majority of Scottish students of 'The Pilgrim's Progress' err with "the Slough of Despond"; in any case, "the Sloff" is very largely favoured. THOMAS BAYNE. Latham considered myth a comparatively new word in English when he brought out his dictionary in 1870, and devotes considerable space to its orthography and pronunciation. It is astonishing in how many words derived from the Greek the quantity of the original vowels is disregarded. I have made no attempt to form an exhaustive collection of them, but the following immediately suggest themselves: cinematograph, encyclopedia, misanthrope, misogynist (and the like), pedagogue, myriad, phthisis, těle gram, telephone, tělescope (and the like). This disregard of quantity in English words derived from the Greek may possibly be due in part to the fact that the later Greeks themselves paid small attention to quantity, and that even in Alexandrian times accent had largely taken its place. Thus, when the early Western Church incorporated Kúpte élénσov into the Mass, the latter word became simply "eléison"; and in modern Greek, as I am credibly informed, quantity goes for nothing. Among English words derived from the Latin, on the other hand, I can, at the moment, think only of "origin," as an example of quantity being disregarded, though there are probably many others. In 'The Society upon the Stanislaus,' Bret Harte writes :: Then Abner Dean of Angel's raised a point of order-when A chunk of old red sandstone took him in the abdomen. Here scansion seems to require the penultimate syllable of the last word to be short; but Truthful James is not an authority on pronunciation, and in this case probably has but few followers. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. The reply to the question whether "either" or "eether" was right was, according to my memory, "ayther or other," in Lancashire fifty years ago. ROBERT PIERPOINT. Tryst is a word still commonly used-in the sense of an appointment-in Scotland, and in my experience is invariably pro nounced long. That Scott so pronounced it we gather from the passage in 'Rob Roy' where Francis Osbaldistone meets Rob Roy at Glasgow Bridge: "You walk late, sir,' said I. I bide tryste,' was the reply." See Rob Roy,' ii. 53 (Edinburgh, Adam & Charles Black, 1853). T. F. D. LACONIC LETTERS (10th S. v. 108, 153, 171, 197).-According to Campbell's 'Lives of the Admirals,' Sir George Walton was sent in pursuit of a Spanish squadron, and reported the admiral in command :— what took place in the following dispatch to ships as per margin. Yours, &c., G. WALTON. SIR,-I have taken or destroyed all the Spanish Horace Walpole in one of his papers in The World praises the following letter, written by Lady Pembroke in the reign of Charles II. I quote from memory, but think that Lady Pembroke wrote to Lord Arlington, who had insisted on her allowing Sir Joseph Williamson to be returned member for her borough of Appleby : SIR, I have been bullied by a usurper, I have been neglected by a court, but I will not be dictated to by a subject. Your man shan't stand. ANNE PEMBROKE. M. N. G. I have some memory of a story that some person wrote to the first Duke of Wellington, threatening to publish certain letters of his, and that he replied : DEAR JULIA,-Publish and be damned. When Lord John Russell announced the breaking up of Earl Grey's Cabinet on 27 May, 1834, Mr. Stanley, Colonial Secretary, wrote the following to Sir James Graham, First Lord of the Admiralty ('Hist. of Reform Club,' by Louis Fagan) : MY DEAR G.,-Johnny has upset the coach. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. The Rev. Sydney Smith tells my late father of his having obtained a living for him, thus: DEAR SIR,-You have got the living. SYDNEY SMITH. "PIC-NIC," A CARRIAGE (10th S. v. 170).-Is shark." "Vorpal" (sword) is probably it possible that this was an extraordinary mortal + vampire" (as blood-drinker). invention called the "Equibus"? In this a "Manxome" has certainly "loathsome" for seat was arranged (but apparently only for one element, and I incline to think is triple, one) on the hinder part of the horse's neck with "mighty" and "rank" (or "lank"?) for (on the horse's shoulders, in fact), while the the other two. "Tulgey" would seem to be remainder of the accommodation (for two "tall+dusky," with a fanciful change of k only) extended as far as the rump of the to g but he may have had "fulgent" or animal. The good points of this vehicle are "fuliginous" in mind, or "umbrageous." I said to have been that "next to a hearse" much question whether "chortle " is "chuckle no safer mode of transport was possible,+snort," as suggested; surely no one could while the driver had perfect control over the horse, and could turn in the smallest space. But probably the sudden death of some one connected with the experiment did not contribute to its triumph; and its disuse, to judge from an illustration, was doubtless instrumental in saving many lives. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. PORTMANTEAU WORDS AND PHRASES (10th S. v. 110, 170).