11 S. X. Nov. 7, 1914.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
377
" JOLLY BOBBINS " (11 S. x. 249, 315).
This is still a very common expression of the
hilarity and pleasure at the meeting of old
friends, or a chance meeting of folks " all
of a feather," to enjoy each other's society
in music, cards, or other social round.
They make " a high jolly robbin " of the
occasion. So, too, a newly married couple
are supposed to hold " high jolly robbin "
all through the honeymoon. Country folk
in particular hold " high jolly robbin " at
wakes and all festive occasions, not omitting
funeral parties. THOS. RATCLIFFE.
Worksop.
"MID-KEAVEL" (11 S. x. 327). Keevil is the name of a Wiltshire parish four miles east from Trowbridge, of which it is said in Domesday Book : " Ernulfus de Hending tenet de Rege Chivele."
Keevil also occurs as a surname in and around Salisbury. CHAKLES GILLMAN.
Church Fields, Salisbury.
"MORAL L," ' MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM' (11 S. x. 287). When Wall enters, Prologue introduces him as This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder.
The actor thus introduced states himself : That I, one Snout by name, present a wall. And throughout the scene there is so much talk about " wall," " loam," " rough-cast," " stone," " lime and hair," " crannied hole," or " chink in the wall," &c., that when the fellow at last leaves the stage Theseus can only mean a wall when he exclaims : "Now is the mural down between the two neigh- bours."
The whole dialogue " the silliest stuff," as Hippolyta correctly describes it and action prove that Wall had acted as a partition between the lovers by no means " the wittiest partition," as Demetrius thinks. I cannot see any difficulty in accepting the word mural, as suggested by Pope, except that it is nowhere else in English literature xised as a substantive ; but is not Shake- speare supzr grammaticam ?
THE LOSELEY MSS. AND LOUVAIN (US. x. i-'.'JO, 295). A second-hand bookseller's catalogue recently received has called my attention to a book on ' The Loseley Manu- scripts ' by Alfred John Kempe (London 1836). According to the title-page, it in- (liulos the texts of "other rare documents illustrative of English history, biography and manners from the reign of Henry VIII to James I." L. L. K.
POETS' BIRTHPLACES (11 S. x. 329). The
- lev. Richard Wilton was born at Don-
laster on Christmas Day, 1827 (see p. 270 of Eyles's ' Popular Poets of the Period,' 889).
Roden Berkeley Wriothesley Noel, 4th son of the 1st Earl of Gainsborough (second creation), was born on 27 Aug., 1834, prob- ably at Exton Park, Rutlandshire (Lord Gainsborough's seat), where, we are told, he )assed his childhood (see A. H. Miles's Poets and Poetry of the Century,' 1894). SAMUEL WADDINGTON. 15, Cambridge Street, Hyde Park, W.
Henry Tubbe was born in 1618 at South- ampton, and almost certainly in the parish of Holy Cross. G. C. MOORE SMITH.
WALTER BAGEHOT : PRONUNCIATION OF NAME (11 S. x. 289, 336). M.D.'s testimony at the second reference, on the evidence of Mrs. Walter Bagehot, should be conclusive ; but it is interesting to note that, when the great economist contested Bridgwater at the general election of 1865, I heard London journalists regularly refer to him as Badg-e-hO, suppressing altogether the sound of the t. ALFRED F. ROBBINS.
"KULTUR" (11 S. x. 331). By Kultur (Latin cultura), I take it, a German under- stands the " development of the mind," or merely " intellectual progress." With us the term denotes the further addition of " civilization " and " refinement," or that which Burke describes as " the spirit of a gentleman and the spirit of religion."
F. W. T. LANGE.
St. Bride Institute, B.C.
" THE HINDMOST WHEEL OF THE CART "
(11 S. x. 171). This is, indeed, a most common expression in Italy, and is usually applied to children. Its omission from ' Chi 1' ha detto ? ' is noteworthy.
The Spectator has a quotation from Per- sius (Sat. v.), the last lines of which are : Nam quamvis prope te, quamvis temone sub uno Vertentem sese frustra sectabere canthum, Cum rota posterior curras et in axe secundo.
In ' The Mottoes of the Spectators, Tatlers, and Guardians translated into English ' (1793) these lines are rendered as
Who, like the hindmost Chariot Wheels, art curst, Still to be near, but ne'er to reach the first.
I think that there must be other classical references to the hindmost wheel, for it has a most familiar sound apart from my Italian experiences. LEO C.
