2"* S. No 63., Mar. 14. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



217 



who is now writing a History of the Reformed 

 Churches of Poitou ; with which province, I need 

 not say, Rochelle stood in very close relationship. 



B. H. C. 

 OssiarHs Poems (2""^ S. iii. 28.) — A communi- 

 cation headed " Authenticity of Ossian's Poems," 

 in which Dr. Johnson's insinuation is referred to, 

 that " the Translator would never show the original 

 MS." has reminded me of the following curious 

 letter, dated "Belfast, August 4, 1820," which I 

 placed aside, long since, with other papers. I 

 send the original document, yellow with age : 



" On opening a vault where stood the cloisters of the 

 .(Id Catholic Abbey, at Connor, founded by St. Patrick, 

 the workmen discovered an oaken chest, of curious and 

 ancient workmanship, whose 'contents on being opened, 

 proved to be a translation of the Bible into the Irish 

 character, and several other manuscripts in tliat language. 

 The box was immediately taken to the Minister of Con- 

 nor, the Rev. Dr. Henrj', who unfortunately did not 

 understand the aboriginal language, and he sent it to 

 Dr. Macdonald of Belfast, who soon discovered the MSS. 

 to be tlie original of the Poems of Ossian, written at Con- 

 nor, by an Irisli Friar, named Terence O'Neal, a branch 

 of the now noble Family of the Earl O'Xeal of Shane's 

 Castle, in the year 1463. The translations by Macpher- 

 son, the Scotchman, appear to be very imperfect ; this is 

 accounted for by the Scotch Gaelic language having no 

 character in which to preserve the Poems thej' had bor- 

 rowed from the sister country. The Irish Translations of 

 the Poem, however, by Baron Harold, who dedicated the 

 work to Edmund Burke, are nearer the original, for the 

 wily Scot, Macpherson, to give them a greater air of an- 

 tiquity, omitted all allusions to the religious subjects 

 which the originals possess. The fixing of the scenes of 

 the Poem at and round Connor, by the antiquarian Camp- 

 bell, who travelled here a few j^ears ago, gave rise to the 

 digging and searching about the old Abbey and Castle, 

 which has thus happily terminated in making, against 

 his will, ' the Land of the Harp,' the birthplace of the 

 author of the Poems of Ossian. I conclude in the words 

 of Smollett : — ' Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn ! ' " 



William John Fitz-Patrick. 



Kilmacud Manor, Dublin. 



Cheer, Boys, Cheer (2^ S. iii. 67.) — The song 

 written by Lady Maxwell, to this tune, is called 

 " The Soldier's Song." The first line and each of 

 the lines of the chorus begins with the words, 

 " Cheer, Boys, Cheer." J. W. H. 



Wigtoun, K B. 



Double Hexameter (2°'* S. iii. 168.) — I have 

 always seen the lines quoted thus : 



" Qui Christum noscit, sat scit si caetera nescit : 

 Qui Christum nescit, nil scit si Caetera noscit." 



I believe they are St. Augustine's. They cer- 

 tainly savour strongly of his love of epigram and 

 alliteration. F. C. H. 



Workmen's Terms (2"'» S. iii. 166.) — If my 



memory does not mislead me, W. O. W. will find 



something like that which he seeks in Randle 



Holmes's Academic of Armorie. M. L. 



Lincoln's Inn. 



"■Lorcha" (2"'> S. iii. 170.) — One would natu- 

 rally look to the Spanish or Portuguese for this 

 word, but in vain. In Chinese, a ship, or any 

 vessel that navigates the water, is called chuen : 

 whence, ping chuen, a ship of war ; seun chuen, 

 a small cruiser ; yang chuen, a foreign ship ; Ao- 

 chuen, a merchant ship ; pih tsaou chuen, a junk 

 (whence perhaps our wordyun^, thus, chuen junk), 

 a low chuen, a short of fighting ships : and from 

 low chuen may have been corrupted lorcha. 



Mr. Cobden (in his speech in the House, Feb. 

 26), said — 



" A vessel called a lorcha, a name derived from the 

 Portuguese settlement at Macao, on the mouth of the 

 Canton river, opposite to that where Hong Kong lies, 

 and which merely means that it is built after the Euro- 

 pean model, not that it is built in Europe." 



R. S. Charnock. 

 Gray's Inn. 



Singularly enough, within half an hour after 

 seeing this Query, I met with the reply to it in a 

 paragraph of Mr. Cobden's speech last night in 

 the House of Commons : 



" Lorcha is a name derived from the Portuguese settle- 

 ment at Macao, on the mouth of the Canton river, opposite 

 to that where Hong Kong lies, and which merely means 

 that it is built after the European model." — Times re- 

 port, Feb. 27. 



Mercator, A.B. 



" Carrenare " (2""^ S. iii. 170.) — I have not a 

 copy of the work referred to in the Query, as to 

 the meaning of the two lines in Chaucer : 

 " Go hoodless into the drie see," &c. 



I do not understand the " drie see ; " but the 

 carrenare is the carnerie (charnel house) : so the 

 meaning of the lines must be something to this 

 effect : that if any go unprotected into danger, he 

 will come to the " dead house." B. W. 



Meaning of ''In" (2°'^ S. iii. 169.) — In is not 

 a prefix, as your correspondent supposes ; the en- 

 tire word Inver, or as it should be spelled, Inbear, 

 and pronounced Inver, means pasture land on a 

 river's bank, or at the mouth of a river. It means 

 also a river in some cases, but then it should be 

 written inmar or inrhara, i. e. the junction of the 

 river with the sea ; the pronunciation is nearly the 

 same as Inver. Feas. Crossley. 



Bashett, Baskett, De la Beche (2"'' S. ii. 416.) 

 — In confirmation of my suggestion that these 

 names may have originated in the old Norman 

 La besche (the name probably of a prison func- 

 tionary), I find mentioned by the elder D'Israeli, 

 Elizabeth and her Parliament, a Mr. Basche, who 

 held office in the Ship Victualling Department, 

 1566. 



This is worth notice, as a nearer approach to 

 what appears to be the origin of these names. 



Hbnrt T. Riley. 



