S""* S. X. Oct. 27. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



339 



to S. T. Coleridge, 2 vols. 8vo., 1837; a second 

 edition of which has since been published, con- 

 taining a letter to him from Southey, dated April 

 20, 1808. As this letter reflects great honour 

 both on the I^aureat and his friend, an extract 

 may not be inappropi'iate. Southey writes thus : — 

 " Do you suppose, Cottle, that I have forgotten those 

 true and most essential acts of friendship which 5'ou 

 showed me when I stood most in need of them ? Your 

 house was my house when I had no other. The very 

 money with which I bought my wedding-ring, and paid 

 my marriage fees, were supplied by you. It was with 

 your sisters I left Edith during my six months' absence, 

 and for the six months after my return ; it was from j'ou 

 that I received, week by week, the little on which we 

 lived, till I was enabled to live by other means. It is not 

 the settling of a cash account that can cancel obligations 

 like these. You are in the habit of preserving your let- 

 ters ; and if you were not, I would intreat you to preserve 

 this, that it might be seen hereafter. Sure I am there 

 never was a more generous or kinder heart than yours ; 

 and you will believe me when I add, that there does not 

 live that man upon earth whom I remember with more 

 gratitude and more affection. My head throbs, and my 

 ej'es burn with these recollections. Good night ! my dear 

 »ld friend and benefactor. E. S." 



Mr. Cottle died at his residence, Firford House, 

 near Bristol, June 7, 1853, in the eighty-fourth 

 year of his age. X. A. X. 



SiNGTJLAE Baptismal Names (2"* S. x. 56. 

 120.) — 



" Tamn. Mr. Sabbath Clark. He had been constant 

 minister of this parish for nigh upon sixtj- years. He 

 carried Puritanism in his very name, by which his good 

 father intended he should bear the memorial of God's 

 Holy Day. This was a course that some in those times 

 affected, baptizing their children Reformation, Discipline, 

 &c., as the affections of their parents stood engaged. For 

 this they have sufficiently suffered from profane wits, and 

 this worthy person did so in particular." — List of Ejected 

 Ministers in Calamv's Abridgement of Baxter's Life and 

 Times, ii. 130. 



E. H. A. 



It may interest Me. Taylor and W. P. L. to 

 know that the names of all three daughters of 

 Job were current only fifteen years ago in the 

 parish of Tor Mohun, Devonshire. That of Je- 

 mima had then but recently been inscribed, where 

 it may still be seen, on a headstone in the singu- 

 larly interesting cemetery of the parish church. 

 Kerez was, and probably is to this day, the name 

 of the mistress of the Torquay National School 

 for girls. And Keziah was the name of the 

 teacher of the Torquay National School for in- 

 fants. What is perhaps the most curious part of 

 these circumstances remains to be told, viz. that 

 the two schoolmistresses worked under the same 

 roof, and that their appointments were made by 

 the same incumbent, in the person of the under- 

 signed. John James. 

 Avington. 



Ked Hot Guns (2°^ S. x. 146.)— There is no 

 doubt whatever that cast-iron, long submerged in 



the sea, will, on being exposed to atmospheric air, 

 become hot even to redness, and sometimes fall to 

 pieces. Such was the case with some iron guns 

 which formed part of the armament of one of the 

 vessels of the Armada, sunk off the Island of 

 Mull ; and the cast-iron balls .with which some of 

 the guns of the " Mary Rose," sunk off Spithead, 

 temp. Henry VIII., were loaded. Mr. Wilkinson, 

 in his Engines of War, remarks, p. 242. : — 



" It is also an extremely curious fact, that the cast- 

 iron gratings which have been long immersed in the 

 porter backs or vats of large London breweries, possess 

 the same property of becoming hot on exposure to the 

 atmosphere when the porter is drawn off, for the purpose 

 of cleaning them." 



W. J. Bernhakd Smith. 



Temple. 



Pun (2"'^ S. x. 248. 299.) — In illustration of 

 Nares' derivation of this word from the Saxon 

 punian, to beat, we may refer to Troilus and Cres- 

 sida (Act II. Sc. 1.) where Thersites says to 

 Ajax — 



" He would pun thee into shivers with his fist, as a 

 sailor breaks a biscuit." 



Is it not just possible that in Hamlet (Act I. 

 Sc. 3.) : — 



" Or, not to crack the wind of the poor phrase 

 Roaming it thus," 



we should read '■'■punning it thus ? " If so, this 

 would be an example of the word in a state of 

 transition from its original to its derivative mean- 

 ing. K. M. F. 



I see that your correspondent Ithuriel quotes 

 Todd's derivation of this word (viz. from the An- 

 glo-Saxon adjective fcegn) without sign of disbe- 

 lief. This, however, is not the derivation of the 

 word. It is one of the many Irish vocables im- 

 ported into England by English soldiers or by 

 natives of the Pale. The word itself in its true 

 Gathelian form is fonn (pronounced fun), and 

 signifies a musical air. It is easy to see that 

 Englishmen in Ireland, hearing probably more 

 often the exquisite lively airs of the country, as- 

 sociated the Irish word exclusively with a sense 

 of vivacity. 



The subject of Irish words which have been in- 

 corporated into the English language is a curious 

 one that has never yet attracted attention. The 

 words are numerous, e. g. Tory, twig (in the sense 

 of understanding), bother, galore, fogy, brag, &c. 

 The Scotch also have their brarv, &c. 



H. C. C.,'F.S.A. 



" Sir William Dawes, Archbishop of York, was very 

 fond of a pun. His clergy dining with him, for the first 

 time after he had lost his Lady, he told them he feared 

 they did not find things in so good order as they used to 

 be in the time of poor jiary; and looking extremely sor- 

 rowful, added with a deep sigh — * She was indeed Mare 

 pacifcum.' A curate who pretty well knew what she 

 had been, called out : * Aye, my Lord, but she was Mare 



m.- 



