388 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Nov. 17. 1855. 



lowing monumental inscriptian appears to his 

 nieiiiory : 



" Richard Furney, M.A. *. Archdeacon of Surrey and 

 Rector of Cheriton, in Hampshire, died February 17, 

 1753, aged fifty-eight years." 



2. 



Cheltenham. 



A I>IAXOGt;£ XN POITEVIN. 



The dialogue in Vol. xii., p. 264., is not French, 

 but Poitevin, and therefore composed in a dialect 

 of the Romano-Provengal tongue, still spoken by 

 the populace in what was once Southern Gaul. I 

 annex, at sight, for the chance of a revisal of my 

 attempt, the following extemporary version : 



" riERRE. 



Un moulin a eau, toute I'ann^e, 

 Nuit et jour, voit tourner la meule ; 

 Cast toujours la meme quantity de farine, 

 Et on meme temps la meme qualite. 



"PAUL. 



Conduis mieiix ton argument, Pierre : 



II est dair que ce moulin couterait dix pifeces de plus. 



" PIERRE. 



Dans ce qu'une chose cofite, tu ne considferes point 

 Les accidents et les mauvais jours (jours durs) 

 Que le loj'er d'un moulin h vent entvaine. 



" PAUL. 



Jamais nous n'accorderons : adieu ! 



P'ailleurs, je no veux point de belles promesses. 



"PIERRE. 



Point de promesse, point de marche. 

 Quant a moi, je ne veux pas qu'un eventail m'irapa- 

 tiente (me gene, me pousse a bout)." 



Glossarial notes : — Aiw, old French aiwe, aive, 

 eane, iaue; meie, Italian medaglie^ French mailles, 

 pieces ; minm, old Spanish miesmo, Spanish mismo, 

 Provencal medesnie, old French me'isme, in Boe- 

 thius smetessme, Latin semetipsinms ; lei, old insu- 

 lar French-N'orman layee, la'ie, leh, Welsh Uech, 

 stone, flag; r'sj/, vieux Frangais resou, regu, pris, 

 de la forme surannee resouvre, resouvoir, resou ; no 

 rCtounCro7i nin d'akoe?', nous ne tomberons point 

 d'accord ; pUnn, vieux Franc^ais plevine, caution, 

 promesse ; choe, old French ohoe, choue, market 

 (in the sense o{ bargain) ; routt, Italian rosta^fiu' 

 helium, eventail, the sails of a windmill. 



No philologist, who knows how scanty the 

 written relics of Poitou's quaint doggei'el rhymes 

 are, would conscientiously warrant every word of 

 such a translation. Your learned correspondents 

 will, of course, remember the renown of William 

 Count of Poitou, a crusader, and almost the ear- 

 liest Pi'ovenqal trouhador chieftain, poet, or finder 

 who rocked the cradle of Europe's infant muse, 

 1090. He flourished in an age when provin- 



* He was of Oriel College, and M.A. June 27, 1718. 

 No, 316.] 



cialism was in the ascendant, and cordial under- 

 standing scarcely possible among the suspicious 

 and half-civilised neighbour-nations of the future 

 France. It was this William who told the world, 

 in a soul-stirring song, that " never should ' Nor- 

 man ' or ' Frenchman ' darken the threshhold of 

 his hostel." Such illiberal times, however " good 

 and old," will, let us hope, not soon return. I 

 remember also a controversial lampoon relative to 

 Soubise, a Protestant, one of the noble sons, if I 

 mistake not, of the immortal Renaut II., Vicomte 

 de Rohan, 1586 — 1642, composed in the Poitevin 

 dialect. 



With regard to a dictionary or grammar of this 

 particular jargon, my information is null. 



George Metivier. 



Le Hurel, St. Martin's, Guernsej'. 



SEADT RECKONERS. 



(Vol. xii., p. 4.) 



I beg to bring to Professor De Morgan's 

 notice, another book belonging to this class, en- 

 titled : 



"Enchiridion Arethmeticon ; or a Manual of Millions: 

 or Accounts Ready Cast up. To shew suddenly thereby 

 the True Value of "any Commodity, at any Price whatso- 

 ever. Small 8vo. London, E. Cotes, 1670." 



The compiler of this Manual was one " Richard 

 Hodges," described elsewhere as "a school-master, 

 dwelling in Southwark, at the Middle-gate, within 

 Mountague Close." My edition, it will be seen, 

 is not the original, which was published at least 

 twenty- one years before ; for at the end of the 

 author's "Plainest Directions for the True Writing 

 of English," &c., 1649, I find the Enchiridion 

 advertised " to be had of John Hancock." The 

 title seems partly a plagiarism from John Bill, 

 and should the Professor desire to compare 

 the one with the other, I shall be happy to send 

 it to him for that purpose. Mr. Hodges, expati- 

 ating upon the advantages accruing to those who 

 possess his " useful book," says, 



" Also, whoever thou be'est that art ingenious, if thou 

 diligently perusest this book (forasmuch as al the sums 

 thereof are set down after such a decimal manner, as the 

 like hath not been don by any heretofore), thou may'st 

 plainly percieve, that it is far more useful than may 

 conveniently be exprest in writing." 



And he might have added, either in prose or 

 verse ; for, according to the ftishion of the day, no 

 less than three poets stand forward "in laudera 

 autoris et operis : " viz., F. Owen, Philomedic ; 

 M. I., Philomathematic ; and G. I., Philomvs; from 

 which trio it results that the author is a prodigy, 

 and that the use of the book is to ensure " millions 

 of profits for his worthy friends." 



The compilers of Ready Beekoners usually build 

 the merit of their performances upon the time 



