May 14. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



487 



H. C. K. and some others of your numerous readers. 

 I therefore send a transcript : 



" Tradition of the Ribston Pippin Tree. 



" About the beginning of the last century, Sir 

 Henry Goodricke, father of the late Sir John 

 Goodricke, had three pips sent by a friend in a 

 letter from Rouen in Normandy, which were sown 

 at Ribston. Two of the pips produced nothing : 

 the third is the present tree, which is in good 

 health, and still continues to bear fruit." 



" Another Account. 



" Sir Henry, the father of the late Sir John 

 Goodricke, being at Rouen in Normandy, pre- 

 served the pips of some fine flavoured apples, and 

 sent them to Ribston, where they were sown, and 

 the produce in due time planted in what then was 

 the park. Out of seven trees planted, five proved 

 decided crabs, and are all dead. The other two 

 proved good apples ; they never were grafted, and 

 one of them is the celebrated original Ribston 

 pippin tree." 



The latter tradition has, I believe, always been 

 considered as the most correct. S. D. 



Cross and Pile (Vol. vL, passim.). — The various 

 disquisitions of your correspondents on the word 

 pile are very ingenious ; but I think it is very 

 satisfactorily explained as " a shipj" by Joseph 

 Scaliger in De Re nummaria Dissertatio, Leyden, 

 1616: 



" Macrobius de nummo rutito loquens, qui erat asreus: 

 ita fuisse signatum hodieqve intelligitur in aleee lusu, 

 qtium pueri denarios in sublime jactantes. Capita ant 

 Navia, lusu teste vetustatis exclamant." — P. 58. 



And in Scaligerana (prima) : 



" Nummus ratitus — ce qu'aujourd'hui nous appel- 

 lons jouer a croix ou a pile, car pile est un vieil mot 

 fran^ais qui signifiait un Navire, nnde Pilote. Ratitus 

 nummus erat ex aere, sic dictus ab effigie ratus." — 

 Tom. ii., Amsterdam, 1740, p. 130. 



See also, Auctores Latince Linguce, by Gothofred, 

 1585, p. 169. 1. 53. Also, Dictionnaire National of 

 M. Bescherelle, tome ii. p. 885., Paris, 1846, art. 

 Pile (subst. fern.') 



En passant, allow me to point out a very curious 

 and interesting account of this game, being the 

 pastime of Edward II., in the Antiquarian Reper- 

 tory, by Grose and Astle : Lond. 1808, 4to., vol. ii. 

 pp. 406-8. *. 



Richmond, Surrey. 



JEllis Walker (Vol. vii., p. 382.). — 

 "Ellis Walker, D.D.,"- according to Ware, "was 

 born in the city of York ; but came young into Ireland, 

 and was educated in the college of Dublin, where he 

 passed through all his degrees. He fled from thence 

 in the troublesome reign of King James II., and lived 

 iwith an uncle at York, where he translated Epictetus 



into verse. After the settlement of Ireland be returned, 

 and for seven years employed himself with great repu- 

 tation in teaching a public school at Drogheda, where 

 he died on the 17th of April, 1701, in the fortieth year 

 of his age; and was buried there in St. Peter's Church, 

 and twenty years after had a monument erected to his 

 memory by one of his scholars." 



Tyro, 

 Dublin. 



Blackguard (Vol. vii., pp. 77. 273.). — I am not 

 aware that the following extract from Burton's 

 Anatomy of Melancholy has ever yet been quoted 

 under this heading. Would it not be worth the 

 while to add it to the extract from Hobbes's 

 Microcosmos, quoted by Jarltzbeeg, Vol. ii., 

 p. 134. : and again, by Sir J. Emerson Tennent 

 at Vol. vii., p. 78.: 



" The same author. Cardan, in his Hyperchen, out of 

 the doctrine of the Stoicks, will have some of these 

 genii (for so he calls them) to be desirous of men's 

 company, very affable and familiar with them, as dogs 

 are ; others again, to abhor as serpents, and care not 

 for them. The same, belike, Trithemius calls igtieog 

 et sublunares, qui nunqvam demergurit sd inferiora, aut 

 vix ullum hahent in terris commercium : generally they 

 far excel men in worth, as a man the meanest worm j 

 though some there are inferiour to those of their own 

 rank in worth, as the black guard in a princes court, and 

 to men again, as some degenerate, base, rational creatures 

 are excelled of brute beasts," — Anat. of Mel., Part I» 

 sec. 2. Mem. 1. subs. 2. [Blake, 1836, p. 118.] 



C. FoRBES» 



Temple. 



In looking over the second volume of "N & Q.,'* 

 I find the use of the word blackguard is referred 

 to, and passages illustrative of its meaning are 

 given from the works of Beaumont and Fletcher,. 

 Hobbes, Butler, &c. To these may be added the 

 following fanciful use of the word, which occurs in 

 the poems of Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset; 

 the author of the well-known naval song, " To all 

 you Ladies now at Land :" 



" Love is all gentleness, all joy, 



Smooth are his looks, and soft his pace. 

 Her [Belinda's] Cupid is a blackguard boy, 

 That rubs his link full in your face." 



CUTHBERT BeDE, B.A» 



Talleyrand (Vol. vi., p. 575.). — Talleyrand's 

 maxim is in Young. I regret that I cannot give 

 the reference. Z. E. R. 



Lord King and Sclater (Vol. v., pp.456. 518.).^ 

 By Sclater's answer, "as I am informed, the Lord 

 Chancellor King was himself fully convinced." — 

 Zach. Grey's Review of Neal, p. 67., edit. 1744- 



"■ Beware the Car'(Vol.v., p. 319.).— The "dig- 

 nitary of Cambridge" was probably Dr. Thackeray, 

 provost of King's, who bequeathed all his black- 



