Mar. 13. 1852.] 



iTOTES AND QUERIES. 



253 



The usual explanation, with a reference to 

 Chaucer, will be found in Blount's Glossographia, 

 and in Philips's World of Words, as well as in 

 the folio edition of Bailey's Dictionary, where it is 

 well defined " to be nonplussed, to be at one's wit's 

 end." 



Mr. Inglis's note to his translation of Richard 

 de Bury's Philobiblion, which is taken from Bil- 

 lingsley, points out the connexion between the 

 words Ellefuga and Dulcarnon, which, as he says, 

 " have been a. pons asinorum to some good Grecians." 

 The reason will appear to have been that the 

 words were derived from the Arabic, and not from 

 the Greek, according to Dr. Adam Littleton : 



" Dulcarnon, i. e. bicorne, cornututn, a iigura sic 

 dicta. A hard proposition In Euclid, 1. 1. prop. 47. 

 So called in Arabic, and used by old English writers 

 for ani/ hard question or point. Dilemma, Problema," 



So that to be at Dulcarnon may be said to be 

 on the horns of a dilemma. S. W. Singer. 



I cannot see the great difficulty which Mr. 

 Halliwell and your correspondents perceive in 

 the use of this word. Of course they are aware, 

 that Iscander Dulcarnein (Alexander Bicornis) 

 is Alexander the Great, the same name being also 

 fabulously ascribed to a far more ancient and 

 imaginary king; and that the aera of Dulcarnein 

 (or Macedonian aera) is well known in Eastern 

 chronology. There is therefore no doubt about 

 the word, only about its application. Why did 

 the name of this king stand for our Coventry or 

 Jericho, a place to which the people are flemed 

 or banished ? 



Because Dulcarnein built the famous iron walls 

 of Jajuge and Majuge, within which Gog and 

 Magog are confined until the latter days of the 

 world ; when God shall reduce the wall to dust, 

 and set free the captive nations {Koran, cap. xviii.). 

 Sending to Dulcarnein is merely an ellipsis of the 

 person for his place, i. e. for the rampart of Dul- 

 carnein. Certainly no men can be more effectually 

 flemed than Gog and Magog were. 



But as to the point of being " at one's wits end," 

 no one can be so little conversant with human 

 afiixirs as the inmates of the iron wall. Knowledge 

 depends much on place. So sailors say, " he has 

 been before." 



I have only an uncommented text of Chaucer. 

 But I cannot understand his editors allowing this 

 word to " set them at defiance." A. N. 



ST. GEORGE HERAI.DICAL MSS. 



(Vol. v., pp. 59. 135.) 



It seems to be of so much importance to as- 

 certain the safety of these manuscripts, that 

 M — N. trusts he need not apologise for stating in 

 " N. & Q." the result thus far of his inquiry after 



their present ownership. In consequence of the 

 recommendation of E. A. G. (Vol. v., p. 135.), Sir 

 Edward Tierney has been applied to, but.he un- 

 fortunately knows nothing of their fate, suggesting, 

 however, a reference to Mr. Woodgate, who was 

 concerned as solicitor at the time of the sale. Mr. 

 Woodgate has been written to, and states that the 

 manuscripts were sold with the other effects of 

 Lord Egmont, but he knows not to whom ; he 

 mentions Mr. Braithwaite as the auctioneer. To 

 apply to Mr. Braithwaite would be only carrying 

 the inquiry round in a circle, for twenty years 

 ago, as was stated at page 59, no satisfactory in- 

 formation could be gained there. All, therefore, 

 that remains is to place on record in this useful 

 journal the fact of the disappearance of these ma- 

 nuscripts, in the hopes that some one of its nu- 

 merous readers may be able now or hereafter to 

 give some account of their existence. When it is 

 recollected that the only copies of many of the 

 latest visitations were among these collections, and 

 that the latter portion of the seventeenth century, 

 to which these visitations refer, is exactly that 

 period in which genealogists, from many causes, 

 find the connexion of pedigrees the most difficult, 

 the discovery of their fate is not without its in- 

 terest. M— N. 



Noble's account of the sale of these MSS., after 

 the death of Garter in 1715, is as follows : 



" Mr. Bridges of Herefordshire, his executor, ob- 

 taining possession of the heraldic books which Garter 

 had in his house, never returned them to the College ; 

 they were very numerous and valuable, being some of 

 the original visitations, taken by or under the authority 

 of the St. Georges. With these also were many of 

 Camden's books. These original documents were 

 scandalously sold by Messrs. Wynne and Gregory 

 [sons-in-law of Sir Henry St. George] to Thomas 

 Percival, Earl of Egmont, a great lover of genealogical 

 studies, who gave for them 500/. : they are now pos- 

 sessed by that nobleman's grandson, John-James, the 

 present Earl of Egmont." — Hist. Coll. Arms, p. 353. 

 4to. 1804. 



This statement has led to the inference, that 

 the whole of St. George's MSS. were disposed of 

 to Lord Egmont ; but the fact is otherwise, for by 

 far the most valuable portion of them was subse- 

 quently in the hands of Thomas Osborne, the 

 well-known bookseller of Gray's Inn ; who printed 

 a list of them, with an index of the pedigrees, in 

 his catalogue entitled : 



" A Catalogue of several valuable Libraries of Books 

 and MSS. &c. To which is prefixed a Genealogical 

 Library in above Two hundred Manuscript Volumes 

 in folio, &c. Collected and augmented by the late 

 Sir Henry St. George, Knt., Garter King of Arms, 

 and his ancestors, in the office of Arms, for above 

 these hundred years past. To begin to be sold, 

 27 November, 1738." 



