108 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 58., Feb. 7. '67. 



fowl, was answered : " Eh, mon ! dy'e think I'd 

 be sae wasteful as to eat the twa meats at once ! " 



CUTHBERT BeDE. 



" Soft Sawder" — The signification of this term 

 is thus given in a recent number of the Assemhlee 

 Nationaie. Cannot " N. & Q." furnish one more 

 to the point ? — 



" It is all soft sawder. This is rather an American 

 than an English expression, and is difficult to translate 

 literally. Soft sawder, translated word for word, sig- 

 nifies a sawyer who leans lazily on his saw, and gets 

 through very little work. A soft sawder, in the slang of 

 workmen, means un lamhin, un grand lacJie, un poule 

 mouillee, (a drone, a sluggard, a faint-hearted fellow)." 



There can be no doubt that this term of soft 

 sawder had its origin either in the United States or 

 Canada ; and it is not improbable that it was first 

 introduced into Europe by Judge Halliburton, in 

 his well known work of Sam Slick. W. W. 



Malta. 



^^ London, sad London r'' — The following lines 

 may interest you and some of your readers, 

 specially at this time. I have them in a common- 

 place book of about 1735, without any guide as to 

 whence they came : — 



" London, sad London ! 

 " Ane Echo. 



" What wants the y* thow art in this sad taking ? 



a king. 

 What made him hence remove his residing? 



syding. 

 Did any here deny him satisfaction ? 



faction. 

 Tell me whereon this strength of faction lyes ? 



on lyes. 

 What didst thow doe when king left Parlament? 



lament. 

 What terms wouldst give to gain his company ? 



any. 

 But thow wouldst serv him with thy best endeavour ? 



ever. 

 What wouldst thow doe if here thou couldst behold him ? 



hold him. 

 But if he comes not, what becomes of London ? 



undon." 



B. W. 



cauerteiS. 



QUERIES ON CHURCH MATTERS. 



In a very interesting paper "On Choirs and 

 Chancels,'' read by Mr. Ashpitel before the So- 

 ciety of Antiquaries, on Thursday, the 14th Jan., 

 that gentleman made reference to several tradi- 

 tions with respect to church matters, which he had 

 heard during his residence in Italy, Switzerland, 

 &c., which are very curious, and seem to me fitting 

 subjects for Queries. 



For instance, the separation of the sexes in 

 church, which in England we are accustomed to 



consider as a practice of the Church of Rome, is 

 in Rome considered one of the results of the Re- 

 formation. In the Italian cantons of Switzerland 

 this was so considered, and the practice obtains in 

 the Protestant and not in the Catholic cantons ; 

 and as this separation could not be well effected 

 unless the churches were seated or pewed after the 

 modern fashion — one may well ask, was this so ? 

 By-the-bye, Mr. Ashpitel quoted a passage from 

 Bale's Image of Both Churches, in which Bale 

 speaks of " all shrynes, images, church stooles, and 

 pewes that are well payed for." Can any reader 

 of " N. & Q." point out an earlier allusion to 

 pews ? 



Another curious tradition mentioned by Mr. 

 Ashpitel, and respecting which one would like to 

 know if there Is any contemporary evidence exist- 

 ing — is, that at the time of the compilation of the 

 Book of Common Prayer, the Reformers were un- 

 willing to use the words " the Gospel side of the 

 altar," and therefore substituted the words of the 

 present Rubric, " the north side," a change which 

 would go far to fix the orientation of all churches 

 built after that time. 



A third and very curious tradition mentioned 

 by Mr. Ashpitel seems well deserving of farther 

 investigation. It is well known that every nation 

 but ourselves, and even our own Roman Catholic 

 fellow- subjects, pronounce Latin after the Italian 

 fashion, with the broad a and e. A tradition 

 exists in Rome that our present pronunciation 

 originated in the time of Elizabeth, at the sug- 

 gestion of Sir John Cheke (who, however, died at 

 the close of Mary's reign), and that the English 

 mode of pronouncing Latin was then introduced 

 into all grammar schools ; its object being to de- 

 tect, by their mode of pronouncing Latin, those 

 who had received their education abroad, and so 

 might be suspected of being priests in disguise, or 

 persons disaffected towards the government. Can 

 any reader of " N. & Q." throw light on this 

 curious story ? 



Another curious suggestion was thrown out by 

 Mr. Ashpitel, and that was, whether anything was 

 known as to the reasons which induced the re- 

 formers to insist that the altar must always be 

 moveable ? Is any instance known where it has 

 been moved, or can any reader throw any light on 

 the matter ? The regulation must have been 

 before the rise of Puritanism, or before the custom 

 of sitting round the table which prevails in the 

 Presbyterian churches. F. S. A. 



ANTHONY PURVEB. 



Anthony Purver (or Parver, as the name is 

 sometimes spelt) was a poor Quaker, by trade a 

 shoemaker. He conceived an idea that he was 

 called by the Holy Spirit to make a new transla- 



