184 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 280. 



The other was by birth and language a Greek, but 

 had a very fair acquaintance with the dialect of 

 the country. They are described as a warlike 

 race, and their customs generally resemble those 

 of Tartar tribes. Their speech in some points 

 very much resembles the German. Our author 

 says, " To all the words he prefixed tho or the, as 

 an article." The following resemble ours : hrce^ 

 bread ; plut, blood ; stul, stool ; /m.9, house ; ivin- 

 garti vineyard ; reghen, rain ; sivir, silver ; tag, 

 day ; boga, bow ; hruder, brother ; handa, hand ; 

 stem, star ; miera, ant (pismire) ; salt, salt ; sune, 

 sun ; mme, moon ; waghen, wagon ; apel, apple ; 

 lachen, laugh ; criien, cry (greet), Sec. Many of 

 the words are different ; among them are iel, life 

 or health : but we have hale, and similar words 

 convey corresponding ideas in some of the oriental 

 languages. They have bar, a boy, which is like 

 the Chaldee bar, and not unlike bairn or barn. 

 The numerals were ita, tua, tria, fyder, fynf, scis, 

 sevene, athe, nyne, thune, &c. Our author says : 



" Whether they are Goths or Saxons I cannot decide. 

 If Saxons, I think they were taken there under Charle- 

 magne, who scattered that nation over different parts of 

 the world. In support of this I maj' appeal to the cities 

 of Transylvania, now inhabited by Saxons, and they may 

 have been sent hither, where, indeed, among their enemies 

 they yet retain the Christian religion. If Goths, they 

 may have lived near the Getae, and most of the space be- 

 tween Gothland and Procopia (Perecop, as it is now 

 called) was once inhabited by Goths." 



Busbequius made the above observations exactly 

 three hundred years ago, and now they will have 

 an additional interest. B. H. C. 



Mottoes for Sun-dials, by Rev. W. L. Bowles. — 



" Morning Sun. — ' Tempus volat.' 

 Oh! early passenger, look up — be wise, 

 And think how, night and day, time omvard Jiies." 



" Noon. — 'Dum tempus habemus, operemur bonum.' 



Life steals away — this hour, oh ! man, is lent thee. 

 Patient to work the work of Him who sent thee." 



Setting Sun. — ' Redibo, tu nunquam.' 



Haste, traveller, the sun is sinking now : 

 He-shall return again, tiut never thou." 



H. T. Ellacombe. 



" Retrospective Review," Vol. I. — I send the 

 following Notes on this volume, which I have just 

 perused, if they are worth chronicling in the pages 

 of'N. &Q." 



Mrs. Behn^s Dramatic Writings. — 



** Hews. What think ye now, my lords, of settling the 

 nation a little ? I find my head swim with politics, and 

 what-ye-call-ums. 



War. Wons, and wad ya settle the nation when we 

 reel ourselves? 



Hews. Who, pox ! shall we stand making children's shoes 

 all the year ? No, no, let's begin to settle the nation, I 

 say, and go through stitch with our work." — Comedy of 

 the Roundheads. 



In a collection I have been making of East 

 Anglian words and phrases, I find a colloquv in- 

 serted which I once overheard, and which illus- 

 trates the meaning of the above strange phrase, 

 and may be acceptable as a specimen of our dia- 

 lect: 



1st old looman. " An' so Meary a' left her place." 

 2nd old woman. " A-yis. She thowt she could better 

 herself, an' so she gan her missis notidge last A' Lady ; 

 but she di'n't git on, an' then she axt to stay ; but her 

 -missis wunt hear on't, an' in course she couldn't be ex- 

 pected to make child'ens shoes i' that way." 



meaning, would not be made sport of, would not 

 suffer herself to be trifled with. 



Venner's " Via Recta ad Vitam Longam." — 



The notice in the Retrospective is of the first 

 edition, perhaps 1620, pp. 195., "printed by Ed- 

 ward Griffin lor Richard Moore, and are to be 

 sold at his shop in St. Dunstan's Churchyard in 

 Fleet Street." My copy contains 417 pages, date 

 1650, and is printed by James Flesher for Henry 

 Hood, the locality the same as above. The 

 contents and title are different, and contain, as 

 well as the " Via Recta " and the treatise of the 

 "Bathes of Bathe," a "Censure of the Medicinall 

 Faculties of the Water of St. Vincent's Rock, 

 near the City of Bristoll," and " An Accurate 

 Treatise concerning Tobacco," a most quaint pro- 

 duction, " all which Treatises are likewise ampli- 

 fied since the former impressions." The author's 

 name is state to be To., or Tobias, Venner, by the 

 editor of the R. R., but he appears in my copy as 

 Tho. Venner. E. S. Tatlob. 



Ormesby, St. Margaret. 



The Cock Thoi'pe Admirals. — 



" Within a mile or two of Burnham Thorpe, the birth- 

 place of the illustrious Nelson, stands the obscure village 

 of Cock Thorpe, a village of three houses, or rather of 

 three hovels, only, each of which has produced from 

 humblest village life its individual admiral. The three 

 Cock Thorpe admirals became Flag OfEcers of much re- 

 nown. Sir Christopher Mimms, Sir John Narborough, and 

 Sir Cloudesley Shovel." — Naval Chronicle, xvi. 309. 



E. H. A. 



Byron : Sardanapalus. — I bought at an old 

 book-stall a Latin translation of Diodorus Siculus, 

 printed at Leyden, 12mo., 1559, which was laid by 

 for some time. On taking it up lately, I found 

 Byron's autograph on the title-page immediately 

 under the well-known mark of the Gryphii, and 

 on looking ferther Into it I discovered that the 

 seventh chapter, which treats of Sardanapalus, is 

 annotated and underlined in various places by the 

 same hand. These marks, coupled with the extracts 

 from Byron's Diary quoted at p. 244. of the mono- 

 tome edition of his works, lead me to the suppo- 

 sition that Byron used this volume, and to trouble 

 you with this note. Wm. McCru. 



