108
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. AUG. 5, wn.
Provisions at Trincomalee, from March, 1796,
to July, 1797, belong, and what was his sub-
sequent career ? PENRY LEWIS.
CHANNEL TUNNEL AND MR. GLADSTONE. I shall be glad if some reader of ' N. & Q.' will give me the words of some amusing verses, which appeared, I think, in The St. James's Gazette, commencing :
0, Willie has gone to the Parliament House, To the Parliament House, and has entered in
To vote for the Bill of the bold Watkin.
CAMPBELL LOCK. Ashknowle, Whitwell, Ventnor.
ISAAC NEWTON AND HIS NAMESAKE. Is it possible to establish any connexion, however remote, between the famous natural philosopher and the namesake who was a vestryman in the parish of SS. Anne and Agnes, London, circa 1604-14 ? The latter was by occupation or company a barber-surgeon. WILLIAM MCMURRAY.
" METEOR FLAG." I should be glad to know the origin of the poetic description of the Union Jack as the "Meteor Flag." I believe the term was suggested by its brilliant and rapid progress under Nelson. Who was the author of the expression ?
H. E. M.
["The meteor flag of England" is from Camp- bell's stirring poem 'Ye Mariners of England.']
"BLUE PETER": "BLUE FISH." -
Webster says of the former : " Blue flag with a white square in the centre, used as a signal for sailing, &c. It is a corruption of blue repeater, one of the British signal flags." But why should it be called a repeater ? When and why was it called Peter ?
Is it the same as the " blue fish " of a song which I heard forty years ago ?
The lobster's in the lobster-pot,
And the blue tish is on the hook :
For the ship is ready and the wind is fair,
And I must go to sea, Mary Ann.
The first line might refer to soldiers or marines on board a transport. H. B.
[For Blue Peter see 7 S. iii. 477 ; iv. 116, 237, 355.]
MISSES DENNETT. I am glad to have MR. DOUGLAS'S scrap of information about John Gallot (ante, p. 35), as it is possible he may be able to tell us something about the Misses Dennett (see reply on Grimaldi, ante, p. 95). They were three dancers. The first representations I have of them are in West's juvenile theatre characters in
- The Broken Sword ' (Co vent Garden,
7 Oct., 1816). They are drawn by William
Blake. An original drawing of the first
plate is in the Print-Room, British Museum,
in West's juvenile or " Toy theatre prints,"
vol. i. p. 29. In plate 2, dated 4 Nov.
1816, all three are beautifully and elegantly
represented in ' Miss Dennett's Waltz.'
The same year they appeared in the panto-
mime ; and the next year in ' Harlequin
Gulliver' ('The Theatrical Inquisitor,' vol. xii.
p. 56). The next and last note I have of
them is at Covent Garden Theatre in the
pantomime of ' Mother Bunch, or the Yellow
Dwarf,' 26 Dec., 1822, when Miss E. Dennett
was columbine.
I have a " theatrical portrait," published by Fairburn [1821 ?], price one penny plain, of Miss E. Dennett as Undine. 'Undine, or the Spirit of the Waters,' was produced at Covent Garden, 23 April, 1821. RALPH THOMAS.
SHETLAND WORDS. The Rev. John Bonar, minister of Fetlar, kept an account- book of the tithes payable to him in 1732-5 (Old-lore Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 121, Viking Club), in which, besides tithes, various articles are entered as supplied to and by him, among which occur the following, regarding which I should be glad of any in- formation :
" Cave glass waters containing l pint '* (Scotch). In ' E.D.D.,' on the authority of one correspondent in Shetland, a cave glass is described as " a square-shouldered bottle generally used for gin." " Waters " I suppose to be gin, brandy being also mentioned, the relative price being "waters " at 15s. and Is. 4rf., and brandy at 26s. 8rf. and 2s. 6d., per anker and per cave glass respectively. "Waters" is not mentioned in any glossary as a name for gin.
" Three shift weaving " at Id. per ell, and " stuff weaving " at 2d. per ell.
A Bible printed by Basket, 2s. Qd. Who was he ? A. W. JOHNSTON.
29, Ashburnham Mansions, Chelsea.
[For John Baskett, printer, see the 4 D.N.B.'}
EMERSON : " MR. CRUMP'S WHIM." - In chap. ix. of ' English Traits ' Emerson writes :
"Every individual has his particular way of living, which he pushes to folly, and the decided sympathy of his compatriots is engaged to back up. Mr. Crump's whim by statutes, and chancellors,, and horseguards."
This passage was written in 1848. Who was Crump that our horseguards should be called out to defend him and his follies I M. L. R. BRESLAR.
