498
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL JUKE 22, 1907.
"DUMP" (10 S. vii. 426). As the illus-
trations brought together by my friend
MB. PICKFORD conveniently show, the term
" dump " has two separate purposes to
serve, and it is important to remember that
it represents two distinct words. There is
the one that is used in connexion with value
for the counter employed in the game of
chuck-farthing, the amount paid for a glass
of rum in the Australian bush, and so forth
and there is the other that is associated
with music and the throes of a mental
dilemma. " Dump " in the sense of a
medal may be connected with Icel. dumpa
to thump, whence also comes the term,
" dumping," familiar in discussions on Free
Trade ; while the other word is manifestly
allied to " damp," which is a very significant
monosyllable when applied with reference
to a reduction of spiritual exuberance. In
Scotland, at the present time, when a man
is said to have " ta'en the dumps," it is
known that he is out of temper and had
better be temporarily left to his own reflec-
tions. The musical dump and the doleful
dumps are associated in an interesting and
suggestive fashion in the last scene of the
fourth act of ' Romeo and Juliet.' When
Peter, with his heart full of woe, pleads with
the musicians to play him ' Heart's Ease '
or " some merry dump " whereby he may
be comforted, the second player snappishly
responds, " Not a dump we ; 'tis no time
to play now." This leads to some swift,
incisive wrangling, which induces in Peter
the determination to dry -beat his antagonists
with iron wit, and he calls upon them to
answer him like men as he rehearses thus :
When griping grief the heart doth wound, And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
Then music with her silver sound With speedy help doth lend redress.
THOMAS BAYNE.
"TAPING SHOOS" (10 S. vii. 206, 259). A very old Launceston shoemaker tells me that while for certainly seventy-five years he can recall the use of the words soleing and tapping in regard to boots and shoes, he always understood them to mean the same thing ; but the better class would use the first, and the working class the second.
DUNHEVED.
The Rev. J. Trounsell Mugford, vicar of Treleigh, Cornwall, in an interesting article in the February issue of The Church in the West, entitled ' Life in a Cornish Parish 100 Years Ago,' referred to " the old parish chest with its three locks." Upon reading YGREC'S statement that no such chest
existed there, I wrote to the reverend
gentleman in question, and he tells me in
reply that he described not his present church,,
but his former one at Lanteglos (near
Fowey, in the same county).
My corrector is right in adding that the parish of Treleigh does not possess a " fif- teenth-century church " ; but before refer- ring to it as such, I consulted Kelly's current issue of the ' Cornish Directory,' wherein the edifice is distinctly defined as " Per- pendicular." The two definitions being accepted as synonymous, I trust I may be excused for perpetuating an undoubted one which I am grateful to
maccuracy-
YGREC for pointing out.
Fair Park, Exeter.
am grateful to-
HARRY HEMS.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.
The Greatness and Decline of Home. Vol. I. The Empire Builders. Vol. II. Julius Cwsar. By Guglielmo Ferrero. Translated by A. E. Zim- mern. (Heinemann.)
WE are very glad to see these two large volumes on a subject: of perennial interest made accessible to the English public in a capable translation. They represent the views of a young Italian writer who shows both erudition and freshness. He does not rely on, or, indeed, boast acquaintance with, standard English works such as that of Merivale. It is true that he speaks of the work of the late A. J. H. Greenidge with due appreciation, but his .authorities are mainly continental, as is shown by his Bibliography at the end of the second volume.
He has not the brilliance of M. Boissier, but he is possibly sounder, and everywhere though he writes in a somewhat florid style, and deals largely in motives which must remain unproven he gives us the impression of mastery of his complicated sub- ject, while notes at the bottom of the page refer the scholar to the original sources or writers of history who have provided the materials for judg- ment. The great merit of the book is that it is not only scholarly, but also thoroughly readable. His- tory is meant to be read, and no amount of laborious exposition by the most painstaking specialist is of any use, if the specialist cannot write. The Pre- face explains at once that the author's endeavour is to " find a clue to the immediate, accidental, and transitory motives which have pricked on the men of the past to their labours ; to describe vividly and whole-heartedly their vicissitudes and anxieties, their struggles and illusions, as they pursued their work; to discover how and why, through this work, the men of one generation have often, not satisfied the passions which spurred them to action, but effected some lasting transformation in the life of their society."
The vigour and enthusiasm described are amply manifested in the pages before us. The first chap- ters, being of the nature of a summary, are the least attractive; ; but once launched on the main period the reader will find abundance of in- terest. Signor Ferrero boldly introduces references
