Oct. 8. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



353 



Giving Quarter (Vol. viii., p. 246.)- — It must 

 he observed that the older form of the expression 

 is " keeping quarter : " 



" That every one should kill the man he caught, 

 To heep no quarter." — Drayton 171 Richardson. 



Now a very obvious application of the word 

 quarter, instanced' by Todd, is to signify the 

 proper station or appointed place of any one. 



" They do best who, if they cannot but admit Jove, 

 yet make it keep quarter, and sever it wliolly from their 

 serious affairs." — Bacon's Essays. 



To keep quarter, then, is to keep within measure, 

 within the limits or bounds appointed by some 

 paramount consideration ; and hence, as in the fol- 

 lowing passage from Shakspeare (where it is 

 clumsily interpreted amity or companionship), the 

 word is used as synonymous with terms or con- 

 ditions : 



" Friends all but now, 

 III quarter and in terms like bride and groom 

 Divesting them for bed, and then but now 

 Swords out and tilting one at other's breast." 



In the same sense Clarendon speaks of " offering 

 them quarter for their lives if they would give up 

 the castle," i. e. offering them conditions for their 

 lives on their performing their part of the bargain. 



Again, in a passage of Swift, cited by Todd : 

 " Mr. Wharton, who detected some hundred of the 

 bishop's mistakes, meets with very ill quarter 

 from his Lordship," i. e. meets witli very ill con- 

 ditions of treatment from him. Finally, to give 

 quarter in the military sense is to give conditions 

 absolutely, as opposed to the unmitigated exercise 

 of the victor's power, and, as the most important of 

 all conditions, to spare life. H. W. 



Sheriffs of GlamorgansTiire (Vol. lii., p. 186.). 

 — Tlie list of the Glamorganshire sheriffs here 

 inquired for was not printed by Mr. Traherne, 

 but by the Rev. II. H. Knight, M. A., of Neath, 

 and of Nottnge Court, in Glamorganshire : it is a 

 little pamphlet in a paper cover. Tewaks. 



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

 A correspondent asks why a thing done on the 

 spur of the moment is said to be done "when the 

 manffvot bites." It siornifies rather doins: a thinjj 

 when the fancy takes one. When a person acts 

 from no apparent motive in external circumstances, 

 he is said to have a maggot in his head, to have a 

 bee in his bonnet ; or, in French, " Avoir des rats 

 dans la tete;" in Platt-Deutsch, to have a mouse- 

 nest in his head, the eccentric behaviour being at- 

 tributed to the influence of the internal irritation. 



H. W. 



Connexion between the Celtic and Latin Lan- 

 guages (Vol. viii., p. 174.). — Your correspondent 

 M. will find much valuable information on this 



subject in a work entitled Thoughts on the Origin 

 and Descent of the Gael, by James Grant, Esq., 

 Advocate : Edinburgh, Constable & Co., 1814. 



Francis John Scott. 

 Tewkesbury. 



Bacon's Essays (Vol. viii., p. 143.). — Bacon's 

 Essay VII. : " Optimum elige," &c. Pythagoras, in 

 Plutarch de Exilio. — Essay XV. : " Dolendi mo- 

 dus," &c. Plin., .lib. viii. ep. 17. fin. C. P. E. 



''Exiguum est," §v. (Vol.viii., p. 197.). — " Exi- 

 guum est ad legem bonum esse." Vide Senec. de 

 Ira, ii. 27. ' C. P. E. 



Miffs worn by Military Me7i on a March 

 (Vol.viii., p. 281.). —In the year 1592 the Duke 

 of Nevers was despatched by Henry IV. witli all 

 speed to a place called Bully, in order to cut off 

 the retreat of the Duke of Guise, lately defeated 

 near Bures. Sully speaks of him thus : 



" The Duke of Nevers, the slowest of men, began 

 by sending to make choice of the most favourable roads, 

 and marched with a slow pace towards Bully, with his 

 hands and his nose in his muff, and his whole person 

 well packed up in his coach." — 3Iemoirs of Sully, 

 vol. i. p. 235., English edit, Edinburgh, 1773. 



Francis John Scott. 

 Tewkesbury. 



"Earth smjs to EartV (Vol.vii., pp. 498. 576.). 

 — A fac-simile of these lines, discovered in the 

 chapel of the Guild of the Holy Cross at Strat- 

 ford-on-Avon (with many other curious plates), 

 may be seen in Fisher's Illustrations of the Faint- 

 ivgs, &c., edited by J. G. Nichols, Esq., and pub- 

 lished in 1802, and afterwards continued. 



Erica speaks of " Weaver's " Account. Unless 

 this is a misprint for " Wheler's" {Account of Strat- 

 ford-on-Avori), perhaps he will oblige me with the 

 full title of Weaver's work. Estb. 



Poetical Tavern Signs (Vol. viii., p. 242.). — I 

 would add the following sign-inscription to those 

 noted by R. C. Warde. It was on the walls of a 

 tavern half-way up Richmond Hill, three miles 

 south of Douglas, Isle of JNIan, kept by a man of 

 the name of Abraham Lowe : 



" I'm Abraham Lowe, and half-way up the hill, 

 If I were higher up, what's funnier still, 

 I should be belowe. Come in and take your fill 

 Of porter, ale, wine, spirits, what you will. 

 Step in, my friend, I pray no farther go ; 

 My prices, like myself, are always low." 



J. G. C. 



Unkid (Vol. viii., p. 221.). — Is not the word 

 hunks, so common in people's mouths, — An old 

 hunks, an old miser or miserable wretch, to be re- 

 ferred to the same derivation as unhid, hunhid? 



F. B— w. 



