April 21. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



299 



Watch Motto. — Among your sun-dial mottoes 

 I observed one, of which there exists an Italian 

 synonyme on a watch ; and in case you should 

 think it worthy of insertion in your paper, I send 

 it you. An Italian friend of mine told me of it, 

 but where it exists I do not at this moment re- 

 collect. The watch is a very old one, the outer 

 ease being of gold of the finest workmanship, en- 

 crusted with precious stones ; and on the face of 

 it is represented, in enamel, a landscape with a 

 single figure, apparently that of a traveller. The 

 sun is disappearing behind a range of mountains, 

 and the legend round it in raised golden letters is : 

 " Vado e vengo ogni giorno, ma tu andrai senza ritorno." 

 Supposed to be addressed by the sun to the tra- 

 veller. As I have before stated, I have never 

 seen this ohjet de virtu ; but such was the de- 

 scription of it given me by my friend, which, from 

 the beauty and originality of the idea, made such 

 an impression on my memory that I have never 

 forgotten it. H. de Coneja. 



Making a Devil. — 



" The late Rev. Mr. F , of Massachusetts, was a 



factious man, and usually ready at joke and repartee. 

 He had a parishioner, a carpenter by trade, pretty well 

 stocked with ready wit, and withal somewhat given to 

 boasting. One day, while at work for his minister, hew- 

 ing a stick of timber, the carpenter was boasting in his 

 usual style of the marvels tliat he could perform. The 

 pastor, to put an extinguisher upon him, said : ' Do you 

 think you could make a devil ? ' ' Make a devil,' re- 

 sponded the man ; ' why yes — yes ! here, put up your 

 foot — you want the least alteration of any man I ever 

 saw!' It was rare that the minister came off second 

 best, but he did this time." — Boston Post. 



w. w. 



Malta. 



Window Inscription. — On a pane of glass in 

 one of the windows of the Beaufort Arms at 

 Raglan, Monmouthshire, are the following lines : 



" As travellers oft look back at eve, 

 When onward darkly going. 

 To gaze upon that light they leave 

 Still faint behind them glowing ; 

 We think, how great had been our bliss. 



If Heaven had but assign'd us 

 To live and die in scenes like this. 

 With some we 've left behind us." 



H.J. 

 Handsworth. * 



Hair-dressing a pitiful and unmanly Employ- 

 ment. — Does not the following extract from the 

 Annual Register of 1773 show a curious contrast 

 to the state of feeling of the present day ? 



" At a rheeting held by the Lord Mayor of London and 

 the other trustees, under the will of the late S. Wilson of 

 Hatton Garden, for lending out the sum of 2O,000Z. to 

 young men who had been set up not more than two years 

 in some trade or manufacture, application was made by 

 two young men, hair-dressers, to be partakers of the said 

 loan, whose petitions were rejected ; his lordship and the 



other trustees being of opinion that the said occupatioa 

 was not fit for young men to follow, and were persuaded 

 the testator never designed his money should be lent to 

 promote so pitiful and unmanly an employment, which 

 did not seem to require a capital of above 6/." 



Lettok. 



Proverbs. — In The Passions of the Minde in 

 General, by Thos. Wr[ight], 4to., 1604, occurs 

 the following passage, p. 42. : 



" According to our English Proverbe, 



Faire and foolish, little and lowde. 

 Long and lazie, blacke and prowde ; 

 Fatte and merrie, leane and sadde, 

 Pale and pettish, redde and badde. 



By which saying wee may gather, that howbeit womea 

 commonly be subject to the aforesayde passions, yet be- 

 cause diverse women have sundry complexions, so they 

 b«e subject to sundry passions. Even as in like sorte I 

 could say of men ; for some are more proane to one pas- 

 sion than another, according to the Italian Proverbe : 



Se V huomini piccoli fussero patienti, 

 Et V huomini grandifussero valenti, 

 Et li rossi kali, 



Tutto il moudo sarebbe uquale. 

 That is,— 



If little men were patient. 



And great men were valiant. 



And red men were loyall, 



All the world would be equall. 



Is this sonnet not unlike another old saying of theirs? —' 



From a white Spaniard, 

 A blacke Germaine, 



And a red Italian, , 



Libera nos, Domine. 



And we in English, — 



To a red man reade thy reed. 

 With a browne man breake thy bread, 

 At a pale man draw thj' knife. 

 From a blacke man keepe thy wife. 



The which we explicate after this sort : 



The redde is wise. 

 The browne trustie. 

 The pale peevish. 

 The blacke lustie." 



Death of a Descendant of Meg Merrilees. — Meg 

 Gordon, relict of William Young, died at Green- 

 law on the 21st of February, aged eighty. Wil- 

 liam Young and his gipsy progenitors have been 

 known for generations all along the borders of 

 Scotland and England either as horners, muggers, 

 or besom and basket makers. His relict, Meg 

 Goi'don, belongs to the same race, and is a lineal 

 descendant of the Meg Merrilees, or Jean Gordon, 

 one of the principal characters in Sir Walter 

 Scott's novel of Guy Maimering. She, like many 

 of her tribe, either had, or pretended to have, a 

 knowledge of palmistry. 



The relict of Dandle Dinmont died at Snawdon, 

 East Lothian, on the 30th of January ; Mrs. 

 Janet Wilson, aged seventy-two, relict of Mr. 



