Oct. 29. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



409 



Marlborough at Blenheim. — Extract from a 

 MS. sermon preached at BItton (in Gloucester- 

 shire ?) on the (lay of the thanksgiving for the 

 victory near Hochstett, anno 1704. (By the 

 Reverend Thomas Earle, afterwards Vicar of 

 Malmesbury ?) 



" And so I pass to the great and glorious occasion 

 of this day, w'' gives us manifold cause of praise and 

 thanksgiving to Almighty God for . . . mercies 

 and deliverances. For y* happy success of her Ma- 

 jesty's arms both by land and sea [under the] Duke of 

 Marlborough, whose fame now flies through the world, 

 and whose glorious actions will render his name il- 

 lustrious, and rank him among the renowned worthies 

 of all ages. Had that threatniiig Bullet, w'' bespat- 

 tered him all over with dirt, only that lie might shine 

 the brighter afterwards ; had it, I say, took away his 

 Life, he had gone down to the grave with the laurels 

 in his hand." 



Is this incident of the bullet mentioned in any 

 of the cotemporary accounts of the battle ? E. 



Etymology of " till," " until." — Many monosyl- 

 lables in language are, upon examination, found to 

 be in reality compounds, disguised by contraction. 

 A few instances are, non, Lat. ne-un-(us) ; do7it, 

 Fr. de-unde ; such, Eng. so-like ; luhich, who-like. 

 In like manner I believe till, to-while, and until, 

 unto-while. Now while is properly a substantive, 

 and signifies time, corresponding to dum, Lat., in 

 many of its uses, which again is connected with 

 diu, dies, both which are used in the indefinite 

 sense of a while, as well as in the definite sense of 

 a day. Adesdum, come here a while ; interdum, 

 between whiles. If re (Gr.) is connected with 

 this root, then iare, to-while, till. Lawrence 

 Minot says, " To time (till) he thinks to fight." 



Dum has the double meaning of while and to- 

 tvhile. E. S. Jackson. 



^ Dog-whipping Day in Hull. — There was some 

 time since the singular custom in Hull, of whip- 

 ping all the dogs that were found running about 

 the streets on October 10 ; and some thirty years 

 since, when I was a boy, so common was the prac- 

 tice, that evei'y little urchin considered it his duty 

 to prepare a whip for any unlucky dog that might 

 be seen in the streets on this day. This custom 

 is now obsolete, those " putters down" of all boys' 

 play in the streets — the new police — having 

 effectually stopped this cruel pastime of the Hull 

 boys. Perhaps some of your readers may be able 

 to give a more correct origin of this singular cus- 

 tom than the one I now give from tradition : 



" Previous to ths suppression of monasteries in Hull, 

 it was the custom for the monks to provide liberally 

 for the poor and the wayfarer who came to the fair, 

 held annually on the 11th of October ; and while busy 

 in this necessary preparation the day before the fair. 



a dog strolled into the larder, snatched up a joint of 

 meat and decamped with it. The cooks gave the alarm ; 

 and when the dog got into the street, he was pursued 

 by the expectants of the charity of the monks, who 

 were waiting outside the gate, and made to give up the 

 stolen joint. Whenever, after this, a dog showed his 

 face, while this annual preparation was going on, he 

 was instantly beaten off. Eventually this was taken 

 up by the boys ; and, until the introduction of the new 

 police, was rigidly put in practice by them every 10th 

 of October." 



I write this on October 10, 1853 : and so 

 effectually has this custom been suppressed, that I 

 have neither seen nor heard of any dog having 

 been this day whipped according to ancient cus- 

 tom. JOUN ElCHAEDSON, 



13. Savile Street, Hull. 



State : Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 1. — Professor Wilson 

 proposed that in the " high and palmy state of 

 llome," state should be taken in the sense of city : 



" Write henceforth and for ever State witli a tower- 

 ing capital. State, properly republic, here specifically 

 and pointedly means Reigning City. The ghosts 

 walked in the city, not in the republic." — Vide " Dies 

 Eoreales," No. III., Blackwood, August, 1849. 



Query, Has this reading been adopted by our 

 skilled Shakspearian critics ? 



Coleridge uses state for city in his translation of 

 The Death of Wallenstein, Act III. Sc. 7. : 



" What think you ? 

 Say, shall we have the State illuminated 

 In honour of the Swede?" 



J.M.B, 



«aitericjS. 



POLARISED LIGHT. 



During the last summer, while amusing myself 

 with verifying a statement of Sir D. Brewster re- 

 specting the light of the rainbow, viz. that it is 

 polarised in particular planes, I observed a pheno- 

 menon which startled me exceedingly. Inasmuch as 

 It was quite new to me at the time ; and, notwith- 

 standing subsequent inquiries, I cannot find that It 

 has been observed by any other person. I found 

 that the light of the blue sky is partially polarised. 

 When analysed with a NIcols' prism, the contrast 

 with the surrounding clouds Is very remarkable ; 

 so much so, indeed, that clouds of extreme tenuity, 

 which make no impression whatever on the un- 

 assisted eye, are rendered plainly visible. 



The most complete polarisation seems to take 

 place near the horizon ; and, when the sun is near 

 the meridian, towards the west and east. The 

 depth of colour appears to be immaterial, as far 

 as I have been able to ascertain with an Instru- 

 ment but rudely constructed for the purpose. The 

 light is polarised in planes passing through the 



