Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/97

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9s.viLFM.2,i9oio NOTES AND QUERIES.


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Owen, of New Lanark ; another, Mary, married the Rev. James Haldane Stewart, of Percy Chapel, London. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart signed the conveyance of David Dale's Glasgow mansion house in 1823. Any biographical details of Mr. Stewart will be welcome. Were any children born of the marriage? WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK.

Ramoyle, Dowanhill Gardens, Glasgow.

" HUMBUZ." I find the following entries in letters from a resident Fellow of Magdalene College, Cam bridge, dated respectively 16 July, 1777, and 26 July, 1778 :

"I desire she will remember my Lectures in horsemanship, as I am now become a Hum - Buz again in College and may not have y* pleasure of giving her any more of some time."

  • ' Riding alone by way of a ride with a College

Hum-Buz is the deuce and all besides there are hardly any College Hum-Buzzes left to ride with."

Is a humbuz an individual now known as an " old fogey," and among the lower orders as a " codger " ? and did the word change long after into "humbug," used in apparently quite a different sense, as by Dickens in 'Pickwick'? ALBERT HARTSHORNE.

[Humbuzz, in the 'H.E.D.,'is applied as a local name to a cockchafer, and also characterizes a species of bull-roarer. It does not seem to have much to do with the matter, but Ben Jonson has, in 'Oberon,'

"Buz" quoth the bluefly,

"Hum" quoth the bee, which at least brings together the hum and buzz.]

MR. VERNON S. MORWOOD. Can any reader of ' 1ST. & Q.' kindly say if Mr. Vernon S. Mor- wood, the author of 'Facts and Phases of Animal Life ' and several other works, is still living I Those who ought to know seem to be doubtful. HUBERT SMITH. '

Brooklynne, Leamington Spa.

" SELFODE." The following passage occurs in a list of tenants and their holdings at Hedgeley, in the parish of Eglingham in Northumberland :

" De qualibet self ode iij dietas vel iij denarios, exceptis selfod propriis Joh'i de Somervile in terra sua comorantibus, et si extra terram suam moram faciant, faciunt servicium" (1290-1).

I cannot arrive at any explanation of self ode.

J. T. F.

"THE LUNGS OF LONDON." I wonder if any readers of 'N. <fc Q.' can tell us for certain who invented this happy phrase. A correspondent of a weekly journal which devotes much of its space to metropolitan historical matters is disposed to attribute the same to the great Earl of Chatham, the record of whose melancholy sojourn at "Wild-


woods" is writ large upon the annals of Hamp- stead. The ' Encyclopaedic Dictionary ' quotes the opinion expressed by Brewer that the words first came from the lips of Windham during a Parliamentary debate upon the sub- ject of Hyde Park encroachments in the year 1808. Can any anterior claim to the existence of the term be established? It would be curious were the expression traceable to Hampstead's famous recluse; for, of all suburbs, that is assuredly the most favoured in the matter of breathing - spaces whither the half-stifled citizen may mount at will and be tempted to "crow like chanticleer."

CECIL CLARKE.

[In 8 th S. ix. 93 J. H. W. states that Mr. Wind- ham assigned its origin to Lord Chatham.]

"UNDER WEIGH." This vicious locution has already been dealt with in ' N. & Q.,' and need not be discussed again. I shall, how- ever, be obliged to any reader who can tell me when it came first into use. F. ADAMS.

DEFINITION OF GRATITUDE. Who first, and when, defined gratitude as an expectation of favours to come ? Hay ward (' Letters,' ii. 207) quotes it in 1869 as an Irishism. W. T.

[Hazlitt, in his ' Wit and Humour,' gives it to Sir Robert Walpole, 1674-1746.]

THE BISHOP OF LONDON'S FUNERAL. I send this from the Pall Mall Gazette (17 January) : "The Greek Archimandrite and Dr. Adler, the Chief Rabbi, wearing their black gowns and gold chains, walked in together and took their places in the choir." Has a Jewish rabbi ever attended an English bishop's funeral before ? Also : " Standing crosier in hand in the Archiepiscopal throne, Dr. Temple pronounced the Benediction." This, too (same paper), may interest, as showing the present " use " as to an archbishop's employment of his cross. IBAGUE.

FRANCIS THROGMORTON. I am in search of particulars concerning a person of this name who was a prisoner in Shrewsbury in 1597-8, for what offence I am unable to say, but I suspect he was a recusant. In one of his letters from the prison to the bailiffs of the town he writes :

" If your worshipful hearts had intelligence how my Lady Throgrnorton, my half sister, her Majesty's delight, and my lady Scidmore, my cousin germain by the mother, her Majesty's bedfellow, came unto me to visit me in the Mareshalseye when 1 was there a prisoner and had by strange accident lost all my lands, in disguised attire sitting by my side when I was in habit and maintenance of a gentleman, and in what manner they wept and sorried to see my distressed ruin and restrained distress, doubtless it would have moved you unto pity and comiseration."