Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/293

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  • s. viii. OCT. 5, i9oi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


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" ticed him beautifully " 1 " Tice" is derived from entice. May we derive "yorker" from "york-pitch "=an inclination of fifty degrees? For the literary use of the word "yorker" one has only to turn to Mr. E. B. V. Chris- tian's ' Ode on a Yorker' (' At the Sign of the Wicket'). ARTHUR MAYALL.

WOWERUS'S ' SHADOW.' Where can I see a copy of Wowerus's 'Shadow'? or will some one tell me what is the idea of the poem, and how it is worked out? It is mentioned by Dr. Johnson in his life of Browne.

THOMAS AULD.

"LE PAUVRE DIABLE." Where did Maria Edge worth (' Life and Letters,' p. 81) pick up the speech attributed to St. Theresa ? " Le pauvre Diable ! comme je le plains ! II ne peut rien aimer. Ah ! qu'il doit etre mal- neureux ! " One would hardly expect to find a sympathizer in such a quarter.

B. D. MOSELEY.

UNINTENTIONAL VERSIFICATION. Sir Oliver Martext, in 'As You Like It,' III. iii., says, " Ne'er a fantastical knave of them all shall flout me out of my calling." This is in one of the prose scenes of the play, and it is cer- tainly meant for prose, but is it not distinctly metrical ? Let me write it as verse : Ne'er a fantastical knave of them all Shall flout me out of my calling.

Is not this exactly the metre and rhythm of the lines in the Jacobite song :

Over the water and over the lea, And over the water to Charlie ?

In * Old Mortality,' chap, xiv., Cuddie Head- , who assuredly, like Monsieur Jourdain, ed prose all his life, says on a certain occasion : " And inony a weary grace they said, and mony a psalm they sang." Write this also as verse, and it is distinct metre : And mony a weary grace they said, And mony a psalm they sang.

See also the passage in Dickens's ' Cricket on the Hearth,' near the beginning: "It's a dark night, sang the kettle," down to ** but he's coming, coming, coming." But is not this last intentionally metrical, although it is printed as prose? See 'N. & O.,' 2 nd S. vi. 121, 173, 220. JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

Ropley, Hampshire.

REGINALD HEBER, 1764. In a book list sent me, No. 12 is: "Horse Matches: an Historical List of those run and of the Plates and Prizes run for in Great Britain and Ireland, by Reginald Heber (vol. xiii. only), 2s. 1704." Who and what was this Reginald Heber? THOMAS J. JEAKES.


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DEVIL- WORSHIPPERS AND WHITE CATTLE. In an interesting report of an interview with the chief of the Devil-worshippers, published in the Standard of 30 August, I find it noted among many valuable details that in the valley of Sheikh Adi, near Mardin, in Asiatic Turkey, the residence of the high priest of Satan is within a stone's throw of the " Sanc- tuary of the White Cow," where a couple of watchmen keep guard over the " sacred kine dedicated to the sun." What type of animal are these white kine? How is the stock replenished? R. HEDGER WALLACE.

FIRST AMERICAN THEATRICAL COMPANY IN ENGLAND. In 8 th S. iii. 95 is a note concern- ing the first English theatrical company to appear in America. When did the first American company not merely a leading American actor or actress visit England ? ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

BLYTHE. Can any reader give me in- formation about a painter of this name ? He was of the Dutch School, time about 1790, of English extraction, hence the English name. Where are any of his works exhibited, and what place does he hold in the history of art? F. A. STRAKER.

" OBELISK." We get the word obelisk from its use by Herodotus to describe certain gigantic Egyptian monoliths. The word for his Greek readers was associated with the shape of a javelin with which game was pierced, and with that of the spit on which it was roasted. But what was the name by which Egyptians themselves called these unique wonders ? I beg some Egyptologist to tell me through ' N. & Q.,' in the hope that the native name will be as expressive as the term adopted by the Greeks, which must be immortal the world over.

JAMES D. BUTLER.

Madison, Wis.

GAD - WHIP SERVICE. Can any of your readers inform me of places where gad- whip services have been held, and also the origin of this custom? I have been con- siderably interested in reading an account of the gad- whip manorial service which was for many years rendered at Caistor Church, Lincolnshire. An estate in the parish of Broughton was held subject to the perform- ance, on Palm Sunday in every year, of the ceremony of cracking a whip, which was regularly performed in the following manner. The whip was taken every Palm Sunday by a man from Broughton to the church at Caistor, and he, while the minister was read-