284 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«"i S. VII. April 2. '59. 



considering the persons anaong whom he was 

 thrown. 



Butler alludes to this Court in the second canto 

 of the Second Part of Hudibras : — 



"A cripple whose crutch suggested a dolon." 



Does this mean that the lameness betokened by 

 the crutch was simulated, and that, if put to it, 

 his flight would rival in swiftness that of Dolon's 

 from Ulysses and Diomed ? (Iliad, lib. x.) 



Buchanan Washbourn, M.D. 



Copse (2"^ S. vii. 245.) — J. Ss. rightly deduces 

 copse from French coupe. In Essex the word is 

 still sometimes used as coppy. 



When on the subject of wood-cutting, I may 

 mention that in Sussex, when the underwood has 

 been copsed, the sapling oaks left standing are 

 called tellers. When the timber is sold these 

 tellers would be counted. This word is from Ger- 

 man zdhlen ; that from zaJd, number. The tellers 

 in the House of Commons, the tallies of the Ex- 

 chequer, the old word tale, all come from the same 

 rout. It is curious that in German, French, and 

 English the word meaning number should have 

 also the same shades of meaning — ■ tale, tell, re- 

 count, count ; compte, raconter ; zahl, zahlen, 

 erzahlen. H. F. B. 



''Dutra" and ''Manicon" (2"'» S. vii. 106.) — 

 These woi'ds do not occur in Part II. of Butler's 

 Hudibras, but in Part III. canto 1., lines 321. and 

 324., Grey's edition, 1744. The former word is 

 there spelt Deiciry, but at the date of the above 

 edition it was called Datura. The plant, or the 

 drug made from it, is now called Stramonium. 

 Bailey, in his Dictionary, says that the herb Ma- 

 nicon was so called from its making people mad. 

 It was also called Dorychnion, a kind of Night- 

 shade. Dr. Grey has some curious notes on these 

 two words in pp. 134. and 1.35. of the 2nd volume 

 of the above-mentioned edition of Butler's Hudi- 

 bras. W. H. W. T. 



Somerset House. 



Hugh Stuart Boyd, the Eminent Greek Scholar 

 (2°" S. V. 88. 175. 226.) — There is much inter- 

 esting information concerning this gentleman in 

 the recently-published Life of Dr. Adam Clarke, 

 by Dr. J. W. Etheridge, pp. 382—384. 



J, M. Cranswick. 



Esquire: Cockade (2°* S. vii. 158. 246.) — Sty- 

 riTES has not, I think, answered the second part 

 of your correspondent's Query fully enough. Of- 

 ficers, both in the army and navy, have a right to 

 place a cockade in their servants' hats. The dis- 

 tinction between the two services is, that the 

 navy cockade is a small oval one which does not 

 project above the crown of the hat, while that 

 used by the army, in addition to being larger and 

 round, has a fan on the top which projects above 

 the hat. This latter is, I believe, supposed to imi- 

 tate a shell about to burst. J. A. Pn! 



Letter to Mr. Bayes (2"'' S. vii. 147.) — Roxas is 

 the old way of spelling Rojas, a dramatist of 

 whom an account is given in Ticknor's History 

 of Spanish Literature, vol. iii. p. 367. Perhaps 

 there is something like the lines quoted in the 

 Spanish ; but Gayton is not to be trusted, as 

 every one knows who has compared his pro- 

 fessed translations in the Festivious Notes on 

 Don Quixote with the originals. He more fre- 

 quently invents or exaggerates than translates. 

 The line — 



" May made not thee, thy brightness made the May," 

 is obviously English for the sake of the jingle. 



E. C. P. 



Rump Songs : the Chronosticon (2°'* S. vii. 200.) 

 — A chronosticon is properly a poetical line which 

 by its letters, or by some of them, indicates a date. 

 "Chronosticon, -xpovSffTixov, versus cujus litteraj 

 tempus et annum significant." (Verba iniprobaia 

 et expulsa, appended to Forcellini, 1826.) In the 

 case cited by your correspondent Libya, however, 

 we have a distich, not a single line. The couplet, 

 therefore, might perhaps with more propriety 

 have been termed by the author a chronodistichou. 

 " Chronodistichou, xpovoSto-Tixoi'i duo versus, qua- 

 rum litteris numerum significantibus, notatur 

 tempus sive annus." (lb.) 



In order to show how, in the instance cited by 

 your correspondent, the letters indicate the date 

 (1648), we must give the couplet in full : — 



" Ter Deno Jan Labens ReX SoLe CaDente 

 CaroLVs eXVtVs SoLIo SCeptroqVe SeCVto." 



Here, omitting those roman capitals which are 

 not ordinarily used as numerals, T, R, S, we have 

 remaining D, L, X, L, C, D, C, L, V, X, V, V, L, 



I, C, V, C, V, of which the numerical value is, 

 500 -[-50 + 10+50 + 100+500+100 +50 + 5 + 10 

 +5+5+50+1 + 100+5 + 100+5 = 1646. This 

 brings us within 2 of the required date, 1648. 

 But, says your correspondent, the Jan., though 

 indistinct, appears to be Jan'. Take the J and 

 the i (perhaps a small capital, i) as equivalent to 



II, and we have 1646+2=1648, the date re- 

 quired. 



This mode of notation is imitated from the 

 Jews, and is of frequent occurrence in the title- 

 pages of Jewish books. For example : — 



This literally means (Is. Iviii. 9.), " In the year 

 ' Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer ' 

 according to the lesser computation." But the 

 two letters in large type give the (Jewish) date 

 of publication. Thomas Bors. 



Peverel Family (2"* S. vii. 199.) — There is a 

 tradition in a parish in the west of Dorset, that a 

 family in humble life residing there are the lineal 

 descendants of John Churchill, the real Duke of 

 Marlborough ; and to prevent their laying any claim 



