2ads. N<>54.,Jan. 10.'57.]; 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



31 



Heve I am correct in saying, that neither of them 

 troubled the house with a speech. Raba Avis. 



A Boy born Blind and Deaf. — In the Edin- 

 burgh Review^ vol. xx., for Nov. 1812, p. 462 — 

 471, there is a remarkably interesting account by 

 Professor Dugald Stewart, of Edinburgh, relative 

 to Jamfis Mitchell, son of a Scottish clergyman, 

 who was born blind and deaf, which account is 

 too much in extenso to be inserted here, nor will 

 it admit of abridgment for that purpose. The 

 boy was born Nov. II, 1795, and consequently, if 

 he be now alive, he has attained the age of sixty- 

 one years. Can any correspondent supply the 

 sequel of this most extraordinary case ? H. 



Grimgribber and Home Tooke. — Grira-gribber 

 is probably Grlm-gripper or griper. 



When Tooke, stung with the recollection of 

 his sufferings, as " the miserable victim of two 

 prepositions and a conjunction," used this word in 

 the following passage, he had perhaps in his re- 

 collection the subsequent quotation from Steele. 

 Can any of the readers of " N. & Q." furnish an 

 earlier instance ? or is Tom the coiner of the 

 word ? — 



"Mankind in general are not sufficiently aware that 

 words without meaning, or of equivocal meaning, are the 

 everlasting engines of fraud and injustice; and that the 

 Griin-gribber of Westminster Hall is a more fertile and 

 much more formidable source of impostui'e than the 

 abracadra of Magicians." — Div. of Pur., vol. i. p. 75., 

 4to ed. 



In Steele's Conscious Lovers, Myrtle, for pur- 

 poses of deception, personates the voluble coun- 

 sellor Bramble (for the one party to a proposed 

 marriage settlement), and Tom, a shrewd servant, ! 

 personates a stuttering serjeant. Target (for the 

 other). An old lady says : 



" The single question 'is, Whether the "entail is such, 

 that my cousin, Sir GeofFry, is necessary in this affair? " 



" Bramb. Yes, as to the Lordship of Tretriplet, but not 

 as to the Messuage of Grimgribber" 



" Targ. I say that Gr — Gr, that Gr — Gr — Grim- 

 gribber, Grimgribber is in us." 



And whenever " Tom " (Target) can 'get in a 

 word, he repeats — ■ 

 "Sir Gr— Gr — is" — 



And when the scene is at an end, he says, 

 triumphantly — 



" I pinched him to the quick about that Gr — Gr — ber," 

 Steele's Conscious Lovers, Act III. Sc. 1. 



Q. 



Antecedents of a Myth: — Dr. Sandwith's ac- 

 count of the phantom army of the Prophet who 

 relieved the Mussulman host before Kars is a 

 beautiful ilustration of the natural law that, under 

 the same conditions, the same mythos is engen- 

 dered or revived in all ages. A monograph of 

 this idea or type would be a step in advance 



towards that great desideratum, — a complete 

 natural history and classification of myths. Some 

 of your readers will perhaps point out former 

 instances of its occurrence from the less beaten 

 tracks of history. The classical examples and the 

 New England legend of the Angel of the Back- 

 woods will occur to most persons. 



Vincent Sternbebo. 



Robert Emmet. — Can any of your numerous 

 readers inform me who was the father of the Irish 

 patriot, Robert Emmet ? where he resided ? what 

 arms did he or his family bear ? and whether the 

 family was originally of Irish extraction ? 



M. C. R. 



University Books. — For genealogical purposes, 

 I am anxious to search the admission, matricula- 

 tion, and graduate books of the two Universities, 

 and will feel obliged if you can inform me to 

 \ whom to apply ? what are the usual fees, &c. ? In 

 : Sims's Genealogists' Manual, there is no inform- 

 ation on these points. W. (Bombay). 



i Sir Tancred Robinson. — I should feel greatly 



! obliged to any of your correspondents if they 

 could furnish me with information relative to the 

 descendants, if any, of Sir Tancred Robinson, 

 Knt., M.D. ? for many years physician to King 



I George I., and the " Alpha Amicorum" of Ray. 



I Sir Tancred died at a very advanced age in 

 1748, leaving an only son, William, married to a 

 daughter of Dr. Coke of Derby. Further than 

 this, I have been unable to trace the family ; the 

 frequent occurrence of the name rendering a 

 search almost hopeless. Homonymous. 



aS'^. Govor. — Who was St. Govor ? A chaly- 

 beate lately discovered, or recovered, in Kensing- 

 ton Gardens is called St. Govor's Well. Why ? 



F. B. 



Levant. — Can any of the readers of " N. & Q." 

 give the origin of the usage of this word, as in the 

 following passage : 



" A married woman — may crowd to the Hazard-table 

 — throw a familiar Levant upon some sharp, lurching 

 man of quality, and if he demands his money, turn it off 

 with a laugh and cry you'll owe it him, to vex him." — 

 The Provoked Husband, Act. I. Sc. 1. By Vanbrugh and 

 Gibber. 



Q. 



Bam. — Swift, in his Introduction to Polite 

 Conversation, mentions, among " the exquisite re- 

 finements " then in vogue, — bam for bamboozle, 

 and bamboozle for God knows what. 



If we substitute yrom in the place of for, we 

 shall describe the predicament in which we now 

 stand. Q. 



Passage in Newton. — Having heard it confi- 

 dently advanced by a gentleman of great informa- 

 tion, that " Sir Isaac Newton had said that pro- 



