Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/505

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ii s. i. JUNE is, i9io.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


497


vol. ii. pp. 382-4. The character of the per- secutor has been placed in a more favourable light than formerly by Col. Fergusson's ' Laird of Lag,' published in 1886. W. S. S.

' RASSELAS ' : THE FIRST ITALIAN TRANS- LATION (11 S. i. 404). There are three extracts from ' Rasselas ' in "An Introduc- tion to the Most useful European Lan- guages, consisting of Select Passages, From the most celebrated English, French, Italian, and Spanish Authors. With Translations as close as possible," by Joseph Baretti, London, 1772. They are ' A Dissertation upon Poetry,' ' The Difference between advising and doing,' and ' Observations on Life,' all "from the Prince of Abissinia." In this book all the "select passages" are given in the four languages in parallel columns. In the very short preface Baretti says :

"Exactness in rendering the meaning is what I have chiefly endefivoured after, in the following versions : but let it be remembered, that this sort of exactness often precludes elegance, and forces sometimes a translator into petty improprieties of diction."

This book appears to be similar in kind to that described by Mr. Collison Morley, ante, p. 382. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

MOCK COATS OF ARMS (11 S. i. 146, 313). John Taylor, the "Water Poet," gives in his poem ' Revenge, to William Fen nor,' a mock coat of arms that may deserve to be remembered :

Three trees, two rampant and the other crossant, One halter pendant, and a ladder passant, In a field azure, clouded like the sky, Because 'twixt earth and air I hope thou'lt die ; These arms for thee my Muse, hath heraldized, And to exalt thee she hath them devised ; Then when thou bid'st the world thy last good night, I squint upright and say "Gallows, claim thy right."

M. N. G.

I remember having seen one for Messrs. Pears of soap fame some time ago and one quite recently in Punch. L. L. K.

FLAX BOURTON (11 S. i. 389, 438). The question has been asked why this place is called Flax Bourton. We who live here are quite familiar with the answer which has been received. But we are not all of us quite satisfied with it.

Is Burghton, Burton, likely to be modified into Bourton, the simpler and easier into the more difficult ? Strangers, and only they, often call our village Burton. Does any stranger ever speak of Bourton on Trent ?

Is not Bournton the probable derivation ? Like many other places similarly situated,


we have a bourn of our own ; we do not all it the Winterbourn nor the Woewater, but the Stancombe Water, and it has made Bourton Combe. G. H. WOLLASTON.

Flax Bourton, Bristol.

"TEART" (11 S. i. 466). After a careful search in several of my books which deal with diseases, &c., of horses, and horseman- ship I venture to suggest that the above word may possibly turn out to be a misprint for either " wart," or more probably " tetar" = " tetter."

The Anbury was frequently mentioned along with Tetter as the following shows :

" CCLXX. Of the Anbury, or Tetter. " The Anbury is a bloody wart on any part of the Horses body, and the Tetter is a Cankerous Ulcer like it. The cure of both is an hot Iron, to sear the one plain to the body, and to scarifie the other : then take the juyce of Plantain and mix it with Vinegar, Honey, and the powder of Allom, and with it anoint the sore till it be whole." 'The Gentleman's Jockey,' 1683, 7th ed., 8vo, p. 266.

The information in this little book was "With divers other curiosities, collected by the long Practice, Experience and Pains of J. H. Esq.," and the names of a few veterinary authorities follow. J. H. did not state his name in full, but revealed it in a mock quotation, or rather adaptation from Virg. Georg., 1. 3 :

Tantus amor Laudum, tantae est Victoria curas, ^Equum est noscere Equos, atque Johannem Obolum. from which it is manifest that Johannes Obolus, is John Halfpenny, or J. H., Esq. JOHN HODGKIN. [MR. H. SNOWDEN-WARD also thanked for reply.]

PROPOSED NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT IN 1733 (11 S. i. 309). Some information respecting the plans named in the ' Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers, 1739-41* is afforded in Brayley and Britton's ' West- minster,' p. 395. The architects at the office of works including the then celebrated Kent, were directed by the Lords Commis- sioners of the Treasury to prepare designs and estimates. These were ultimately ap- proved, and the cost of the rebuilding was to have been 167,067Z.

These designs were in 1836 in the possession of L. N. Cattingham, the renovator of Rochester Cathedral, whose architectural museum was dispersed by a sale in Novem- ber, 1851, but I cannot trace that these plans were then sold.

Kent made many alterations and additions to the courts and apartments west of West- minster Hall. His plans and some suggested rebuilding by Capon are reproduced in the