasonably serve, but the dinner was never to extend to two courses. The sum of £20.2.6 is spent on a dinner.

John Norton gave the residue of his income, after certain provisions had been made in bread and money, to be spent by the Stationers' Company in cakes, wine and ale, before or after a sermon preached every Ash Wednesday, in the parish of St. Faith (underneath St. Paul's Cathedral). (To be continued.)

NATIONALITY OF GREAT MEN.

ALES.

Reading the Moltke notes (Vol. vi, p. 301) reminded me how frequently it occurs that the leading men of a given country did not originally belong to it (of course I make no reference to our own very special circumstances), and it brought back to my mind a somewhat piquante epigram which created at sensation in France when an heir was born to the late Napoleon III:

"Par son grand-père Hollandais,
Par son aïeul Irlandais,
Anglais, dit-on, par alliance,
Espagnol, aussi, de naissance.
Vous voyez quelle étrange chance:
Il ne manque l'enfant de France
Que d'être tant soit peu Français !"

J. LEROY.

QUERIES.

Book Rhymes.-Who wrote the following, so much in accord with the sentiments of "Yours truly," A. M.

"Of books but few: some fifty score
For daily use, and bound for wear;
The rest upon an upper floor,

Some little luxury there

Of red morocco's gilded gleam,
And vellum, rich as country cream."

[A. M. will find the above in Dr. Holmes's "Contentment."]

Letters used in Music.-Where shall I find a historical account of the use of the letters of the alphabet as note-names? MUSICIANER.

[We quote in full an interesting reply to this query on p. 48.]

REPLIES.

Sir Rich. F. Burton's "Camoens" (Vol. vi, p. 311).-Bernard Quaritch published "Camoens: His Life and His Lusiads, a Commentary," by R. F. Burton, two volumes, 12mo, in 1881.

"Os Lusiadas" ("The Lusiads") of Camoens, Englished by R. F. Burton, and edited by his wife, Isabel Burton, was published by Quaritch in the preceding year,

1880.

Concerning this uncommon reversal, Burton, in a note prefixed to the first volume of the epic, and written at Trieste, July 10, 1880, says: "Contrary to custom, I begin with my translation of the Poem, and end with what usually comes first, the Commentary."

Thus, as he says, the Introduction is converted into a Postscript. ΜΕΝΟΝΑ.

Tu quoque Argument.-The words used by Cæsar to Brutus, as he fell beneath the assassins' daggers, are almost invariably given as "Et tu, Brute?" ("And you too, Brutus?") but I have seen them stated as having been "Et tu, mi fili?" ("And thou too, my son?") referring to the scandal that asserted Brutus to be the son of Cæsar by

Servilia. There is another case in modern history which reminds us of the classic story, and that is when the Emperor Paul of Russia was struggling with the assassins who strangled him to death, he saw his own son, the Grandduke Constantine, among the conspirators, and reproachfully called out, "And you, too, my Constantine?" Constantine, on the death of his brother, Alexander, waived his right to the throne in favor of his younger brother, Nicholas, and if it be true that he wished the death of his own father (no matter how unworthy, and it is quite certain that Paul was half mad) he deserved not to reign.

"Cental" Weight (Vol. vii, pp. 20, 29).I happen to have in my scrap-book of rhymes the epitaph of the old hundredweight, written at the very time your correspondent speaks of:

"THE DEAD WEIGHT.

"pirate" off from shore, which petition was answered, and the redoubtable "John Paul" was not able to land. If G. B. S. has access to any library where there is a set of Harper's Magazine, he will find, during the 50's, a number containing a full account of Jones' life, and a wood-cut depicting "Shirra" and his people praying with fervor to be freed from the attack of their dreaded countrymen, who probably would be harder on his compatriots than any one else, on the principle of setting an "Irishman to roast an Irishman," as the proverb has it. E. P.

