374 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Nov. 10. 1855. 



influence of long confinement, and habitual (par- 

 tial) exclusion from the light, that important 

 agent in vegetable development, as in the colour- 

 ing of vegetable matter. A5f0w is to burn (with a 

 shining light, to blaze, though rarely and in- 

 transitively). Thence we may get perhaps the 

 whitening action of fire, the pallor of ashes that 

 have lost their fiery glow. We must adopt, I 

 think, some such deduction as this in Mr. Craig's 

 etymology, otherwise I know not how we are to 

 arrive at the blanching process of discoloration, 

 of which the plant offers us an analogy, and which 

 seems to be implied in the word in question. For 

 hWta is properly used to denote a flaming or fiery 

 brightness, which but ill accords with our idea of 

 " etiolation : " 



" Equally delicate and mysterious is the relation which 

 our bodies bear to the passing light. How our feelings, 

 and even our appearance, change with every change of 

 the sky ! When the sun shines, the blood flows freely, and 

 the spirits are light and buoj'ant, the energy is greater, 

 the body is actually stronger in the briglit light of day, 

 while the health is manifestly pvomoted, digestion hast- 

 ened, and the colour made to play on the cheek, when 

 the rays of sunshine are allowed '/reeZy to sport around 

 us." — Prof. Johnston's Chemistry of Common Life. 



r. Phillott. 



p. S. Since writing the above, I have seen 

 Mr. H. Baschet's reply to Mr. Gantillon's 

 Query, which he will consider far more satisfac- 

 tory than my own. The garden " celery " and 

 "seakale," which, exclusive from the action of 

 the light, become so delicate, are examples of 

 vegetable " etiolation ; " but with myself serious 

 etiolation would ensue before I considered " Aitho " 

 a satisfactory derivation, for the reason given 

 above, unless indeed we connect at the same time 

 the idea, fieri/ brightness, and pale, silvery, or 

 crystal splendour with the verb already mentioned. 



" Villikins and his Dinah" (Vol. xli., pp. 183. 

 293.). — Your correspondent, Mr. Mackenzie 

 Walcott, is in error in ascribing the authorship 

 of the above ballad to Robson. It is mentioned 

 by Bristed in his Five Years at an English Univer- 

 sity, as being much in vogue at supper-parties at 

 Cambridge during his under-graduateship, which, 

 I believe, commenced in 1840. N. M. F. 



United University Club. 



Limberham (Vol. xii., p. 145.). — This is the 

 name of a character in Dryden's comedy of Lim- 

 berham, or the Kind Keeper, who is described in 

 the dramatis persona; as " a tame, foolish keeper." 

 It is probable that the name was thenceforth ap- 

 plied to those miserable dunces who submitted to 

 play the despicable part satirised by the dramatist. 

 The comedy was so offensive to the Duke of 

 Lauderdale, who it was generally believed was the 

 original from whom the author drew the character 

 of Limberham, that the performance was stopped 



No. 315.] 



after the third night. The duke was however so 

 powerful, that Dryden did not dare to avow any 

 such intention on his part, and denies in his pre- 

 face that the character was meant for any par- 

 ticular person. Langbaine, who considers this 

 the best of Dryden's comedies, quotes the follow- 

 ing lines upon the subject : 



" Dryden, good man, thought keepers to reclaim. 

 Writ a kind satire, call'd it Limberham. 

 This all the herd of keepers straight alarms. 

 From Charing Cross to Bow was up in arms ; 

 They damn'd the play all at one fatal blow, 

 And broke the glass that did their picture show." 



J. S. C0TNE» 



A Mother Twelve Years of Age (Vol. xii., 

 p. 184.). — Joseph Meade, writing from Christ's 

 College, Cambridge (April 8, 1626), states a still 

 more extraordinary case, viz., " a child of one 

 Disher, a bookbinder, not fully eight years old" 

 being declared enceinte, on the testimony of some 

 midwives, by a singing-master of Trinity College, 

 who was apprehenrled and lodged in prison in 

 fetters. Cl. Hopper, 



'■'■Handbook" (Vol. xii., p. 276.) is evidently 

 a coinage of Handbuch into English. A single 

 additional letter — Handy book — would have given 

 a translation into already current English. 



K. Th. 



National Education and Reformation (Vol. xii., 

 p. 244.). — Will not J. Whitaker find useful in- 

 formation on this subject in Kay's Social State 

 and Education of the People of England and 

 Europe, published by Longman in 1850 ? Laing's 

 Notes of a Traveller, first and second series, 

 abound also in valuable expressions of opinion on 

 these subiects in most European countries. 



^ J. S. N. 



Grange Road, Berraondsey. 



Cat-in-Pan (Vol. xii., p. 268.). — Cat-in-pan 

 has all the appearance of an illiterate accommo- 

 dation of a familiar phrase or term for a misun- 

 derstood expression of nearly the same sound. 

 Good Dr. Pegge might have remembered that 

 " Catipanus " (apud Romualdum in Chron. MS.y 

 an. 998. 1011, 1012. 1066.) was but a slight modifi- 

 cation of the well-known title, " Catepanus," borne 

 by a long series of prefects or captains of Apulia 

 and Calabria, under the Greek emperors, after 

 the expulsion of the Ravennese Exarchs. Its 

 unanimously acknowledged derivation from kotc- 

 trdvw, is countenanced by the judicious and accu- 

 rate Ducange ; and there is no doubt that, from 

 France, it was imported to England, since the 

 proper sobriquet for a " Jack in office " among 

 our neighbours and allies, not many centuries ago, 

 was " Catepon, homme charge en chef de quelque 

 operation." Indeed, there are reasons for strongly 

 questioning the identity of cates, friandises, 



