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NOTES AND QUERIES. tu s, m. MAR. 25, 1911.
Looking up the playbills for 1856, I found
that the full title of this three-act piece was
- Ireland as it is, or the Middleman.' It
was afterwards printed in French's " Stand- ard Dramas " with the under- title omitted. WATSON NICHOLSON.
Authors' Club, S.W.
" PROBABILITY is THE VERY GUIDE OF LIFE." Bishop Butler's famous dictum is apparently derived from Cicero, 'De N. D.,' i. 5, 12 :
" Ex quo exstitit illud, multa esse probabilia, quae quanquam non perciperentur, tamen, quia visum quendam haberent insignem et inlustrem, iis sapientis vita regeretur."
ALEX. LEEPER.
Trinity College, Melbourne University.
DEVILLE. This further notice of him <see 10 S. ix. 450 ; x. 91, 157) is worth adding. On the death of Rowland Hill, the great preacher of Surrey Chapel, 11 April, 1833, his biographer writes :
" One of the most beautiful casts I ever saw was taken by the well-known phrenologist Deville.
This beautiful bust [is] in possession of the
celebrated phrenologist, to whom it belongs." Sidney, ' Life of R. Hill,' 1834, p. 407.
Many interviews with Deville have been described at 7 S. viii. 265, 375, 438, 493 ; ix. 157. W. C. B.
" FURLOUGH." It is interesting to note that, although Farquhar, who had a special claim to speak from personal experience, used "furlow" in his 'Recruiting Officer' in 1707 as meaning military leave of absence, the term apparently was not officially accepted as an equivalent for many years afterwards. In The Daily Advertiser for 6 May, 1731, for instance, it was announced that
" an Order hasp ass 'd the Secretary at War's Office, forbidding leave of Absence (commonly call'd Furlows) to be granted to any of the private Centinels in his Majesty's Three Regiments of Foot-Guards, till after the General Review."
ALFRED F. ROBBINS.
J. R. LOWELL :
FONDNESS FOR " OR
" FONDNESS OF." 'The Century Dictionary '
under "fondness" quotes thus from James
Russell Lowell's review of Milton :
" Every one has noticed Milton's fondness for sonorous proper names." Lowell, ' Among my Books,' 2d ser., p. 291.
All authorized editions of Lowell's works have " of " instead of " for " in the passage quoted, although one finds an allusion to Spenser's "fondness for dilation" in the same article.
The difficulty of securing absolute accuracy
in a great dictionary may be emphasized
further by noting that the ' Century ' under
" astucity " and " dubitate " has referred
to the wrong volume of Carlyle's ' French
Revolution ' in each case.
THOMAS FLINT.
Brooklyn, N.Y.
MARRIAGE OF DIVORCED PERSONS TEMP. ELIZABETH. The following entries are from the register of St. Michael le Belfry, York :
" Ric d Cowpland and Bettris Atkinson, 16 Jan., 1568.
" Devorsed by order of lawe 1576 in Courte of Dean and Chapter of York Minster.
" Thos. Cooke and Beatrix Atkinson als. couplande, 27 Jan., 1576, the said beatrix beinge first devorced from Ric d couplande by lawe and lycensed to marye."
COOKSON.
Ipswich.
HARVEST SUPERSTITIONS : JUDGMENTS ON IMPIETY. The following three incidents, folk-tales pure and simple, are narrated as having occurred in Hertfordshire, but as usual the localities in which they happened are not definitely specified.
The first narrates how " in the sixties " a farmer was denouncing the weather in unmeasured, terms before his labourers in the harvest-field, when he was " struck dead on the spot." Attempts were made to lift his body to take it home for burial, but in vain. A shed was therefore built over the remains, but every night the structure "fell -in." Attempts to cultivate this particular field were unsuccessful, for the work upon it appeared "as if it had not been done by nightfall."
The second story appears to be a variant of the foregoing. It is said that during a very wet season a farmer, viewing his crops, expressed the wish that the Almighty would go to sleep for six weeks, when he suddenly fell into a cataleptic trance, from which he could not be wakened for a period of six weeks. Horses could not move his body from the spot where he was stricken, and a shed had to be built over him where he lay. It is said that the story of this event was printed and sold in the locality, but no copy seems to be in existence.
The third account tells how a farmer was looking over one of his fields when an acquaintance passed by. " You have a nice field of corn there," he remarked. "Yes," was the owner's response, "if the Almighty would only leave it alone." And the corn changed not, but remained green, a striking comment upon the impious remark.
