2''«iS. VII. June25.'59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



517 



be borne in mind that the timbers called in Italian latte 

 or late (T. di marineria) are a sort of beam specially em- 

 ployed in the construction of galleys. " Sono i bagli 

 largi e sottili, che sostengono le coperte delle galee." 

 Hence this class of vessel may have acquired the name of 

 bastimento latino, and hence the term vela latina, or 

 lateen sail. This appellation may have originally at- 

 tached to the sail of a galley, irrespective of the sail's 

 form ; but in process of time may have become the dis- 

 tinctive name of triangular sails, as the sails of galleys 

 gradual! V acquired that shape. We shall be thankful for 

 farther light.] 



Grist-Milh. — I have read in a chronological 

 work, entitled The Tablet of Memory, and pub- 

 lished in London, that " grist-mills were invented 

 in Ireland, a. d. 214." What authority for this 

 statement ? Abhba. 



[There is a tradition that Cormac Ulfada, King of 

 Ireland, A. d. 213 — 253, kept a concubine of the name of 

 Ciarnute, daughter of the King of the Picts. Of course 

 this somewhat disturbed the domestic happiness of Cor- 

 mac's lawful queen, who resented the indignity she had 

 received, by threatening her royal husband to separate 

 herself from him for ever, unless the fair Ciarnute was 

 delivered into her custody. An old minstrel, however, 

 has left us the following account of the transaction, and 

 the supposed origin of the grist-mill : 

 " The lovely Ciarnuit forc'd away. 

 And taken captive by her enemies, 

 Was made a present to the Irish monarch, 

 The royal Cormac, who, by beauty's charms 

 Subdued, esteem'd her mistress of his heart. 

 The jealous Queen, with keen resentmenrfir'd, 

 Demanded, as revenge, the Scotish lady 

 To be delivered to her mercy ; the King 

 Unwillingly consented ; for the fair 

 Unfortunate Ciarnuit was obliged 

 To turn a mill, and with her tender hands 

 To grind of corn nine quarters every day. 

 In this distress, and in her poor apartment. 

 The King would privately be introduced. 

 Till she grew big with child, and then unable 

 To undergo the slavery of the mill. 

 She cried, and humbly begg'd her royal lover 

 To send to Scotland for a skilful workman, 

 Who, by his art, could make a proper engine 

 To grind without her hand ; the King complied ; 

 The workman came, and by his cunning skill. 

 He made a mill, and eas'd her of her pains." 



Keating's History of Ireland, fol. 1723, p. 276.] 



Works on Geometrical Drawing. — Captain 

 Binney, R. E., quoted in the Report of the Ex- 

 amination for Admission to Woolwich in January 

 last, declares the absence of any English, work 

 treating of the subject of geometrical drawing 

 generally in anything like a practical manner. 

 Can any of your readers give me the title and 

 price of any foreign or American work which 

 treats well on the subject ? 



Monge, I think, handled the subject in French, 

 but the title of the work, its date and price, are 

 all unknown to me. Vryan Rhegbd. 



[The work best known is entitled Geometrie Descriptive, 

 par G. Monge ; suivie d'une Theorie des Ombres et de la 

 Perspective, Extraite des Papiers de I'Auteur, par M. 



also An Elementary Treatise on Descriptive Geomethf, 

 extracted from the French of G. Monge, by J. F. Heather, 

 M.A. Lond. Weale, 1851. r2mo. An Elementary Treatise 

 on Statics, by G. Monge, translated from the French, by 

 Woods Baker, A. iM. Philadelphia, 1851, 12mo, Also, 

 A Text Book of Geometrical Drawing, illustrated with 

 fifty-six plates, by Wm, Minifie. Third edition. Bal- 

 timore, 1851, roy. 8vo.] 



" SAMS-CULOTTES." 



(2°'» S. vii. 383. 465.) 



The derivation of " Turn-cat-in-pan" assigned 

 by John Thrupp, is both ingenious and probable : 

 "tournercote en peine." With regard to the French 

 phrase being the father of our "turn-coat," is not 

 so sure. The expression itself is thoroughly Eng- 

 lish and significative, Avhich cannot be said for 

 " turn-cat-in-pan ;" and ?/it be from the French, 

 we may probably look for it in the heraldic word 

 cotte — cotte d'armes, cotie de mailles, Sfc, — but I 

 think it is native English. The word coat has 

 been curiously tossed about between France and 

 England. Of our riding-coat, the former has made 

 redingote ; and when young French officers, who 

 went to America toT;atch the infection of revolu- 

 tion, from which IVance is yet suffering, took 

 with them their redingotes, the woi'd became 

 Americanised. As an instance I may cite a pas- 

 sage in one of Jefferson's letters to his daughter 

 Patsy (see Dr. Randall's Life of Jefferson), in 

 which he says : " Hurry the making your gown, 

 and also your reding-cote" From the derivation 

 of turn-coat to that of sans-culottes, is not a digres- 

 sion so wide, I hope, as to be inadmissible. The 

 latter term is commonly supposed to have been 

 first used to designate the violent party of greatest 

 hopes and smallest means in the great French 

 revolution. It ts thus accounted for by Mercier, 

 in his Nouveau Paris, vol. iii. p. 204. : — 



" The origin of the term Sans-culottes is commonly un- 

 known. The poet Gilbert, perhaps the best versifier we 

 have had, since the days of Boileau, was exceedingly 

 poor. He happened to scourge some of the philosophers 

 in one of his satires. An author, desirous to render hom- 

 age to the philosophers that they might help him to gain 

 a seat in the Academy, conceived a little satirical piece 

 which he entitled the Sans-culotte. He ridiculed Gilbert 

 in it ; and the rich adopted with alacrity this designation 

 as applicable to all authors who were not elegantly 

 dressed. When the revolution broke out, they remem- 

 bered the name, revived it and emploA-ed it as an in- 

 vincible dart against all those whose writings or speeches 

 tended to effect great and speedy reforms." 



Meanwhile, just as I conclude this note, I 

 happen to open Kapp's recently published Life 

 of the German-American General Von Steubin, 

 and the first words on which my eyes fall are, 

 " Thus this denomination {sans-culottes) was first 



