2» d S. IX. May 12. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



375 



(ft.) From The Neiu State of England. London, 

 1693 : — 



"The Kingdom besides is so abundantly furnished 

 with Men and Horses, with Provisions and Ammunition, 

 and Money the Sinews of War, that nothing, &c." — Part 

 II. p. 102. 



C. Le Poer Kennedy. 



Roff. 



Me. Lyde Brown (2 nd S. ix. 124.)— This gen- 

 tleman was a director of the Bank, and a distin- 

 guished collector of statues and other monuments 

 of classical antiquity. A catalogue of those at 

 his house at Wimbledon was published in 1768, 

 at which time he was F.A.S., having been elected 

 in 1753. Some months before his death, he sold 

 a collection of busts, statues, &c. to the Empress 

 of Russia for 22,OO0Z. sterling. A house in St. 

 Petersburg was recommended to him by a mer- 

 chant to receive the money, and remit it to him. 

 He received 10,000/. in bills of exchange; but 

 the remainder, though repeatedly promised, was 

 never forwarded. At last news reached England 

 that <the house in St. Petersburg had stopped 

 payment, which had such an effect upon Mr. 

 Brown that he never recovered the shock. On 

 Sept. 10, 1787, he had just set out for an even- 

 ing walk from his house in Foster Lane, Cheap- 

 side, when he was seized with an apoplectic fit, 

 and expired immediately. J. Y. 



Mr. Lyde Brown sold his valuable collection of 

 antiquities to the Empress of Russia. He died at 

 Wimbledon in 1787. A catalogue of his statues 

 was published the same year. His house, which was 

 afterwards Lord Melville's, and then in the occu- 

 pation of the Earl of Aberdeen, was in 1811 in 

 that of Lord Lovaine. See Lysons's Environs of 

 London, 1st edition, vol. i. p. 540. ; vol. iv. p. 

 617. and Supplement (1811) p. 96. W. H. W. T. 



Somerset House. 



My Eye Betty Martin (2 nd S. ix. 315. 355.)— 

 If M. justly grieves " to see ' N. & Q.' transmit- 

 ting to posterity incorrect slang," I may be per- 

 mitted to express regret that M. himself leans 

 to the silly Joe Miller account of the origin of 

 the phrase. I do not pretend to give its real 

 source, but I do protest against the aforesaid- 

 legend as utterly inconsistent, and devoid of all 

 plausibility. If a man ever did hear a prayer in 

 a foreign church beginning with " O mihi Beate 

 Martine," which is utterly improbable, for no 

 such public formulary exists, and persons praying 

 in private would not speak aloud ; but supposing 

 anyone did hear such words, he would hear them 

 pronounced, not in the English way, but sounding 

 thus, O mShfl beatay Martenay, which would 

 never convey to his car the least approximation 

 to " O my eye, Betty Martin." It may be very 

 well for a joke ; but seriously to maintain its pro- 

 bability is really too absurd. F. G. H. 



Chalking the Doors (2 Dd S. ix. 112. 273.) — 

 An ancient example of this practice is given in 

 The Life and Acts of Sir William Wallace, by 

 Henry the Minstrel, edit. 4to., Edinburgh, 1820, 

 edited by Dr. Jamieson — Buke Seivynd, lines 

 410-17.: — 



" Than twenty men he gert fast we theis draw, 

 Ilk man a pair, and on thair arme thaim threw ; 

 Than to the toune full fast thai cuth persew. 

 The woman past befor thaim suttelly ; 

 Cawkit ilk yett, that thai neid nocht gang by, 

 Than festnyt thai with wetheis duris fast, 

 To stapill and hesp, with mony sekyr cast." 



G.N. 



"Epistol.e Obscerorum Virorum" (2 nd S. vi. 

 22. 41.) — Just at the time when I wrote these 

 Notes, the Epistolce were reprinted at Leipsic by 

 Teubner, without note or comment ; and this 

 edition, which is very prettily printed, can now 

 be easily procured. The editor adds a short 

 apology for reprinting the third volume, which he 

 says first appeared as late as 1689. Is it possible 

 this can be true ? Does he mean 1589 ? 



A. De Morgan. 



"Jack." (2 nd S. ix. 281.)— In an article on 

 " The National Flags of England," in the Art 

 Journal for December, 1859, Mr. Boutell gives 

 the following explanation of this term : — 



" The term ■ Union Jack ' is one which is partly of 

 obvious signification, and'in part somewhat perplexing. 

 The ' Union ' between England and Scotland, to which 

 the flag owed its origin, evidently supplied the first half 

 of the compound title borne by the flag itself. But the 

 expression 'Jack '.involves some difficulty. Several solu- 

 tions of this difficulty have been submitted; but, with a 

 single exception only, they are by far too subtle to be con- 

 sidered satisfactory. A learned and judicious antiquary 

 has recorded it as his opinion that the flag of the Union 

 received the title of ' Union Jack' from the circumstance 

 of the union between England and Scotland having taken 

 place in the reign of King James, by whose command 

 the new flag was introduced. The name of the King in 

 French, ' Jaques,' would have been certainly used in 

 heraldic documents. The Union flag of King ' Jaques ' 

 would very naturally be called, after the names of its 

 royal author, Jaques' Union, or Union Jaques, — and so 

 by a simple process, we arrive at Union Jack. This sug- 

 gestion of the late Sir Harris Nicolas may be accepted, 

 I think, without any hesitation. The term ' Jack ' hav- 

 ing once been recognised as the title of a flag, it is easy 

 enough to trace its application to several flags." 



R. F. Sketcheey. 



Epitaph in Memory of a Spaniard (2 nd S. ix. 

 324. 351.) — With reference to the reading pro- 

 posed by Sir John Scott Lillie, I beg leave to 

 suggest that the name is obviously " Juan Calvo 

 de Saavedra." Both of these apellidos (surnames) 

 are common (the latter being one of those borne 

 by the immortal author of Don Quixotte) ; and 

 Spaniards are perversely apt to use b for v, and 

 vice versa. In sculptured writing d is generally 

 chiselled as a contraction of de. C. Booth. 



Montrose. 



