388 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 81. 



to Daniel Webster, who said in a speech of 

 July 17, 1850: 



" They have been beaten incessantly every month, 

 and every day, and every hour, by the dio, and roll, 

 and ruh-a-dub of the Abolition presses." 



Dr. L. adds : 



" No dictionary in my possession has ruh-a duh ; by 

 and by the lexicographer will admit this, as yet, half- 

 wild word." 



IMy note is, that though this word be not recog- 

 nised by the dictionaries, yet it is by hc) means so 

 new as Dr. L. supposes; for I distinctly remem- 

 ber that, some four-and-twenty years ago, one of 

 those gay-coloured books so common on the shelves 

 of nursery libraries had, amongst other equally re- 

 cherche couplets, the following attached to a gaudy 

 print of a military drum : 



" Not a rub-a-dub will come 

 To sound the music of a drum :" 

 — no great authority certainly, but sufficient to 

 give the word a greater antiquity than Dr. L. 

 claims for it; and no doubt some of your readers 

 will be able to furnish more dignified instances of 

 its use. J. Eastwood. 



Ecclesfield. 



{To this it may be added, that Dub-a-Uub is found 

 in Halliwell's Arch. Gloss, with the definition, " To 

 beat a drum ; also, the blow on the drum. ' Tlic dub- 

 a-dub of honour.' Woman is a weathercock, p. 21., 

 there used metaphorically." Mr. Halliwell might also 

 have cited the nursery rhyme: 



" Sing rub-a-dub-dub, 

 Three men in a tub."] 



Quotations.-^ 



1. "In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke." 

 Quoted in Much Mo about Nothing, Act I. Sc. 1. 



Mr. Knight (Library Edition, ii. 379.) says this 

 line is from Ilieronymo, but gives no reference, 

 and I have not found it. In a sonnet by Thomas 

 Watson (a. d. 1560-91) occurs the line (see Ellis's 

 Specimens) — 



" In time the bull is brought to bear the yoke." 



Whence did Shakspeare quote the line ? 



2. " Nature's mother-wit." This phrase is found 

 in Dryden's " Ode to St. Cecilia," and also in 

 Spenser, Faerie Qneene, book iv. canto x. verse 21. 

 Where does it first occur? 



3. " The divine chit-chat of Cowper." Query, 

 Who first designated the " Task" thus ? Ch: rles 

 Lamb uses the phrase as a quotation. (See Final 

 Memorials of Chni-les Lamb, i. 72.) J. H. C. 



Adelaide, South Australia. 



Minnis. — There are (or there were) in East 

 Kent seven Commons known by the local term 

 "Minnis," viz., 1. Ewell Minnis; 2, River do.; 

 3. Cocclescombe do. ; 4. Su inglleld do. ; 5. Worth 

 do. ; G. Stelling do. ; 7. Rhode do. Hasted {Uis- 



tory of Kent) says he is at a loss for the origin of 

 the word, unless it be in the Latin " ^lina," a cer- 

 tain quantity of laud, among different nations of 

 different sizes ; and he refers to Spelnum's Glossary , 

 verbum " Mina." 



Now the only .tlu'ee witli which I am acquainted. 

 River, Ewell, and Swingfield Minnis, near Dover, 

 are all on high ground ; the two former consider- 

 ably elevated above their respective villitges. 



One woidd rather look for a S:ix(m than a Celtic 

 derivation in East Kent-; but many localities, &c. 

 there still retain British or Celtic names, and emi- 

 nently so the stream that runs through River and 

 Ewell, the Dour or Dwr, uncle., no doubt, Dover, 

 where it disembogues into the sea. May we not 

 therefore likewise seek in the same laniruage an 

 interpretation of this (at least as far as I know) 

 hitherto unexplained term ? 



In Armorican we find " Menez" and " Mene," 

 a mount. In the kindred dialect, Cornish, " Men- 

 hai's" means a boundary -stone ; " Maenau" (Brit.), 

 stoney moor; " Mynydh" (Brit.), a mountain, &c. 



As my means of research are very limited, I can 

 only hazard a conjecture, which it will give me 

 much pleasure to see either refuted or confirmed 

 by those better informed. A. C. M. 



Brighton. — It is stated in Lyell's Principles of 

 Geology, that in the reign of Elizabeth the town 

 of Brighton was situated on that tract where the 

 Chain Pier now extends into the sea; that in 1665 

 twenty-two tenements still remained under tlie 

 cliffs ; that no traces of the town are perceptible; 

 that the sea has resumed its ancient position, the 

 site of the old town having been merely a beach 

 abandoned by the ocean for ages. On referring 

 to the " Attack of the French on Brighton in 

 1545," as represented in the engraving in the 

 ArchcBologia, April 14, 1831, I find the town stand- 

 ing «/3y?a/'e«^(y just where it is now, with " a felde 

 in the middle," but with some houses on the beach 

 opposite what is now Pool Valley, on the east side 

 of which houses the French are lauding ; the beach 

 end of the road from Lewes. A C. 



Voltaire's " Henriade." — I have somewhere seen 

 an admiraljle translation of this poem into English 

 verse. Perhaps you can inf'oim me of the author's 

 name. The work seems to be scai'ce, as I recollect 

 having seen it but once : it was published, I think, 

 about thirty ye:irs ago. (See ante, yi. 330.) 



The house in which Voltaire was born, atChat- 

 naye, about ten miles from Paris, is now the pro- 

 perty of the Comtesse de Boigne, widow of the 

 General de Boigne, and daughter of the Marquis 

 d'Osmond, who was ambassador here during the 

 reign of Louis XVIII. The mother of the poet 

 being on a visit with the then proprietor (whose 

 name I cannot recollect), was unexpectedly con- 

 fined. There is a street in the village called the 

 Rue Voltaire. The Comtesse de Boigne is my 



