Aug. 25. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



153 



Kymerton seems to be a clerical error for Kin- 

 narton, which is in Old Radnor, in Radnorshire, 

 N.W. of Kington, to the S.W. of which latter 

 place, Hergest Court (locally called the Court of 

 Hergest) is situated at the distance of about two 

 miles. 



By Knigton the writer might either mean 

 Knighton or Kington, A reference to the Ord- 

 nance Map, No. LVI., is recommended. 



Lancastriensis. 

 Sedbury Park, Chepstow. 



Verb and Nominative Case (Vol. xii., p. Q5.'). — 

 W. M. T. quotes the idiomatic expression, " Three 

 and eleven pence halfpenny is not a high price for 

 good Irish cloth," and thinks it may be right in a 

 grammatical point of view ; but he does not ex- 

 plain why, unless he do so, by inference, as an 

 exception to the rule of grammar that treats on 

 the verb and nominative case. 



I myself believe that idiomatic expressions, in 

 every language, have been brought about gradually 

 by the suppression of certain words, and in some 

 cases even by that of an entire sentence ; the 

 words or sentence left out being of course under- 

 stood. 



The above sentence, therefore, might originally 

 have stood thus : " The sum of three shillings and 

 eleven pence and a halfpenny, is not a high price 

 to give, or to ask, for (a certain quantity of) good 

 Irish cloth." 



Three and eleven pence halfpenny should there- 

 fore be considered, in the abbreviated sentence, 

 to be used in the genitive case ; the antecedent 

 noun substantive sum, or its equivalent, although 

 not expressed, being the nominative case to the 

 verb. 



W. M. T. then asks, in an ironical manner, 

 whether he can say correctly " Ninety-five are a 

 great age ? " It is obvious that he can not when 

 the sentence be completed, for the words ninety- 

 Jive, standing by themselves, mean nothing. We 

 might fill up the sentence by saying, " A period of 

 existence extending to ninety-five years is a great 

 age for any man to attain." 



W. M. T. alludes to the vulgar expression, " A 

 man six foot high," which he condemns on the 

 authority of his schoolmaster. Might not the 

 sentence, however, have originally stood thus, 

 " A man, six measures of a man's foot each in 

 length, high ? " 



iJy custom we become reconciled to idioms, 

 that is to say, to one or a few words representing 

 many ; as an instance, we have a clear conception 

 that the word foot, or feet, relates in certain cases 

 to a known measure of distance. But what would 

 the generality of English, men or women, under- 

 stand were I to tell them that " Five Tuscan arms 

 suffice to make one of my shirts ? " Neverthe- 

 less, the word braccio — which in the plural be- 

 No. 304.] 



comes braccia — is the common measure in this 

 country ; and the above sentence literally trans- 

 lated into Italian would be correctly idiomatic. 



W. B. 0. 



Florence. 



Sensations in Drowning (Vol. xii., p. 87.). — 

 Your correspondent, who inquires where he can 

 find an account of these sensations, is referred to 

 the Life of Sir John Barrow. The sutferer, now 

 an Admiral of high standing in the scientific de- 

 partment of his profession, communicated the 

 account to Dr. Wollaston. Jaydee. 



I cannot supply the remarks of Dr. Wollaston 

 on "Drowning," inquired for by li. W. Hack- 

 wood (Vol. xii., p. 87.). That gentleman, if in- 

 terested in the subject for its own sake, will find 

 in Everett's Life of the late Dr. Adam Clarke a 

 very curious communication made by that learned 

 man to Dr. Letsome, and descriptive of his own 

 sensations " when drowned" at Portstuart, in the 

 Irish Channel. D. 



Bennefs " Paraphrase" (Vol. xii., pp. 10. 53.). 

 — Burnet (Hist, of his Own Time, ii. 636., folio) 

 and Wheatly, in his Commentary on the Prayer 

 Book, complains that in the beginning of last 

 century the Litany was said in cathedrals by lay 

 clerks. The custom is (or lately was) kept up at 

 Lincoln, and with no edifying effect, according to 

 Mr. Jebb {Choral Service, p. 439.) J. C. R. 



Florins (Vol. xii., p. 47.). — The weights and 

 eflSgies of coins are found in the Pening Boeks or 

 Livres de Monnaie, published in the Low Countries 

 from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries ; 

 likewise in some of the old Eiemiish works on 

 arithmetic. Hyde Clarke. 



Anonymous Hymns (Vol. xii., p. IL). — C. H. 

 H. W. quotes tlie first lines of hymns marked 3. 

 and 15. incorrectly. They should be — 



3. •" When His salvation bringing." 



15. " O Thou that dwellest in the heavens high." 



And are by (3.) Rooker, and (15.) Hogg. No. 13. 

 in the list is by Donne. Charles Reed. 



Paternoster Row. 



Stonehenge (Vol. xi., p. 126.). — The stones 

 have not been quarried at all, being boulders col- 

 lected from the Downs. It is supposed by eminent 

 geologists that they belong to the tertiary form- 

 ation, and that the strata in which they were im- 

 bedded (represented in the Isle of Wight) have 

 been swept away by some great catastrophe. The 

 outer circle probably contained thirty upright 

 stones, of which seventeen are standing ; and the 

 number of their lintels in the original position is 

 about seven or eight. Of the five large trilithons 

 only two are now complete. C. T. 



