Oct. 22. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



385 



Derivation of " Topsy Turvy." — When things 

 are in confusion they are genei'allj said to be 

 turned "topsy turvy." The expression is de- 

 rived from a way in which turf for fuel is placed 

 to dry on its being cut. The surface of the ground 

 is pared off with the heath growing on it, and the 

 heath is turned downward, and left some days in 

 that state that the earth may get dry before it is 

 carried away. It means then top-side-turf-way. 

 Clericus Rusticus. 



Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. — Allow me to 

 offer a suggestion to the publishers and. compilers 

 of dictionaries ; first as to dictionaries of the lan- 

 guage. A large class refer to these only to learn 

 the meaning of words not familiar to them, but 

 ■which may occur in reading. If the dictionaries 

 are framed on the principle of displaying only the 

 classical language of England, it Is ten to one they 

 will not supply the desired information. Let 

 there be, besides classical dictionaries, glossaries 

 which will exclude no word whatever on account 

 of rarity, vulgarity, or technicality, but which may 

 vei-y well exclude those which are most familiar. 

 As to encyclopajdias, their value is chiefly as sup- 

 plements to the library ; but surely no one studies 

 anatomy, or the differential calculus, or archi- 

 tecture, in them, however good the treatises may 

 be. I want a dictionary of miscellaneous subjects, 

 such as find place more easily in an encyclopaedia 

 than anywhere else ; but why must I also purchase 

 treatises on the higher mathematics, on navigation, 

 on practical engineering, and the like, some of 

 which I already may possess, others not want, and 

 none of which are a bit the more convenient be- 

 cause arranged in alphabetical order in great vo- 

 lumes. Besides, they cannot be conveniently re- 

 placed by improved editions. Encyclopj3dicus. 



" Mary^ weep no more for me." — There is a well- 

 known ballad of this name, said to have been 

 written by a Scotchman named "Low." The 

 first verse runs thus : 



" The moon had climbed the highest hill, 

 Which rises o'er the souice of Dee, 

 And from the eastern summit sped 

 Its silver light on tower and tree." 



I find, however, amongst my papers, a fragment 

 of a version of this same ballad, of, I assume, 

 earlier antiquity, which so surpasses Low's ballad 

 that the author has little to thank him for his 

 interference. The first verse of what I take to be 

 the original poem stands thus : 



» The moon had climbed the highest hill, 

 "Where eagles big* aboon the Dee, 

 And like the looks of a lovely dame, 

 Brought joy to every body's ee." 



Build. 



No poetical reader will require his attention to 

 be directed to the immeasurable superiority of 

 this glorious verse : the high poetic animation, the 

 eagles' visits, the lovely looks of female beauty, 

 the exhilarating gladness and joy affecting the 

 beholder, all manifest the genius of the master 

 bard. I shall receive It as a favour If any of your 

 correspondents will furnish a complete copy of the 

 original poem, and contrast it with what " Low " 

 fancied his " improvements." James Cornish. 



Epitaph at Wood Ditton. — You have recently 

 appropriated a small space In your " medium of 

 intercommunication " to the subject of epitaphs. 

 I can furnish you with one which I have been ac- 

 customed to regard as a " grand climacterical ab- 

 surdity." About thirty years ago, when making 

 a short summer ramble, I entered the churchyard 

 of Wood Ditton, near Newmai'ket, and my at- 

 tention was attracted by a headstone, having in- 

 laid Into its upper part a piece of iron, measuring 

 about ten Inches by six, and hollowed out into the 

 shape of a dish. 1 Inquired of a cottager residing 

 on the spot what the thing meant ? I was in- 

 formed that the party whose ashes the grave 

 covered was a man who, during a long life, had 

 a strange taste for sopping a slice of bread in a 

 dripping-pan (a pan over which meat has been 

 roasted), and would relinquish for this all kinds 

 of dishes, sweet or savoury ; that In his will he 

 left a request that a dripping-pan should be fixed 

 in his gravestone ; that he wrote his own epitaph, 

 an exact copy of which I herewith give you, and 

 which he requested to be engraven on the stone : 

 " Here lies my corpse, who was the man 



That loved a sop in the dripping-pan; 



But now believe me I am dead, — 



See here the pan stands at my head. 



Still for sops till the last I cried. 



But could not eat, and so I died. 



My neighbours they perhaps will laugh, 



When they read my epitaph." 



J.H. 



Cambridge. 



Pictorial Pun. — In the village of Warbleton, in 

 Sussex, there is an old public-house, which has for 

 Its sign a War Bill in a tun of beer, in reference 

 of course to the name of the place. It has, how- 

 ever, the double meaning of " Axe for Beer." 



R. W. B. 



eaucrtf^. 



SIB THOMAS button's VOYAGE, 1612. 



I am about to print some information, hitherto 

 I believe totally unknown, relative to the voyage 

 of Sir Thomas Button in 1612, for the discovery 

 of the north-west passage. 



Of this voyage a journal was kept, which was In 

 existence many years afterwards, being offered by 