- Were these not invented or popularized by Lewis Carroll? It is many years since I was introduced to Alice, but a poem commencing ""Twas brillig" sticks fast in my memory. children There is a strong tendency among and other uneducated persons to form portmanteau words unconsciously. Not being PROF. SKEAT, I am unable to say definitely whether the uneducated form "drown-ded" for "drowned is a survival from the time when we thought more of our terminations, or whether it is merely a portmanteau word for "drowned +dead." "Combinise" (pronounced "combineese") is a word I heard from a little girl aged two. In a confidential moment she informed me that she was "wearing new combinise." I asked my wife to find out discreetly what manner of garment this might be. She reported later that the word was of the portmanteau type, and was coined by the little girl herself to designate a portion of a lady's attire which is a combination of two garments. The ending "-ise" has something to do with the French for "shirt." "Sourcaustic" for "sarcastic+sour+caustic" is the best portmanteau word I have ever heard. "Abso-(blooming)-lutely" is atrocious, but worth recording on account of its ugliness. "Deerichar can be found in Swift's 'Journal to Stella.' It is thought to be "dear+charming." CHAS. A. BERNAU. speak of chuckling "O frabjous day! Cal- Hartford, Conn. FORREST MORGAN. Of words of such hybrid formation I can remember only a few at the present moment: French refuser, from Latin recusare and of noble and elegant; and the American refutare; the Pomeranian nobligant, a blend electrocute, from electro and execute. But phrases and constructions of a similar nature exist in such number that the space of N. & Q.' would be unequal to them; I have collected a great many in a pamphlet Die Uebertragung im Sprachlichen Leben,' in German, "Er muss jeden Augenblick Dresden und Leipzig, 1900. We often say kommen," instead of "kann j. A. kommen"; the muss is taken from the subconscious idea "Er muss bald kommen." I may mention two or three other examples: "to part with," instead of from, modelled after to combine, unite with," "quel quantième avons-nous ?" from le quantieme and quel jour; lies through the village"; "at your earliest convenience"; "fin da principio," after fino al(la); “je crains qu'il ne vienne"; plus riche que je ne suis"; "let go of him"; "those kind of knaves." G. KRUEGER. Berlin. 66 "the way "tu es Messrs. Allen & Hanbury, the well-known chemists, give an example of a portmanteau word in their " Allenbury's" diet for adults and food for infants. JOHN T. PAGE. Long Itchington, Warwickshire. BOWES CASTLE, YORKSHIRE (10th S. iv. 288; Several others of Lewis Carroll's words are v. 116, 176).-Much interesting information portmanteaus, some explained as such by concerning this castle may be found in two him, mainly in the 'Jabberwock.' Of what modern books: 'Castles and Abbeys of Yorkhe does not explain, "snark" is "snake+shire,' by William Grainge, 1855, pp. 376-82, and Murray's 'Handbook for Yorkshire,' torical associations of the locality. PRINCESS ROYAL'S DAUGHTERS (10th S. v. 190). Here are the reasons which induced me to describe the young ladies as Princesses of Fife. They are not Princesses of the United Kingdom, but "in" that country. As they were created princesses, I looked for precedents, and found them in the children of the Dukes of York, Connaught, Cumberland, &c., and the Princes of Wales and Battenberg. "Princess" is here (as usually) in the nature of a "courtesy" description, and not a substantive dignity, the appellation which follows it being no more than distinctive, being always derived in other cases from the substantive peerage title of the father. If in cases of Princesses of Great Britain the peerage title was used as the descriptive adjunct, it seemed to me a safer precedent to follow than to describe them as Princesses Duff. I admit I hesitated, but my opinion was clinched by another fact, hardly arguable or in the nature of precedent, but one which led me to take what I considered the most probably correct course. THE EDITOR OF 'DOD'S PEERAGE.' ADELPHI NAMES (10th S. v. 186).-The information cited by MR. ALECK ABRAHAMS relative to the renaming of James Street, William Street, and Durham Street, Adelphi, will be found in an article on London Street Nomenclature' which appeared in The Pall Mall Gazette of 1 March. A letter, in which I ventured to disagree with some of the statements contained in that article, was printed in the issue of that paper for 3 March. I did not, however, refer to the change of nomenclature in the Adelphi. I may add that I agree with MR. ABRAHAMS in deprecating any change in street nomenclature, except in absolutely necessary instances. In the case of the Adelphi, James and William Adam were not architects, and, as Mr. Wheatley remarks, were only associated with their brothers Robert and John in the business part of the project. The loss of their names does not, therefore, seriously interfere with the his MR. ABRAHAMS is doubtless topographically right Personally I cannot say that I am very favourable to the revival of the old name of Durham Yard, as the term "yard" has a connotation of its own. If the Adelphi · streets must have new names, I should prefer