Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/364

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356


NOTES AND QUERIES.


[9 th S. II. OCT. 29, '98.


One would suppose that the chief instru- ment of the band of Jodelet's horse-marines must have been " la trompette marine," also mentioned by Moliere (' Le Bourgeois-Gentil- homme,' Acte II. scene i.). See 'N. & Q.,' 8 th S. ii. 78, s.v. ' Boot and Saddle.'

JONATHAN BOUCHIEE.

Taken in connexion with the original query under the above heading, I think that there can be little doubt that the above creature is identical with the sea-horse described on p. 193 of "Heraldry Ancient and Modern, including Boutell's Heraldry, edited and revised, with additions, by S. T. Aveling," &c., London, 1892 :

" Sea-horse, a horse with a fin in place of a mane, the feet webbed, and the hinder part like a fish's tail."

As to the old joke about " horse-marines, I pointed out many years ago in these columns that they really existed in our service, as one of our most distinguished cavalry regiments, viz., the 17th Lancers, at that time the 17th Light Dragoons, actually served for some time during the eighteenth century as marines on board ship and assisted in the capture of some of the West Indian islands.

I am also under the impression that the present uniform of the navy blue with white facings was derived from that of the 17th Lancers or vice versa, in consequence of the above connexion, and have seen it so stated, but have forgotten the reference. *

C. S. HARRIS.

The late Admiral Smyth in his 'Sailor's Word - Book ' explains this term as an awkward, lubberly person, one out of place. Dr. Ogilyie in the 'Imperial Dictionary' adopts this meaning, and adds " as a cavalry force would be in a sea fight."

EVERABD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

KELTIC REMAINS IN NORTHUMBERLAND (9 th S. ii. 268). MR. ACKERLEY will find copious information in Dr. Greenwell's 'British Bar- rows ' ; also in the Transactions of the Berwickshire Naturalist Club for 1864, in G. Tate's 'Ancient Sculptured Rocks of Northumberland'; and for 1885 by Dr. Hardy on ' Urns and other Antiquities found round the Southern Skirts of the Cheviot Hills.' G. H. THOMPSON.

Alnwick.

" A FAMFT DOO " (9 th S. ii. 307). Dialect if. not one of my studies ; but as I find in a glossary of Yorkshire words, " Foo, a fool," ] have no hesitation in pronouncing " a fampt


doo" to be a mystification of "a damned fool." The practice of interchanging the initial etters of a pair of words is a bit of vulgar 'acetiousness that has been in vogue for more

han half a century ; my father, who died in

1848, would often say in fun that he was going to " poke a smipe." When I was a boy there was a special name for this kind of talk. Was it " St. Giles's Greek " 1

F. ADAMS. Many replies to the same effect are acknowledged.]

THE MANOR OF LISSON (9 th S. i. 181 ; ii. 283). The extract quoted at the last refer-

nce interests me. In December, 1881, I read a paper before the Philological Society on ' Anglo - Saxon Pet Names,' of which a

ynopsis was duly printed in the Proceedings (vol. for 1882-3-4). In the course of it I offered (1) a list of the certain examples of abbreviations used as pet names by the side of their fuller forms in Anglo-Saxon ; (2) an attempt to explain the many hitherto unex- plained Anglo-Saxon names as having been originally such pet names. Under this latter head I suggested, very tentatively, that the Lyllaof the 'A.-S. Chronicle' might be derived from the adjective lytel. My excuse for drawing attention to my own work must be the resemblance of this name to Lilla and Lulla, together with a hope that the whole of my article may prove useful to COL. PRIDEAUX. JAMES PLATT, Jun.

Lille being the Danish for little, it appears not unlikely that it has given rise to a per- sonal name, such as is found in Lillesbeam, Lillesham, Lillarbroc, &c.

JAMES PEACOCK.

Sunderland.

ALCUIN CLUB (9 th S. ii. 265). According to Walter Walsh's 'Secret History of the Oxford Movement' (p. 240), the Society of St. Osmund was formed in 1889 for the purpose of introducing ceremonies based on the Sarum Missal into the Church of England by aiding those who wished to do so, by publishing books, and by directing studies. In February, 1897, the Society was dissolved, but was at once reorganized as the Alcuin Club. This club has the same object as the society, but is much more numerous and active. M. N. G.'

GREATEST HEAT RECORDED IN ENGLAND (9 th S. ii. 180, 255, 314). The extremes of out- door temperature in England vary more than 123 degrees. The greatest heat probably on record was registered in the valley of the Med- way on 22 July, 1868, when the thermometer at Tonbridge stood intheshadeatlOO|F. Eleven