Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/334

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328


NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. OCT. 21, me.


assistant minister since 1859, followed, and he was in harness until his death in 1909. Their combined years of service accordingly extended to 155 years, which, as regards mere number of years, is certainly the most memorable of the three instances referred to in this article, and one that can be safely considered as likely, to require a lot of beating.

CHARLES MENMUIB. 25 Garscube Lane, Glasgow.

"To WEEP IRISH " : "To WAR." On p. 363 of the eighth edition of ' Scholse Wintoniensis Phrases Latinae,' by Hugh Robinson (1673), we find :

" 1404. To weep Irish, or feign sorrow. 1114. Lacrymas falsas, confictas dolis fundere. Ad novercae tumulum flere. Vultu gaudium tegere, & frontem obnubilare dolorem simulans. Ex- primere gemitus la-to pectore."

In which English books can we see the use of this phrase ? It does not occur in the ' Oxford Dictionary ' under " Irish." Other notanda in the book are, p. 299 : " hogherd," which is not represented in the Dictionary between 1704 and 1562 ; p. 372 : " To war or grow worse and worse." Are other instances known of " to war " with this meaning ? At pp. 377 and 383 the number- ing of the pages, at least in some copies, went wrong, so that the book consists of one leaf more than appears.

E. S. DODGSON.

[Hugh Robinson is recorded in the ' Dictionary of National Biography ' as dying in 1655.]

INFLUENZA. The subjoined clipping from The Manchester Weekly Times, Saturday, Sept. 2, 1916, seems worth reproducing in ' N. & Q.' :

" Another item of extreme interest [in an eigh- teenth-century diary discovered among a lot of old books belonging to Mr. Jas. Spratley, a member of an old family of Kingston-on-Thames] is the discovery that .the word ' influenza ' was used in those days to indicate a very severe cold : ' I was seized with a violent fever and cold Nov. the 4, 1775. about 3 o'clock in the morning. Laid in bed till half- past one o'clock Sunday. Remained ill some time. The name of the disorder was called ye influenzi.' "

FRED L. TAVARE.

22 Trentham Street, Pendleton, Manchester.

[The 'N.E.D.' notes that the word became popu- larized in England from the severe visitation of the disorder in 1743.1

" DUG-OUT " : VARIOUS MEANINGS. One or two meanings are being attached to the expression " dug-out " other than its ap- plication to " dug-out " canoes and dwell- ings as given in ' N.E.D.' In one journal recently I read of " The Downing Street


' Dug-out,' " implying a resting or evert hiding place for statesmen, a use which may bo associated with the sense of " dwelling- place." A very different sense, however, is- conveyed in the following passage from the London Letter of The Birmingham Daily Post of July 22 :

"It is being cynically suggested in political, circles that the Prime Minister should hang out a sign at No. 10 Downing Street, while the list of the two Special Commissions [on Mesopotamia and the Dardanelles] is being drawn up, ' No " dug- outs " need apply.' Attempts have been made by friends of various ex-Indian officials to persuade the Cabinet that they ought to be brought once more into the open and assigned the task of investigating the alleged faults of their successors in Indian officialdom. . . .What Parlia- ment and the public will demand are ' live ' men and not ' dug-outs.' "

This meaning was usual at the beginning of the war, when the sudden demand for- trained military officers was so great that many on half -pay were " dug out " from their retirement, and placed in command.

POLITICIAN.


WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries,, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.


PALLAVICINI : ARMS. At US. ix. 511 i attempted a description of the coat of arms which appears on the monument of Horacio- Pallavicine in Chipping Ongar Church. I wrote :

" I know little of heraldry, but I describe the arms as best I can. About three-quarters of the lower part of the field, chequy ; above this is what looks like a fesse bretessed." The arms on the next monument, i.e., of Jane Pallavicini, daughter of Sir Oliver Cromwell, mother of Horacio, are far from distinct, having been much broken. They, however, certainly represented the arms of Pallavicini impaled with those of Cromwell. In The Gentleman's Magazine, 1796, vol. Ixvi. p. 278, is what is given as a copy of the in- scription on the Jane Pallavicini monument. Then : " Arms at top : A cross pierced, on a chief a bar, over all three billets in pale, impaling a lion rampant." The lion rampant is, of course, for Cromwell!

This description is very much more likely to be correct than mine. I should be more inclined to accept it if the copy of the inscription and that of the Horacio Palla- vicine inscription given on the same page did not bristle with errors ; e.g., " Bal- niensis " for Balneensis, " Cantabrigiensis "