74 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 274. 



added the number of " eight," a rare occurrence, 

 and perhaps used only on tombstones, where they 

 ai'e commemorative of the eight Beatitudes. Your 

 correspondent will confer a great kindness by ex- 

 plaining the meaning intended to be conveyed by 

 " four crosses." In modern Roman Catholic altars, 

 no longer or rarely built of stone, a small square 

 piece of marble is let into the wood on which a 

 single cross is inserted. Henry Davbney. 



'■'■ Condendaque Lexica" <^c. (Vol. ix., p. 421.; 

 Vol. X., p. 116.). — These lines, for which Mr. 

 Gantillon inquires, and which are quoted in 

 the preface to Liddell and Scott's Lexicon, will 

 be found, as might be expected, in the Poemata 

 of our great English lexicographer Dr. Johnson. 

 They occur as follows in the first verse of the 

 well-known poem, 



" rNnei seayton. 

 (Post Lexicon Anglicanum auctum et emendatum.) 

 " Lexicon ad finem longo luctamine tandem 

 Scaliger ut duxit, tenuis pertsesus opellas, 

 Vile indignatus studiuni, nugasque molestas, 

 Ingemit exosus, scribendaque iexica mandat 

 Dainnatis, poenam pro poenis omnibus unam," &c. 



This has been very pleasingly rendered in En- 

 glish verse by his biographer Mr. Murphy (" Es- 

 say on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson, 

 LL.D.," prefixed to many editions of the Dic- 

 tionary and Works'), which 1 shall here transcribe : 



" KNOW YOURSELF. 



(After revising and enlarging the English Lexicon or 

 Dictionary.) 



" When Scaliger, whole years of labour past, 

 Beheld his Lexicon complete at last, 

 And, weary of his task, with wond'ring eyes, 

 Saw from words piled on words a fabric rise, 

 He cursed the industry, inertly strong. 

 In creeping toil that could persist so long ; 

 ■'And if,' enraged he cried, 'Heaven meant to shed 

 Its keenest vengeance on the guilty head, 

 The drudgery of words the damn'd would know, 

 Doom'd to write Lexicons in endless woe,' " &c. 



It appears from the above that B. H. C. was 

 quite correct in attributing the original lines to 

 Jos. Scaliger. The epigram which he noted will 

 be found in the Gentleman! s Magazine for 1748, 

 p. 8., and which, as Mr. Murphy remarks, was 

 " communicated without doubt by Dr. Johnson " 

 to his friend " unwearied Urban." J. li. G. 



Dublin. 



Rhymes connected with Places (Vol. v., p. 293.). 

 — The following are in the moorlands of Stafibrd- 

 shire, not far from Alton ; Grin is Grindon : 



" Calton, Caldon, Waterfall, and Grin, 

 Are the four fou'est places I ever was in." 



Ita tester. Gulielmus Fraser, J. C. B. 



Alton, Staffordshire. 



Poetical Tavern Signs (Vol. x., pp. 33. 329.).— 

 At Sti-eet-Bridge, Chadderton, near Manchester, 

 referring to a coalpit chimney hard by : 



" Altho' the engine smoke be black. 

 If you'll walk in I've ale like sack." 



John Scribe. 



In riding through Dorsetshire two or three 

 years ago, my attention was caught in passing by 

 a very old sign-board, representing a stag with a 

 ring round its neck, and the following lines below : 



" When Julius Caesar reigned here, 

 I was then but a little deer ; 

 When Julius Ca;sar reigned king, ' 

 Upon my neck he placed this ring. 

 That whoso me might overtake, 

 Sliould spare my life for Caesar's saltar" 



The stag was almost effaced, and the lines were 

 much obliterated by the action of rain and sun. 

 The inn is called " King's Stag." It is on your 

 right, a little off the road from l^ydlinch to Ilasel- 

 bury Bryan. Before you come to it, you pass 

 an inn called " Green Man," with a very old 

 sign-board, representing a gentleman entirely 

 clad in green. Philologus. 



Bolinghrohes Advice to Swift (Vol. x., p. 346. ; 

 Vol. xi., p. 54.). — Mr. Breen does not seem to 

 be aware of the fact that, in French, instructions 

 (lirdonnances) are commonly put in the infinitive, 

 rarely in the imperative. Such being the fact, 

 there is no need to adopt the suggested change of 

 r into z, at the end of the verbs nourrisser,fatiguer, 

 and laisser. 



Mr. Breen charitably suggests that by soupir 



I probably intended soupirer. Certainly : the 



error was occasioned by the proximity ois'asxoupir 



in my note. I think soupirer far preferable to 



■ sonner, and I have now little doubt that the former 



! was Bolingbroke's word. Allow me to thank 



I Mr. Breen for his reply. Though I have been 



obliged to dissent from some of his remarks on 



I Sterne's French, I am fully sensible of the sound- 



i ness of most of his criticisms on French composi- 



i tion, and think he has done good service for 



" N. & Q." C. Mansfield Ingleby. 



Birmingham. 



I Tenure per Baroniam (Vol. ii., p. 302. ; Vol. x., 

 I p. 474.). — Bard and Rev. AVilliam Fraser ar^ 

 I referred to a treatise, entitled Tenure and 

 Peerage by Barony, published by Messrs. Stevens 

 & Norton in August, 1853, where they will find 

 the subject in question discussed. Copies of the 

 pamphlet are left for them with the writer's com- 

 pliments at the publisher's, Mr. Bell's, 186. Fleet 

 Street. Anon. 



Earthenware Vessels found at Fountains Abbey 

 (Vol. X., p. 386.). — It was a frequent practice to 

 use bellarmines, or grey-beards (the glazed jugs 



