s. ii. OCT. 29, m]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
341
LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1898.
CONTENTS. -No. 44.
NOTES : Philip Thicknesse Ghost-words : "Autremyte," 341 ' Dictionary of National Biography,' 342 Registers of Christ Church, Newgate Street, 343 Medical Specialism in Ancient Egypt 'Helbeck of Bannisdale' Eclipse Islands "Mr. W. H." French Proverb, 344 Cicero on Dreyfus Substantives in "er" "Too too" Ancient British Town, 345 Peter Schlemihl Church of St. John, Clerkenwell, 346.
QUERIES : " Farow " " Fauty - glass " Ensigns Otlio Hamilton Portrait Rings King's School, Canterbury, 346 " Studium sine calamo est somnium" Portrait of Mrs. Sheridan Inscription Scott's ' Antiquary ' " Pillar Dollar " Bury Head Parnell Portraits Church built by Becket, 347 "La Trinite des Vins " " Vestigia nulla retrorsum " Mary Bowles " Christmas-tup " Colum- baria" Jesus' Tree " A. McGruther Theatre Tickets and Passes " Plack ": "Boddle" W. Chamberlaine Thorpe and Pemberton, 348.
REPLIES : Sir Hercules Langrishe Mrs. Wilson Chelten- ham : Chiswick : Chisel, 349 Rivers' Banks Wilkie's ' Epigoniad 'Chelsea, 350" Modestest "Sedan Chairs- Robert Burton, 351 Field-Names "Squab" Wyatt, 352 Druidism in France Paul Jones Silhouettes, 353 Sir M. Frobisher George of Charles I. "Bob-baw!" 354 S. Andrea delle Fratte Motto "Horse-Marine," S55 Keltic Remains " Fampt doo" Manor of Llsson Alcuin Club Greatest Heat, 356 African Names Humpty- Dumpty " Sable shroud " ' The Yorkshire Archaeological Journal,' 367 Authors Wanted, 358.
NOTES ON BOOKS : Toynbee's ' Dictionary of Proper Names in Dante ' Fowler's ' Corpus Christ! College, Cam- bridge ' Cobham Brewer's ' The Reader's Handbook ' Dimock's ' The Cathedral Church of Southwell ' ' A Book of Sundry Draughtes ' ' The Old Chelsea Bun-Shop' Stillman's ' Union of Italy.'
PHILIP THICKNESSE.
THE Athenaeum recently published some
interesting data anent the discovery near
Boulogne, where he died, of the gravestone of
Gainsborough's cantankerous and exacting
patron, Mr. Philip Thicknesse, Lieutenant-
Governor of Landguard Fort. This memorial
had long disappeared from its original place
in the Protestant part of the cemetery at
Boulogne. During the Revolution, which
turned every thing upside down, the graves
of the Protestants shared the effects of much
stupid mischief, and the base envy of the
proletariat devastated the resting-places of
the departed. The graves were sold to the
highest bidder, and with them the slabs of
stone which recorded the names of "the
underlying dead." Among the latter was a
large and very thick marble tablet, the in-
scription on which testified concerning Philip
Thicknesse that he who had worried so many
men and women lay there at last in peace.
The buyer wanted a tombstone for his family
grave in a cemetery not far from Boulogne,
and, being of a thrifty turn of mind, removed
Thicknesse's memorial to his own burial-
place, reversed it, and had a fresh inscription
cut on the underside made, in fact, what
antiquaries call a palimpsest of it. So it
remained for about a hundred years, until a
descendant of the economical buyer, finding
it wanted repairs, caused it to be moved and
reversed, so that the original inscription
came to light once more.
Mr. Eyre Crowe, A.R.A., to whom the A thencKum is indebted for these details, tells me further that the present owner of the slab, being aware of its historical interest, very liberally caused it to be sawn in half and presented Thicknesse's portion to the Museum of Boulogne, where it now is. So far the Athenceum's account. I am now, through Mr. Crowe's kindness and with his permission, able to add a copy of the recovered inscrip- tion, which, it is pleasant to notice, puts Thicknesse's character in a quite unexpected and more than amiable light. It is a curious fact that, owing to the breaking of the slab, the very name of the lady who set it up is lost from the record of her spouse's virtues.
PHILIP THICKNESSE Late Lieut . Governor of Landguard . Fort in
ENGLAND whose remains after his decease on the 23 d of Nov r
1792 were Deposited Here, was a man of strict Honour and
integrity few
Men had Less failings, but fewer still possessed his Eminent virtues. He married thrice, first maria Lanoue, second Lady Elizabeth Touohet by Whom the Barony Ley descended to his Eldest son. Thirdly a w. affec
And afflicted widow w spes this stone to her
Ever honourrd and Bel Husband as the Last
mark
She can give of her gratitude and unbounded Love To the memory of a man with [? whom] she Lived Thirty years in perfect felicity.
F. G. STEPHENS.
GHOST- WORDS: "AUTREMYTE."
I PROPOSE to give a few specimens of ghost-
words, otherwise called " bogus " words, in
addition to those which -I gave in my address
to the Philological Society in 1886. They
are all of them queer, and very instructive to
the docile.
1. Autremyte is carefully avoided in the ' H.E.D.,' in the ' Century Dictionary,' and in the new Webster. But it will be found in Bailey and in Skinner, and is due to that fine storehouse of curiosities known as Speght's ' Chaucer.'
It is another reading for a vitremyte in the ' Monkes Tale,' in the last line but two of the tale of Zenobia. Tyrwhitt's note is a little misleading. It runs thus : " Verse 14378, a vitremite. This word is differently written in the MSS. vitrymite, witermite, wintei'mite, vitryte. The EcTitt. read awtretnite" Here are two ambiguities. The word " differently',
