430
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. MAY 28, 1910.
worthy information as to kites dates from
the end of the third century before Christ.
The Chinese have anticipated us in the use of kites in war. Several instances are on record of their employment in military opera- tions.
Strutt in 4 Sports and Pastimes of the People of England J mentions the intro- duction of the kite from China to Europe.
A chapter on kites is to be found in ' Jaarlijks-che Feesten en Gebruiken van de Emoy Chineezen,' by J. J. M. de Groot, published in Batavia by Bruining & Co. in 1883. J. DYER BALL.
Hadley Wood, Middlesex.
"As DEAD AS QUEEN ANNE" (11 S. i.
347). This is the third time the question
has been asked in ' N. & Q.' (see 2 S. xi. 488 ;
4 S. iii. 405, 467) ; but no satisfactory
explanation has been forthcoming, so I
venture to put forward a suggestion.
When the phrase first appeared I cannot say. The answer at 4 S. iii. 467 shows that Swift used Queen Elizabeth in the same sense in ' Polite Conversations, a which appeared in 1738. Now Queen Anne died 1 Aug., 1714, and there was much mystery at the time as to her successor. I do not wish to quote a lot of authorities on such a well-known event, but it seems it was the aim of the Jacobite party to keep the fact of the death of the Queen a secret till their plans for the proclamation of the Pretender were matured ; see a curious pamphlet entitled ' Some Account of the Two Nights Court at Greenwich : Wherein may be seen the Reason, Rise, and Progress of the late unnatural Rebellion, against his Sacred Majesty King George, and his Government ' (Edinburgh, reprinted, 1716 pp. 59). Miss Strickland elaborates this and Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, offeree to go out with certain noblemen anc proclaim James III. (see Spence's ' Anec dotes,' p. 53 ; Maty, ' Memoirs of the Ear of Chesterfield,' i. 243).
Not only was there uncertainty as to th< death of the Queen, but there was un certainty as to the fate of whoever shoulc make a wrong move. There would be the question, "Is the Queen really dead ? " which, when afterwards the Whigs were triumphant, would be sarcastically asked, "Is Queen Anne dead?" which became a proverbial saying for trite well-known news. I only put this forward as a sug- gestion for what it is worth.
A. RHODES.
The phrase " As dead as Queen Anne "
Drobably originated from an incident which
- ook place in " Old Portsmouth " when
Sir John Gibson was Governor of that place. W. H. Saunders in his ' Annals of Ports- mouth z states that Mr. Carter (grandfather of Sir John Carter who was at a later date VE.P. for the borough), being in the Royal Exchange, London, was a spectator of the proclamation of George I. He finished his business, and as locomotion was slow and costly in those days, and Mr. Carter was a good walker, he travelled down to Ports- mouth on foot, and, arriving there on 3 August, promulgated the news. Gibson being a strict Jacobite, and no friend of the house of Brunswick, sent for Mr. Carter, and, after upbraiding him with setting abroad what he believed to be a false and seditious report, was about to commit him to prison, when the arrival of a king's messenger with confirmation of the news relieved Gibson from the necessity of carrying out this extreme measure. The threatened imprison- ment of Mr. Carter by Governor Gibson gave rise to the bantering question, " Pray can you tell me if it is true that Queen Anne is dead ? F. K. P.
The proverb " Queen Anne is dead " signifies that a person is imparting stale news. It would probably not make the least difference to the meaning if any other prominent deceased individual were named. Hence in Sussex there is said to be a proverb " My Lord Baldwin's dead," which means precisely the same thing. But the saying '* As dead as Queen Anne " does not bear the same significance as " Queen Anne is dead.'*
" As dead as Queen Anne " seems to mean that any attempt to revive some visionary or impracticable scheme is hopeless. In this sense the expression was used by Mr. Joseph Chamberlain some twenty or twenty-five years ago. Speaking of the proposed revival of some Parliamentary measure, he declared it to be " as dead as Queen Anne." There are no doubt much earlier instances of the phrase. In fact, it probably dates from shortly after the death of Queen Anne.
W. SCOTT.
The saying in its true form, "Queen Anne is dead," is duly entered in the 4 N.E.D.,' viii. 41, where everything that ii known about it (very little), including all that has been noted in ' N. & Q.,' is set down. So far as the evidence goes, it is modern. W. C. B.
