218
NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. xii. SEPT. is, 1915.
discover the presence of ships or land at, a
distance of " 250 lieues " and more.
His alleged power was tested in Mauritius for eight months beginning with 15 May, 1782, and out of 155 ships dealt with by him his prediction was right as regards the correct time of their arrival in about one half the cases. The other vessels were delayed by the war or becalmed, or did not call at the island.
The Abbe de Fontenay gave a very guarded account of the invention in his Journal general de France of 30 April, 1785, based on a ' Memoire ' submitted by Bottineau to the French Government j but for some reason or other he incurred the wrath of the inventor, who began proceedings in the law courts against him I do not know with what result. M. Albert Pitot in his ' L'lle de France (1715-1810),' published at Port Louis, Mauritius, in 1899, prints some extracts from the ' Memoires secrets pour servir a 1'histoire de la R6publique des Lettres en France' (vol. xii.), according to one of which
Jt il paralt que M. Bottineau est une espce de fou ; il s'est rendu, il n'y a pas longtemps, a une ecole de magn^tisme animal, il s'est adresse au Comte Maxime (de Se'gur), il lui a dit qu'en Asie, oii il avait reside" longtemps, il se trouvait des Indiens malfaisants qui avaient le secret de nouer 1'aiguillette."
M. de Segur promised him quite seriously that the matter should be investigated by the Societe de 1'Harmonie. " Puis on s'est mis a rire de M. Bottineau."
According to the author of ' A Transport Voyage to the Mauritius ' (London, 1851), "the celebrated ship-seer. .. .when removed to
Brest by order of Napoleon at once confessed
that his powers had left him with the change of climate,"
and was consequently sent back to Mauritius. No reference is given for this statement.
L. L. K.
SIGNS OF OLD LONDON. (See references supplied ante, p. 84.) The subjoined houses of entertainment are referred to in the accounts of the Masons' Company in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries : *
Mermaid Tavern, Bread Street, 1629.
Castle Tavern and Star Tavern, Coleman Street, -ditto.
Globe Tavern, Fleet Street, 1634.
King's Arms, (?) Basinghall Street, 1638.
Half-Moon Tavern, Cheapside, 1682.
Goose and Gridiron Alehouse, St. Paul's Church- yard, 1717.
Crown Alehouse, Parker's Lane, near Drury Lane, ditto.
Tree Tavern, Charles Street, Covent Garden, ditto.
Bummer and Grapes Tavern, Channel Row,
Westminster, ditto.
Crown Tavern, behind the Royal Exchange, 1720.
Horn Tavern, Westminster, c. 1731.
Swan, East Street, Greenwich, ditto.
Ship Tavern, behind the Royal Exchange, ditto.
Rummer Tavern, Charing Cross, ditto.
Three Tuns Tavern, Newgate Street, ditto.
King's Head, Pall Mall, ditto.
Benn's Coffee House, New Road, ditto.
Queen's Arms, Newgate Street, ditto.
Rummer, Queen Street, Cheapside, ditto.
Horn and Feathers, Wood Street, ditto.
Vine Tavern, Holborn, ditto.
Crown Tavern, Smithfield, 1756.
Castle Hotel, Richmond, 1767.
With regard to the three signs of the " Rummer " in the foregoing list, it may be noted that Larwood and Hotten remark upon this drinking - vessel sign as fairly common, alluding to the existence of no fewer than three public-houses of the name in Bristol only. WILLIAM McMuRRAY.
SOME AMERICANISMS. Judge Ruppenthal of Kansas has compiled a number ot very striking words which, in the course of his experience, he has come across, and which are so effective that it is likely they will come into the language, and advance into the permanency of the dictionary from their present colloquial stage. These words are deserving of notice, and may be worth your publishing, and so bringing {hem before a wider public than can be reached by the judge's book. I quote a few :
Armstrong (adj.), operated by the arm as opposed
to machinery ; used jocosely of scythes, sickles,
saws, &c. Black dishes (n. phr. ), cooking utensils by contrast
with glass and china. " I will leave the black
dishes for her to clean up." Brock (adj.), speckled, necked with white, as a
" brock- faced cow." Cogitate (v. i.), variant of " calculate," " suppose,"
" reckon."
Colonel (n.), applied to auctioneers. Compushency (n.), necessity, compulsion. " It
was a case of compushency, so I went." Dead in the shell (adj. phr.), utterly worn out.
" If I have to go without sleep I will be dead
in the shell." Diangling (p. a.), contamination of " diagonal "
and " angle." " He went diangling across the
block." Dog -robber (n.), a menial servant of army
officers, used by soldiers returning from the
Philippines. Fine-haired (adj.), fastidious. " We can't please
these fine-haired gentry."
Fleas in one's nose (n. phr.), chimerical notions. rassoline (a.), cattle-dung used as fuel (con- tamination of " grass " and " gasoline "). Go-back land (n. phr.), land once cultivated, but
long since neglected. " The grass generally is
ranker on go-back land than on prairie sod."
