506
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. DEC. 28, iw.
headed. Lepidus is the first to cry : " No
more ! " His boon companions are not
unwilling to acquiesce in his entreaty ; but
Lepidus is true to the drunkard's nature
as the sow to the mire, so he to the cup,
according to the saw : " I will seek it yet
-again." PHILIP PERRING.
ROOD-LOFT PISCINA AT EASTBOURNE.
Tn ' N. & Q.- for 31 Oct., 1863 (3 S. iv. 361),
in a reference to a rood-loft piscina recently
discovered at Maxey Church, a correspondent
mentioned the existence of a similar piscina
in the parish church of Eastbourne. What-
ever traces of the piscina may have been
visible at this time were completely lost
irifthe extensive reparation of the church
which took place shortly afterwards, the
walls being heavily plastered. Acting upon
the clue furnished by ' N. & Q.,' the vicar,
with the consent of the churchwardens,
has had the plaster removed, and a beautiful
little trefoil-headed piscina of fourteentL-
ceatury date has been disclosed. It is in
pei feet condition, with shelf and drain com-
plete. It is noticeable that while the local
Eastbourne greensand stone has been used
for the upper part and the base, on either
- side a piece of Caen stone has been worked
in. This same feature is noticeable in the .shafts of the aisle windows of the cLurch, where the shafts are of local stone, but the capitals and bases are of Caen stone, the latter being the stone of which the original twelfth-century church was built. The piscina is in the spandrel of the first bay on the south side of the nave, and is about 15 ft. from the floor. (Rev.) W. BUDGEN.
Cranfield, Hurst Road, Eastbourne.
" POLONY." It is said in ' N.E.D.' that the etymology of " polony " in the ssnse of a kind of sausage is uncertain ; that it may refer to Poland, or to Bologna in Italy. No quotation for polony is given older than 1764 ; but, s.v. ' Bologna ' we find a quota- tion from Nashe (1596): "As big as a Bolognian sawcedge."
There really is not the least room for doubt. The latter source is certainly the right one. A good early authority is Chap- man, who, in his play called ' The Ball,' refers in Act III. to " Bologna sausages." And again, Evelyn in his ' Diary ' 21 May, 1645, says of Bologna that " this city is famous also for sausages."
But the best evidence is to be found in the old anonymous play entitled ' Lord Cromwell,' where we find the spelling with initial p. This play was published in 1613,
i.e., long before 1764. The scene of Act iii.
sc. ii., is laid at Bononia (Bologna) ; and in
the course of the scene Hodge reads out a
letter : "I am at this present writing
among the Polonian sausages." Surely this
settles it. WALTER W. SKEAT.
VOCABULARY OF PEASANT. I am glad to see that in your review of L' Intermediairc (ante, p. 420) you take exception to Max Miiller's dictum as to the paucity of words among uneducated rural people. I forget the exact figures, but I believe he limited the number to 300 or 400. Any one who has had the slightest experience in dialect work (away from his arm-chair) will know that a glossary of provincial words in any district will run to 2,000 at least.
For many years I have been at. work on Kent dialect words, and I find the shades of meaning as regards the different parts of agricultural implements simply distracting in their exactness. I do not think it possible to describe the parts of a Kent plough under twenty words. The culture of hops, including the implements used and their parts, picking, drying, and packing, must require at least 100.
Max Miiller's theory, to approach any- thing near correctness, must be restricted to those words which the peasant uses in common with the philosopher.
PERCY MAYLAM.
Canterbury.
NELSON AND WELLINGTON. In the re- cently published ' Leaves from the Note- Books of Lady Dorothy Nevill,' p. 180, there is a note upon tha meeting of Nelson and Wellington, in which Lady Dorothy states : " There is no record that any regular meeting ever took place between them." This is hardly correct, though it may be conceded that they never met by appoint- ment.
The story of the well-known interview between these great commanders, as told by the Duke himself, is to be found in the ' Correspondence and Diaries of John Wilson Croker,' vol. ii. p. 233, quoted by Sir Herbert Maxwell in his ' Life of Wellington,' 4th eel., i. 76. According to this account, the inter- view took place in the Colonial Office, Downing Street, soon after Wellington's return from India in 1805, and lasted " at least half or three-quarters of an hoiir." Capt. Mahan (in his ' Life of Nelson 3 ) also reproduces the Duke's account, as given by Croker, and points out that as Wellington (then of course Sir Arthur Wetlesley) arrived from India " about the 10th of Sept." (see
