9 8. X. JULY 98, 1MB.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
75
The frame is ebonized wood, and, needless
to say, contains a "Convex Glass with Bur-
nished Gold Border," there being four stripes
of blaok, two wide and two narrow, running
through the gold. The date is probably
about 1805.
As Lieut. Watson was a native of New- castle, it seems probable that the London Mr. Miers is identical with the Nova-Castrian visitor J. Miers, and query if he was a pupil of Charles 1 the above evidently resembling the portraits mentioned by MR. DRURY.
It would be of interest to know what became of Mr. Miers's "original sketches." H. R. LEIGHTON.
East Boldon, R.S.O., co. Durham.
GREEK PRONUNCIATION (9 th S. vii. 146, 351, 449; viii. 74, 192, 372, 513; ix. 131, 251, 311, 332, 436, 475). I have read PROF. SKEAT'S note with great interest, even though it was written to correct astatementof mine. I think, however, that PROF. SKEAT should not lay the whole blame upon his careless readers. I also venture to think that PROF. SKEAT'S own view of the etymology of the word salt has been modified. If this is not so, I do not see why in his 'Etymological Dictionary,' 1884, second edition, he should put salt A.-S. sealt (the symbol he tells us is always to be read "directly derived from or borrowed from "), and then, in his ' Concise Etymolo- gical Dictionary ' of 1885, second edition, leave out this symbol ; though he still makes no mention at all of the Old Mercian word salt. It is true that in the ' Etymological Dictionary' of 1884 he gives a caution in the preface, p. xv, about words said to be derived from A.-S. ; but the ordinary reader looking out the derivation of any word would not necessarily read the whole of the long preface, and the caution is quite apart from the explanation of the symbols used. In any case, if PROF. SKEAT had put in his former dictionaries salt, M.E. salt. Old Merc, salt, A.-S. sealt, as it stands in his revised one of 1901, which I do not possess, it is clear that no reader, even though " un- initiated," could have mistaken his meaning.
M. HAULTMONT.
GENDER OF NOUNS IN GERMAN AND RUS- SIAN (9 th S. ix. 445). May I supplement the note of my excellent friend DR. H. KREBS with the observation that Prince Bismarck, an able European linguist, considered that Russian might be substituted for Greek with advantage for educational purposes, on ac- count of the mental discipline involved in learning the declensions of substantives 1 In the other Slavonic languages, as I have had
the honour of pointing out in *N. & Q.,' the
declensions are confused. Bulgarian has
borrowed a postponed definite article from
non-Slavonic languages. I venture to think
that Russian prose is more intelligible than
cultivated German, with its frequent involu-
tions and interpolations.
FRANCIS P. MARCHANT. Brixton Hill.
" OTE-TOI DE LA, QUE JE M'Y METTE " (7 th S. xi. 348, 416). A remarkable sonnet by Giu- seppe Giusti, the Tuscan poet, written in 1849, concludes with these lines :
Vedrai che 1' uom di setta e sempre quello, Pronto a giocar di tutti, e a dire addio Al conoscente, all' amico e al fratello. " E tutto si riduce, a parer mio " (Come disse un poeta di Magello), "A dire : esci di 11, ci vo star io."
The poet of Magello was Filippo Pananti, born at Ronta, in Magello, 19 March, 1766, and who died at Florence 14 September, 1837. The expression referred to is taken from canto xciv. sestina 2 of the ' Poeta di Teatro,"" his best work :
E donde nascqn le rivoluzioni ? Dai lumi dei filosofi ? dal peso Dell' ingiustizia, delle imppzioni ? So che questo si dice, anche is 1' ho inteso : Ma tutto si riduce, al parer mio, Al dire : esci di n, ci vo star io.
JOHN HEBB.
CLIFFORD - BRAOSE (9 th S. v. 355, 499; vi. 75, 236, 437). I cited from the old (MS.) Calendar of Close Rolls at the Record Office [p. 206, No. 4) an entry " concerning certain lands [in Sussex] which m. de Wyk held of Honora de Thony, who was wife of Roger de Thony, lately defunct," &c. By comparison with the original roll I afterwards found
- >hat the words I have italicized were a
Dlunder of the translator's, no such person 3eing referred to in the original, where the statement is that the lands were "held of the Honour of Tony." Happily the old VIS. Calendar has recently been superseded
- )y a new printed one, and in the latter a
correct version is given.
ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.
AUTOGRAPH COTTAGE (9 th S. ix. 368, 454). [ am obliged for MR. JULIAN MARSHALL'S dnd offer, which I shall be pleased to avail myself of when most convenient for him. Probably the catalogues record many items of Islingtoniana. ALECK ABRAHAMS.
39, Hillmarton Road, N.
ELIZABETH, LADY MORLEY (9 th S. ix. 388). Since forwarding this query I have been fortunate in obtaining information which
