304 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 204. 



Sheer, and Shear Hulk (Vol. vH., p. 126.). — A 

 sheer hulk is a mere hulk, simply the hull of a 

 vessel unfurnished with masts and rigging. A 

 shear hulk, on the contrary, is the hull of a vessel 

 fitted with shears (so termed from their resem- 

 blance to the blades of a pair of shears when 

 opened), for the purpose of masting and dismasting 

 other vessels. 



The use of the word buckle, in the signification 

 of bend, is exceedingly common both among sea- 

 men and builders. For its use among the former 

 I can vouch ; and among the latter, see the evi- 

 dence at the coroner's inquest on the late melan- 

 choly and mysterious accident at the Crystal 

 Palace. W. Pinkerton. 



Ham. 



Serpent with a Human Head (Vol. iv., p. 191.). 

 — The following passage from Gervasius Tilberi- 

 ensis (Oiia Imperialia, lib. i. sect. 15.) shows that 

 the idea of the serpent which tempted Eve, having 

 a woman's head, was current in the time of Bede. 

 I having not had an opportunity of finding where- 

 abouts in Bede's writings the passage quoted by 

 Gervasius occurs : 



" Nee erit omittendum, quod ait Beda, loquens de 

 serpente qui Evam seduxit : • Elegit enim diabolus 

 quoddam genus serpentis foemineum vultum habentis, 

 quia similes similibus applaudunt, et movit ad loquen- 

 dum linguam ejus." 



C. W. G. 



" Whe7i the maggot bites" (Vol. viii., p. 244.). — 

 An Anon correspondent asks for a note to explain 

 the origin of the saying that a thing done on the 

 spur of the moment is done "when the maggot 

 bites." Perhaps the best explanation is that 

 afibrded in the following passage from Swift's 

 Discourse on the Mechanical Operation of the 

 Spirit : 



" It is the opinion of choice virtuosi that the brain is 

 only a crowd of little animals with teeth and claws 

 extremely sharp, and which cling together in the con- 

 texture we behold, like the picture of Hobbes's Levia- 

 than ; or like bees in perpendicular swarm on a tree j 

 or like a carrion corrupted into vermin, still preserving 

 the shape and figure of the mother animal : that all 

 invention is formed by the morsure of two or more of 

 these animals upon certain capillary nerves which pro- 

 ceed from thence, whereof three branches spring into 

 the tongue and two into the right hand. They hold 

 also that these animals are of a constitution extremely 

 cold : that their food is the air we attract, their excre- 

 ment phlegm. And that what we vulgarly call rheums, 

 and colds, and distillations, is nothing else but an epi- 

 demical looseness to which that little commonwealth is 

 very subject from the climate it lies under. Farther, 

 that nothing less than a violent heat can disentangle 

 these creatures from their hamated station in life ; or 

 give them vigour and humour, to imprint the marks of 

 their little teeth. That if the morsure be hexagonal, 



it produces poetry ; the circular gives eloquence. If 

 the bite hath been conical, the person whose nerve is 

 so affected shall be disposed to write upon politics ; 

 and so of the rest." 



J. Emekson Tennent. 



Definition of a Proverb (Vol. viii., p. 242.).— 

 The proverb, "Wit of one man, the wisdom of 

 many," has been attributed to Lord John Russell : 

 I think in a recent number of the Quarterly Re- 

 view. The foundation was laid most probably by 

 Bacon : 



" The genius, wit, and spirit of a nation arc dis- 

 covered by their proverbs." 



It may not be perhaps generally known to your 

 readers, that in a small volume, called Origines de 

 la Lengua Espanola, ^t., por Don Gregorio Ma- 

 yans y Siscar, Bihliothecario del Rei nuestro 

 Sehor, en Madrid, Aiio 1737, will be found a 

 numerous collection of Spanish proverbs. A MS. 

 note in my copy has a note, stating that the MS. 

 made for Mayans, from the original, in the na- 

 tional library at Madrid, is now in the British 

 Museum, Additional MSS., No. 9939. 



The work is divided into dialogues ; and in the 

 copy in question are some remarks by a Spanish 

 gentleman, I fear too long for your pages : but I 

 send you an English version by a friend, of one of 

 the couplets in the dialogues, " Diez marcos tengo 

 de oro : " 



" Ten marks of gold for the telling. 

 And of silver I have nine score, 

 Good houses are mine to dwell in, 

 And I have a rent-roll more : 

 My line and lineage please me : 

 Ten squires to come at my call. 

 And no lord who flatters or fees me, 

 Which pleases me most of them all." 



John Martin. 

 Woburn Abbey. 



Gilbert White of Selhorne (Vol. viii., p. 244.).— 

 Oriel College, of which Gilbert White was for 

 more than fifty years a Fellow, some years since 

 offered to have a portrait of him painted for their 

 hall. An inquiry was then made of all the mem- 

 bers of his family ; but no portrait of any descrip- 

 tion could be found. I have heard my father say 

 that Gilbert White was much pressed by his 

 brother Thomas (my grandfather) to have his 

 portrait painted, and that he talked of it ; but it 

 was never done. A. Holt White. 



"J Tub to the Whale'' (Vol. viii., p. 220.). — In 

 the Appendix B. to Sir James Macintosh's Life of 

 Sir Thomas More is the following passage : 



" The learned Mr. Douce has informed a friend of 

 mine, that in Sebastian Munster's Cosmography there 

 is a cut of a ship, to which a whale was coming too 

 close for her safety ; and of the sailors throwing a tub 



