S-iS. N0 114, JiAK. 6. '58.3 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



187 



portion of its course the Po has been frozen over. 

 According to Livy, v. 13., the navigation of the 

 Tiber was interrupted by the severe cold of the 

 winter of the year400B.c. Zonaras, viii. 6., likewise 

 states that the Tiber was frozen to a great depth 

 in the year 270 b.c. Gibbon {Blisc. Works, vol. 

 iii. p. 245. 4to) appears to state that the Tiber 

 was frozen in the year 1709, though his language 

 is not free from ambiguity. Is there any certain 

 account of the Tiber having been frozen in modern 

 times ? 



It may be remarked that snow has fallen and 

 covered the ground at Malta during the last win- 

 ter, an event which does not occur above two or 

 three times in a century. L. 



Edie Ochiltree. — Sir Walter Scott, in giving 

 some account of Andrew Gemmells, the prototype 

 of Edie, who is one of the most interesting of the 

 creations of that author's genius, says, in conclu- 

 sion, in his preface to the Antiquary, — 



" WJien or where this laudator temporis acti closed his 

 wand'erings the author never heard with certainty ; but 

 most probably, as Burns says, 



* He died a cadger pawny's death, 

 At some dike side.' " 



In the obituary of the London Chronicle for 

 April 1 — 3, 1794, I find this announcement — 



" Died lately at Roxburgh, Newton, Andrew Gammels, 

 aged 105. He was a dragoon in Queen Anne's wars ; and 

 travelled Scotland 49 years as a beggar." 



Since Edie was deemed of consequence enough 

 to have his^leath announced in a London journal 

 along with the demises of the aristocracy, — the 

 next entry but one being — 



" On the 25th ult. died at Dublin the Right Hon. Her- 

 cules Langford Rowley, Knight of the Shire for the County 

 of Meath," 



we may hope that his wanderings were not per- 

 mitted to close in such misery and neglect as was 

 conjectured by him who has given to the name a 

 world-wide celebrity. Montgomery D. Nixon. 

 Dublin. 



The Word " Surer ew." — It is gratifying to 

 think that there is some prospect of a dictionnry 

 of our noble language, based on correct principles 

 of etymology. I am reminded of the want of such 

 a work by having referred to Noah Webster's 

 Dictionary for information about the obsolete 

 word surcrew. It occurs in a letter of Sir Henry 

 Wotton, where he is speaking of a fever " return- 

 ing with a surcrew of those splenetick vapours 

 that are called hypochondriacal." Webster's cri- 

 ticism is '■'•surcrew, additional crew or collection!" 

 Can there be a doubt but that it is the same word 

 as the French surcroit, increase or addition, which, 

 with its cognate verb surcroitre, is the Latin su- 

 per-crescere ? Vabro. 



Oxford. 



Title-pages. — Collectors of old and rare books, 

 and the lovers of literature generally, are often 

 annoyed and disappointed at the loss of the title- 

 page of a favourite or coveted volume. To ob- 

 viate this in some degree, I would suggest that a 

 duplicate title should be inserted In the middle of 

 the work, which would doubtless often remain 

 after the first had been mutilated or totally lost. 

 I know not if this suggestion has been made be- 

 fore, and it would perhaps be of little advantage 

 to the present age, but future generations would 

 have the benefit of it ; and if "N. & Q." should be 

 the means of carrying it into effect, it would add 

 another feature to its usefulness. I might con- 

 clude with Southey — 



"Go little thought from this my solitude, 

 I cast thee on the waters, go thy ways ; 

 And if, as I believe, thy vein be good. 

 The world will find thee after many days." 



M. E. Beret. 



" Monthly Preceptor ^ — If, as is said, Southey's 

 Life of Nelson, like the lyre of Tyrtseus, wakened 

 a military spirit in many a future naval hero, so 

 his Memoirs of Henry Kirhe White influenced in 

 a literary direction the minds of not a few some 

 fifty years ago. In the latter work Southey says, 



" There was at this time a magazine in publication, 

 called the 3Tonthly Preceptor, which proposed prize- 

 themes for bo3's and girls to write upon ; " and after 

 condemning the plan generally, adds, " To Henry, how- 

 ever, the opportunity of distinguishing himself, even in 

 the Juvenile Library, was useful ; if he had acted with a 

 man's foresight he could not have done more wisely than 

 by aimhig at every ' distinction within his little sphere.' " 



Now, the early volumes of this work, having 

 been purchased by one of my boys, came lately 

 under my notice, and I amused myself with exa- 

 mining who were Henry's competitors, and found 

 more than one or two who had in early youth felt 

 a desire for " fame," " that last infirmity of noble 

 minds ; " and who, in various ways in after life, 

 did not disappoint the hopes raised by their ju- 

 venile efforts. Others may have distinguished 

 themselves in their riper years, but I subjoin 

 a few well-known names : — H. Leigh Hunt, 

 Josiah Conder, W. J. Fox, Ashurst Turner Gil- 

 bert, Nassau W. Senior, Henry Walter, Isaac 

 Taylor, Daniel Harvey, Edward Parry, Thos. 

 Quincey (De Quincey ?), Jane Taylor, Anne 

 Maria Williams, Cohen, and Goldsmids, pupils of 

 Dr. Montucci. S. S. S. 



" The same Old Two-and- Sixpence." — When a 

 person has been absent from his friends for some 

 considerable time, and is thought to be unchanged 

 when they meet again, it Is common for them to 

 say, " You are the same old two-and-sixpence." 

 Sometimes he says of himself, " I am the same old 

 two-and-sixpence." The expression is most com- 

 monly applied to the manners, habits, and modes 



