S52 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 256* 



Bran " Tiamach Bran ; and " Ziermac Bran " 

 should be Tir mac Bran. In their cori'ected state 

 those words are easily understood ; but as they 

 are given by your correspondent, they mean 

 nothing. Fbas. Crossley. 



''Aches'' a Dissyllable (Vol. ix., pp. 409. 571.). 

 — The followinj; instance is quoted in Southey's 

 Common-place Book, from Oldham's Pindariqv£ 

 to the Memory of Mr. Charles Morwent : 



" A sudden and a swift disease, 

 First on th}' heart, life's chiefest fort, does seize, 

 And then on all the suburb vitals preys : 



Next it corrupts the tainted blood, 

 And scatters poison through its purple flood. 



Sharp ackei in thick troops it sends, 

 And pain which like a rack the nerves extends." 



Henby H. Bbeem. 



St. Lucia. 



Franklin's Parable (Vol. x., pp. 82. 169.).— 

 When I saw a short time since " Franklin's Pa- 

 rable " in " N". & Q.," it was new to me ; but in 

 turning over the leaves of Hansard for April and 

 May, 1851, I happened on the following in a 

 speech by the then Solicitor-General, in answer to 

 one by Mr. Newdegate on the Oath of Abjuration 

 Bill: 



" The honorable member would have done well if, in 

 searching the Talmud or accumulating rabbinical lore, he 

 had borrowed the sentiment of one of their beautiful apo- 

 logues, which Jeremy Taylor had given to the world: 

 • Father Abraham was sitting at the door of his tent,' 

 &c." 



It is given in substance as given by M., but not in 

 a style quite so similar to our translation of the 

 Bible. .«1DV 



Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 



Luce (Vol. X., p. 88.). — The fish was called in 

 different periods of its existence, jack, pickerel, 

 pike, and luce, from Lucius and \vkos, in allusion 

 to its wolfish voracity. It is the bearing, a 

 " canting cognizance," of the Lucys of Charlecote, 

 to which Shakspeare alludes in Merry Wives of 

 Windsor, Act I. Sc. 1 . 



Mackenzie Wa^cott, M. A. 



P. S. — Permit me to correct H. B. C.'s spelling 

 of Peter Pindar's real name (Vol. x., p. 93.), 

 " Walcot ; " it should be " Wolcot," pronounced 

 " Woolcot." A descendant of his was a Com- 

 moner at Winchester just before my time, and 

 was so called, as I pointed out to the church- 

 wardens of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, when, in an 

 advertisement for subscriptions to raise a monu- 

 ment to the satirist, they fell into the same error. 



Bishop Griffith Williams (Vol. x., p. 66.). — 

 He was born at Llanrug, Carnarvonshire, in 

 1587 ; received his education at Christ Church, 

 Oxford; became Prebendary of Westminster in 



1628 ; Archdeacon of Anglesey, and Dean of 

 Bangor, in 1633 ; Bishop of Ossory in 1641 ; and 

 died March 29, 1672. The following list com- 

 prises the principal, if not the whole, of his 

 works : 



1. " The Delights of the Saints. 8vo., 1622." 



2. " Seven Golden Candlesticks. 4lo., 1627." 



3. " The true Church showed to all m6n that desire to 

 be Members of the same. Folio, 1629." 



4. " The right Way to the best Relifijion. Folio, 1636." 



5. " Vindicise Regum. 4to., 1643, 1666." 



6. "The Discovery of Mystery. 4to., 1643 ; folio, 1666." 



7. « Jura Majesta'tis. 4to., 1644, 1666." 



8. " The Great Antichrist revealed. Folio, 1660." 



9. " Seven Treatises very necessary to be observed in 

 these bad Days, &c. Folio, 1661." 



10. "The Declaration of the .Just Judgment of God. 

 Folio, 1661." 



11. " Truth vindicated against Sacrilege, Atheism, and 

 Prophaneness. Folio, 1666." 



12. " Four Treatises ; the suffering of the Saints, burn- 

 ing of Sodom, &c. 4to. 1667." 



Besides these he published several sermons, 

 which are described in Wood's Athence Oxonienses. 

 Farther particulars of his life and writings may 

 be found in Ware's Bishops and Writers of Ire- 

 land; Browne Willis's jBflTig'or,- Sir John Wynn's 

 History of the Gwydir Family; and Williams's 

 Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen. 



HlRLAS. 



''Bather — Other" (Vol. vii., p. 282.). — A 

 correspondent has taught us that the word rather 

 is the comparative of the obsolete adjective rath^ 

 meaning soon. This explains its termination in 

 er, and is undoubtedly correct as to all those in- 

 stances where rather is followed by than. But 

 what is the meaning of rather in such phrases as 

 " I feel rather unwell this morning." — '' She is 

 rather a handsome woman " ? Something else 

 than sooner is meant here. 



Is other the comparative form of another obsolete 

 adjective? Its being followed by than would 

 seem to indicate this derivation. Unjbda. 



Philadelphia. 



"No hath not" (Vol. vii., p. 593.).— A very 

 similar phrase is still in common use in Northum- 

 berland : " I'll not can do it," for " I shall not be 

 able to do it." Henry T. Rilet. 



" Mawkin" (Vol. ix., pp.303. 385. 601.).— Your 

 correspondent Kennedy M'Nab gives the true 

 meaning of the word mavokin = maukin = malkin 

 —lepii/,i. e. hare or cat. In " Woo'd an' married 

 an' a ! " we have an example of the first word : 



" An' aff like a maukin she flew." 

 Macbeth affords us an instance of the third : 

 " I come, grey malkin." 



i. e. neither more nor less than grey cat. 



G. Mansfield ImoiiBBY. 

 Birmingham. 



