Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/574

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474


NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XIL DEC. n, im


France, Germany, and Italy ? ; and to the second were added specimens of Spanish poets. The volumes were small in size (not quarto), and were printed entirely in gold by Howlett & Brimmer, upon thick glazed paper. They were respectively dedicated to the Princesses Paul and Mary Esterhazy.

W. D. MACBAY. [MR. WALTER SCOTT also thanked for reply. ]

"THE DOG AND POT " (10 S. xii. 244, 298, 414). As rationalis can mean " relating to reckoning or accounts," may not abacus rationalis be a counting-board or reckoning- frame (see abacus in Smith's ' Diet. Ant. 1 ) ? I understand that some instrument of this class for facilitating arithmetical calcula- tions was in use in Germany and France during the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies. Surely many of us learnt to count by the aid of a frame in which coloured wooden beads were strung on wires.

Failing this, the most natural meaning to assign the words would be a slab or slate on which the reckoning was chalked (in Eras- mus's ' Diversoria l a tablet or trencher is made to serve this purpose), or a bar at which bills were made out.

EDWABD BENSLY.

The extract from the ' History of Sign- boards l at the last reference mentions "The Dog and Crock " at Michelmouth, Romsey. Michelmarsh is the name of the parish, and the inn has been advertised as a meet of the Hursley Hounds in the form "Dog and Crook " for nearly sixty years, to my know- ledge. I had been content to take the sign for the adjuncts of a shepherd, though the district is densely wooded ; and I am grateful accordingly. H. P. L.

CAPT. WILLIAM VAUGHAN, 1631 (10 S. xii. 350). Capt. W. Vaughan was the eldest son and heir apparent of Rowland Vaughan of Porthaml, Talgarth, M.P. for Brecon, 1558, and for Brecknockshire 1563. He was grand- son of Sir Roger Vaughan of Porthaml, M.P., and great-grandson of Sir William Vaughan of Porthaml, first High Sheriff for Breck- nockshire, 1539, who died 1564.

There is no record, other than the inscrip- tion on the tombstone mentioned, of the circumstances of Capt. Vaughan' s death, as Theo. Jones makes no reference to it in his ' History of Brecknockshire,' 1805-9, neither does Mr. G. T. Clark in his pedigree of the Vaughans of Porthaml in his ' Genealogies of Glamorgan. 4 Capt. Vaughan may have been married, but the pedigrees have only s.p. after his name. The large Porthaml


estates passed to his sister Catherine, who married Sir Robert Knollys, Kt., M.P. for Brecknockshire. Their great-granddaughter Bridget Vaughan married John, first Lord Ashburnham, whose descendant, the present Earl of Ashburnham, now owns the Port- haml property.

The crescent on the chevron in the coat of arms on the Talgarth tombstone signifies the descent of the Vaughans of Porthaml from Sir Roger Vaughan, Kt., M.P., second son of Sir Roger Vaughan of Tretower, who fell at Banbury in 1469.

It is improbable that Theo. Jones ever saw Capt. Vaughan' s tombstone, and there is no local tradition of the murder at Aber- gavenny. GWENLLIAN E, F. MORGAN.

Brecon.

" UNE CATALOGUE RAISONNEE " (10 S. xii. 348, 418). With reference to the remark that Brachet's ' Etymological French Dic- tionary,' Clarendon Press, 1882, gives " cata- logue " as feminine, a high French authority writes to me :

"I have a copy of Brachet's 'Diet. ]5tymo- logique,' but it does not give the gender of words included therein. What has evidently happened is this. For some reason or other, the publishers of the English edition referred to have thought it desirable to add the gender, and have fallen into the same error as Boswell with regard to the gender of the word catalogue, which, so far as I can trace (and I have consulted a number of French dictionaries, old and new), has never been feminine, any more than a number of other words also ending in -gue. It is not a case of the gender having been changed, like episode, carrosse, and, recently, automobile."

It would be interesting to know on what grounds the English editor of Brachet gave catalogue as feminine. One would suppose he had some French authority for doing so, though I have never found one.

W. F. PBIDEAUX.

ENGLISH CLOTHING TERMS IN FOREIGN TONGUES (10 S. xii. 284). One might per- haps gather from MR. PLATT'S note that the frock-coat, as worn by Turks, is a new thing, to some extent a mark of the " Young Turks. 51 It is very probable that they wear it generally, but the Stamboul coat, the Stambolina, or the Stambouline, has been an ordinary coat for the official and well-to-do Turks in Constantinople for many years. If my memory is correct, I saw Abdul Hamid going to and from the mosque at the Selam- lik, some twenty years ago, wearing one.

I think that I am right in saying that the Stamboul coat is single-breasted, has a low stand-up collar, has no lapels, is seldom if