134 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«'iS. X. Aug. 18. '60. 



band issuing out of the wreatb, and grasping a 

 scimitar, proper. Motto, "^Pro Rege et Patria." 

 William Galloway. 

 9. Gardner's Crest, Edinburgh. 



DRAWING SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 

 (2°"^ S. ix. 444.) 



I should have replied before now to the third 

 point of Professor De Morgan's Query, had I 

 not expected that an answer would come from 

 some correspondent nearer to the great centre of 

 information. 



I have volumes i. and ii. of the work referred 

 to, which I bought at a book-stall in Liverpool a 

 number of years ago, at a time when I was in- 

 tent on forming a collection of all the older works 

 on mathematics. These volumes, which are in 

 old-fashioned full-binding, appeared never to have 

 been used. The title of the first is similar to that 

 of the second, as copied by Professor De Mor- 

 gan, but the date is 1769. The motto on the 

 frontispiece (which represents a scene illustrative 

 of it), is : 



" Aristippus Philosophus Socraticus, Naufragio cum 

 ejectus ad Rhodiensium litus animadvertisset Geometrica 

 schemata descripta, exclamavisse ad comites ita dicitur, 

 Bene speremus, Hominum enim vestigia video. Vitruv. 

 Architect, lib. 6. Praef." 



After the title-page, and headed by a vignette 

 emblematical of the study of the sciences, is : 



" Auspiciis Frederici Harvej', Episcopi Derrensis Su- 

 preme Curiae, &c. Promovente Societate Dublinensi. Fa- 

 ventibus Josepho Henry, Roger Palmer, et Gulielmo 

 Deane, Armigeris, omnigense eruditionis Msecenatibiis. 

 Josephus Fenn olim in Academia Nanatensi Philosophiae 

 Professor, purae et mixta2 Matheseos Elementa digessit et 

 publicavit, in usum scholae ad propagandas Artes in Hi- 

 bernia fundatse. Anno Christi bldcclxviii. die iv mensis 

 Februarji." 



This precedes an alphabetical list of subscribers, 

 including noblemen, prelates, judges, and other 

 persons of distinction. The body of the volume 

 is occupied by the Elements of Euclid, with which 

 the pagination and also the " signatures " of the 

 sheets commence, and which extend to 344 pages. 

 But this is preceded by 176 pages of introductory 

 matter, ojjening with a statement of the society's 

 resolution to extend the course of instruction 

 given at the Drawing School to other branches of 

 knowledge, plans of which are given shortly, as 

 at page xxviii. of volume ii. Then follows a short 

 sketch of a Course of Mathematics ; next, a 

 " Plan of the System of the Physical World " (an 

 astronomical treatise occupying 138 pages) ; after 

 which come brief " Plans " of the " System of 

 the Moral World;" of the " Military Art ; " of 

 the " Mercantile Art," and of the " Naval Art ; " 

 and, lastly, " An Extract from the Plan of the 

 School of Mechanic Arts, where Architects, Pain- 

 ters, Sculptors, and in general all Artists and 



Manufacturers, receive the instructions in Geo- 

 metry, Perspective, Staticks, Dynamicks, Physicks, 

 &c., which suit their respective Professions, and 

 may contribute to improve their Taste and Ta- 

 lents." 



Should Professor De Morgan desire to ex- 

 amine the first volume, I shall be glad to enable 

 him to do so. Charles Booth. 



Montrose. 



CHAR, CHARWOMAN. 

 (2"i S. X. 87.) 

 There are few pursuits in which persons are so 

 much tempted to make rash conjectures as in the 

 investigation of the origin and meaning of words 

 and names, and though these conjectures are oc- 

 casionally of great service in leading to a true 

 etymon, yet as a general rule they are most falla- 

 cious, and should only be hazarded when the deri- 

 vations already given by competent authorities are 

 really unsatisfactory. When Pjiilologus wrote 

 " I am not aware that any satisfactory explanation 

 has yet been given of the origin or derivation of 

 the word cTiar, which we find only in composi- 

 tion "(!) he had strangely overlooked the deriva- 

 tion given by Richardson, Coleridge and others 

 from A.-S. cerran, cirran, or cyrun, to turn ; thus 

 we say " to do a good txum ; " and in Yorkshire 

 and elsewhere "to do a hand's tiwu" means to 

 render assistance. Bailey derives it from cear, 

 care, but the former seems preferable. More 

 strangely still had he ovei'looked the numerous 

 instances in which the uncompounded word char=. 

 work, job, &c. occurs in early writers. Nares, 

 Richardson, Ray, Halliwell, &c. give instances 

 which need not be repeated here. The following, 

 furnished by me towai'ds the Philological Society's 

 Dictionary, is t'ue earliest that has as yet been 

 brought forward. It occurs in a " Debate of the 

 Body and Soul, 13th Century." (Poems of W. 

 Mapes, Cam. Soc. App.) : — 



" Bote as tou here me aboute, ne mi3t 



I do the leste char." — v. 79. 



So also in a later version of the same (fourteenth 

 century) : — 



" And whon thou heddest me forth dry ven, 



And i-put to eny char." — v. 189. 

 " Ther deth so redi fynt dore opens, 

 Ne may helpe no jeyn char." — v. 271. 



So in the Chester Plays : — 

 " Yea let hym rise if that hym dare ! 

 For and I of hym maye be aware 

 He bode never a worse charre 

 Or that he wende awaye." 



Shaks. Soc, vol. ii. p. 87. 



The following is from Sternberg's Northampton- 

 shire Glossary : — 



" I have neay time now up the town to rume. 

 There is odd charrs for me to deau at hame." 



Yorkshire Ale, 1697^ 



