50
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9*s.m. j A *.2i,
mond Church 24 Nov., 1777, and her daughter
joined her parents in the same grave in May,
1787. She was one of our greatest actresses,
and sat, it is said, to Romney for Tragedy in
his ' Tragedy and Comedy.' I seek to know
her correct maiden name. Most theatrical
authorities call her Anna Maria, but she was
spoken of when young as Mary or Moll
Graham. URBAN.
' ICONOGRAPHY OF DON QUIXOTE.' In con- tinuation of my 'Iconography of Don Quixote,' issued by the Bibliographical Society, I am preparing a volume in wnich the other works of Cervantes are to be similarly treated. In that volume I propose to notice drawings, paintings, statues, tapestries in private col- lections, the subjects of which shall have been derived from one or other of Cer van tea's works, 'Don Quixote' included. If the fortunate possessors would favour me with descriptions of their treasures, the value of my work would be thereby greatly enhanced.
H. S. ASHBEE.
Fowlers, Hawkhurst, Kent.
"FLOWERIE," A NAME FOR THE ACE OF SPADES. Jamieson gives this word (also in form " fleurie ") as a Teviotdale word. Is it known elsewhere ? A. L. MAYHEW.
Oxford.
SIMEON SLINOSBY. Can any reader inform me to which branch of the Slingsby family he belonged ? He died a few years before 1818, and resided at West Cowes, Isle of Wight, and before that at Twickenham, Middlesex. He was very fond of music, and excelled in it. No doubt he is interred at West Cowes, or not very far off. His wife Elizabeth died in the year 1818, leaving property there, which was sold and got into a dilapidated condition. Both he and his wife died intes- tate, and the administration would be registered at Southampton.
B. R. THORNTON.
HERALDIC. It is proposed to devise a flag (a yacht club burgee) from a coat of arms containing a certain ordinary ermine. The flag is to contain no departure from the coat save, for purposes of simplifying, the omis- sion of certain of the charges borne. The ordinary ermine is to be retained. Objections raised to above: (1) ermine is not suitable for a banner, especially in view of the probable way in which furs were introduced into arms ; (2) as the coat of arms is not to be represented in entirety, the flag must be regarded as a new device, so it cannot be urged in defence of the ermine that the case is one of simply transferring a coat of arms
to a banner. Is (2) valid ; and, if it is, are
there any precedents guiding to a decision as
regards (1)? In the flags of at least two
French yacht clubs ermine is represented ;
but would the proceeding be permitted by
English heraldry ? H. H. BRINDLEY.
AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED.
For so short is our life,
Yet with time for all things to forsake us
A bitter delusion, a dream from which naught cart
awake us Till death's dogging footsteps at morn or at eve
shall o'ertake us.
'Tis so to live that when the sun
Of our existence ends in night, Memorials sweet of duties done
May shrine our names in memories bright, And the blest seed we scatter bloom
A hundredfold in days to come.
A. ADLINGTON.
" HELPMATE."
(9 th S. ii. 105, 185, 310, 453, 496.) THE discussion on this word has been in- conclusive, but MR. BAYNE was quite right in pronouncing helpmeet absurd an opinion shared by the editor of the ' Century Diction- ary ' in the same words, and echoed, so to say, by Mr. Fitzedward Hall in the word " inde- fensible." It is perhaps the most anomalously constructed word in the language. Were it a legitimate compound, it should admit replace- ment by hdpfit. But the fact is that meet, like/^, in such a position is meaningless, the only justification of "help meet" in Genesis ii. 18 being the complementary words "for him." The notion that helpmeet is directly formed from the Biblical phrase is incredible. The obvious and natural shortening of that phrase for every-day use is " meet help "; and any of your correspondents who had read Dr. Smythe Palmer's article on helpmeet in his ' Folk Etymology ' would have seen that there is old authority for "meet helper" (William Strode, 1636) and " meet-help " (Bishop Sprat, 1692). To these I am enabled to add Milton (1643), who uses "meet help" twice on p. 28 of his pamphlet on ' Divorce ': "This pro- mise of God to make a meet help This clause
of being a meet help would shew it self so necessary," &c. (The italics are Milton's.) C. C. B.'s supposition (9 th S. ii. 185) that help- meet is older than helpmate is not borne out by our present knowledge. An example of the latter word from 'Robinson Crusoe' is given in Latham's Johnson ; and Dr. Palmer cites from Fitzedward Hall's 'Modern Eng- lish ' several early authorities (including Mrs.
