Dec. 16. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



479 



Some years since I saw Pope's skull in the posses- 

 sion of Dr. Spurzheim, and he used to refer to it 

 in corroboration of some of his craniological doc- 

 trines. After his death many of his casts were sent 

 to Philadelphia, but whether this skull accompanied 

 them I know not. Mr. D. Holm, of Highgate, 

 could give precise information on the subject, I 

 believe, as he inherited most of Dr. Spurzheim's 

 phrenological specimens. D. Andeeef. 



Pope's Essay on Man. — I have a copy of the 

 first epistle, "published June, 1741, according to 

 act of parliament ; printed for the benefit of the 

 designer," of, I suppose, some curious engravings 

 which head each page, and were intended, I pre- 

 sume, to illustrate the poem. It is in some slight 

 respects different from the usual readings, which 

 circumstance, with the absence of a printer's or 

 publisher's name, leads me to infer that it was a 

 surreptitious publication. What is its history ? 



H. G. D. 



Pope's Mother. — M. D. is in want of inform- 

 ation of the family of Edith Turner, the beloved 

 mother of Pope. 



Satirical Prints of Pope., Sfc. (Vol. x., p. 458.). 

 — The satirical print described by Griffin relates, 

 as I conceive, not to Bolingbroke, as he supposes, 

 but to Wilkes ; who, as we learn from Seward's 

 Spirit of Anecdote and Wit (vol. iii. p. 97.), — 



" Usually wrote his satire against Lord Bute's ministry 

 (himself sitting in his bed) upon a desk, a la posterior : 

 this portatif diG.s\i, Wilkes used to say jocularly, his mis- 

 tress would not have parted with for 50,000?., however 

 cheap she might have mortgaged it, or let it out to hire." 



This is probably the anecdote of which Griffin 

 has an imperfect recollection. William Kelly. 



WORDS AND PHRASES COMMON AT POLPERRO, BUT 

 NOT USUAL ELSEWHERE. 



{Concluded from p. 441.) 



Wang, to hang about any person in a tiresome 

 manner. Children are said to be wanging about 

 their mother, when they hold and drag themselves 

 by her garments wherever she goes. 



Warom, for warm; as also Worom, for worm. 

 And the latter word (worm) is often used in an 

 affectionate and kind sense to any object, as even 

 a child. 



Whelve or Whilve., to turn upside down any 

 hollow vessel. A basin is said to be ivhelved, when 

 it is placed with its bottom upwards, 



Whem, an interrupted flaw in some brittle ar- 

 ticle (a word not in frequent use). 



Whettals. The flannel dress of a new-born 



baby, that dress which goes round the breech and 

 legs. 



Whisht, melancholy. A place or person is said 

 to be, to look whisht, when it has a gloomy ap- 

 pearance. Burns uses the word in the sense of 

 silence ; but with us it always includes the idea of 

 melancholy and gloom. 



Whinnick, to cheat in a cunning way. 



Winder, a window. 



Wroxle, to walk unsteadily, to stagger ; also to 

 wrestle. 



Yolky, dirty, unclean, from habitual neglect. 

 Wool is said to be yolky, and in the yolk, when in 

 the state in which it is sheared from the sheep. 

 I suppose the word to mean a dull yellow colour, 

 as seen in linen when it has been long worn, or is 

 not well cleaned ; and the yolk of an egg is the 

 yellow part of it. But the adjective form of the 

 word, as often used with us, always means intrin- 

 sically filthy, as distinguished from any new and 

 casual dirt, however conspicuous. 



Zacky, imbecile. Very deficient in under- 

 standing. 



Zang, a small sheaf of corn ; about as much as 

 the hand can grasp, with the reed or stalks inter- 

 woven together ; made by gleaners from the 

 straws collected by them after the field has been 

 cleared of the harvest. As these zaiigs are all of 

 one size, the number of them collected is often 

 spoken of as decisive of the success of the gleaner. 



Zam, a thing only half done. Applied in two 

 cases : as when a door is almost, but not alto- 

 gether shut, it is said to be zam ; and again, when 

 anything is not sufficiently boiled, it is said to be 

 zamsoddened. I have never heard it applied to 

 meat when partially baked; and yet an oven, 

 when it remains warm presently after the baked 

 bread or meat has been withdrawn from it, is said 

 to be a zam oven. Cold meat is often placed in 

 the zam oven to warm it. 



Zwele, to singe. A cloth is said to be zweled, 

 when it is simply singed from the first effect of 

 fire. 



Words omitted in their proper Places. 



Brage, to -scold violently. 



Chucking, half-famished, as if the cheeks were 

 smitten together. " I am chacking with hunger" is 

 a common phrase. 



Chug. Why do farmers' servants constantly use 

 the words chug and chuggy, when they endeavour 

 to call to themselves the young pigs ? 



Dern. I suppose it to mean wood, probably 

 dry wood ; but the only way in which the word 

 is employed in the singular number, is in reference 

 to the dead and dry stock of an apple-tree, which 

 is termed appledern. 



Dreshel, the flail to thrash corn with. 



Drexel, the threshold of a door. 



