Nov. 26. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



527 



meaning expressions (often very slang ones) used 

 as in the army. A lady, without hearing anything 

 to shock " ears polite," might listen to the talk of 

 a mess table, and be unable to understand clearly 

 in what the conversation consisted. " He is gone 

 to the bad" — meaning, he is ruined. " A wig- 

 ging from the office" (a very favourite expression) 

 — a reprimand from the colonel. "\Vigging" 

 naturally arising from tearing the hair in anger 

 or sorrow, and the office of course substituting 

 the place from whence it comes for the person who 

 sent it. Besides many others, qua nunc, &c. 



A Dkagoon. 



Nightingale and Thorn (Vol. Iv., p. 175., &c.). — 



" If I had but a pottle of sack, like a sharp prickle, 

 To knock my nose against when I am nodding, 

 I should sing like a nightingale." 



Fletcher, The Lover's Proijrcss, Act III. Sc. 2. 



W. J. Beenhabd Smith. 

 Temple. 



Burial in Unconsecrated Ground (Vol. vl., 

 p. 448. ; Vol. viii., p. 43.). — The following curious 

 entry occurs in the parish register of Pimperne, 

 Dorset : 



" Anno 1627. Vlcesimo qulnto Octobrls. 



" Peregrinus quidam tempore pestes in communi 

 campo ihoituus eodem loco quo inventus sepultus." 



There was a pestilence in England in 1625. In 

 1628 sixteen thousand persons died of the plague 

 at Lyons. W. E. 



I do not know whether the case recorded in 

 London Labour and the London Poor, vol. i. 

 p. 411. — by the way, is that work ever to be 

 completed, and how Jar has it gone ? — of a man 

 buried at the top of a house at Foot's Cray, In 

 Kent, has been noticed by any correspondent. 



P. J. F. Gautillon, B.A. 



Sangaree (Vol. iii., p. 141.). — I take it that 

 the word ought to be spelled sansgris, being de- 

 rived from the French words sans, Avithout, and 

 gris, tipsy, meaning a beverage that would not 

 make tipsy. I have been a good deal in the 

 French island of Martinique, and they use the 

 term frequently in this sense as applied to a be- 

 verage made of white wine (" Vin de Grave "), 

 syrup, water, and nutmeg, with a small piece of 

 fresh lime-skin hanging over the edge of the glass. 

 A native of Martinique gave me this as the de- 

 rivation of the word. The beverage oufjht not to 

 be stirred after the nutmeg is put in it, as the fas- 

 tidious say it would spoil the flavour. T. B. 



^ Point of Etiquette (Vol. viii., p. 386.). — The 

 title Miss, without the Christian name, belongs to 

 the eldest unmarried daughter of the representa- 

 tive of the_ family only. If he have lost his own 

 children, his brother is heir p)-esumptive merely to 



the family honours ; and can neither assume nor 

 give to his daughter the titles to which they are 

 only expectants. The matter becomes evident, if 

 you test the rule by a peerage instead of a squirage. 

 Even the eldest daughter of a baronet or landed 

 gentleman loses her title of Miss, when her bro- 

 ther succeeds to the representation, provided he 

 have a daughter to claim the title. P. P. 



Etymologrj o/" Monk" and " Till," Sfc. (Vol. viii., 

 pp.291. 409.). — Will you allow me one word on 

 these two cases ? Monk is manifestly a Greek 

 formative from iiovos, and denotes a solitaire. 



The proposed derivation of till, from to-while, is 

 not new ; but still clearly mistaken, inasmuch as 

 the word till is found in Scotch, Swedish, Nor- 

 wegian, Danish, and others of the family. A word 

 thus compounded would be of less general use. 

 Besides which, to-while would scarcely produce 

 such a form as till; it would rather change the 

 t into an aspirate, which would appear as th. 



B. H. C. 



Forrell (Vol. vii., p. 630.). — Your correspon- 

 dent T. Hughes derives this word (applied in 

 Devonshire, as he tells us, to the cover of a book) 

 irom forrell, "a term still used by the trade to 

 signify an inferior kind of vellum." Is it not 

 more natural to suppose it to be the same word 

 which the French have made fourreau, a cover or 

 sheath ? (See Du Cange, vv. Forellus, Forrellus.) 



J. H. T. 



Dublin. 



Parochial Libraries (Vol. vii., p. 507. ; Vol. viii. 

 passini). — There is a libraiy at Wimborne Min- 

 ster, in the Collegiate Church, which, on my visit 

 two years since, appeared to contain some valu- 

 able volumes, and was neglected and in very bad 

 condition. ©• 



:Mt^«nanc0uS. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 

 Dr. Lardner has just published the third and con- 

 cluding course of his Handbook of Natural Philosophy 

 and Astronomy. The subjects treated of in the present 

 volume are Meteorology and Astronomy, and they are 

 illustrated with thirty-seven lithographic plates, and 

 upwards of two hundred engravings on wood. The 

 work was undertaken with the very popular object of 

 supplying the means of acquiring a competent know- 

 ledge of the methods and results of the physical 

 sciences, without any unusual acquaintance with ma- 

 thematics ; and in the methods of demonstration and 

 illustration of this series of treatises, that principle has, 

 as far as possible, been adopted ; so that by means of 

 the present volumes, persons who have not even a su- 

 perficial knowledge of geometry and algebra niay yet 

 acquire with great facility a considerable acquaintance 

 with the sciences of which they treat. The present 

 volume contains a very elaborate index, which, com- 



