78
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vi. JULY 27, 1912.
Times ' (Hutchinson & Co:, 1908), says,
" Bradgate (the seat of the Suffolk family)
was the scene of strong and militant Pro-
testantism "p. 145). It would seem -that the
Duchess was not acceptable to those Pro-
testants who desired to put forward a strong
nominee of their own. In intellectual
accomplishments the daughter was ap-
parently immeasurably superior to the
mother. At the age of 17 she was probably
the most erudite woman in England. Her
classical attainments had given her much
more than a local reputation. The incident
of Roger Ascham's finding her reading
Plato's ' Phsedo ' in the Greek while her
father and mother and their friends were
out hunting, and her description to him of
her daily life, are well known. Is there any
evidence that the Duchess would not have
exercised her right of precedence over her
daughter's if the opportunity had been
offered her ? There is, so far as I can
ascertain, nothing to show that she would
not have faced all the risks of the position,
had she been acceptable to those of her
co-religionists who had deemed it expe-
dient to make the strongest bid in their
power, futile as it proved, to assure the
Protestant ascendancy.
T. H. BARROW.
SCHAAK, AN ARTIST (11 S. v. 507). Little is known about this artist, except that he painted several portraits of General Wolfe, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery. J. S. C. Schaak exhibited at the Society of Artists from 1765 to 1769, and at the Free Society from 1761 to 1764. In 1762 he sent " a small whole length of General Wolf." He lived at 8, College Street, West- minster. ALGERNON GRAVES.
42, Old Bond Street.
"DR. SYNTAX" (11 S. v. 490). GENERAL TERRY'S queries induce me to put another one on the above. It would be interest- ing to know how many " Tours " the author, William Coombe, was answerable for. It is generally understood that he wrote three " Tours," viz., ' In Search of the Picturesque,' ' In Search of Consolation,' and ' In Search of a Wife ' ; but there is yet another, ' Tour of Dr. Syntax through London.' He also wrote ' The English Dance of Death,' ' The Dance of Life,' ' The Grand Master,' &c., and the ' Life of Napo- leon.' Most of these were published by Ackermann between 1812 and 1820. I have many illustrations published by Ackermann, 1817-18, after Rowlandson, excerpts from
some work on a tour in France, which might
be ' Dr. Syntax in France,' if there was such
a work. HAROLD MALET, Col.
on
A New English Dictionary : Th-Thyzle. (Vol..
IX. Last Section.) By Sir James Murray-
(Oxford, Clarendon Press.)
THIS is a double section, and one as valuable as- any in the whole series. It embraces alike some of the most interesting of our primary nati%'e words, among them many now obsolete, and a great number of derivatives from the Greek, of which not a few have been quite recently coined in the service of modern science. The longest article is the excellent account of " throw " and its family, which runs to twenty columns. The- specific definition given of the action whem " to project," not " to twist " is intended is- " to cast by a sudden jerk or straightening of the arm, esp. at the level of or over the shoulder." The compilers have omitted to record any in- stance of " to throw Up," in the sense of " produce," used not infrequently of an age, race, or move- ment pi'oducing a leader or genius. The articles- " Thing " and " Think " struck us as particularly good, the sequence of meanings (especially in the- former) being admirably set out and illustrated. " Unthinkable " is an old word, but for " think- able " it seems that the earliest instance to be found is one from Herbert Spencer. Under " Thinker " we are told, from 'Stage Gossip,' that " the gentlemen who play the most subordinate parts are. . . .called ' thinkers' on account of their having little or nothing to say and lots of time wherein to think." Under ""Thunder " will be found a curious bit of local folk-lore 1853, G. John- ston, ' Bot. E. Bord.' to the effect that " about Wooler it [the corn-poppy] was wont to be called Thunder-flower or Lightnings, and children were- afraid to pluck the flower, for if.... the petals fell off .... the gatherer became more liable to be struck with lightning." Two other flowers the stitchwort and the white campion are also locally known by this name. The verb " thunder- strike " is explained as probably a back-formation from " thunderstricken " in view of which it seems curious that the instances chosen to illus- trate it should, as a whole, be earlier than those which illustrate the latter word.
" Thank," " Thresh," and " Thrill," again, are articles full of good matter. Under the first is recorded the ludicrously expressive Americanism " thank-'ee ma'am," for a hollow or ridge in a road which makes people driving over it nod their heads. Among " echoic " words of our own_ making the most successful within the limits of this volume is perhaps " throb," which had for some time a variant " frob," and is noted as first found in the form " throbbant " in ' Piers Plowman,' 1362. A word which deserves par- ticular attention is " thew." Since Scott, who- associated it with " sinews," it has been used as if it meant" muscle" or"tendon," whereas itmeaiis bodily proportions or parts in general, such especi- ally a,s manifest vigour ; and this use for physical qualities is itself derived from its use expressing,