Shirra was an elder of the kirk in the land o' cakes, and his faith was illustrated when, on the approach of our Paul Jones, he knelt on the beach and uttered a prayer which provident historians have luckily preserved for us:

"Now, dear Lord, dinna ye think it a shame for ye to send this vile pirate to rob our folk o' Kirkcaldy? for ye know they're puir enow already and hae naething to spare. The way the wind blaws, he'll be here in a jiffy, and wha kens what he may do? He's nae too good for anything. Mickle's the mischief he has done already. He'll burn their houses, tak their very claes and tirl them to the sark. And wae's me! Wha kens but the bluidy villain might tak' their lives! The puir weemen are maist frightened out o' their wits and the bairns skirling after them. I canna think o't, I canna think o't! I hae been lang a faithful servant to ye, Lord; but gin ye dinna turn the wind about, and blaw the scoundrel out of our gate, I'll nae stir a foot, but will just sit here till the tide comes; sae tak' yer will o't!"

To the utter astonishment of Mr. Shirra's affrighted congregation, a fierce gale instantly began to blow from land, Jones was compelled to stand out to sea, andwe'll "whistle o'er the lave o't."

A.

Narcotics of the World (Vol. vii, p. 20). "Another Smoker's" list of narcotics is very far from being complete. Barring alcoholics, tea, coffee and chocolate, we may add to his list the West African kola-nut; the mate of South America; the

osceola or black-drink of the Carolina Indians, concerning which I elsewhere submit an inquiry, and others. The Indians of North America are said to have used the Lobelia inflata as a narcotic; it is a terrible depressant, experto crede. The new-fashioned coal-tar hypnotics, and other chemical sleep producers, such as chloral, sulphonal, phenacetine, hypnone, antikamnia, and the like, also ether, chloroform and a hundred other more or less dangerous anesthetics, need only to be alluded to here, although several of them are liable to enslave the will and break down the moral nature quite as effectively as morphine can do it, or even cocaine, that most potent soul-destroyer. T. S. D.

First American Romance (Vol. vi, p. 309)." The Algerine Captive," a novel, or fictitious memoir, by Ryall Tyler, a Boston jurist, was first published at the village of Walpole, N. H., by Isaiah Thomas, in 1797. A second edition fol. lowed in 1799, and the London edition appeared in 1802.

As early as 1793, Thomas came from Boston to Walpole, where, having opened a bookstore and set up a press, he began the publication of a newspaper called The Farmer's Museum, to which Tyler was a leading contributor. ΜΕΝΟΝΑ.

Canadian Parliament (Vol. vii, p. 19).— The Senate has 77 members, being 24 for Ontario, 24 for Quebec, 10 for Nova Scotia, 10 for New Brunswick, 4 for Prince Edward Island, 3 for British Columbia and 2 for Manitoba.

The House of Commons has 215 members, being 92 for Ontario, 65 for Quebec, 21 for Nova Scotia, 16 for New Brunswick, 6 for Prince Edward Island, 6 for British Columbia, 5 for Manitoba and 4 for the Northwest Territories. This information is official. Jos. E.

I find this reply to your query in our Weekly Journal:

His

"It is alleged that for a generation the people of Alexandria, Va., have been afflicted with the whistling distemper. It has often puzzled the good people of Alexandria to know why Gen. Albert Pike changed his place of residence from this place to Washington a few years ago. residence at the corner of Cameron and St. Asaph streets was one of the nicest in this town. He had his magnificent library there, and when a few years ago he announced that he had determined to remove to Washington many were the conjectures as to the cause of the move, and many were the causes assigned.

Only a few days before his death the matter was cleared up. In a conversation with a gentleman from this city the General was asked why he had left this city for Washington, and his reply was," Because the Alexandria people whistle too much" (Richmond Dispatch). J. R. S.

FREEPORT, ILL.

Mugwump (Vol. vii, p. 9).—The enclosed traces back "Mugwump to 1832, thus antedating the "Tippecanoe Log-cabin Songster" by eight years:

"The history of the modern literary use of the word 'Mugwump' is enlarged by a recent contribution to the Vermont Standard from Mr. Henry S. Dana, of Woodstock, Vt. Mr. Dana is deeply versed in neighborhood matters, and has written an elaborate history of Woodstock. He says that the American Whig newspaper, published for several years in that town, contained the following, under date of August 24, 1832:

"'DYING CALL, OR THE CAT LET OUT OF THE BAG.

"Through the politeness of an antiMasonic friend in a distant town we have been furnished with a copy of the secret bulletin of the Clay Masonic party. It has extensively circulated among the Knights of Kadosh and the Most Worshipful Mugwumps of the Cabletow nearly a month ago, and with so much " secrecy and caution that we have been unable to get sight of a copy until the present moment.'