2'"« S. VI. 152., Nov. 27. 58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



443 



'■•King Bomba" (P' S. xii. 285. 412.)— The 

 oi'igin of this sobriquet, as applied to his Nea- 

 politan IMajesty, having been already discussed in 

 your pages, I send you the following " cutting " 

 from the Dublin Evening Mail, as it may throw 

 some light on tiie meaning of an unenviable 

 synonyme, not won, it seems, by deeds of violence 

 or of valour : — 



" ' The name Bomba is often misinterpreted as having 

 some allusion to bombardments. It is not so. In Italy, 

 when you tell a man a thing which he knows to be false, 

 or when he wishes to convey to you the idea of the utter 

 worthlessness of any thing or person, he puffs out his 

 cheek like a bagpiper's in full blow, smites it with his 

 forefinger, and allows the pent breath to explode, with 

 the exclamation " Bomb-a." I have witnessed the ges- 

 ture and heard the sound. Hence, after 1849, when regal 

 oaths in the name of the Most Holj' Trinity were found 

 to be as worthless as a beggf^r's in the name of Bac- 

 chus or the Madonna, when Ferdinand was perceived to 

 be a worthless liar, his quick-witted people whispered 

 his name. He was called King Boraba, King Puflcheek, 

 King Liar, King Knave. The name and his character 

 were then so much in harmony that it spread widel}', 

 and they have been so much in harmony ever since that 

 he has retained it until now, and will retain it, I sup- 

 pose, till he is bundled into his unhonoured grave.' 



" Stat Nomims umhra. Such is the interpretation of a 

 well-informed and amusing tourist, whose papers, en- 

 titled ' Leviter Legenda,' have afforded us great enter- 

 tainment in Titan. The name Bomba is then nearlj' 

 synonymous to the Greek Bdduros, and is tersely appli- 

 cable to Royalties who are in ill-odour with their people." 



F. Phii-lott. 

 The Termination Ness (1" S. ix. 522.) - Your 

 correspondent Mr. Wm. Matthews states, that 

 there are 163 places in Lincolnshire with the suf- 

 fix ness, which, he adds, is " the old Northern or 

 Icelandic nes, the parent of the Danish nces or 

 ncBse." Mr. Worsaae, at p. 71. of his Danes and 

 Norwegians in England, in a " Tabular View of 

 some of the most important Danish and Nor- 

 wegian Names of Places in England," gives only 

 one town in Lincolnshire with the termination 

 nas. Again, Mr. Worsaae says there are only 

 1.5 such places in England, whilst Mr. Matthews 

 states there are 397 in the eight counties where 

 Mr. Worsaae puts only 15, and 113 more in 14 

 other counties in England where Mr. Worsaae 

 does not find one ! How can this great discre- 

 pancy be accounted for ? So far as respects Lin- 

 colnshire, I know of only one place {Skegness), and 

 one hundred {Ness), bearing this name or termi- 

 nation. May I ask to be enlightened upon the 



subject ? PiSHEY THOMrSON. 



Stoke Newington. 



Dr. Thomas Pierce, &c. (2"^ S. vi. 341.)— Some 

 account of Dr. Tliomas Pierce, John Dobson, and 

 Dr. Henry Yerbury, will be found in Bloxam's 

 liegister of Magdalen College, Oxford, vol. i. pp. 

 40. 46. 73. The lampoon is printed in p. 74. 

 Hanson is a slip of the pen for Dobson. 



Magdalekensis. 



Early Almanacks (2°'* S. iv. 106.; v. 37. 134.) 

 — See a picture and description of an ancient 

 Calendar found at Pompeii — L. E. K. Pompeii, 

 vol. ii. pp. 287-8. It is cut upon a square block 

 of marble, upon each side of which three months 

 are registered in perpendicular columns, each 

 headed by the proper Sign of the Zodiac. The 

 information given is threefold, Astronomical, Agri- 

 cultural, and Religious. 



"The Man of the Moon" prefixed to old Al- 

 manacks, and referred to in the quotation from 

 the Ravens Almanacke (2"^ S. v. 135.), is thus 

 alluded to by Abp. Bramhall in his Castigations 

 of Mr. Hobbes" Animadversions, No. xxiii. : — 



" The last part of this section is .... a continued de- 

 traction from the Dignity of Human Nature, as if a 

 reasonable Man were not so considerable as a jackdaw. 

 When God created Man, He made him a mean lord under 

 Himself, ' to have dominion over all His creatures,' and 

 ' put all things in subjection under his feet' And to fit 

 him for the command, He gave him an intellectual Soul. 

 But T. H. maketh him to be in the disposition of the 

 second causes : sometimes as a sword in a man's hand, a 

 mere passive instrument; sometimes like 'a top, that is 

 lashed ' hither and thither ' by boys ; ' sometimes like ' a 

 football,' which is kicked hither and thither by every one 

 that comes nigh it ; and here to a pair of scales, which 

 are pressed down, now one way then another wa)', by the 

 weight of the objects. Surely this is not that Man that 

 was created by God after His own Image, to be the 

 governor of the World, and lord and master of the Crea- 

 tures. This is some Blan that he hath borrowed out of 

 the beginning of an Alm.inac, who is placed immovable 

 in the midst of the Twelve Signs, as so many second 

 causes. If he offer to stir, Aries is over his head ready to 

 push him, and Taurus to gore him in the neck, and Leo 

 to tear out his heart, and Sagittarius to shoot an arrow in 

 his thighs." 



ElBlONNACH. 



Farm Servants (2°'* S. vi. 287.) — In connexion 

 with this subject, the Act of Elizabeth regulating 

 labour, wages, and relief, fixes the hours of work 

 for husbandry servants at five in the morning, 

 " or before," till between seven and eight at night, 

 from the middle of March to the middle of Sep- 

 tember, and from daylight to dark during the rest 

 of the year. (See 5 Eliz. c. 5. s. 12.) 



Alexander Andrews. 



Miracle Plays (2"^ S. vi. 206.) — To the three 

 persons mentioned by Mr. Wilson, as having il- 

 lustrated this subject, should be added William 

 Hone, who published Ancient Mysteries described, 

 especially the English Miracle Plays, &c., with 

 engravings, London, 1823, 8vo. W. H. W. T. 



Somerset House. 



John Jones, Esq., S,x. (2'"^ S. vi. 395.) —Can he 

 be " Johannes Jones Exoniensis," whose auto- 

 graph occurs in some of Hearne's and other similar 

 works in ray possession ? The dates are between 

 1774 and 1787, and the cost of each work is in- 

 serted in Hebrew numerals. Joseph Rix. 



St. Xeot's. 



