326
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. i. APRIL 23, m
ferias. But this translation is quite mis-
leading. "Prodevoto femineo sexu" is not
= "for the devout female sex," or "for all
pious women," but is = " for women vowed to
God," i.e., for nuns and women in religion.
So the preceding words seem to intimate :
1 ora pro populo interveni pro clero inter-
cede pro devoto femineo sexu." And it is
thus rendered ("women vowed to God")
in Lord Bute's translation of the Roman
Breviary. GEOEGE ANGUS.
St. Andrews, N.B.
WATCHMEN'S VEKSES. There was lately inquiry about watchmen's verses. A copy of those presented to the inhabitants of Bungay by the watchmen " John Pye and John Tye," in 1823, is in Hone's ' E very-Day Book/ Lon., 1830, cols. 1628-30. There is a print of a watchman. ED. MAESHALL.
THE POSTS IN 1677. (See ante, p. 121.) Earlier references to some of these posts are to be found in the London Gazette. There appeared, for instance, in No. 304 of that journal (12-15 October, 1668) this advertise- ment, which was repeated in various later numbers :
" Notice is hereby given, That for the Advance of Commerce and Correspondence, a new Horse- Post is setled, to carry Letters twice every week between Exeter and Lawnston."
DUNHEVED.
ZEPHYE. This word is generally understood to mean " the west wind," from the Greek, and probably not many persons are aware that it has any other signification. It is evident, however, that Dyer used it in another sense when he wrote in his beautiful little poem ' Grongar Hill ' (of which Johnson re- marked, "When it is once read, it will be read again"):
While the wanton Zephyr sings. And in the vale perfumes his wings.
The * Encyclopedic Dictionary' informs us that it is also the name of a genus of lepidop- terous insects of the family of Lycsenidee, which, according to Westwood ('Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects'), "comprises a numerous assemblage of small and weak, but beautiful butterflies." Why the genus Zephyrus is so called does not appear. Are the wings dark?
It would be interesting to know the mean- ing of Grongar. The hill is stated in the third volume of the 'Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales' to be situated in Car- diganshire; but it is really, as mentioned editorially in ' N. & Q.' (4 th S. ix. 271), located in Caermarthenshire, not far from Llandilo-
fawr, which is on the road from Brecon to
Caermarthen, and near which was fought a
battle between the English and Welsh in the
year 1282. W. T. LYNN.
Blackheath.
"TIGEE"=A BOY GEOOM. -Everybody is probably familiar with this word in the sense signified, but I cannot recall meeting with any satisfactory explanation of its origin until recently. Previous to then I had referred to the 'Encyclopaedic Dictionary,' where I found the meanings given, " a boy in livery whose special duty is to attend on his master while driving out; a young male servant or groom." And here, too, we find a quotation from Barham's 'Ingoldsby Legends,' 'The Execution':
Tiger Tim was clean of limb,
His boots were polished, his jacket was trim.
There is also a notice of the term in the 'Slang Dictionary' (1873), where we have a somewhat similar definition to that given above, and also that of " one who waits on laaies as a page." So much, then, was derivable from books of reference at hand, but nowhere within my reach did I discover any information as to the first use of the word as applied to a boy servant whose duties are as indicated. Recently, however, while skimming the * Recollections, Political, Literary, Dramatic, and Miscellaneous, of the Last Half-Century,' by the Rev. J. Richardson, LL.B., a work in two volumes, published in 1855, I came across some anecdotes anent the notorious Barrymores, with some of whom he seems to have been acquainted. And it is in connexion with the experiences which he relates that he makes the following remarks with reference to the boy servant about whom I am writing. In vol. ii. pp. 129, 130, he writes :
"His lordship [Lord Barrymore] was the first person who introduced that class of retainers known by the title ' tiger,' and the original ' tiger' was the late Alexander Lee, the musician and composer. The early 'tiger' differed in some respects from the animal now known by that name. His duties were different, and his position more dignified. Thus the business of Alexander Lee, when a mere boy, was to accompany his noble patron in his cab, or rather in the huge one-horse chaise in which his lordship
,s trundled through the streets by the power of a gigantic horse. The boy was not, as 'tigers nowadays are, perched up at the back of the vehicle in which the driver lolls at his ease. He had the privilege of being seated alongside of his lordship, and his services were made use of to perform the
part which the heathen mythology assigns to
Mercury. His lordship, who drove throng 1
streets ' fancy free,' whenever his fancy proA
ercury. His lordship, who drove through the
reets ' fancy free,' whenever his fancy provoked
him to a liaison with a female by whose appearance
he was captivated, ' pulled up f his cumbrous car,
