356 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[No. 22. 
There is a copy in the Lambeth Library, No. 553. 
p- 249. in my “List,” of which I have said (on 
what grounds I do not now know), “ This must be a 
different edition from that noticed by Herbert (ii. 
762.) and. Dibdin (iv. 334. No. 2427.).” I have 
not Dibdin’s work at hand to refer to, but as I see 
nothing in Herbert on which I could ground such 
a statement, I suppose that something may be 
found in Dibdin’s account; though probably it 
may be only my mistake or his. As to foreign 
editions, I always feel very suspicious of their ex- 
istence; and though I do not remember this book 
in particular, or know why I supposed it to differ 
from the edition ascribed to Crowley, yet I feel 
pretty confident that it bore no mark of “ Norn- 
berg.” According to my description it had four 
pairs of (=) on the title, and contained B iv., in 
eights, which should be thirty six leaves. 
S. R. Marrnanp. 
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES. 
John Ross Mackay (No. 8. p.125.).—In reply 
to the Query of your correspondent “D.,” I beg 
to forward the following quotation from Sir N. W. 
Wraxall’s Historical Memoins of his Own Time, 
3rd edition. Speaking of the peace of Fontain- 
bleau, he says, — 
“ John Ross Mackay, who had been private secre- 
tary to the Earl of Bute, and afterwards during seven- 
teen years was treasurer of the ordnance, a man with 
whom I was personally acquainted, frequently avowed 
the fact. He lived to avery advanced age, sat in several 
parliaments, and only died, I believe, in 1796. A 
gentleman of high professional rank, and of unim- 
peached veracity, who is still alive, told me, that, din- 
ing at the late Earl of Besborough’s, in Cavendish 
Square, in the year 1790, where only four persons were 
present, including himself, Ross Mackay, who was 
one of the number, gave them the most ample informa- 
tion upon the subject. Lord Besborough having called 
after dinner for a bottle of champagne, a wine to which 
Mackay was partial, and the conversation turning on 
the means of governing the House of Commons, Mac- 
kay said, that ‘money formed, after all, the only effec- 
tual and certain method.’ ‘ The peace of 1763,’ con- 
tinued he, ‘ was carried through and approved by a 
pecuniary distribution. Nothing else could have sur- 
mounted the difficulty. I was myself the channel 
through which the money passed. With my own hand 
I secured aboye one hundred and twenty votes on that 
most important question to ministers. Eighty thou- 
sand pounds were set apart for the purpose. Forty 
members of the House of Commons received from me 
a thousand pounds each. To eighty others, I paid 
five hundred pounds apiece.’” 
Davin Stewarp. 
Godalming, March 19. 1850. 
. Shipster — Gourders.—As no satisfactory eluci- 
dation of the question propounded by Mr. Fox 
(No. 14. p. 216.) has been suggested, and I think 
= — +. 
he will scarcely accept the conjecture of “F.C. B.,” 
however ingenious (No. 21. p. 339.), I am tempted 
to offer a note on the business or calling of a 
shipster. It had, I believe, no connection with 
nautical concerns; it did not designate a skipper 
(in the Dutch use of the word) of the fair sex. 
That rare volume, Caxton’s Boke for Travellers, 
a treasury of archaisms, supplies the best defini- 
tion of her calling :—‘“ Mabyll the shepster cheu- 
issheth her right well; she maketh surplys, shertes, 
breches, keuerchiffs, and all that may be wrought 
of lynnen cloth.” The French term given, as 
corresponding to shepster, is “‘ cousturiére.” Pals- 
grave also, in his Eclaircissement de la Langue 
Srangoyse, gives “ schepstarre, lingiére :—sheres for 
shepsters, forces.” If further evidence were re- 
quisite, old Elyot might be cited, who renders 
both sarcinatrix and sutatis (? sutatrix) as “ashep- 
ster, a seamester.” The term may probably be 
derived from her skill in shaping or cutting out 
the various garments of which Caxton gives so 
quaint an inventory. Her vocation was the very 
same as that of the tailleuse of present times—the 
Schneiderinn, she-cutter, of Germany. Palsgrave 
likewise gives this use of the verb “to shape,” 
expressed in French by “ tailler.” He says, “ He 
is a good tayloure, and shapeth a garment as well 
as any man.” It is singular that Nares should 
have overlooked this obsolete term; and Mr. 
Halliwell, in his useful Glossarial Collections, seems 
misled by some similarity of sound, having noticed, 
perkaps, in Palsgrave, only the second occurrence 
of the word as before cited, ‘“ sheres for shepsters.” 
He gives that author as authority for the explana- 
tion “ shepster, a sheep-shearer” (Dict. of Archaic 
Words, inv.). It has been shown, however, I be- 
lieve, to have no more concern with a sheep than 
a ship. 
The value of your periodical in eliciting the 
explanation of crabbed archaisms is highly to be 
commended. Shall I anticipate Mr. Bolton Cor- 
ney, or some other of your acute glossarial corre- 
spondents, if I offer another suggestion, in reply to 
“C. H.” (No. 21. p. 335.), regarding “ gourders of 
raine?” J have never met with the word in this 
form; but Gouldman gives “a gord of water 
which cometh by rain, aquilegium.” Guort, gorz, 
or gort, in Domesday, are interpreted by Kelham 
as “ta wear”; and in old French, gort or gorz sig- 
nifies “flot, gorgées, quantité” (Roquefort). All 
these words, as well as the Low Latin gordus 
(Ducange), are doubtless to be deduced, with 
gurges, a gyrando. Apert Way. 
Rococo (No. 20. p. 321.).— The history of this 
word appears to be inyolved in uncertainty. 
Some French authorities derive it from ‘‘rocaille,” 
rock-work, pebbles for a grotto, &c.; others from 
* Rocco,” an architect (whose existence, however, 
I cannot trace), the author, it is to be supposed, 
nN’ 
