198
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. n. SEPT. 3, '9 8 .
rescued this song and gave it to Johnson's
' Museum,' and that is all. It has been stated,
by the way, that Burns scratched a couplet
of the song on a pane of glass at Mauchline
in this form :
Gin a body kiss a body comin' through the grain, Need a body grudge a body what 's a body's ain ?
And the ancient first verse to which Burns is believed to have added others certainly im- plies that a "field of rye" is meant. No doubt the song is as old as the proverbial hills. It is interesting to note that the old lines are never sung to the original tune, but new verses, written for the stage,
Gin a body meet a body Comin' thro' the rye,
are invariably heard. See my 'Stories of Famous Songs.' S. J. A. F.
[Many replies, some of interest, are acknowledged.]
"Go ABOUT" (9* S. ii. 64). 1 venture to think MR. LYNN mistaken in speaking of this phrase as obsolete. I find it in Nuttall's Dictionary' (1886): "To go about, to set one's self to a business " ; and it is within my own knowledge that, colloquially at any rate, it is still somewhat commonly so used. "To go about to injure one" I have often heard as an equivalent for " seeking to do one harm " ; but it is not exactly equivalent, and for that reason I hope it will not be lost. It seems to me admirably expressive.
I am not sure either that in the "rude retort " " Go about your business " the literal sense of " go " is generally understood to be conveyed. Frequently, I think, all that is meant is, " Get about your business," " Go on with your work." Not that " Go about your business" is an instance of the use of "go about" in the sense we are discussing. To "go about" to injure a person implies schem- ing, contrivance. Compare " to cast about " ; this is to scheme simply, the other to try to carry out one's schemes. " Why go ye about to kill me ? " Why do you try all means to compass my death? Such, at least, is the sense in which I have heard the phrase used.
C. C. B.
HISTORICAL STONES AT THE EOYAL EX- CHANGE (9 th S. ii. 65). These stones were laid in their quaint and thrice repeated diaper pattern somewhen between Michaelmas, 1849, and Michaelmas, 1852. They were called Turkey stones, and said to be valuable. J saw them lying in the court of the Exchange before the paviours handled them, and they were carefully guarded. It would be interest- ing to know whether they were then relaid and if not, where they lay from the time they were brought to England in Sir Thoma:
Gresham's ship till they were placed in their
present position, and whence they were
originally imported. JOHN P. STILWELL.
Hilfield, Yateley, Hants
STOLEN RELICS RESTORED (8 th S. vii. 165, 296 ; viii. 17, 77 ; 9 th S. ii. 77). In the paragraph concerning the Sarum Missal that disappeared trom Bishop Cosin's Library at Durham, which paragraph has been copied from Truth, into several other papers, note that the efforts to
- race the volume were not made by the Dean
and Chapter, who are not the guardians of 'osin's Library, and that for "more than if ty years ago " we should read " more than fifteen." There is no reason to suppose that the book was absolutely "stolen , but it was certainly " borrowed " surreptitiously. When it came back it was exactly as when it was taken away ; neither the bookplate nor anything else by which it could be identified had been removed, which seems to show that there had been no intention to steal it.
J. T. F., Keeper of Bishop Cosin's Library.
Winterton, Doncaster.
BEARDS (9 th S. i. 508 ; ii. 74). An article in the Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1895, con- tains many interesting particulars relating to beards. It is there stated that among the Mohammedans "the eunuchs who guard the seraglios are deprived of their beards as a token of their shameful servility." For fur- ther information on beards I would refer your correspondent to All the Year Hound, 30 April, 1870 ; Chambers' s Journal, 13 June, 1857, and 17 October, 1891 ; and Dr. Doran's ' Habits and Men ' (1854). H. ANDREWS.
SOURCE OF QUOTATION WANTED (9 th S. i. 249, 416 ; ii. 134).
" It appears to me that our first thoughts, that is, the effect which anything produces on our minds on its first appearance, is never to be forgotten ; and it demands for that reason, because it is the first, to be laid up with care." Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dis- course XIII.
R. M. SPENCE, D.D.
Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B.
FROM HOLBORN TO THE STRAND (9 th S. ii. 81). COL. PRIDEAUX will be pleased to hear that there is one very interesting relic of Clare House and of the Earl of Clare remain- ing on the line of route of the new street, and near the site of the mansion. This is a much battered and time-worn sculptured stonecoatof arms which it may fairly be concluded adorned, as was customary with the mansions of the nobility, the exterior of the town house which the Earl of Clare built at the end of what
