216 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



r2nds, No115„Mae. 13. '58. 



pose the totality ended, I found it told full three minutes 

 and a half. The hill tops then resumed their natural 

 color. Presently we heard the song of the larks hailing 

 the return of light, after the profound and universal 

 silence in Avhich everything had been plunged. The 

 heavens and the .earth now appeared of a greyish cast, 

 interspersed with blue, like the morning before sun-rise. 

 The instant the eclipse became total, till the emersion of 

 the sun, we saw Venus, but no other stars."] 



Samuel Footers Grave Can you inform me 



where lie the ashes of that celebrated wit ? It is 

 well known he died at the Ship Inn, Dover, on 

 his way to France, in 1777. A monument adorns 

 the wall in St. Martin's church. I was shown by 

 the clerk the spot where the vault was made, but, 

 from some circumstance or other, Foote never was 

 placed within it, nor does the register, which I 

 searched, make any mention of his resting-place. 

 Far different with Churchill, whose stone and 

 unique epitaph may be seen in the old burial- 

 ground of St. Martin's, Dover. 



L. M. Thornton. 



[Samuel Foote died suddenly at Dover on his way to 

 the south of France, October 21, 1777, in the fifty-seventh 

 year of his age. His remains were removed to his house 

 in Suffolk Street, Haymarket, and were privately inter- 

 red, by torch-light, on the following Monday night, Oc- 

 tober 27, in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. No stone 

 indicates his grave, nor has any memorial to his name 

 been erected in the fabric] 



Proverb. — In a letter, temp. Eliz., in the State 

 Paper Office, " there followeth words of flemishe 

 sainge, after the stede is stolen the[y] shutt the 

 Stable dore." 



Is this proverb of Flemish origin, and if so, 

 what is the corresponding phrase, and its origin ? 



W. N. S. 



[Ray has furnished the following corresponding phrases : 

 " When the steed is stolen the stable door shall be shut," 

 — " Serrar la stalla quando s' ban perduti i buovi." — Ital. 

 " II est temps de fermer I'etable quand les chevaux en 

 sent allez." — Gall. " Despues de ydo et conejo, toma- 

 mos el consejo." — Hisp. 



" Mera noKefjiov ■}) arviinaxCa." 



" Quandoquidem accept© claudenda est januaj damno." — 

 Juv. Sat. xiii. 



" Serb clypeum post vulnera sumo/' — Ovid. 



" npo/AT)0eus ecTTi /oiera ra npdyfjLara." — Lucian. 

 The Italians also say, " Del senno di poi, n' ^ pieno ogni 

 fosso " — " Every ditch is full of your after wits."] 



King's Letter Men. — What is the meaning of 

 the expression, "he entered the navy with King 

 William's letter " applied to a naval officer of the 

 beginning of the last century ? E. 



[We are indebted to a naval friend for the following 

 extract taken from the Admiralty books : — 



" Volunteers and midshipmen extraordinary under- 

 stood to have been commonly called King's Letter Men. 

 It appears that King Charles II., with a view of en- 

 couraging families of quality to breed up their sons to 

 the Eoyal Navy, and of supporting persons who had 

 served as commanders and lieutenants, was pleased, at 



his extraordinary charge, to permit the bearing of the 

 former of these classes as volunteers, and of the latter as 

 midshipmen extraordinary, in the qualities of supernu- 

 meraries to the complements of H. M.'s ships; and by 

 Order in Council of May 8, 1676, his Majesty established 

 regulations for the entry of, and for making certain allow- 

 ances to, those persons. The king's command for their 

 entry on board H. M.'s ships seems to have been signified 

 to the Admiralty by a Letter from the Secretary of State 

 in each particular case." On the establishment of the 

 Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth in 1729, these ap- 

 pointments appear to have ceased.] 



The famous Junius. — Thoresby writes in his 

 Biary, May 29, 1695 — 



" To Windsor, where we viewed St. George's Chapel, in 

 which the knights of that noble order are installed, and 

 the monuments there ; had time only to transcribe that 

 of the famous Junius." 



Who is this ? 



Vebna.. 



[The monument is that of Francis Junius, author of 

 the Glossarium Gothicum, who died at the house of his 

 nephew, Isaac Vossius, canon of Windsor, Nov. 19, 1677. 

 His corpse was interred in St. George's Chapel, and a 

 table of white marble was fixed to the wall, near his grave, 

 with an inscription in Latin.] 



" Illustration of the Holy Scriptures." — I pos- 

 sess a folio edition of the Old Testament in two 

 volumes, described in the title-page, "An Illus- 

 tration of the Holy Scriptures by Notes and Ex- 

 plications on the Old and New Testament, &c., 

 London, printed for R. Goadby, in Sherborne, 

 1755." Was the New Testament ever published, 

 and who was the author or compiler of the Notes, 

 which are very good ? W. N. 



[This work was compiled by Mr. Robert Goadby, 

 printer and bookseller at Sherborne, and was completed 

 in three volumes folio, sometimes bound in four. We 

 have not met with an earlier edition than that of 1769. 

 The third volume consists of the New Testament, In- 

 dex to the Notes, and Concordance. It has been severely 

 animadverted upon by the Rev. Walter Sellon, in his 

 " Remarks upon certain Passages in a work entitled An 

 lUustraiion of the Holy Scriptures," London, 1765, 12mo., 

 and reprinted in Sellon's Works, vol. ii. See also Home's 

 Biblical Bibliography, p. 258.] 



" To he under the Weather." — Has any one ex- 

 plained this idiom, used to express the idea of 

 being slightly sick? M. E. 



[The phrase" under the loeather" as applied to a person 

 who is somewhat indisposed, may perhaps receive ex- 

 planation from another old English expression, " utider 

 the wind," which means " under the lee." A person 

 sheltered from the wind by standing under the lee of a 

 wall, a house, a bank, &c., was said to be " under the 

 wind." Accordingly, " under the lee " is in French, 

 " sous le vent," and in Dutch, •" onder dtn wind; " — both 

 signifying, literallj', " under the wind." As " under the 

 wind," then, clearly signifies protected from the wind, so 

 " ftnder the weather" would imp\y protected from tlie 

 weather. The phrase therefore is exactly applicable to 

 persons who, being unwell, though not decidedly ill, 

 find it advisable to defend themselves from the effects of 

 the weather ; for instance, by keeping at home, or at any 

 rate by wearing warmer clothing.] 