Durham Place, which is less cumbrous and unwieldy than Durham House Street, and carries with it a flavour of antiquity. The patronage which the brothers Adam received from the king gave them a good right to add the epithet "royal" to their terrace. It was probably indifferently known as Royal Terrace" and "Adelphi Terrace" for several years after it was built. In Horwood's map, 1794-9, it is called "Royal Adelphi Terrace"; but the first epithet must have been dropped about the end of the eighteenth century. The architects seem themselves to have given the title of "Adelphi" to the buildings when they were first erected about 1770; but when the name "Adelphi" was used tout court, the "Terrace" was usually understood. Boswell, for instance, speaks of Mrs. Garrick's "house in the Adelphi," where on 20 April, 1781, he dined in the company of Johnson, Reynolds, and "a select party," at the first entertainment given by the widow since her husband's death. The house was No. 4, Adelphi Terrace, in which Garrick lived from 1772 till 1779. Leic.'). Taken GENERAL LA POYPE (10th S. v. 46).-MR. R. B. MARSTON will find details of the life of General Baron Jean François de La Poype in vol. iii. 'Biographie Universelle et Portative des Contemporains,' vol. iii. pp. 155-6; and in Chuquet, La Jeunesse de Napoléon,' vol. iii. pp. 303-4. He was one of the principal commanders before Toulon. prisoner by the English on his return from San Domingo in 1804, he was exchanged in 1806, but was not employed again until 1813, when he was Governor of Wittenberg (not Wirtemberg, as in the Biographie'), on the Elbe. About 1822 he was elected deputy, but was imprisoned in 1824 for some pamphlet, after which he remained in retirement. Born in 1758, he died in 1851. He belonged to an ancient and illustrious family of Dauphiné, now extinct." His daughter left children. R. PHIPPS, Col. late R.A. SIR THOMAS NEVILL, 1503-82 (10th S. v. 2).— I have one or two corrections to make in my account of the Thomas Nevills. Through the misreading of a hasty note, I did the 'D.N.B.' an injustice. It states that Elizabeth Amadas was the second, not the first, wife of Sir Thomas Nevill of Mereworth, the Speaker. I also gave the date of his death as 1543 instead of 1542. been the Sir Thomas of Thorntonbridge who appears in pedigrees (eg, Camden's 'Vis. His sister and heiress Clara was the first wife of Sir Thomas of Holt, who died in 1569, and was three times married. With regard to the Sir Thomas of Yorkshire who married Frances Amiel at Bramfield in 1544, it is clear he was not the son of the Earl of Westmoreland, as he was already a knight; nor could he have been the Sir Thomas of Thorntonbridge, since he was alive in 1562, by which time the latter's sister Clara was dead. He seems, therefore, to be a fourth contemporary Sir Thomas Nevill. I find that Suckling gives the name of Frances's first husband as Jermy, thus confirming my suggestion that Jeromye was a mistake. There was a Sir John Jermy, living 23 Ed. IV., married to Isabel Hopton, and I am inclined to doubt if Frances did marry a Jermy, as I find no mention of such a match in the Norfolk Visitation of Jermy. Evidently the first, or second, husband's name was Amiel. In Muskett's 'Manorial Families of Suffolk' grave doubt is thrown on the pedigree of Hovell of Ashfield. It is stated on p. 195 of the Visitation of Suffolk that the William Hovell who married Frances Hopton, relict of Sir Thomas Nevill, lived about the time of Henry VII., which is obviously absurd. One awaits with interest the promised complete 'Book of Knights.' If it gives all the knights of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it will indeed be a magnum opus. RALPH NEVILL, F.S.A. I copied from Rowland the statement that Sir Thomas Nevill of Holt was knighted by Somerset in 1543. MR. W. D. PINK, with Castle Hill, Guildford. other notes quoted below, has kindly pointed out that it was Sir Thomas, the second son of HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE (10th S. v. 167). Ralph, fourth Earl of Westmoreland, who was knighted at Berwick on 29 Sept, 1547:-Sebastian Munster was a geographer, as no doubt he was in command of the earl's well as a Hebraist and mathematician. His levies. I always wondered what Sir Thomas Universal Cosmography' was printed in a French translation of Holt, who was forty-four, was doing at Germany in 1544; appeared at Basle in 1555, and contains the this war. following passage:— Sir Thomas of Holt was knighted at the coronation of Edward VI. on 20 Feb., 1546/7. The shortness of time not allowing the proper ceremonies, it was specially decreed that those made knights should rank as Knights of the Bath. Sir Thomas, the subject of my article, was made a knight of the carpet, 22 Feb., 1546/7. He bore the arms of Nevill of Raby, with the The first cadency mark of a fifth son. Latimer of this branch was fifth son, third by Joan Beaufort, of the first Earl of Westmoreland. The Sir Thomas, K.B., who, according to Musgrave, died in 1546, may possibly have "Les habitans de Semur sont gens paisibles, doux, débonnaires, et charitables, s'entr'aymans et caressans et vivans ensemble en grande concorde, et qui se plaisent surtout en l'accoinctance des étrangers." The inscription dates from_about 1840 or later. 