2»d S. No 89., Sept. 12. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



215 



widow, the cheery, sagacious, kindly hostess at the 

 Helensburgh Batlis Hotel, only last year resigned 

 her office, with her life, at the age of eighty-six. 

 Irving, the Dumbarton publisher, in his capital 

 history of the county, gives Bell's original adver- 

 tisement, announcing the starting of a vessel be- 

 tween Glasgow and Greenock (with facilities for 

 guests intending to favour him at Helensburgh), 

 " to sail by the power of wind, air, and steam." 



J. DORAN. 

 Dublin. 



aa^^Itc^ tfl Minav <lELntvit^, 



Nightingales do Sing in Havering (2'"' S. iv. 

 145.) —Why should they not ? The little parish, 

 though near London, has abundance of park and 

 woodland, and is as quiet and peaceful as any 

 in Old England. Many times in the spring have 

 I gone out in the evening to listen to their war- 

 blings. 



But for farther confirmation of the fact, I beg 

 the attention of your readers to the following ex- 

 tract from a little work by the Rev. K. R. Faulk- 

 ner, B.D., the worthy incumbent of Havering for 

 the last quarter of a century. He informs me, in 

 addition, that these delightful birds have built 

 their nests in his orchard : 



" Among the marvellous legends of those times it is 

 stated that the singing of the nightingales disturbed the 

 King* in his devotions so much, that he prayed they 

 might all be driven away. Their sweet notes, however, 

 are still heard, chanting their Maker's praise amid the 

 shady groves of this pretty village." — T/ie Grave of 

 Emma Vale at Havering Bower. 



John Gladding. 



Cromwell House, Havering-atte-Bower. 



Jack Homer (2""^ S. iv. 106. 156.)— Perhaps 

 with reference to this subject it may be well to 

 record in " N. & Q." the following proverbial 

 couplet : 



" Hopton, Horner, Smyth, Knocknaile, and Thynne, 

 When Abbots went out, they came in : " 



which is preserved by Aubrey in his Lives, vol. ii. 

 362. H. 



Rev. Thos. Sparke, D.D. (2"^ S. iv. 151.) — If 

 this person was incumbent of Bletchley in Buck- 

 inghamshire, author of several theological works, 

 and died in 1616 or 1610, 1 can send a description 

 of his curious monumental brass to Mr. Knowles, 

 if this will be of any service. Herbert Haines. 



Gloucester. 



^ Proxies and Exhibits (2°"^ S. iv. 158.) — I be- 

 lieve your correspondent Henri is as correct in 

 his explanation of " Proxies," as he is the reverse 

 in that of " Exhibits." Exhibits are fees demand- 

 able by the Bishop's Registrar on exhibition of 



* Edward the Confessor. 



the Letters of Orders, " Titles to Benefices," &c., 

 documents which the clergy are bound to exhibit 

 at each visitation : and the Registrar to inspect 

 and see that these documents are en regie. 1 be- 

 lieve double exhibits are deuiandable at the first 

 visitation a newly beneficed clei-gyman attends. 

 Of course the inspection of Titles to Orders, &c. 

 is now but a form, seldom performed, and the de- 

 mand for fees is latterly much restricted and 

 complained of by the clergy ; yet, in the remark- 

 able instances which have lately come to light, of 

 more than one impostor contriving for a time to 

 officiate in the character of a clergyman, without 

 ever having been ordained at all ! it is more than 

 doubtful whether it would be right to abolish the 

 old custom, and whether it would not be more 

 desirable to have it revived into something more 

 than the form it is at present. A. B. R. 



Belmont. 



Epistle of Lentvlus (2°'^ S. iv. 67.) — In my 

 collection of Broadsides, I have one in English of 

 this epistle, with a curious woodcut, head of Our 

 Saviour, at the top, printed at Edinburgh, I have 

 no doubt before 1700. I found it amongst a 

 portion of the papers of James Anderson, the 

 editor of the Diplomata Scotice, that fell into my 

 hands. J. Mt. 



''Flask:" "Argot" (2"'» S. iv. 128.)— The 

 term " argot " stands connected in the French 

 language with several older words; argut and 

 argu, ergoter, which once was kargoter, and ergO' 

 terie. 



Argu, n. s., formerly signified wrangling, petty 

 sophistry ; the verb kargoter, ergoter, to wrangle, 

 disceptare ; ergoterie, the same as argu (supra). 



There were also the adjectives argu, argut, ap- 

 plied to those who chicane and involve a plain 

 question by subtleties, and also to persons of low 

 cunning generally. 



These meanings throw light on the true sense 

 of the word argot, which does not signify any sort 

 of low language, civic or rustic ; but specially 

 that of thieves and bad characters, and, in one 

 word, of those whose object it is to communicate 

 among themselves without being understood by 

 others ; so that argot contains in itself not only 

 the idea of vulgarity, but that of low cunning. 

 This, I believe, is the true account of the con- 

 nexion of argot with such words as argut, argu. 

 " II entend 1' argot ; " not only, He can understand 

 and speak it, but. He is a clever knave. 



The French etymologists do not seem to have 

 decided which of the terms above enumerated are 

 from arguo, which from ergo. Are these two 

 Latin words, ergo and arguo, wholly unconnected ? 

 True, there is the difference of an a and an e. 

 But the a of ergo appears in its earliest form, 

 ^,0076, and reappears lu Shakspeare's argal and 

 argo. Thomas Bors. 



