178 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 253. 



NOTBS ON MANNEBS, COSTUMIi, £TC. 



(Continued from p. 82.) 



Dishes. — Part of the payment of the king's 

 servants used to consist of a certain number of 

 dishes of meat. The lord president of the council 

 was formerly allowed ten dishes of meat per diem ; 

 these ten dishes were eventually compounded for 

 at lOOOZ. per annum, while his salary was only 500?. 

 The lord steward had, I think, sixteen dishes. At 

 the installations of knights of the garter, the 

 knights were liberally provided. " On St. George's 

 Day, 1667, each knight," says Evelyn, " had forty 

 dishes to his mess, piled up five or six high." 

 N.B. — This festival seems to have been kept in 

 the banquetting-house. 



Pantaloons, a kind of tight trowsers fitting 

 the knee and leg, came into fashion about 1790, 

 and were so called : the name, however, existed 

 long before, but meant loose trowsers, such, 

 perhaps, as were worn by the " lean and slippered 

 pantaloon" of Shakspeare, and probably by the 

 pantaloons of the stage. " The pantaloon," says 

 Evelyn {Tyrannvs, or the Mode), " are too exor- 

 bitant, and of neither sex." They were " set in 

 plaits," not, it seems, unlike the fashion of Cos- 

 sack trowsers, which came into fashion in Europe 

 after the French campaigns to Russia, and still 

 more after the Russian campaigns into France. 



Mourning. — Mr. Bray (in his note on a pas- 

 sage in Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 80.), stating 

 that he had received gratis a complete mourning 

 to attend Mr. Pepys's funeral) observes that " this 

 is a curious circumstance." Mr. Bray seems 

 strangely misinformed on this point ; mourning is 

 always given gratis. The custom is lost amongst 

 the higher orders, except in scarves, gloves, and 

 hat-bands, which are still given ; but our servants 

 still understand that mourning is to be a gratui- 

 tous gift, and female servants, who are seldom 

 allowed clothes at their master's cost, always have 

 their mourning. The clergy have always, I be- 

 lieve, received and used for private purposes the 

 mourning decorations of churches. 



The kings of France mourn in violet; our 

 kings, as kings of France, used to do the same. 

 Dangeau tells us that on some public occasion at 

 the court of France, after his exile, James II. 

 wore violet. " It surprised us," says Dangeau, " to 

 see two kings of France." The anecdote is cre- 

 ditable to both the monarchs. 



Wig. — At Paris the Prince (Charles I. on his 

 expedition to Spain) spent one day to view the 

 city and court, shadowing himself the most he 

 could under a bushy peruque, which none in 

 former days but bald people used, but now gene- 

 rally intruded into a fashion ; and the Prince's 

 was so big that it was hair enough for his whole 

 face. (Arthur Wilson, Hist. Eng., 1653, p. 226.) 



:c. 



WOEDS AND FHBASES COMMON AT POLPEREO IN 

 CORNWALL, BUT NOT USUAL ELSEWHERE. 



My late friend Thomas Bond, Esq., in his His- 

 tory of Looe, says : 



" I have been informed that, about a century ago, the 

 people of Polperro had such a dialect among them, that 

 even the inhabitants of Looe could scarce understand 

 what they said. Of late years, however, from associating 

 more with strangers they have nothing particularly 

 striking in their mode of speech, except a few of the old 

 people.** 



To collect and fix, before it was too late, those 

 dying modes of expression, several years since I 

 adopted the practice of making a note of words 

 and phrases which appeared to be unusual, or to 

 bear a different meaning from that which would 

 be understood by them in other places ; in doing 

 which I was impressed with the light which was 

 thus thrown on many passages in ancient writers, 

 and also with the fact that many words in local 

 common use were expressive of a meaning which 

 could only be conveyed in modern discourse by a 

 considerable circumlocution. I am sorry, that 

 among these antiquated words, I am not able to 

 distinguish such of them as have their origin in 

 the ancient Cornu-British language, from those 

 which are of Saxon derivation ; but I feel certain 

 that some of them belong to the former, although 

 they are not to be found in the vocabularies of 

 Borlase or Pryce. I have arranged the words I 

 have collected into alphabetical order ; and if the 

 sample of them I now send is thought worthy a 

 place in " N. & Q.," the remainder shall be for- 

 warded In due order. 



Abide; cannot abide a thing, is, not able to 

 suffer, or put up with it. 



Addle. Attle is a term used in mining, and 

 signifies the rejected and useless rubbish. Hence 

 an addled egg is an egg unfit for use. 



Aft, now only used as a sea-term ; but an- 

 ciently with degrees of comparison, as "after, 

 aftest." 



Agate, open-mouthed attention; hearkening 

 with eagerness. " He was all agate,'' eager to hear 

 what was said. 



Aldre, a short time ago : in common use.^ 



Andn. I remember to have often heard this 

 Shakspearian expression from some old persons, 

 when they wished to have a repetition of what had 

 been said : but no one now uses it. 



Anist, nigh, at all nigh ; as, " I did not go anist 

 him ;" that is, I kept at a good distance : a phrase 

 in common use. 



Arymouse, the common name for a bat, vcsper- 

 tilio : signifying a mouse that flies in the air. 



Ascrode, astride ; to ride a horse with legs across 

 it as a man does. 



Ax, for ask. 



Balch, stout cord, used for the head lines of 

 fishing nets ; well twisted, but not so stout as rope. 