64, Rue des Martyrs, Paris. THE GERMAN EMPEROR AND POETS LAUREATE (10th S. v. 187).-If the REV. F. ST. JOHN CORBETT had quoted the whole passage from Isaac D'Israeli's 'Curiosities of Literature' in his 'History of British Poetry,' he might have come to a wrong conclusion, so far as regards himself, but I do not think he would have perplexed "an eminent member of the Royal Belgian Academy," and the "German scholar," whom the latter consulted. The passage is this: "The Emperor of Germany retains the Laureate ship in all its splendour. The selected bard is called Il Poeta Cesareo. Apostolo Zeno, as celebrated for his erudition as for his poetic power, was succeeded by that most enchanting poet, Metastasio."-Ward, Lock & Co.'s ed., no date, p. 166. cerrunga. It is therefore impossible to connect it with the form Cerringges in the charter of 799; for this is a masculine plural, representing an A.-S. Cerringas or Ceorringas (where eo is merely the ordinary "breaking of e before 7), which can only be a masculine plural, from a singular Cerring or Ceorring, the son of Cerra or Ceorra." Cerra and Ceorra are perfectly equivalent forms. Of course the Ceorra here referred to is not the know it to be a genuine name, and there may same as the one recorded in 802; but we have been hundreds of them for all we know to the contrary. See, for an account of these two writers, the first volume of Sismondi's 'Literature of the South of Europe,' Bohn's translation. Both these poets took up their abode in Vienna on the invitation of Charles VI., the Emperor of A.-S. grammar to distinguish a masculine That the Normans, not knowing enough of Germany. Zeno withdrew to Italy, where from a feminine, mistook this Cerringes for he died in 1750 at a good old age. His successor, Metastasio, continued in the service a feminine, and explained it as "the turnof the imperial Court till 1782, when he suc-ing," is possible enough. But we must not take such a mistake seriously. If such had cumbed in his eighty-fourth year to the law been the solution, we should expect to find a large number of such "turnings," as numerous as the chares in the North. of nature. Now the last "Emperor of Germany" was Francis II, who, after proclaiming himself as Francis I., hereditary Emperor of Austria, in 1804, abandoned two years afterwards the former title, which the Hapsburgs had held for five centuries, and which has not been revived. It was not until 1871 that William I., King of Prussia, was proclaimed "German Emperor" at Versailles by the leaders of his victorious army. Your correspondent will now see that his error consists in thinking that the titles of "Emperor of Germany and "German Emperor' are one and the same. I have a copy of Metastasio's works in twelve small volumes (Londra, 1784), the first of which is graced with his portrait and bears the inscription "Pietro Metastasio, Romano, Poeta Cesareo." So far as I can ascertain, he was the last of the imperial bards. When the elder D'Israeli compiled the first volume of his Curiosities' in 1791, he was doubtless correct in saying that "the Emperor of Germany retains the laureate. ship," because the dignity had not then been openly abolished. The office does not appear to have survived the troubles of the great Revolutionary epoch, and might be said to have ceased to exist in 1806 with the last "Emperor of Germany." JOHN T. CURRY. CHARING AND CHARING CROSS (10th S. v. 146, 197). As to the alleged A.-S. "cérrung, or cérring," of course the e was short; but é in A.-S. means e, and should not be here used. Secondly, cerrung would be the proper form, thoughing for ung occurs; all such sbs. are feminine, and the correct plural would be ence of an A.-S. cerring, or of any later form OSCAR WILDE BIBLIOGRAPHY (10th S. iv. 266; v. 12, 133, 176).-In my original query I asked for the first publication of 'Lord Arthur Savile's Crime' and 'The Harlot's House.' The former I have found, and the reference is included in the bibliography at the end of my 'Oscar Wilde: a Study' (see ante, p. 40). S. J. A. F. (v. 12) suggests that The Harlot's House' originally appeared in Life about the years 1877-80; but the parody, called 'The Public House,' in The Sporting Times of 13 June, 1885, would seem to fix the date some years later. Mr. R. H. Sherard says: "The Harlot's House' was written in 1883, on the Quai d'Orsay, and published only in book-form. I do not know where, but there were other poems with it, notably that fine one about Keats's loveletters, Oscar's best sonnet." If it ever appeared in a book, there should be no difficulty in finding it; but my impression is that it was printed first in some periodical about 1885, and reprinted from that, with Althea Gyles's illustrations, in folio in 1904. The 'Sonnet on the Recent Sale by Auction of Keats' Love Letters' was first published in The Dramatic Review, 23 January, 1886, and appears next in vol. viii. of Miles's 'Poets and Poetry of the Century,' 1891. I may add that since the publication of 'Oscar Wilde: a Study,' in December last, |