11 S. VII. Mae. 29,1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 247
(Holy Cross), Pershore (St. Andrew), Wyre Piddle, Powick, Queenhill, Rous Lench, Sedgeberrow, Shipstone-on-Stour, Spetchley, Stoulton, Stourport (part only), Tibberton, Tidington, Tredington, Warndon, Whittington, Wickhamford, Worcester (Cathedral, St. Michael, St. John in Bedwardine, St. Andrew, St. Swithin, St. Martin), and Wribbenhall. Those in italics are completed to the present day. The Worcestershire inscriptions are in my possession.
I am preparing a Bibliography of the county of Warwick, and should be glad of notes of any scarce pamphlets, articles in magazines or Transactions of learned societies. J. Harvey Bloom.
"Ampersand."—Lately, while consulting
'N.E.D.,' I chanced to catch sight of the
word ampersand, and I noted that, while
the sign has been in use for centuries, the
earliest mention of the use of the word is a
reference dated 1837. I then bethought me
of Sir Pertinax MacSycophant's description
(vide Macklin's 'Man of the World') of
the lady whom he sought in marriage as
"a piece of deformity in the shape of an
izzard or an empersi-and." Macklin's play
was written prior to 1764.
I suppose it is generally known that the ampersand sign "&" is a corruption of the Latin word et. In an oral collation of documents it is always sounded as et, and not and. H. D. Ellis.
"Sick."—This word is generally synonymous
with "ill," though often simply denoting nausea;
e.g., sea-sickness and infantile
distress. A colloquial usage implies mental
satiety or disgust—"to be sick of" anything.
Another usage has grown up of
late—"to be sick about" something, i.e.,
to be annoyed at. A vicar lately told me
that the wardens were "sick about" something
appearing in print which they wished
suppressed. Francis P. Marchant.
Sir David Wilkie's Last Illness.—In
his recently published Painters and Painting'
Sir Frederick Wedmore has a reference
to Wilkie's last illness which may prove
somewhat misleading. He says that
"sudden illness, the result only of imprudent feeding, overcame him in the harbour of Malta."
This statement leaves out of consideration the important facts that the painter had been in poor health for sixteen years previously, that his visit to Palestine was partly for the sake of recuperation, and that the logbook of the Oriental contained the entry:—
"Sir David Wilkie came on board at Alexandria, apparently greatly impaired in health."
The "only," therefore, of Sir Frederick Wedmore's account is hardly justified. The vaguely defined "imprudent feeding " was Wilkie's partaking of iced lemonade and fruit. W. Bayne.
Vanishing City Landmarks: Rectory House of St. Michael's, Cornhill.—It
must be noted with regret that pickaxe
and shovel are about to invade another
quiet City nook. The attack this time is
to be made upon the old rectory house of
St. Michael's, Cornhill, situate just behind
the church in its tiny square. The adjoining
property has been razed, and is now in
process of rebuilding. A similar fate awaits
this picturesque neighbour, from which the
well-known firm of lawyers, Messrs. Parker,
have already temporarily migrated. What
with the erection of huge insurance premises,
bank annexes, and so forth, this part of
the City is fast becoming entirely effaced,
which, to many folk, is a fact to grieve over.
Col. Henry Brett.—He married the
divorced wife of Charles Gerard, second
Earl of Macclesfield, and the reputed mother,
by Earl Rivers, of Richard Savage, the
unfortunate poet. I am not aware that
his parentage has ever been precisely stated.
'D.N.B.' says that he was eldest son of
Henry Brett of Cowley, co. Glouc, the
descendant of an old Warwickshire family,
Brett of Brett Hall. Foster's 'Alum.
Oxon.,' in giving his matric. at Balliol
College, 3 Jan., 1692/3, aged 15, describes
him as son of Henry Brett of Euston, Oxon,
gentleman. Usually he is stated to have
been either son or grandson of Henry Brett,
M.P. for Gloucester in the Long Parliament,
who suffered sequestration and fine for his
loyalty to the King. Now, according to
'The Visitation of Gloucester, 1683,' the
last-named M.P. died in 1674, aged 87,
his eldest son, Henry, having predeceased
him some three years, being buried in
St. Mary's Church, Oxford, 29 March, 1671
(Le Neve's 'Mon. Ang.'). But George
Brett, second son of the M.P., who also
predeceased his father, dying in 1667 at
the age of 47, had a son Henry, who was
seated at Dowdeswell, Glouc, and was
25 years old at the Visitation of 1683. By
his wife Hester, daughter of Richard Eyam