186
NOTES AND QUERIES. o>* s. ix. MARCH s, 1002.
a wry face. Holding the paper close to his
nose (for the philosopher was, in addition,
very near-sighted), Mendelssohn blurted out,
"Some fellow has been very rude to your
Highness. He has written 'Mendelssohn
is one ass Frederick the Second. 3 " The
original was : " Mendelssohn is an ass
Frederick II." M. L. R. BRESLAR.
"VICUNA." This has been badly treated by our lexicographers. Firstly, the * Century Dictionary 'derives it from "Peruvian vicuna, Mexican vicugne" which is half right and half wrong, since it has about as much to do with Mexican as with the fabled "Lingua Angelorum." Secondly, Prof. Skeat, in his 'Notes on English Etymology,' 1901, p. 345, says : " I do not find this word in the Peruvian dictionary, arid suspect it to be a corruption." It may not be in all Peruvian dictionaries, but it is to be found in several of them. Thus Domingo de S. Thomas, the earliest writer who applied the now familiar name Quichua to the Peruvian, has in his 'Lexicon de la Lengua General del Peru,' 1560, " Ore/a, llama, 6 paco, 6 guaca, 6 guanaco, 6 vicuiia." Similarly Juan Martinez, in his ' Vocabulario en la Lengua General del Peru,' 1604, has " Oveja silvestre, vicuna, huanacu." These references may be of use to the editors of the ' N.E.D.' The term occurs in English in Acosta's 'Natural! Historic,' 1604, iv. xl. : "There is another kiride of beasts, which they call Tarugne, which likewise are wilde and more nimble than the Vicugne." I men- tion this because it contains a curious mis- print. By the change of a letter two termi- nations are levelled under one. Tarugne should be tarugue, representing Spanish taruga, which in Martinez is spelt taruca and glossed "ciervo 6 venado."
J. PLATT, Jim.
^POPE LEO. Pope Leo, who completed his ninety-second year on Sunday last, March 2nd, is, the Daily Neius reminds us, the only Pope who has strolled along Piccadilly and occu- pied a seat in the Distinguished Strangers' Gallery at the House of Commons, where he had the pleasure of hearing a speech by Daniel O'Connell, the Irish leader of the period. The Pope, then Archbishop Pecci, spent the whole of February, 1846, in London. C^ueen Victoria, whom he had previously met when Papal Nuncio at Brussels, invited him to a State reception at Court, and he was also present at "a great ceremonial in which the Queen took part." N. S. S.
POLITICAL NICKNAMES : CHAMBERLAIN AND Political nicknames are often amus-
ing, but it is sometimes difficult to trace their
history. Let 'N. & Q. 3 register two. 'A
Bismarck en Pantoufles ' is the title of a
searching article in the February number
of the Fortnightly Review on the political
career of Chancellor of the Empire Biilow.
The other nickname I take from another
article in the same number, 'The Man of
Emergency 3 : "The Vowvcirts, the Socialist
organ in Berlin, had the good fortune to coin
the wittiest thing yet said of the Chesterfield
speech, 'Lord Rosebery is Mr. Chamberlain
Edition de htxe'" (p. 193).
WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK. Ramoyle, Dowanhill Gardens, Glasgow.
SWIFT'S VISITS TO ENGLAND: THE "FOUR CROSSES " INN. In collecting material for a work on the Holyhead Road I have come upon traces of Dean Swift here and there, and particularly at Willoughby, a wayside village four and a half miles from Daventry, where the old " Four Crosses " Inn stood until 1898, when it was demolished, owing, perhaps, to the alterations in the neighbourhood incident upon the completion of the Great Central Railway, crossing over the road near by, and with the station for Willoughby within sight. Many years ago the late Mr. Cropper, an auctioneer of Rugby, who was born at Willoughby, purchased from an old woman in the village a pane of glass credibly said to have once been in a window of the "Four Crosses," and bearing the inscription, apparently scratched with the diamond of his ring :
There are three
Crosses at your door :
Hang up your Wife
and you '1 count Four.
Swift D. 1730.
This pane an old diamond-shaped piece of green glass, that bears its antiquity plain to see is now in the possession of Mrs. Cropper at Rugby. I have seen it on two occasions, and carefully copied the inscription as above. The story told is that the dean, staying at the inn, then called the " Three Crosses" (presumably from roads that even nosv run in three directions from the spot), was annoyed by the landlady, who would not put herself to any extra trouble for him, and that, on leaving, he scratched this uncom- plimentary suggestion. It seems that, if the landlord did not suspend his wife, he at least altered his sign. When the pane was re- moved does not appear, but evidently a great many years ago. Perhaps the landlady her- self saw to it !
But, strange to say, another inn called the " Four Crosses " claims this distinction, and
