Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/479

This page needs to be proofread.

n s. x. DEC. 12, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


473


' Bobs ' (the title is not ' Fighting Bobs ') is to be found in the December, 1893, number of The Pall Mall Magazine, or vol. ii. p. 177. It is illustrated by Abbey Alston, among whose illustrations Lord Roberts appears thrice, and accompanied by a full- page equestrian portrait of ' General Lord Roberts, V.C.,' from an original drawing by G. L. Seymour.

In The Pall Mall Gazette of 16 Nov. last a writer says, concerning this eighth number of The PaU Mall Magazine, it

" is now one of the most precious things in Kip- lingiana, because the poem has never been reprinted in volume form. There was one true line :

An' 'e doesn't advertise, Do yer, Bobs ?

which was interpreted in some quarters as an imputation against another warrior. On this being pointed out, the author, rather than cancel a stanza or change a line, withdrew the whole poem ; and it is time it was reinstated in his published works."

The writer, of course, does not mean that there is only one true line in the poem. The correct reading of that in question is :

An' 'e does not advertise The dashes between the words as well as the italics were no doubt meant to give emphasis. Possibly MB. CURTIS may be able to get a copy of this number of the Magazine from lessrs. Charles Humphreys & Co., back- jgazine dealers, 22, Paternoster Bow, E.G. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

There 's a little red-faced man,

Which is Bobs 1 Hides the tallest 'orse 'e can

Our Bobs !

If it bucks or kicks or rears, 'E can sit for twenty years, With a smile round both 'is ears

Can't yer, Bobs ?

This is the first of eight stanzas. I must not give the whole for copyright reasons, but will, if MR. CURTIS would like it, send him a copy.

When Mr. Kipling was seriously ill in America there appeared a very clever parody of 'Bobs' in The Outlook of 11 March, 1899, entitled ' Kips.' The writer was Dr. T. W. H. Crosland. The first stanza is : There 's a little round-faced man,

Which is Kips, Writes the finest stuff he can,

Our Kips,

Takes the cake for fancy prose, Has the Muses by the nose, Makes us all sit up in rows Don't yer, Kips ?

War. H. PEET.


Kipling's poem, said to have been sup- pressed by request of Lord Roberts's family,, appeared in The Pall Mall Magazine, December, 1893. CUTHBERT REID.

As the question of Mr. Kipling's early tribute to Lord Roberts is under discussion, it may be worth noting that on 19 Novem- ber the day on which the great soldier was buried in St. Paul's The Daily Telegraph contained a poem of seven four -line stanzas by Mr. Kipling, entitled ' Lord Roberts.' J. R. THOHNE.

[Mn. ARCHIBALD SPAKKE also thanked for reply.]

WORDS USED IN THOMAS LODGE'S ' WITS- MISERIE,' 1596 (11 S. x. 385, 435). PROF. MOORE SMITH'S quotation from Nashe of " qui quce codshead," and his remark about its indicating the English pronunciation of qui, quae, quod at this time (1596), suggest the question whether this pronunciation per- sisted in Ireland at a much later date.* The twelfth stanza of Hood's ' The Irish School- master ' begins :

Ah ! luckless wight, who cannot then repeat " Corduroy Colloquy " or " Ki, Kse, Kod."

Stanza ii. ends :

In midst of sounds of Latin, French, and Greek,

Which, all i' the Irish' tongue, he teacheth them

to speak.

Nashe's story of the actor crying " Ad urbs, ad urbs, ad urbs," has an exact parallel in Ouida's ' Strathmore,' where we read : "' Some people's motto is pro patria, others' pro ecclesia,' remarked the bishop, whose own motto was pro ego " !

I quote from, recollection, but am sure that this is substantially accurate.

EDWARD BENSLY.

All over the Midlands lather is the most common word for ladder, though stee is about as common.

Shawm is applied to shiftless folk. A man who does not settle down is said to " shawm away his time." The folk- words awm and awming mean the same that is, " idling." THOS. RATCLJFFE.

OLD ETONIANS (11 S. x. 410). (4) James Richard Hayes, s. James of Bray, Berks, armiger, Merton Coll., matric. 23 March, 1771, aged 17 ; B.A. 1774, M.A. 1781 ; bar- rister-at-law, Middle Temple, 1778.

A. R. BAYLEY.


  • In the middle of the sixteenth century the

Sorbonne objected to Ramus's pronunciation of qitMijuis instead ' of kiikin (Sandys, Hist, of Class. Scholarship,' ii. 184).