Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/433

This page needs to be proofread.

i2s. viii. AIIULSO, 1921.]" NOTES AND QUERIES. 355 PUBLICATIONS OF FREDERICK LOCKER- LAMPSON (12 S. viii. 307). -In 'Frederick Locker-Lampson, A Character Sketch,' Mr. Birrell says : " Mr. Locker . . . died at Rowfant in Sussex in May, 1895, and left behind him five books. . . ." He, too, enu- merates them, and not in the order of publication. The point, however, I desire to refer to is the number of the books, as j this is a little puzzling. I take down from a shelf behind a glass door (Andrew Lang, who writes the first | poem in the Rowfant Catalogue' Bour- 1 hope's guid eneuch for me ! " has a good j word for glass doors) three "bi the books, I namely : 1. ' London Lyrics ' not the original I edition of 1857, but the one privately ! printed (with the violet or lilac coloured preface-verse by " A. D.," dated Oct. 1, 1881). 2. ' London Rhymes,' privately printed, 1882 (in the Notes of which 'London! Lyrics ' is referred to as a separate book). 3. * The Rowfant Library. A Catalogue , of^the Printed Books, Manuscripts, Auto- j graph Letters, Drawings and Pictures col- ! lected by Frederick Locker-Lampson,' 1886. Adding the other three books mentioned by Mr. Birrell as part of the five : 4. ' My Confidences,' 5. ' Patchwork,' and 6. ' Lyra Elegantiarum,' I arrive at a total of six books. R. Y. PICKERING. < 'onheath, Dumfriesshire. REGATTAS (12 S. viii. 310). The etymo- logy of the Italian word regata is a puzzle, j In the original edition (Paderborn, 1891) of Gustav Korting' s ' Lateinisch-romanisches Worterbuch,' reference is made to the theory of Caix, ' Studj di etimologia italiana j e romanza ' (Florence, 1878), according to which regata is ultimately derived from the Latin adverb ergo ; compare the French ergoter, to cavil, quibble. In the third, 1907, edition of his dictionary Korting sug- gests as the source the Old High German riga, circumference, Italian riga, line, row, so that regata would originally denote the competing gondolas drawn up in a line. The ' Novo Dizionario scolastico della Lingua Italiana ' of P. Petrocchi, after noting that the etymology of regata is unknown, sug- gests, with a query, re-ex-captare or riga, the latter being the source which Korting regards as possible. EDWARD BENSLY. THE YEAR'S ROUND OF CHILDREN'S GAMES (12 S. viii. 309). In the town of Marlborough, Wilts, children's street-games are gradually disappearing. The two staunch survivals are skipping and whip -top. In the former some girls attain great dex- terity ; in the latter the indomitable perse- verance of quite small performers commands unstinted admiration. I have some notes made in 1893 and 1894 of the dates of the appearance of such games, but much de- pended on the weather. In January the boys played an evening game imitative of prisoners' base, necessarily attempted only in broad spaces and subject- to interruption by traffic. In 1894, in a very mild season, marbles appeared as early as January 27. But the art was already decadent. The old ring, from which the expert shot at the spoil within, was not attempted. A small pit or well was excavated against a wall, and at this marbles were bowled from a pre- scribed distance. Or an even meaner sport sufficed : that of placing marbles in a row and casting at them a disc of tile or slate. February was the season for marbles. In- deed the lengthening days and milder weather of February encouraged some such games as hopscotch (now wholly neglected), hoops, whip -top, and skipping. In March tipcat and battledore -and-shuttlecock came in ; neither now in vogue. Street games have probably suffered from the rival attractions of the cinema and the frequent passage of motor vehicles. R. W. MERRIMAN. " THE HAVEN UNDER THE HILL " (12 S. viii. 228, 275, 314, 336). The claim that it was Salcombe which suggested ' Crossing the Bar ' is definitely disposed of by the present Lord Tennyson, who writes in his Memoir : " ' Crossing the Bar ' was written in my father's eighty-first year on a day in October when we came from Aldworth to Farringford." The whole question has been ably dealt with by Mr. A. H. Anderson in the ' Homeland Handbook to Salcombe and Kingsbridge,' p. 58. PRESCOTT Row. The Old House, Waddon, Surrey. TRIBAL HIDAGES (12 S. viii. 309). If I remember rightly Mr. H. M. Chadwick, in his ' Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions ' (1905), discusses the subject. A. R. BAYLEY.