Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/437

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ii s. i. MAY 28, mo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


429


rence are said to have been written, but were unfortunately lost. Can any one tell me whether these verses Were ever printed, and if so, where they may be found ?

G. H. W.

RICHABD GLYNN, PUBLISHER .- BRITISH INSTITUTION : ' AUTOGRAPH PORTFOLIO.' My inquiry at 10 S. ix. 209 respecting Richard Glynn elicited no reply. His address was 36, Pall Mall, from 1827 to his death in 1838. I have since come across the following reference to him in The Gentleman 1 s Magazine for February, 1839, p. 219, in an obituary notice of his father :

" Dec. 29. At Dartmouth, aged 97, Mr. Dennys Glynn, father of the late Mr. Bichard Glynn, bookseller, Pall-mall, Secretary to the British Institution, editor of the ' Autograph Portfolio,' and other works."

I shall be grateful for amy information respecting the British Institution, and the ' Autograph Portfolio.

Richard Glynn was probably the pur- chaser of the original assignment of ' Paradise Lost,' referred to at 10 S. vi. 445.

T. GLYNN.

19, Dalton Boad, Liscard, Cheshire.

[For an account of the British Institution see ' Haydn's Dictionary of Dates,' s.v.]

MILTON AND CHEADLE^S JOURNEY ACROSS AMERICA IN 1863. Where can I find any account of the antecedents of these travellers?

M. N.

WILLIAM KELLY wrote ' Across the Rocky Mountains from New York to California in 1849. 1 I shall be glad of information about him. M. N.

GIFFARD=MILL. The daughters of Sir Ambrose Hardinge Giffard, Chief Justice of Ceylon (who died at sea, 1827), by his wife, a daughter of Lowell Pennell, Esq., of Lyme Regis, are given in Vivian's ' Visita- tions of Devon * as follows :

1. Jane Mary = Sir Wm. Webb Follett, Attorney-General.

2. Sarah (or Lucy), died unmarried.

3. Harriet =Capt. Wentworth Bayley.

4. Rose = Rev. Fagan.

5. Emma = Rev. Tate.

Can any one kindly tell which of these married William Mill, Notary Public (London or Edinburgh ?), and any particulars about them ? William Mill was father of Major James Mill, 40th Regiment, present at Waterloo, and Was then living.

JOHN WALES. ,_ Norton Lea, Chelston, Torquay.


KITE OR DRAGON.

(11 S. i. 383.)

PERHAPS I may throw a little light on the question raised by MR. EDWARD NICHOLSON.

Paper kites were introduced into Europe from China some centuries since, but the precise date is unknown. The kite is apparently first mentioned in a small French and English dictionary in 1690.

A common name for this toy in China is chi yao, from Which our English name " kite " is derived, as the two Chinese Words mean a paper kite (or sparrowhawk, &c.).

Not only is this a common shape for the kite to take in its native land, but all sorts of imitations of creatures in heaven, earth, and the sea are to be seen flying in the sky in that land. Hence the various names which the paper kite bears in the different countries of Europe. Possibly the first introduced into England Were of the shape of the bird of prey, the kite at all events, the Chinese name was adopted. Again, it is not unlikely that one in the form of a dragon, of which the Chinese are so fond, may have been the first to be seen in Scotland, and have fixed the name of dragon on the toy for all future time. We have again the same name in German, viz., fliegende Drache.

I do not remember amongst the thousands and tens of thousands of kites I have seen in China to have noticed one in the shape of a stag ; but in parts of the Far East I understand they are common ; hence the French name cerf-volant, and also the [talian cervo volante.

Again, in Portuguese we have another Dird-name for the kite, papagaio de papel, .e., a paper parrot.

So far it Would seem rather far-fetched, When such a plain origin for the names is available, to ascribe any, at least, of the above names to shooting stars. In justice, lowever, to MR. NICHOLSON'S idea, it may )e noted that the Spanish call a paper kite wmeta. Here it may be that a round cash r sun, with one of the long tails to it which

he Chinese are so fond of attaching to their

cites, gave the notion of a comet, and not any swiftness such as of a shooting star. Another name for a kite in Spanish is nrlocha, I believe.

In conclusion, it may be interesting to note hat some Chinese ascribe the invention of sites to Meh-tsz, a philosopher who lived n the fifth century B.C., but the first trust-