Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/440

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432


NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. ix. MAY 31, 1902.


was originally played in paved areas." Jamie- son, in the * Scottish Dictionary,' deprecates this explanation, and thus discusses the pro- bable origin of the word :

"It is more natural to derive it from Germ. Kolbe, a club ; Belg. kolf, a club for striking bowls or balls, a small stick ; Sw. kolf, properly a hooked club, which is the form of that used in this game. Isl. kylba, kylfa, Icylva, clava. Germ. Su.-G. klubba is certainly radically the same. Wachter derives it from klopp-en, to strike."

The root idea of striking, as Jatnieson men- tions, is supported by the pronunciation of the word as gouf, which is in common use in Scotland to-day, both for the game and for a contemptuous box on the ear. " A gouf i' the lug " may still be heard in the provinces, the word thus surviving exactly in the sense in which it was used by Nicol's henpecked husband in 1739 :

She lends me a gouf, and tells me I 'm douf, I '11 never be like her last Goodman.

THOMAS BAYNE.

PORTRAITS OF JOANNA BAILLIE (9 th S. ix. 129, 237, 354). A fine engraving of Joanna Baillie is prefixed to Longman's edition of 1 The Dramatic and Poetical Works of Joanna Baillie,' 1851. The engraving is quite in accord with Samuel Carter Hall's description of Joanna Baillie in his * Book of Memories,' 1871 :

" I remember her as singularly impressive in look and manner, with the 'queenly 'air we associate with ideas of high birth and lofty rank. Her face was long, narrow, dark, and solemn, and her speech deliberate and considerate, the very antipodes of 'chatter.' Tall in person, and habited according to the mode of an olden time, her picture, as it is now present to me, is that of a very venerable dame, dressed in coif and kirtle, stepping out, as it were, from a frame in which she had been placed by the painter Vandyke."

F. E. MANLEY.

Stoke Newington.

THE SOURCE OF THE SEVEN AGES (9 th S. ix. 46, 197, 298). In the south transept of Siena Cathedral there was, until some forty years ago, an incised pavement of great beauty, representing the seven ages of man infancy, childhood, adolescence, youth, manhood, old age, and decrepitude designed and executed by the sculptor Antonio di Federigo or Federighi in 1475. This pavement was removed from the cathedral between 1869 and 1878, and was replaced by what is called a copy of the original work, executed by two native artists, at a cost, according to the guide-books, of about 9001. Federighi's pave- ment may be seen nearly complete in the cathedral museum to which it has been rele- gated, together with part of the frieze of


stags in front of the Porta del Perdono, which is of the same period. Fragments of the other friezes and borders are also to be found, laid down outside the north aisle of the cathedral, in the little courtyard between it and the present palace of the archbishop. There are a description and photograph of this pavement in the * Pavement Masters of Siena (1369-1562),' by R. fl. Hobart Oust, M.A., pp. 84-6 (Bell & Sons, 1901).

It is evident from the archives of the cathedral that the seven ages of man was a familiar subject at the time that the commission was given for the execution of this pavement. Under the date of 24 April, 1475, there is an entry of a disbursement of "libre diciotto di pecie si die a maestro Antonio [Federighi] capomaestro di buttiga nostra per irnpeciare la storia dell' ettade."

JOHN HEBB.

" FIVE O'CLOCK TEA " : WHEN INTRODUCED (9 th S. vi. 446; vii. 13, 96, 176, 332). Dr. Somerville, minister of Jedburgh, was born in 1741, and, writing of social habits in Scotland in his " early life," he says :

" Most families, both in the higher and in the middle ranks, used tea at breakfast ; but among the latter it was only recently introduced, or beginning to be introduced, in the afternoon, and then exclu^ sively on the occasion of receiving company." ' Life and Times,' p. 329.

More explicit is his mention of the custom of afternoon tea at Buxton in 1793 :

" While at Buxton, I had great pleasure in the society of Sir John and Lady Clerk. At their lodgings I was introduced to the company of Miss Seward, a lady of literary celebrity, Mr. Seward, author of the 'Anecdotes,' Sir Adam Ferguson, Sir Archibald Grant, and Baron Gordon. Miss Seward spoke a good deal to the persons near her, but no literary subject was introduced, nor had I any opportunity of taking part in the conversation, or breaking that silence which she imputes to me, in a letter in which she characterizes all the indi- viduals who met at a tea-drinking party one afternoon." P. 280.

Carlyle of Inveresk mentions the custom as existing at Harrogate thirty years earlier. Writing of society there in 1763, he says : " The ladies gave afternoon's tea and coffee in their turns" ('Autobiography,' p. 434).

W. S.

EULOGIES OF THE BIBLE BY HUXLEY AND DARWIN (9 th S. ix. 328, 374). Will MR. JOHNSON kindly inform me where to procure the art icle named and the booklet, as I have tried in vain ? L. A. M.

BOOK-TITLES CHANGED (9 th S. ix. 384). MR. AULD will find 'The Black Swan,' by Oliver Madox Brown, in the second volume of the posthumous collection of the young