304 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 259. 



I 



M. de Reuilly, I subjoin his account of the sin- 

 gular harbour of Balaclava. 



" Balaclava, autrefois Symbolon et Cembalo, est situe 

 au midi de la presqu'ile, h I'extremite de la montagne de 

 Aia'^dagh. Cette ville, fonde'e selon toutes les apparences 

 lar les Grecs, renouvelee ensuite par les Genois, aujourd'- 

 ui deserte et tombee en ruine, a ete rendue a ses pre- 

 miers habitans ; elle sert de garnison au bataillon grec 

 que la Russie entretient en Crimee. L'eau y est generale- 

 ment mauvaise. Le port, situ^ k I'ouest de la ville, a prfes 

 d'une verste d9 longueur sur deux cents toises de largeur ; 

 il est partout assez profond pour recevoir des vaisseaux 

 de premier rang ; de hautes montagnes le mettent k I'a- 

 bri de tous les vents, en sorte que ses eaux sont aussi 

 calmes que celles d'un etang. Son entre'e, tournee au 

 midi, est tellement r^trecie par de hauts rochers, que deux 

 vaisseaux ne peuvent y passer ensemble sans courir le 

 risque de s'entrechoquer. A I'embouchure du port, sur 

 line haute montagne h, Test, est situee la vieille forteresse 

 genoise, defendue par de hautes raurailles et des tours. II 

 est h, remarquer que toutes les places fortes des Grecs et 

 des Genois etaient placees sur des rocs inaccessibles." — 

 P. 136. 



The main object of this note is not mere biblio- 

 graphy : it has an object more suited to these 

 exciting times. I would suggest to the govern- 

 ment the expediency of printing in French and 

 English, for distribution among the allied forces, 

 the Conseils aux voyageurs of M. Lacroix, and 

 such portions of the Voyage of the baron de Reuilly 

 as relate to the climate of the Crimea, and to 

 sanitary matters. The whole would come within 

 two octavo sheets. The utility of such a pamphlet 

 cannot be doubted, and it would be thankfully ac- 

 cepted by the brave men who have to encounter 

 the effects of untried climes, and all the evils of 

 warfare, for the noble purpose of shielding, from 

 the iron grasp of the Czar, the less-powerful mem- 

 bers of the European family. BoiiTON Cokket. 



Mortality in August. — At this sad season it 

 may be of interest to note that from the register 

 of burials in the parish of the Holy Trinity, Cam- 

 bridge, it appears that in the year of the plague, 

 1666, the number in the month of April was 

 three ; in May, one ; June, twelve ; July, forty- 

 two ; August, fifty-nine ; September, thirty-one ; 

 October, eleven ; November, three ; and Decem- 

 ber, one. W. R. C. 



Fillibusterism. — The Jamaica Morning Journal, 

 speaking of the recent bombardment of Grey 

 Town by the United States' sloop of war " Cyane," 

 describes the affair as " a new phase in American 

 Fillibusterism." Is this word fillihusterism of 

 English or American formation ? If, as I suspect, 

 it be derived from the French flilustier (free- 

 booter), would it not be more correct to say 

 Flibusterism ? Henry H. Breen. 



St. Lucia. 



Haberdasher. — By some antiquaries this word 

 has been derived from the words " Haber dass, 

 herr ? " " Will you take this, sir," said to have 



been commonly used by the Flemish shopkeepers 

 who settled here in the fourteenth century, when 

 addressing the passers-by. This has always ap- 

 peared to me to be the most probable of the 

 various origins suggested for this word ; and I ara 

 farther confirmed in this belief by finding that 

 " liaberdashers of small-wares," and probably 

 their shopmen, were nick-named in the seventeenth 

 century (and probably long previously) " What 

 d'ye lacke." I tliink it was in the writings of 

 Taylor the Water Poet that I lately met with the 

 appellation. Can any of your correspondents 

 refer me to the passage, or to other instances of 

 its use ? Henry T. Eiley. 



31. St. Peter's Square, Ilammersmith. 



Charles I. at Oxford. — In a late article in 

 Dickens's Household Words, on the subject of 

 " Flying Coaches," is the following extract : 



" All the bells rung out their loudest peals, and hooded 

 dignitaries knelt humbly before his majestj-, offering not 

 only their lives and fortunes, as the modern phrase goes, 

 but their clierished store of college plate — soon after- 

 wards unceremoniously taken and melted down, with 

 scarcely a word of thanks from the Lord's anointed." 



Is not this latter part of the quotation rather 

 exaggerated on tJje pait of the editor of Household 

 Words ? The question respecting four of the 

 colleges having the privilege of wearing silver 

 tassels to their caps, on account of their having 

 given up their plate voluntarily to King Charles I., 

 has been mentioned In the pages of " N. & Q." 

 already ; but as it is an interesting subject, I 

 should be glad of again seeing it in print, hoping 

 that there may be some new subscriber to " N. & 

 Q.," who may not have seen the former notice, 

 and who may be able to throw some light upon 

 the subject. If the plate was " unceremoniously 

 taken and melted down," how has arisen the ques- 

 tion of the silver tassels ? And again, do not those 

 four colleges possess the least amount of old plate ? 

 M. A. Tauntoniensis. 



Paper by Nelson. — As a collector of the remains 

 of our great admiral would hardly search the Re- 

 ports of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, it 

 may be a useful note to mention, that a memoran- 

 dum by him on the state of the Forest of Dean, 

 in Gloucestershire, supposed to have been written 

 about 1803, is printed at p. 223. of the Thirtieth 

 Report (1852). B. R. I. 



Pulcis Alliteration. — The following specimen 

 of a play upon words may amuse your readers. 

 As far as my limited reading goes, it is unequalled 

 in its way in any language with which I am ac- 

 quainted. 



The Morgante Maggiore of Pulci does not seem 

 to be sufficiently known or appreciated. Byron 

 thought highly of it, and tried to engage attention 

 to it by his translation of the first two cantos. 



