576 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 242. 



that he (Swift) did not sound the g in dressing ? " 

 Now I cannot tell whether or not I shall raise a 

 nest of hornets about my ears, but my private im- 

 pression is that in doing so Swift meant to be 

 " more English and less nice." I think it invari- 

 ably strikes an Irishman as one of the most 

 remarkable peculiarities of the English people, 

 the almost constant omission of that letter from 

 every word ending (I should have said, if I was an 

 Englishman, " endin'") with it. The fair sex, I 

 fear I must add, are, of the two, rather more de- 

 cided in clippin' (g) the Queen's English. 



Y. S. M. 



Cabbages (Vol. ix., p. 424.). — I was aware of 

 the passage in Evelyn's Acetaria, and am anxious 

 to know whether there is any confirmation of that 

 statement. Is there any other information ex- 

 tant as to the first introduction of cabbages into 

 England ? C. H. 



Sir William " Usher" not " Upton" (Vol. viii., 

 p. 328.), was appointed Clerk of the Council in 

 Ireland, March 22, 1593. He was knighted by 

 Sir George Carey, Law Deputy, on St. James' 

 Day, 1603 ; and died in 16 — , having married 

 Isabella Loftus, eldest daughter of Adam Loftus, 

 Archbishop of Dublin. Of what family was he ? 



Y. S. M. 



"Buckle" (Vol. viii., pp. 127. 304. 526.).— An 

 awkward person, working incautiously with a saw, 

 will probably, to use a carpenter's phrase, buckle 

 it ; that is, give it a bend or twist which will in- 

 jure its working. Y. S. M. 



Cornwall Family (Vol. ix., p. 304.). — John 

 Cornwall, Esq., a director of the Bank of England, 

 1769, bore the arms and crest of the ancient 

 family of that name of Burford, in Shropshire, of 

 which he was a member. A full account of this 

 distinguished family is now preparing under their 

 sanction. E. D. 



John of Gaunt (Vol. ix., p. 432.). — Perhaps the 

 best method of explaining to Y. S. M. the unmfs- 

 takeable nose of the descendants of John of Gaunt, 

 will be to refer him to the complete series of por- 

 traits at Badminton, concluding with the late 

 Duke of Beaufort. He will then comprehend 

 what is difficult to describe in the physiognomy of 



" That mighty line, whose sires of old 

 Sprang from Britain's royal blood ; 

 All its sons were wise and bold, 

 All its daughters fair and good ! " 



E. D. 



" Wellesley" or " Wesley" (Vol. viii., pp. 173. 

 255.). — Your readers will find, in Lynch' s Feudal 

 Dignities, the name spelt Wellesley in Ireland, so 

 long ago as the year 1230, and continued so for 

 several centuries at least subsequent to that date. 



The Public Records also bear evidence of the high 

 position and great influence of the Wellesleys, not 

 Wesleys, for a lengthened period in Irish history. 



Y. S. M. 



Mantel-piece (Vol. ix., pp. 302. 385.). —In old 

 farm-houses, where the broad, open fireplace and 

 hearth still exist, a small curtain, or rather valance, 

 is often suspended from below the mantle-shelf, 

 the object apparently being the exclusion of 

 draughts and smoke. May not the use of this sort 

 of mantel have caused the part of the fireplace 

 from which it hangs to be called the mantel-piece ? 

 Edgar MacCulloch. 



Guernsey. 



" Mantel, n. s. (mantel, old French, or rather the 

 German word mantel, ' Germanis mantel non pallium 

 modo significat, sed etiam id omne quod aliud circum- 

 dat : hinc murus arcis, atque structura quae focum 

 invertit,mawfeZ ipsis dicitur.' V. Ducange in v. Mantum). 

 Work raised before a chimney to conceal it, whence 

 the name, which originally signifies a cloak." — Todd's 

 Johnson. 



Richardson gives the two following quotations 

 from Wotton : 



"From them (Italians) we may better learn, both 

 how to raise fair mantles within the rooms, and how to 

 disguise gracefully the shafts of chimneys abroad (as 

 they use) in sundry forms." — Reliquice Wottoniance, 

 p. 37. 



" The Italians apply it (plastick) to the mantling of 

 chimneys with great figures, a cheap piece of magnifi- 

 cence." — Id. p. 63. 



Zeus. 



" Perturbabantur" &fc. (Vol. ix., p. 452.).— 

 When I first learned to scan verses, somewhere 

 about thirty years ago, the lines produced by your 

 correspondent P. were in every child's mouth, 

 with this story attached to them. It was said that 

 Oxford had received from Cambridge the first line 

 of the distich, with a challenge to produce a cor- 

 responding line consisting of two words only. To 

 this challenge Oxford replied by sending back the 

 second line, pointing out, at the same time, the 

 false quantity in the word " Constantinopolitani." 



J. Sansom. 



The story connected with these lines current at 

 Cambridge in my time was, that the University of 

 Oxford challenged the sister university to match 

 the first line ; to which challenge the second line 

 was promptly returned from Cambridge by way of 

 reply. At Oxford, I believe, the story is reversed, 

 as neither university is willing to own to the false 

 quantity in " Constantinopolitani." 



J. Eastwood, M.A. 



The classic legend attached to these two lines 

 (and there are only two in the legend) is that the 

 Oxonians sent a challenge to the Cantabs to make 



