to Anglesey, Carnarvonshire, and Merionethshire folk)—"Moch" (unless connected here with Latin mox), "Lladron," and "cwn duon" respectively. Andrew Lang posthumously refers to the Cornish "mouse" on p. 175 of Folk-Lore for July, 1913. With σμίνθος connect the above pigs, thieves, and black dogs of N. Wales.
H. H. Johnson.
Mary, Queen of Scots (11 S. ix. 87).—On 30 Dec., 1836, a Mr. W. Leigh issued a prospectus of a work based on the papers discovered at Bardon in Somerset in 1834. It is described as
"a new view of the case of Mary, Queen of Scots, as connected with the Babington Conspiracy, deduced from six autograph letters from Lord Treasurer Burghley to Sir Christopher Hatton, in September, 1586, and other State Papers; comprising three autograph foolscap sheets of the Notes of Sir Christopher Hatton; and amongst the 'Notes of Remembrance of Mr. Sergeant Puckering,' the Speaker of the House of Commons, a copy of the letter from Mary to Babington … an original despatch from Lord Burghley to Secretary Dayison from Fotheringhay Castle, pending her trial," &c.
The copy of this prospectus before me is endorsed by Sir Henry Ellis of the B.M.:
"I believe this proposed work was never published." Aleck Abrahams.
"Left his corps" (11 S. ix. 225). This reminds me of a funny story I once was told by a parson friend with a keen sense of humour, who said it happened to himself. He was conducting a funeral, and when the melancholy procession was leaving the church for the grave, the sexton evidently one of the old sort came up to him in the porch and told him that "the corpse's brother wished to speak to him"!
R. B—r.
Language and Physiognomy (10 S. xii. 365, 416; 11 S. i. 33).—A note of mine on this subject, which was printed at the first reference, did not evoke as much comment and information as I sought, and I have pursued my solitary course of thought without meeting with anything that strongly supports my theory that language is an important tool in the shaping of racial physiognomy. Just recently I have found a passage in Baron E. de Mandat-Grancey's 'Chez John Bull ' which is on my side. He says, with regard to an English-speaking girl in the Salvation Army:—
"Elle était assez jolie. Elle avait notamment de tres belles dents, un peu longues commes celles de beaucoup de ses compatriotes, mais pas encore repousses en avant conime cela arrive trop souvent sans doute par l'abus du th, dont la pfononciation exige que la langue prenne un point d'appui sur les dents et qui finit par les incliner du côt c'es lèvres. C'est du moins l'explication que m'adonnée un savant médecin." P. 246.
As one that "filleth the place of the unlearned," I should fancy that the teeth are as likely to be blown out by esses as to be levered forward by th. What do fellow-readers know about facial modifications due to these and other vocables?
St. Swithin.
Byron's "Lay" Again (11 S. ix. 506).—Sir James Murray has a note on the intransitive uses of "lay" in the 'N.E.D.' He gives many instances of these from c. 1300 downwards, but says that although the use of "lay" for "lie "was not apparently considered a solecism in the seventeenth or eighteenth century, it is now dialectal only, or a sign of illiteracy. Dr. Hodgson, in his 'Errors in the Use of English,' quotes several passages from authors later than Byron in which it occurs, among them Dasent and Henry Kingsley. I venture to think, however, that it is, generally speaking, a vulgarism merely. C. C. B.
"Wait and see" (11 S. iii. 366, 434; iv. 74, 157; v. 414).—Another and earlier instance of the literary use of the above phrase is quoted in the 'N.E.D.' under 'Remedy,' 2b:—
"We had no Remedy but to wait and see what the Issue of Things might present." 1719, De Foe, 'Crusoe' (Globe), 267.
Tom Jones.
Culpeper of Kent: William, Francis, and Philippa (11 S. viii. 429).—May I suggest that Hinkstead is perhaps Hickstead, in the parish of Twineham, Sussex? Some ninety years ago Hickstead Place was the home of the Wood family.
Chas. Hall Crouch.
Oriental Names mentioned by Gray 11 S. x. 10, 53).—May I suggest the 'Dictionary of Islam,' a facsimile edition of which has appeared lately? I cannot for the moment remember the name of the author. L. L. K.
St. Christopher: Painting at Ampthill (11 S. viii. 467, 516; ix. 37).—Is your correspondent certain that the six scenes refer to St. Christopher? Is it not more probable that they depict different saints, such as St. Hubert, St. Edward, St. George, St. Thomas, &c.? At Sulhamstead Abbotts,