10 s. VIL MAY 25, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
417
less and perverse a barbarism ? Take all the
other words of this sort, or of any amenable
sort : there is a regular and unvarying trio
of noun, same used as verb or with the
aotional prefix be-, and adjective in -y
from the noun ; but never a secondary one
from the verb's p.p. Thus we have slime,
to beslime, slimy, not " slimedy " or
" slimdy " ; smear, to smear or besmear,
smeary, not " smeardy " ; gaum, to gaum,
gaumy, not " gaumdy " ; daub, to daub or
Toedaub, dauby, not " daubdy " ; wax, to
wax, waxy, not " waxty " ; tar, to tar,
tarry, not " tardy " ; smoke, to smoke,
smoky, not " smokety " ; reek, to reek,
reeky, not " reekty " ; air, to air, airy, not
"*' airdy " ; fire, to fire, fiery, not " firedy " ;
water, to water, watery, not " waterdy " ;
dew, to bedew, dewy, not " dewdy " ; oil,
to oil, oily, not " oildy " ; and so on in-
definitely. So grime, to grime or begrime,
grimy, but surely not " grimedy " or
" grimdy."
PROF. SKEATmay have a score of analogues in memory, and if so I shall accept the correc- tion with interest and thanks ; but if there .are none, it is most unlikely that our ancestors should have framed this excep- tion to all rules and meanings of their habitual language. I withdraw my first guess, and feel sure from analogy that the
- noun " grind," parallel with " grime," and
oddly surviving in New England when lost in Old, is the primary root, and that the set of three grind, to grind, grindy is the regular trio as above. FORREST MORGAN. Hartford, Conn.
P.S. I have just learnt that in Maine the form used is " gringy " (g soft), which removes PROF. SKEAT'S derivation still further from possibility, while it is easily derivable from mine either from an original
- ' gringe," or, more likely, straight from the
adjective ' grindy."
THE PRESTON JUBILEE (10 S. vii. 227, 276). In reply to the inquiry respecting the theatrical performances given in the first half of the eighteenth century, I quote the following passage from what is perhaps the best book on the Preston Guild, viz., ' Authentic Records of the Guild Merchant of Preston,' by J. .Wilcockson, 1822. The writer says :
" The records of our local history are quite silent upon the amusements which distinguished the several guilds from 1662 to 1762. Of this latter there was an account published by John Moon, printer, and John Smalley, painter. 3 He then quotes from this pamphlet the
following passage referring to the theatrical
entertainments :
"A commodious temporary Theatre was built (for the purpose) in the Church Street, in which were performed plays, &c., by his Majesty's corn- medians from the theatres-royal in London, viz., Mr. Yates (manager), Messrs. Holland, King, Lee, &c., Mrs. Yates, Mrs. Ward, &c. Dancers, Signior Maranesi, Miss Baker, Master Rogie, Miss Capi- tani, &c. Performers at the public oreakfasts and concertos, Miss Brent, Signior Teiiducci, Dr. Arne, Mr. Arne, Jr., Mr. Desaubrys, Signiors Dasti, Blanck, Richter, Mr. Richardson, Master Bromley (on the Harp), Mr. Lambourne (on the musical glasses), &c.
"And that no rank of person might be deprived of amusements, agreeable to them, at this solemnity, there were exhibited (in the old theatre, in Fisher- gate, under the direction of the said Mr. Yates, from drury lane) various performances on the slack wire, &c., &c."
A. H. ARKLE.
Elmhurst, Oxton, Birkenhead.
B.V.M. AND THE BIRTH OF CHILDREN (10 S. vii. 325, 377). It is of particular interest to note, in regard to the first of these references, that the following appeared on 10 May, the day of the birth of the heir to the Spanish throne, in a Madrid telegram to the London evening papers :
"A holy girdle sent from the ancient Cathedral of Tortosa had been placed in an oratory adjoining the room of the Spanish Queen, in accordance with an ancient custom, in order that at the critical moment it might be given to the Queen to kiss."
POLITICIAN.
IMPERIAL PHRASES (10 S. vii. 348). It is well to have an exact date. The reference for the first publication of ' The White Man's Burden : an Address to the United States,' is The Times, 4 Feb., 1899. It was presumably prompted by events in the Philippine Islands, &c. Being avowedly an address to the people of the United States, its copyright was limited in that country to one magazine, viz., McClure's. ROBERT PIERPOINT.
[We note that the book version is a little altered from that of The Times.']
WORPLE WAY (10 S. iv. 348, 396; vii. 233, 293, 373). I certainly took MR. SMITH'S reply, ante, p. 233, to mean that at the present time there was a " Walpole " in Wimbledon, and that Stanford's map was quoted in confirmation thereof. I fully agree with MR. SMITH that we should verify our references, and I did verify mine by looking into Kelly's ' Directory ' of last year. I fail to see any inexactitude on my part, and, indeed, on that of MR. SMITH, now that he explains the matter at the last reference. F. CLAYTON.
