Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/218

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vii. AUG. 28, 1020.


MAJOR DYNGWELL (12 S. vii. 130). Probably the Captain (not Major) Dyngwell who figures in Burnand's ' Happy Thoughts ' (2nd series), as " a gentleman with a light waist, long legs, and a glass in his eye," and with an exceedingly limited and slangy vocabulary. S. PONDER.

Torquay.

CRIMEAN WAR IN FICTION (12 S., vii. 90, 135). Any one interested in the Crimean War should read Captain Hawle\- Smart's 'Hard Lines,' chapters xxvi to xxxv and ' Held in Bondage,' by Ouida, chapters xxvii, and, above all, xxx., which is as realistic an account as perhaps ever was written, of the horrors of war. There is also * Breezie Lang- ton : a Story of Fifty-two to Fifty-five ' by Capt. Hawley Smart. Chapters xxiv, xxv, xxvi, xxxi, xxxii and xxxiv give excellent reading of Crimean experiences.

FREDK. C. WHITE.

SNOW: A SHIP'S NAME (12 S. vii. 72). A Snow* differs from a Brig by having a small mast close to and abaft the main- mast, called a try-sail-mast, which receives the jaws of the gaff and boom. The boom main-sail is hooped to the main-mast in a Brig, but traverses on a try-sail-mast in a Snow. See ' Varieties of Sailing Vessels ' (London Novie & Wilson), p. 5.

The word itself is derived from the Dutch but its origin seems unknown See Sub voce. T. F. D.


LIVERIES OF THE LONDON LIVERY GUILDS (12 S. vii. 129). Two old dictionaries I have consulted give the colour Puce respec- tively as "blue brown" and "dark brownish colour. " Puce, or flea colour, was the name given to a new shade which was worn by Louis XIV. of France. The term "blue-brown," although used in some old books, is an impossible one, as the colour termed brown is, when analysed, a dull orange, and a blue-orange does not exist as the two colours to which the vision is simultaneously sensitive are always ad- jacent in their spectrum order.

The colour termed puce is just over the border and is in reality a saddened (or dull) and dark red-violet. I have lately been trying, amongst other colours, to standardise this very shade, and have found that all the "puce colours " which have been produced for this purpose have been saddened red-violets of varying intensities.

FRANCES E. BAKER.

91 Brown Street, Salisbury.


FUNERAL PARLOUR (12 S. vi. 272, 316 ; vii. 37, 118). In connexion with this subject, I might add that Funeral table cloths were- also in not uncommon use towards the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the- nineteenth century. I have in my posses- sion two table-cloths daibed 1793 and 1807,, of white damasked linen, about 8 yards in. ^ength. The embossed pattern on both is- bhat of cypresses. From their size they could only have been used when a large-

ompany was expected. They have been and still are used for ordinary purposes though only at large dinner-parties and thus have been preserved for at least a-

entury and a quarter. L. G. R.

Bournemouth.

"NoR DID FLY FOR IT" (12 S. vii. 6,. 59). In Henry Fielding's novel, 'The Ad- ventures of Joseph Andrews ' 'chapter xii) the lawyer speaking to his fellow travellers in the coach, and referring to Joseph who had been left for dead in the ditch by robbers,

" thought it advisable to save the poor creatures life, for their own sakes, if possible ; at least, if" he died, to prevent the jury's finding that they fled for it. He was therefore of opinion, to take the man into the coach and carry him to th& next inn."

WILLIAM GILBERT, F.R.H.S.

SIR ROBERT BELL OF BEAUPRE (12 S. vi. 39). Robert Bell, son of William, of Yorkshire, " now one of the Temple " had a grant of arms on Nov. 13, 1560, by Laurence Dalton (Norroy). Harl. MSS. 1359, fo. 46b., and 6140, fo. 70. For other Bell grants? see Foster's ' Granters of Arms ' (Harleian Society.) S. A. GRUNDY-NEWMAN.

Walsall.

BISCUIT CHINA (12 S. vii. 130). The idea of a second baking is preserved in the term biscuit china, which is, I believe, the technical term for china that after the first baking has to undergo the process of glazing and burning. F. A. RUSSELL.

116 Arran Road, Catford, S.E.6.

AUTHOR OF QUOTATION WANTED.

(12 S. vii. 50).

1. An old uncle of mine recited this with great glee many years ago, and always gave the credit to Watts. His version was :

My soul is like a rusty lock,

Lord oil it with Thy grace,

And rub it, rub it, rub it, Lord,

Until I see Thy face. ! " KATE L. ROBERTS.