2'"iS. V. 129., JlnkIO. '58.1 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



493 



chroniquetir dn roi. He was employed by the 

 kinjij to compose the history of France, which he 

 accomplished by writing ten books De rebus gestis 

 Francorum, six of which appeared in his life, and 

 four were published after his death. Paolo Emilio, 

 though there are now but few persons who have 

 read his history, or are even acquainted with his 

 name, had at one time considerable celebrity. His 

 history was translated into French, Italian, and 

 German. Bayle {Diet, art "Emile") says that 

 he has read the opinions of more than twenty 

 authors respecting him ; and he cites some verses 

 of a Frenchman comparing him with Livy and 

 Sallust : 



" Quique alter haberis 



Et Titus et Crispus, nostrae unus conditor ingens 



Historise iEmili." 



4. Jean Ruel, a French physician, who was 

 born in 1479, and died in 1539. He published a 

 translation of Dioscorides, and a work de Naturd 

 Stirpium. L. 



Good News for Schoolboys. — We have seen 

 advertisements of quack sclioolmasters, a race as 

 numerous as the quacks in physic, and more mis- 

 chievous by half, where, as a bonus to good guar- 

 dians, for it can hardly be intended for parents, 

 there is an " N.B. No Vacations." This is proba- 

 bly defended on the ground that any interruption 

 of studies is not only a loss of time, but unfits the 

 mind for returning to its labours. Some people 

 were of that opinion in the sixteenth century, but 

 not so was Roger Ascham, who strengthens his 

 own by others' sentiments : — 



" I heard a good husband at his book say, that to omit 

 study some time of the year, made as much for the in- 

 crease of learning, as let the land lie fallow for some time 

 maketli for the better increase of corn. If the land be 

 ploughed every year, the corn cometh thin up, — so those 

 which never leave poring over their books, have often- 

 times as thin invention as other poor men have." 



Hear this, ye little boys ! and when Christmas 

 comes, sing a Christmas Carol to the memory of 

 Roger Ascham, who was one of the truest and 

 wisest friends you ever had — the pupil of Sir 

 John Cheke, the tutor of Queen Elizabeth; of 

 whom Sir Richard Sackville said, " That he was 

 the scholar of the best master, and the master of 

 the best scholar." Eighty-Three. 



Worcester. 



The Albatross. — The distinguished writer of the 

 article, "The Albatross," in Fraser's Magazine 

 for June, will find the passage he seeks (and has 

 sought in vain) in Hawkesworth' s Collection of 

 Voyages : not, however, in vol. iii. p. 627., as, 

 stated to be, misquoted by Dr. Latham, but in 

 vol. ii. p, 67. J. D. Haig, Librarian, 



King's Inn Library, Dublin. 



Quanker. — I have just met with a word in use 

 among the agricultural poor in this neighbour- 

 hood which is new to me. A poor woman being 

 asked about her child, who was suffering from the 

 whooping-cough, by way of indicating that the 

 complaint was subsiding, answered that she thought 

 it (the cough) was getting quanker. 



A.-S., acwancan, to extinguish, to quench ; ac- 

 wanc, quenched. H. C. K. 



Rectory, Hereford. 



Aj^ with a Genitive of Time. — Aid rpiwv rjfjLepwv 

 is a phrase commonly used to denote an interval 

 of time reckoned onwards, as " three days hence,'^ 

 or " three days afterwards." Is there any au- 

 thority for the phrase being used to denote an 

 interval of time reckoned backwards, as " three 

 days ago" or " three days before?" Meletbs. 



Poplars leaning towards the East. — I was stand- 

 ing under an avenue of American poplars, and I 

 pointed out to my companion (a farmer) that all 

 the trees had a considerable leaning in one direc- 

 tion, as though they had submitted to the in- 

 fluence of a strong wind. In reply, he bade me 

 notice the quarter of the compass towards which 

 the trees leaned. It was towards the east ; and 

 he told me that poplars always leaned towards the 

 east. This sounds like a bit of folk-lore. Is it so, 

 or is there any truth in the farmer's saying ? It 

 holds true with many trees of the same kind that 

 I have since noticed, but this may be accidental. 



CUTHBERT BeDE. 



Names of the Rabbit. — In " N. & Q." 1" S. vii. 

 241. is an article illustrating the names of the 

 rabbit, in the Romance languages, derived from 

 the Latin cuniculus. Besides the forms of this 

 class, the name cirogrillus was applied to the rab- 

 bit in the Latinity ofxhe middle ages. Thus rab- 

 bit-skins are called cirogillince pelles in the acts of 

 the Council of Paris, 1212 a.d. See Ducange, 

 Gloss, in chirogrilhis and cirogilline pelles, and 

 Beckmann's History of Inventions, art. Fur-dresses, 

 vol. ii. p. 222. ed. 8vo. 



The word was taken from the Greek xotpo7p<;\- 

 \ios, which occurs in the Septuagint version of the 

 Old Testament, in Levit. xi. 6., Deut. xiv. 7., 

 Psalm civ. 18., Prov. xxx. 26. In all these pas- 

 sages the authorised version has coney, though the 

 rabbit is certainly not the animal signified. See 

 the art. in vol. vii., and compare Schleusner Lex. 

 Sept. and Ducange, Lex. GroBco-barb. in v. Sui- 

 das explains xo'poTpi^^^'oJ to mean the hedgehog ; 

 but what resemblance could have been found be- 

 tween the rabbit and the hedgehog does not appear. 



L. 



Passage in Motleys Dutch Republic. — In Mr. 

 Motley's very valuable History of the Rise of the 

 Dutch Republic, vol. i. p. 123., occurs a curious 

 mistake in the translation of an Italian phrase, by 



