166 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'"» S. No 61., Feb, 28. '57. 



now commonly called ' the Trump Acres.' And an adjoin- 

 ing estate of nearly the same value was sold by his com- 

 rade for 'five jacobuses (five pounds) and a white horse.' 

 A singular story is also told of a considerable property 

 having been purchased for a silver tobacco stopper and a 

 broad sword." 



Abuba. 



Marriage Custom. — During the performance of 

 a marriage some time ago, at Whalley in Lanca- 

 shire, I was startled by the clerk saying, " God 

 speed them well." This was at the end of the 

 adjuration, " I require and charge you both," &c. 

 Perhaps your readers may know of other places 

 where this old custom still lingers. Ci-ericus. 



" Devil and Bag of Nails." — It has generally 

 been supposed this is a corruption of the sign of 

 the " Satyr and Bacchanals," but in the trials of 

 Catlin, Patterson, and others, for conspiracy {Re- 

 markable Trials, vol. ii. p. 14., 1765), one of the 

 witnesses describing the fellow's haunts, says : 



" He went into a public-house, the sign of the ' Devil 

 and Bag of Nails,' for so that Gentry called it among 

 themselves (though it was the Blac/i Moor's Head and 

 Woolpack\ by Buckingham Gate." 



A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



Corruption of Judges. — From a broadside of 

 1648, entitled The Names, Offices, and Rewards of 

 Parliament Men, Sfc, among other curious matter 

 I extract the following : — 



" Serjeant Wilde, justiciarius itinerans, Anglice, jour- 

 neyman judge, had, after the hanging of Captaine Burlye, 

 lOOOZ. out of the privy purse of Darby House ; 'tis thought 

 he afforded a great penniworth in his service, which an- 

 other would not have done for 10,000/. And it is aflSrmed 

 hee had lOOOZ. more upon the acquittall of Major Eolfe ; 

 so it is all one to him whether hee hangs or he hangs 

 not." 



Ciy. Hopper. 



Heber : Cowper. — At 2'"' S. iii. 135. are quoted 

 Heber's lines : — 



" No hammer fell, no ponderous axes rung, 

 Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung : 

 Majestic silence ! " 



Cowper had previously expressed the same 

 idea : — 



" Silently as a dream the fabric rose, 

 No sound of hammer nor of saw was there, 

 Ice upon ice," &c. — Palace of Ice. 



Let me add from Milton : — 



" Anon, out of the earth a fabric huge 

 Rose like an exhalation." — Par. Lost. 



J. W. Farrer. 



Opera first Mentioned. — 



" From a MS. Diurnal of the Parliament, 1658, in the 

 possession of the descendant of Clement Walker, John 

 Walker Heneage, of Compton-house, I am able to shew 

 that, besides Anthony Wood's concert at Oxford, in the 

 year 1658, 'the opera' was first mentioned. This docu- 

 ment is singular ; 



" ' Thursday, Feb. 5, 1658. — The Lords being ac- 

 quainted that, notwithstanding the Laws against stage- 

 plays and interludes, yet there are stage-plays, interludes, 

 and things of like nature, called Opera, acted, to the scan- 

 dal of Religion and the Government, — ordered a com- 

 mittee.' 



** I cannot make out the names of the Committee, 

 except Lord Claypole." — Bowles's Life of Ken, i. 244. 



DjiLTA. 



workmen's terms. 



Has any attempt ever been made to form a col- 

 lection of workmen's terms ? I do not mean a 

 Technical Dictionary, by which is generally un- 

 derstood those peculiar words used by the fol- 

 lowers of particular arts, which most men of 

 science are familiar with. I allude rather to such 

 household words as the hard-handed workman 

 uses at the bench, the lathe, or the smithy, when 

 describing to a brother workman some process in 

 the handicraft in which they are both engaged. 



I do not know that any such Dictionary exists. 

 I do know that it could not but be very useful to 

 philologists and to antiquaries. 



As '• N. & Q." must, I suppose, by this time 

 have made its way into every Mechanics' Institute 

 in the kingdom, will you allow me a small space 

 to hint to some of the intelligent members of 

 such institutes what good service they might ren- 

 der by forwai'ding to " N. & Q." a collection of 

 the terms used by them in their various arts and 

 callings ? If they do so, and you, Mr. Editor, find 

 space for such contributions, I have no doubt 

 many readers will be gratified, and that many of 

 your more learned correspondents will, on the one 

 hand, pick up much useful information which they 

 would not otherwise obtain, and, on the other, be 

 tempted in return to throw the light of their 

 learning on the origin of many terms, to the great 

 delight and instruction of those who use them. 



At all events, this hint will not occupy much 

 space : so I hope you will find room for it, and let 

 us see whether some good results may not follow. 



w. o. w. 



COLONEL NICOLLS. 



Colonel Richard NicoUs commanded the expe- 

 dition fitted out by the Duke of York in the year 

 1664 for the capture of the province of New Ne- 

 therlands from the Dutch. Upon the surrender 

 of the province Colonel NIcolls administered the 

 government for three years with singular ability 

 and prudence. Graham, in his History of North 

 America, says that, — 



" He was long remembered with respect and kindness by 

 a people whom he had found hostile and divided ; and 

 whom, notwithstanding that he had been constrained to 



