100 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 196. 



iHinor 3ateS. 



Meaning of " Clipper.'' — I have more than 

 once been asked the meaning and derivation of 

 the terra clipper, which has been so much in vogue 

 for some years past. It is now quite a nautical 

 term, at least among the fresh-water sailors : and 

 we find it most frequently applied to yachts, 

 steamers, fast-sailing merchant vessels, &c. And 

 in addition to the colloquial use of the word, so 

 common in praising the appearance or qualities of 

 a vessel, it has become one quite recognised in the 

 official description given of their ships by mer- 

 chants, &c. Thus we often see an advertisement 

 headed " the well-known clipper ship," " the 

 noted clipper bark," and so forth. This use of the 

 word, however, and its application to vessels, is 

 somewhat wide of the original. 



The word in former times meant merely a 

 hackne}^ or horse adapted for the road. The 

 owners of such animals naturally valued them in 

 proportion to their capabilities for such service, 

 among which great speed in trotting was con- 

 sidered one of the chief: fast trotting horses were 

 eagerly sought after, and trials of speed became 

 the fashion. A horse then, which was pre-eminent 

 in this particular, was termed a clipper, i. e, a 

 hackney, par excellence. 



The original of the term is perhaps the follow- 

 ing : Klepper-lehn was a feudal tenure, so termed 

 among the old Germans, where the yearly due 

 from the vassal to the lord was a Mepper, or, in its 

 stead, so many bushels of oats : and the word 

 Mepper, or kleopper, is explained by Haltaus. Glos. 

 Germ. Med. jEvi, 1758 : 



" Equus qui corripit gradum, et gressus duplicat. 

 Nomen habet a celeri correptorum passuum sonitu." 



H. C. K. 



Rectory, Hereford. 



Anathema, Mar an- afha. — Perhaps the follow- 

 ing observation on these words may be as in- 

 structive to some of the readers of "N. & Q." as 

 it was to me. Maran-atha means " The Lord 

 cometh," and is used apparently by St. Paul as a 

 kind of motto : compare 6 nvpios eyyvs, Phil. iv. 5. 

 The Greek word has become blended with the 

 Hebi'ew phrase, and the compound used as a for- 

 mula of execration. (See Conybeare and Howson's 

 Life and Epistles of St. Paul, p. 64., note 4.) 



F. W. J. 



Convocation and the Society for the Propagation 

 of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. — 



" When the committee I have mentioned was ap- 

 pointed, March 13, 1700, to consider what might be 

 done towards propagating the Christian Religion as 

 professed in the Church of England in our Foreign 

 Plantations; and the committee, composed of very 

 venerable and experienced men, well suited for such 

 an inquiry, had sat several times at St. Paul's, and 



made some progress in the business referred to them, 

 a charter was presently procured to place the con- 

 sideration of that matter in other hands, where it now 

 remains, and will, we hope, produce excellent fruits. 

 But whatever they are, they must be acknowledged to 

 have sprung from the overtures to that purpose first made 

 by the lower house of Convocation." — Some Proceedings 

 in the Convocation of 1705 faithfully represented, p. 10. 

 of Preface. 



W. Frasee. 

 Tor-Mohun. 



Pigs said to see the Wind. — In Hudibras, Inde- 

 pendant says to Presbyter : 



" You stole from the beggars all your tones, 

 And gifted mortifying groans ; 

 Had lights when better eyes were blind. 

 As pigs are said to see the wind." 



Pt. 3. c. ii. 1.1105. 



That most delightful of editors. Dr. Zachary Grey, 

 with all his multifarious learning, leaves us here 

 in the lurch for once with a simple reference to 

 " Hudibras at Court," Posthumous Works, p. 2 13. 



Is this phrase merely an hyperbolic way of 

 saying that pigs are very sharp-sighted, or is it an 

 actual piece of folk-lore expressing a belief that 

 pigs have the privilege of seeing " the viewless 

 wind ? " I am inclined to take the latter view. 

 Under the head of " Superstitions," in Hone's 

 Year-Book for Feb. 29, 1831, we find : 



" Among common sayings at present are those, that 

 pigs can see the wind," &c. 



The version I have always heard of it is — 



" Pigs can see the wind 'tis said. 

 And it seeraeth to them red." 



ElEIONNACH. 



Anecdote of the Duke of Gloucester. — Looking 

 through some of the Commonwealth journals, I 

 met with a capital mot of this spirited little Stuart. 



" It is reported that the titular Duke of Gloucester, 

 being informed that the Dutch fleet was about the Isle 

 of Wight, he was asked to which side he stood most 

 addicted. The young man, apprehending that his 

 livelihood depended on the parliament, and that it 

 might be an art to circumvent him, turning to the go- 

 vernor, demanded of him how he did construe ' Quam- 

 diu se bene gesserit.' " — Weekly Intelligeiicer. 



Speriend. 



LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL. 



Can any of your correspondents inform me 

 where the virtuous and patriotic William Lord 

 Russell was buried ? It is singular that neither 

 Burnet, who attended him to the scaffold, nor his 

 descendant Lord John Russell in writing his life, 

 nor Collins's Peei-age, nor the accounts and letters 

 of his admirable widow, make any allusion to his 



