Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/142

This page needs to be proofread.

134


NOTES AND QUERIES.


s. IT. AUG. 13, m


Grsecos, ac Scriptores Apocryphos Veteris Testament!; post Bielium et alios viros doctos congessit et edidit Johannes Friederi- cus Schleusner." Lipsise, 1820-21, in five parts or volumes, 8vo. Glasguae et Londini, 1822, in three thick volumes, 8vo. In the last edition many typographical errors in the former are corrected and English renderings are given of Schleusner's German translations.

R. M. SPENCE, D.D. Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B.

The first complete lexicon of the Septuagint is, I think, that of J. C. Biel, Hag. Com., 1779-80, in three octavo volumes. An im- provement upon this as its basis is the lexicon of J. F. Schleusner, Lips., 1820, or Glasgow and London in two volumes, 1822.

ED. MARSHALL.

ROBERT FERGUSSON (9 th S. i. 186). The inscription on the stone in Canongate Kirk- yard, Edinburgh, placed by Burns over Fergusson's grave, is as follows :

Here lies Robert Fergusson, poet,

born 5 Sept., 1751, and died 16 Oct., 1774.

No pageant bearings here nor pompous lay,

No storied urn nor animated bust, This simple stone directs old Scotia's way To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust.

From which it will be seen that the poet at his death had only just completed his twenty- third year.

Burns's appreciation of Fergusson may be gathered from the opening sentence of his letter to the bailies of Canongate requesting permission to place a stone over Fergusson's grave, which runs :

" I am sorry to be told that the remains of Robert Fergusson, the so justly celebrated poet, a man whose talent for ages to come will do honour to our Caledonian name, lie in your churchyard among the ignoble dead, unnoticed and unknown. Some memorial to direct the steps of the lovers of Scottish song, when they wish to shed a tear over the ' narrow house ' of the bard who is no more, is surely a tribute due to Fergusson's memory." ' Book of Burns,' p. 143.

A letter from Burns to Peter Hill, dated Dumfries, Feb. 5, 1792, enclosing 61. Is., and authorizing him to pay to Mr. Robert Burn, architect, the designer and builder of the Nelson monument on Calton Hill, Edinburgh, " for erecting the stone over pcor Fergusson." was sold at the sale of the late Mr. A. C. Lamb's library and autographs on 7 February last for 30. 9s. JOHN HEBB.

Canonbury, N.

FAROUWA.R'S 'BEAUX' STRATAGEM' (9 th S. L/OME, L.> Beaux' Stratagem ' was very YOUR DADS (ff u v the late Miss Litton, at of the author- of the, ttached to the Aqua- be round in many ballau


rium, Westminster), on Monday, 22 September, 1879. The characters were cast as follows : Lady Bountiful, Mrs. Stirling; Mrs. Sullen, Miss Litton ; Dorinda, Miss Meyrick ; Cherry, Miss Carlotta Addison ; Gipsy, Miss Pas- singer ; Aimwell, Mr. Edgar ; Sir Charles Freeman, Mr. Denny; Archer, Mr. William Farren; Sullen, Mr. Ryder; Foigard, Mr. Bannister ; Boniface, Mr. Everill ; Hounslow, Mr. Bunch ; Bagshot, Mr. Leitch ; Gibbet, Mr. Kyrle Bellew ; Scrub, Mr. Lionel Brough. The old comedy was fitted on this occasion with a new Prologue (spoken by Mrs. Stirling) and Epilogue, from the clever pen of Mr. Clement Scott. MICHAEL WILLIAMS.

10, Old Burlington Street.

" HORSE GUARDS" (9 th S. ii. 7). "1691, April 16. An order is fixed on the Horse Guards' door by Whitehall, that no suspected person be permitted to walk in St. James's Park ; and that several private doors into it should be shut up " (Ewald's ' Paper and Parchment Historical Sketches,' p. 186, s. v. ' Leaves from an Old Diary'). H. ANDREWS.

SOURCE OF QUOTATION WANTED (9 th S. i. 249, 416). "In writing, in criticism, and in life in all these, first impressions are to be preserved." In reading some remarks of Sir Joshua Reynolds more than fifty years ago, I took a note of these words. I should be obliged if any of your readers would tell me where they are to be found. D. R.

Oxford.

" KITTY- WITCHES" (9 th S. i. 388). For " kitties " see Ramsay's ' Christ's Kirk on the Green,' Canto I. (supposed to have been the composition of James I. of Scotland, who died in 1437), v. 1. 1. 7. "There came out kitties washen clean," who, in v. 2, 1. 2, are spoken of as

Thir lasses light o' laits ;

with the note, "Light or wanton in their manners." I presume &^y kitten. Cf. " A Welsh bitch makes a Cheshire cat, and a Cheshire cat makes a Lancashire witcn," which describes the harlot's progress in the factory towns. THOMAS J. JEAKES.

Tower House, New Hampton.

The Rev. A. Smythe Palmer in his 'Folk- Etymology ' says a kitty- witch is a Norfolk word for a cockchafer, from the A.-S. ivicga, seen also in e&r-tvig, and refers to the Philological Society's Transactions, 1858, p. 103 Halliwell in his 'Dictionary of Provincial Words ' gives as a meaning '* a kind of small crab, a species of sea-fowl, a female spectre."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.