Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/244

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL MARCH 21, 1003.


spirant was formerly pronounced at the end of the word sigh. He may be glad to know that earlier and better evidence on this point is to be found in Ellis's ' Early English Pro- nunciation,' 1869. In his first volume, p. 212, Ellis quotes Miege, a French orthoepist of 1688, to the effect that the gh in " sigh, un soupir, et le verbe to sigh, soupirer, ont un son particulier qui approche fort de celui du th en Anglois" Two English orthoepists, Jones (1701) and Buchanan (1760), are quoted to confirm this statement and show that the standard pronunciation was sith far into the eighteenth century. The change of a final guttural to a dental may seem strange, but is not without parallel. The place-name Leigh is still locally called Leith (in Lancashire), and the Gaelic surname Mac Giolla Riabhaigh is always anglicized as Mac II wraith.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

PORTRAITS OF JOHN NASH (9 th S. x. 387). In 'Royal Palaces and their Memories,' by Sarah Tooley, p. 307, there is a copy of a picture by Sir Thomas Lawrence at Jesus College, Oxford. There is also a curious old engraving representing John Nash impaled on the spire of All Souls' Church, Langham Place. ANDREW OLIVER.

DICTIONARY OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY (9 th S. x. 48, 176, 291). There is a good paper en- titled ' The Myth,' by Prof. David Masson, in Chambers's ' Papers for the People,' vol. i. No. 5, 1850. It is a systematic account of the Greek mythology. ADRIAN WHEELER.

"THE BEATIFIC VISION" (9 th S. ix. 509; x. 95, 177, 355, 436). An early use of this phrase occurs in the following passage from Bellar- mine, quoted in an article on the ' Invocation of Saints' which appeared in the Church Quarterly Review for January, 1899, p. 284, note 5 :

"Bellarmine, 'De Sane. Beat.,' i. 20, 'Dico solun Deum cognoscere cogitationes omnes omnium cor dium, idque naturaliter et propria virtute : sanctos autem solum cognoscere eas quse a l)eo ipsis mani- festantur sive beatifica visione sive etiam nova revelatione."

I have been unable, lacking leisure, to ascertain the date of Bellarmine's discourse it was, however, prior to 1621, the year oi his death. F. ADAMS.

115, Albany Road, Camberwell.

RACES OF MANKIND (9 th S. xi. 169). The attribution of dolichocephaly to both Negrc and Negrito is traceable to the assumption that the latter represents the primitive stock of the former. But it appears that the dolichocephalic Negro is craniologicall


divergent, for Sir W. Flower "placed it >eyond doubt that the typical Negritoes are brachycephalous " (Keane, ' Ethnology/ Cam- Bridge, 1896). The difference is clearly shown >y contrasting the mean cephalic index of the Negro, about seventy one, with that of the Andamanese, about eighty-two.

J. DORMER.

SAVOIR VIVRE CLUB (9 th S. xi. 127). The date of 'An Ode addressed to the Savoir Vivre Club ' is assumed in the Catalogue of the British Museum Library to be 1710 But

his seems to be a mistake, if we may consider
hat the following passage alludes to the

Oxford Street Pantheon, opened, according to Cunningham, for the first time in 1772 : Or bid the great in splendid circles tread The gay Pantheon's wide illumined round.

But while the Society of Arts was established in the year 1754, the Savoir Vivre Club seems to have given rewards before the existence of that admirable Society, for some lines respect- ing resolutions by which premiums were adjudged to those who excelled in the arts and sciences run :

See ! where the touch Promethean they bestow, Beneath the painter's and the sculptor's art Unwonted life begins to start ; A Phidian feature and a Raphael's glow : The poet takes a bolder wing,

The votive wreath they twine to gain, And o'er each emulative string Sublimer raptures wake the strain.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL. 161, Hammersmith Road, W.

STATISTICAL DATA (9 th S. x. 29, 116). The following work gives dimensions of buildings, heights of mountains, length of rivers, &c., classed under the four quarters of the globe :

"A Complete Geographical Chart, containing a View of the World [to 1834, in MS.] with an account of its inhabitants, religion, products, soil, minerals, imports and exports, trade, islands, seas, rivers, mountains, cascades, waterfalls, lakes, modern discoveries, cathedrals, churches, national debts, monuments, climates, bridges, chief build- ings, &c. Multum in parvo. London, compiled by A. Dyer for L. P. Pollock. E. Justins & Son, printers, 50, Mark Lane, City; and 41, Brick Lane, White- chapel."

ADRIAN WHEELER.

QUOTATIONS WANTED (9 tb S. xi. 68, 118). I much doubt " Neat not gaudy " being a quotation from any work. About fifty years ago it formed part of a phrase which the boys at school used to express their satis- faction with anything to their liking -the colour of a necktie, cricket-cap, &c. The whole ran, " Neat not gaudy, elegant and, at the same time, inexpensive, as the devil