502
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. xn DEC. 25, wis.
houses, parks, &c., in Drogheda, being
apparently of the same family as Alexander.
I am collecting all the information I can
about the Thunders with a view to a short
sketch of the family, and would request
readers of ' N. & Q.' to give me, through
your medium, every interesting fact about
them. FRANCIS PETER THUNDER.
Geasa De, Drumcondra, Dublin.
" LYULPH " : CHRISTMAS NUMBERS. Fol- lowing Dickens' s ' Mugby Junction ' there came out, either that or the following year, ' A Girl at a Railway Junction's Reply,' by " Lyulph," who also issued another Christmas number called ' Snow.' May I ask the real name of " Lyulph " ? Both stories were issued by Ward, Lock & Tyler, and they had, I believe, a considerable circulation.
THOS. RATCLIFFE.
THE MEANING OF "TRENT." Who first proposed that the French trente had been taken as the name of the third greatest English rivers 1 On p. 188 of 'The Sea-side Companion ; or, Marine Natural History, by Mary Roberts (London, 1835), it is written
"Nor is he wanting to the Trent, which, accord- ing to poetic legends, derives its name from the thirty kinds of fishes that frequent its waters, anc trom its thirty tributary streams. The beauteous Trent, which in itself enseams Both thirty sorts of fishes, and thirty sundry
streams."
Whose verses are these 1 Is it not more likely that the name is akin to Derwen and Darent ? How many rivers in Englanc got new names after the invasion of the Normans ? E. S. DODGSON.
' COMIC ARUNDINES CAMI.' When I was a boy of ten years old, one of my school fellows had a book which greatly interestec me, and a copy of which I have not seen since. I think its title was ' Comic Arundines Cami,' and that it was a medley of English and Latin verses. The only lines I can remember are : ...took a boat and went to Philippi. Omnes drownderunt qui swimmere toon potuerunl Except John Periwig, who clung to the tail of dead pig.
Do any of your readers know of such a book and whether it is still extant 1
DE MINIMIS.
J. S. BREWER AND E. C. BREWER. Ther is an error in the articles on these two me in the ' D.N.B.' John Sherren Brewer the historical writer, is stated to have been born in 1810, and to have entered Queen' College, Oxford, where he obtained first- clas
lonours, in 1832. His son Ebenezer
Cobham Brewer, also a writer of note, is
aid in the Supplement to have been born,
>oo, in the year 1810, and to have been a
cholar of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1832.
As some American cyclopaedias have evi-
.ently copied these dates without verifica-
ion, I should be glad to know where the
iiscrepancy lies. N. W. HILL.
UNDERGRADUATES AS OFFICERS OF THK RESERVE FORCES. I shall be glad to be nformed on the following points :
(1) Whether university undergraduates are allowed in normal times to hold com- missions in the Special Reserve ; (2) Whether they were allowed to hold commissions ii^ the Militia, before its late supersession ; also (3) What were the general qualifications and procedure necessary for any one to obtain a commission in the Militia previous to Lord Haldane's reforms ?
G. F. D.
NATHANIEL LEE, THE DRAMATIST. In the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' xxxii. 364, it is stated that Lee, " according to Lord Rochester, was ' well lasht ' by the head master Busby." I should be glad to have the reference to Lord Rochester's statement.
G. F. R. B.
ROBERT CREIGHTON, PRECENTOR OF WELLS. I am anxious to obtain the date and particulars of his marriage, which are not given in the account of his life in the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' xiii. 70. His son Robert became a fellow of Trin. Coll., Camb., and graduated M.A. in 1699. Was he the Robert Creighton who was appointed Master of the Grammar School, and Keeper of the Chapter Library, 2 April, 1712, and did he subsequently become a Prebendary of Wells ? I should also be glad to know the date and place of his death. G. F. R. B.
HABAKKUK. On what grounds did Voltaire (as is asserted) declare this minor prophet to be " capable de tout " ? I have never come across the passage, and therefore know nothing of the context. Voltaire, however, wrote so much that one may be excused for not having read all. Habakkuk's references are often obscure, and many have defied the interpretation of even German commentators, but obscurity and universality are not interchangeable qualities. It looks as if the word had slipped out thoughtlessly to balance a rhetorical sentence. L- G. R.
[See 10 S. x. 314.]
