618 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No, 191.. 



Greek, prevalent among housebreakers and pick- 

 pockets ; though a great deal of that is traceable 

 to the Rommany or gipsy language, and other 

 sufficiently odd sources ; but I allude more parti- 

 cularly to phrases used by even educated men — 

 such as "a regular mull," "bosh," "just the 

 cheese," &c. The first has already been proved 

 an importation from our Anglo-Indian friends in 

 the pages of " N. & Q." ; and 1 have been informed 

 that the other two are also exotics from the land 

 of the Qui-Hies. Bosh, used by us in the sense 

 of" nonsense," " rubbish," is a Persian word, mean- 

 ing "dirt;" andcAeese, a corruption of aPIindostani 

 word denoting " thing :" which is exactly the sense 

 of the expression I have quoted. "Just the cheese," 

 "quite the cheese," i. e. just the thing I require, 

 quite comme ilfaut, &c. 



Probably some of your correspondents could 

 furnish other examples. E. S. Taylor. 



"Quern Deus vult perdere" — In Croker's Jb^w- 

 son, vol. V. p. 60., the phrase, " Quem Deus vult 

 perdere, prius dementat," is stated to be from a 

 Greek iambic of Euripides : 



""Ov iS-eby &eA.6t airoKecrai TrpaJr' airoppevat." 



This statement is made first by Mr. John Pitts, 

 late Rector of Great Brickhill, Bucks*, to Mr. 

 Richard How of Aspley, Beds, and is taken for 

 granted successively by Boswell, Malone, and 

 Croker. But no such Greek is, in fact, to be 

 found in Euripides; the words conveying a like 

 sentiment are, — 



""Otoj' 56 Aaifiwv dvdpl -iropavvri KaKa, 

 Tov vovv €j3Aa\|/6 irplbTOv.'" 



The cause of this classical blunder of so many 

 eminent annotators is, that these words are not to 

 be foimd in the usual college and school editions 

 of Euripides. The edition from which the above 

 correct extract is made is in ten volumes, pub- 

 lished at Padua in 1743-53, with an Italian trans- 

 lation in verse by P. Carmeli, and is to be found 

 in vol. X. p. 268. as the 436-7 th verses of the Tra- 

 gedie incerte, the meaning of which he thus gives 

 in prose : " Quando vogliono gli Dei liir perire 

 alcuno, gli toglie la mente." T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



P. S. — In Croker's Johnson, vol. iv. p. 170., the 

 phrase " Omnia mea mecum porto " is incorrectly 

 quoted from Vol. Max. vii. 2., instead of '•'■Bona 

 jnea mecum porto." 



White Roses. — The paragraph quoted from " an 

 old newspaper," dated Saturday, June 15th, 1723, 

 alludes to the commemoration of the birthday of 

 King James VIII. (the 10th of June), which was 



the Monday mentioned as that before the Saturday 

 on which the newspaper was published. All faith- 

 ful adherents of the House of Stuart showed their 

 loyalty by wearing the white rose (its distinguish- 

 ing badge) on the 10th of June, when no other 

 way was left them of declaring their devotion to 

 the exiled family ; and, from my own knowledge, 

 I can affirm that there still exist some people who 

 would think that day desecrated unless they wore 

 a white rose, or, when that is not to be procured, 

 a cockade of white ribbon, in token of their vene- 

 ration for the memory of him of whose birth it is 

 the anniversary. L. M. M. IL. 



MERK LANDS 



AND " UKES." 

 ANTIQUITIES. 



NORWEGIAN 



* This gentleman is wrong in saying demento is of no 

 authority, as it is found in Lactantius. (See Faccio- 

 lati.) 



In Shetland, at the present day, all public as- 

 sessments are levied, and divisions made, according- 

 to the number of merk lands in a parish. AlB 

 arable lands were anciently, \inder the Norwegian 

 law, rated as merks, — a merk containing eight ures. 

 These merks are quite indefinite as to extent. It 

 is, indeed, clear that the ancient denomination of 

 merk land had not reference to superficial extent 

 of surface, but was a denomination of value alone, 

 in which was included the proportion of the- 

 surrounding commonty or scattald. Merk land* 

 are of different values, as sixpenny, ninepenny,. 

 twelvepenny, — a twelvepenny merk having, for- 

 merly at least, been considered equal to two six- 

 penny merks; and in some old deeds lands are- 

 described as thirty merks sixpenny, otherwise- 

 fifteen merks twelvepenny land. All assessments- 

 have, however, for a very long period, been levied,, 

 and all privileges apportioned, according to merks,. 

 without relation to whether they were sixpenny or 

 twelvepenny. The ancient rentals of Shetland 

 contain about fourteen thousand merks of land ;. 

 and it will be noticed that, however much the ancient 

 inclosed land be increased by additional improve- 

 ments, the number of merks ought to be, and are,, 

 stationary. The valued rent, divided according to 

 the merk lands, would make a merk land in Shet- 

 land equal to 11. Scots of valued rent. There are- 

 only one or two places of Scotland proper where 

 merks are in use, — Stirling and Dunfermline, I 

 think. As these two places were the occasional 

 residences of our ancient Scottish kings, it is pos- 

 sible this plan of estimating land may have obtained 

 there, to equalise and make better understood some- 

 arrangements relating to land entered into between 

 the kings of Norway and Scotland. Possibly somes 

 of the correspondents of " N. & Q." in the north 

 may be able to throw some light on this subject. 

 It was stated some time ago that Dr. Munch, Pro- 

 fessor in the University of Christiana, had pre- 

 sented to the Society of Northern Archasology, in' 



