2>'<iS. VII. Apml9. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



299 



title men give to esquires and other gentlemen), and 

 shall be taken for a gentleman." This definition of a 

 Gentleman is quoted by Master William Bird in his 

 Magazine of Honour, 8vo. 1642. In Tomlins's Law Dic- 

 tionary it is stated, that "under the denomination of 

 gentlemen are comprised all above yeomen: whereby 

 noblemeii are truly called gentlemen. Smith, de Rep. 

 Ang , lib. i. cc. 20, 21. A gentleman is generally defined 

 to be one who, without any title, bears a coat of arms 

 (yui gerit arma), or whose ancestors have been freemen : 

 and b}' the coat that a gentleman giveth, he is known to 

 be, or not to be, descended from those of his names that 

 lived many hundred years since. There is said to be a 

 gentleman by office and in reputation, as well as those 

 that are born such. 2 Inst. 668. And we read that J. 

 Kingston was made a gentleman by King Richard II, 

 Pat. 13 Ric. IT. par. 1. Gentilis homo for a gentleman, 

 was adjudged a good addition. Hil. 27 Ed. III. But the 

 addition of esquire, or gentleman, was rare before 1 Hen. 

 v., though that of knight is very ancient. 2 Inst. 695. 

 667."] 



Masquerading Habit for Nell Owynn. — From 

 a roll of accounts of the Earl of Rochester, gen- 

 tleman of the robes to Charles II., for the year 

 1667, the following extract is taken: — 



" Making a purple cloth suit, embrodered, a flanmll 

 waistcoate, altering ij°o coates, and Ringraves with 

 other furniture, for Mrs. Gwinn . . . x" vij'." 



What is the meaning of Ringraves? 



Cl. Hopper. 



[" KiNGRAVE, "S. F. (Espece de culote d'autre fois) 

 pantaloon, breeches." — Boyer, 1753.- 



" RiNGUAVE. Sorte de haut-de-chausse. Molifere, dans 

 son 3Iisantrope, p. 140. : — 



' Est-ce par les appas de sa vaste ringrave 

 Qu'il a gagne voire ame enfesant voire esclave ? ' 



" On m'assure que ces hauts-de-chausse ont ete' ainsi 

 appelez d'un Seigneur Alleman, qu'on appeloit Mr. le 

 llheirigrave, qui etoit Gouverneur de Mastrict, lequel en 

 introduisit la mode." — Menage. 



"Rhixgrave, S. F. (espfece de culotte, de haut-de- 

 chausses forte ample) a sort of trunk-hose." Flem, and 

 Tibb."] 



DB. Johnson's ms. collections foe his dic- 



TIONAET : THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S PRO- 

 POSAL. 



(2"" S. vii. 256.) 



Perhaps the following extract from Dean 

 Trench's Essay On some Deficiencies in our Eng- 

 lish Dictionaries, which is expressly incorporated 

 by reference into the Society's proposal, as a fuller 

 exposition of their views than could be admitted 

 there, will explain to Eirionnach why it is that 

 Dr. Johnson's design is not mentioned as forming 

 any part of their plan : — 



" As an English Dictionary ought not to include the 

 technical words of different sciehces, as little ought it to 

 attempt to supply the place of popular treatises on the 

 different branches of human knowledge; it must cver}'- 

 where preserve the line firm and distinct between itself 

 and Encyclopffldia. Let the quotations yield as much in- 



formation as they can be made to jdeld, in subordination 

 to their primary purpose, which is to illustrate the word, 

 not to tell us about the thing ; and in the due and happy 

 selection of these, so a.s, if possible, to combine both ob- 

 jects, the lexicographer may display eminent skill-. . . . 

 What can be more absurd than diffuse descriptions from 

 the compiler's own pen, or from books which have no cha- 

 racter of literature about them, of the plants, fruits, 

 flowers, precious stones, animals, and the rest, whose names 

 find place in his columns? It is strange that Johnson's 

 strong common sense did not save him from falling into 

 this error ; but it did not. He might well have spared 

 us thirteen closely printed lines on an opal, nineteen on a 

 rose, twenty-one on the almug-tree, as many on the air- 

 pump, not fewer on the natural history of the armadillo, 

 and rather more than sixty on the pear." 



I need add nothing to this statement, which 

 marks the true distinction clearly and forcibly. 

 Eirionnach, however, will find on reference to p. 

 9. of the Proposal, and to pp. 39-44. of the Essay^ 

 that our Dictionary is not likely to suffer from 

 any want of that sort of illustration which alone 

 has a right to find place in a work devoted to the 

 explanation of words. 



Herbert Colridge, 

 Secretary to the Committee of the 

 Philological Society. 



weapon salve. 

 (2"^ S. vii. 231.) 



Sir Kenelni Digby was not only a believer in 

 the virtues of the " vitriolic powder," but, accord- 

 ing to his own account, was the person who pro- 

 cured the knowledge of the secret from a Carmelite 

 friar who had travelled in the East, and gave it 

 to various persons, so that by 1658, or thereabouts, 

 he says, " there is scarce any country-barber but 

 knows it." John Hales died in 1656. Kenelm 

 Digby is said by Watt to have first published on 

 the sympathetic powder in 1644 in folio, and in 

 English. But what is best known is his discourse 

 delivered before the Academy of Sciences of 

 Montpellier, before 1658. The second edition of 

 the translation from the French by R. White, now 

 before me, has the date 1658. It is next to cer- 

 tain that Digby is not the "Doctor" against whom 

 Hales is arguing. Independently of there being 

 a great difliculty in supposing that Hales should 

 turn a knight and a soldier into a doctor, it is 

 clear that Hales had not read Digby's work. For 

 he argues against the Doctor that any linen which 

 had absorbed the blood ought to do as well as the 

 weapon which drew it. Now this is precisely 

 what Digby says : whereas the doctor with whom 

 Hales is arguing seems to have required that the 

 very weapon must be the object to which the 

 salve is applied. 



Walter Scott quotes Digby's narrative in the 

 notes to one of his poems, implying surprise, if I 

 remember right, at what must strike everybody, 



