a-a S. N° 60., Dec. 13. '66.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



465 



part of a churchyard cross, is the motto : " Hora 

 pars vita3." Mercatob, A.B. 



The Latin "w" and the Scotch " z«ee." — If 

 Ovid is right in his assertion (Fasti, book iii. 

 1. 446. et seq.), that the Ve in Vejoois was an an- 

 cient Latin word, expressive of diminutiveness, it 

 is a curious coincidence how nearly it resembles 

 the Scottish word wee, expressive of an exactly 

 similar meaning. Hunbt T. Riley. 



Origin of the Maldhoff. — 



" Some ten years ago a sailor and rope-maker, named 

 Alexander Ivanovitch MalakofF, lived in Sebastopol, 

 and by his good humour, jovial habits, and entertaining 

 qualities, became the centre of a select circle of admiring 

 companions. Like many great conversationalists and 

 wits, MalakofF contracted most intimate relations with 

 Bacchus ; and under the influence of the latter he parti- 

 cipated, in 1831, in some riots which broke out in the 

 town, and which had one result — that of the dismissal of 

 Malakoff from the dockyard in which he was emploj'ed. 

 Being incapable of turning himself to any more reputable 

 trade, he opened a low wine-shed on a hill outside of the 

 town, and introduced into practice the theoretical notions 

 which he had acquired b3' a long and zealous study of 

 the nature of beer-houses and wine-shops. His trade 

 prospered ; his old admirers crowded round him ; and in 

 their enthusiasm christened the wine-shed, which soon 

 expanded into a decent public-house, and the hill on 

 which it was built, by the name of the popular host. In 

 time a village grew around the public-house, and was 

 likewise called by the name of MalakoiF. But the enter- 

 taining and imaginative founder of the place in his deepest 

 cups could never have dreamt that one day his name 

 would be in the mouths of all men, and that one of the 

 heroes of a great war would esteem it as an inestimable 

 title of honour." — Gazette de France. 



Threlkeld. 



The Porterfields. — The following cutting from 

 the Greenock Advertiser of Oct. 31, 1856, notes 

 the last of a family living, in the West of Scotland, 

 namely, the Porterfields of Duchal or Porterfields 

 of that Ilk, i.e. Porterfields of Porterfield.* 



" An intelligent friend strayed into the churchyard of 

 Kilmalcolm last Tuesday, and made the following inter- 

 esting note. On the tomb of the Porterfields of Duchal, 

 a very ancient pile, there is cut the following : 



* Bvreit heir lyis 



That deth defyis 

 Of Porterfields their age 



Qho be the Spirit 

 To Christ unite 

 Are heirs of glor. throu. grace 

 1560.' 

 Which, translated into modem English, runs thus — 



' Buried here lies 

 That death defies. 

 Of Porterfields their age j 

 Who, by the Spirit; 

 To Christ united. 

 Are heirs of glory, through grace. 

 1560.' 



* Ross Corbett Porterfield, Esq., died at Gourock on 

 Oct. 26. 



He adds, it is only four years short of three hundred since 

 the above was chiselled, and set up in the churchyard of 

 Kilmalcolm. Tuesday's obituary recorded that the last 

 of the Porterfields has just passed away." 



A. M. 

 Greenock. 



Errors in the English Mint — In Mr. Timbs's 

 interesting book on Popular Errors, he mentions, 

 as the most remarkable instance of blundering 

 in the national mint, the well-known " Tower 

 half-pence," bearing the sovereign's name as 

 "geogius." At a far earlier date a much more 

 remarkable error was committed. One of Ed- 

 ward III.'s gold issue of 1347, instead of bearing 

 on its reverse the legend " domine . ne . in . fvrokb . 



TVO . ARGVAS . MB," reads " domine . IN . TVROBE . 



Tvo . ARGVTs . ME." One of these is in my posses- 

 sion. They were at once called in, and are exces- 

 sively rare. R. F. L. 



Norwich. 



Imitations of Coins. — When I was at Malta, 

 some years back, I had lent to me by Capt. Spratt, 

 of the " Spitfire," I fancy, some ten or a dozen 

 false dies which had been seized in one of the 

 Greek islands. The engraver, it was said, had sold 

 two or three thousand pounds' worth of silver and 

 other Greek coins (counterfeits) to the English 

 collectors. The dies were well executed, and the 

 mode of coining seemed to be like the Mediseval, 

 viz. hammering till the impression was complete. 

 Of course coins struck in this manner from sUfch 

 dies would be very difficult to detect, and so I think 

 more than ordinary care should be paid to the 

 Greek coins, as the Greeks are both clever and 

 cunning. J. C. J. 



GEORGE THE FOURTh's BOOTS. 



In most of the illustrated political pamphlets 

 published about the time of the Queen's trial, 

 the king's boots are prominent. He not only 

 wears them, but they appear separately. In Hone's 

 Slap at Slop they are the legs of " a nondescript," 

 the weights of a clock, and a mirror, to which Sir 

 Charles Warren having applied his varnish sees 

 his own head with a judge's wig on. Mr. Warren 

 had been a strong opponent of the court, till the 

 chief justiceship of Chester became vacant, when 

 he made a speech highly complimentary to the 

 Regent, and won the office. In the same pamphlet 

 is a limping imitation of Southey called a vision of 

 want of judgment, where, " in flames and sulphu- 

 reous darkness," the Laureate sees some of his own 

 minor poems : 

 " And two boots were there a burnt-offering to peccadillo 



But the owner thereof was a glorified spirit above : 



Where, as in duty bound, I had sung to him, ' Twang- 

 a-dillo,' 



He that loves a pretty girl is a hearty good fellow." 



