June 25. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES* 



631 



or parchment, in which books are not unfrequently 

 bound. When we consider that vellum was at one 

 time in much greater request for bookbinding pur- 

 poses than it is just now, we shall be at no great 

 loss to reconcile this eccentricity in the vocabulary 

 of our west country brethren. T. Hughes. 



Chester. 



Humbug (Vol. vii., p. 550.). — A recent number 

 of Miller's Fly Leaves makes the following hazard- 

 ous assertion as to the origin and derivation of the 

 term Humbug : 



" This, now common expression, is a corruption of 

 the word Hamburgh, and originated in the following 

 manner : — During a period when war prevailed on the 

 Continent, so many false reports and lying bulletins 

 were fabricated at Hamburgh, that at length, when any 

 one would signify his disbelief of a statement, he would 

 say, ' You had that from Hamburgh ; ' and thus, 

 ♦ That is Hamburgh,' or Humbug, became a common 

 expression of incredulity." 



With all my credulity, I cannot help fancying 

 that this bit of specious humbug is a leetle too far- 

 fetched. T. Hughes. 



Chester. 



George Miller, D.D. (Vol. vii., p. 527.).- 

 Donnellan Lectures were never published. 



Hi 



Dublin. 



'A\i4vs. 



" A Letter to a Convocation Man " (Vol. vii., 

 p. 502.). — Your correspondent W. Fraseb may 

 be informed that the " great preacher " for whom 

 Le inquires was Archbishop Tillotson.. 'KXievs. 



[Perhaps our correspondent can reply to another 

 Query from Mr. W. Fraser, viz. " Who is the ' cer- 

 tain author ' quoted in A Letter to a Convocation Man, 

 pp.24, 25. ?"— Ed.] 



Sheriffs of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire 

 (Vol. vii., p. 572.), — This is a very singular Query, 

 inasmuch as Fuller's list of the sheriffs of these 

 counties begins 1st Henry II., and not, as is as- 

 sumed by your correspondent D., "from the time 

 of Henry VIII." C. H. Coopee. 



Cambridge. 



Ferdinand Mendez Pinto (Vol. vii., p. 551.). 

 — Inquirens will find the passage he quotes in 

 Congreve's Love for Love, Act II. Sc. 5. Fore- 

 sight, addressing Sir Sampson Legend, says : 



" Thou modern Mandeville, Ferdinand Mendez 

 Pinto was but a type," &c. 



In the Taller, No. 254. (a paper ascribed to 

 Addison and Steele conjointly), these veracious 

 travellers are thus pleasantly noticed : 



" There are no books which I more delight in than 

 in travels, especially those that describe remote coun- 

 tries, and give the writer an opportunity of showing 



his parts without incurring any danger of being exa- 

 mined and contradicted. Among all the authors of 

 this kind, our renowned countryman, Sir John Man- 

 deville, has distinguished himself by the copiousness of 

 his invention, and the greatness of his genius. The 

 second to Sir John I take to have been Ferdinand 

 Mendez Pinto, a person of infinite adventure and un- 

 bounded imagination. One reads the voyages of these 

 two great wits with as much astonishment as the travel* 

 of Ulysses in Homer, or of the Red Cross Knight in 

 Spenser. All is enchanted ground and fairy land." 



Biographical sketches of Mandeville and Pinto 

 are attached to this paper in the excellent edition 

 of the Tatler (" with Illustrations and Notes " by 

 Calder, Percy, and Nichols), published in six vo- 

 lumes in 1786. Godwin selected this quotation 

 from Congreve as a fitting motto for his Tale of 

 St. Leon. J. H. M. 



The passage referred to occurs in Congreve's 

 Love for Love, Act II. Sc. 5. Cervantes had before 

 designated Pinto as the " prince of liars." It seems 

 that poor Pinto did not deserve the ill language 

 applied to him by the wits. Ample notices of his 

 travels may be seen in the Retrospective Review, 

 vol. viii. pp. 83 — 105., and Macfarlane's Romance 

 of Travel, vol. ii. pp. 104—192. C. H. Coopek. 



Cambridge. 



" Other-some " and " Unneath " (Vol. vii., 

 p. 571.). — Mr. Halliwell, in his Dictionary of Ar- 

 chaic and Provincial Words, has other-some, some 

 other, " a quaint but pretty phrase of frequent 

 occurrence.''^ He gives two instances of its use. 

 He has also " Unneath, beneath. Somerset." 



C. H. CoOPEE. 

 Cambridge. 



The word other-some occurs in the authorised 

 version of the Bible, Acts xvii. 18. : "Other some, 

 He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods." 

 It does not occur in any of the earlier versions of 

 this passage in Bagster's English Hexapla. Hal- 

 liwell says that it is " a quaint but pretty phrase 

 of frequent occurrence," and gives an example 

 dated 1570. Unneath, according to the same au- 

 thority, is used in Somersetshire. Other-some is 

 constantly used in Norfolk. I think it, however, 

 a pity that your space should be occupied by such 

 Queries as these, which a simple reference to 

 Halliwell's Dictionary would have answered. 



E.G.R. 



Willow Pattern (Vol. vi., p. 509.). — Evidently 

 a Chinese design. The bridge-houses, &c., are 

 purely Chinese ; and also the want of perspective. 

 I have seen crockery in the shops in Shanghai 

 with the same pattern, or at least with very slight 

 difference. H. B. 



Shanghai. 



Cross and Pile (Vol. vii,, p. 487.). — Another 

 evidence that the word pile is of French origin : 



