32
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. XL JAN. 9, 1915.
SIB JOHN LADE : " MB. B CK " AND
" BLACK D " (11 S. x. 269, 316, 357, 394,
472). In confirmation of what MB. BLEACK-
LEY writes at the last reference I may
mention that in ' The Jockey Club,' part i.,
tenth edition, 1792, in the article on ' Black
D ' " D " becomes " D s," pp. 79, 82 ;
and that in ' The Female Jockey Club,'
fourth edition, 1794, he appears as " B-lly
D v s," p. 44. The latter reference is in
the article on ' L-dy L-de."
ROBEBT PlEBPOINT.
BABBING-OUT (11 S. viii. 370, 417, 473, 515 ; ix. 55 ; x. 258). To the references already given should be added Samuel Johnson's * Lives of the English Poets,' the Life of Addison, second and third para- graphs. According to a story told to John- son when he was a boy, Addison planned and conducted a barring-out at the school, in which he was a pupil, at Lichfield.
ROBEBT PIEBPOINT.
" WIDDICOTE " = SKY (1 S. ii. 512 ; x. 173). At the first reference R. J. K. quotes the Devonshire expression, " Widdecombe folks [volks] are picking their geese," and is corrected by H. T. RILEY (at the second reference), remarking that here " Widde- combe " is no place-name, but should read " Widdicote : ' (variants being " Waddicote " and " over cote "), as in the nursery riddle, to which the orthodox answer is " sky." That H. T. RILEY is right is shown in John Trevena's ' Furze the Cruel ' (popular edition, 1913), p. 80 : " The sky, or ' widdi- cote,' as Mary might have called it, was red and lowering."
After fixing the orthography, one may grope after the etymology. I suggest wybren, Welsh for " firmament," the last syllable (bren) being punningly written " cote " (coed), as each of these mono- syllables means " wood, timber," and as coat is the modern Breton form, and was doubtless the Cornish and Devonian form. The whole word, wybren, had originally the -dd- preserved in the children's and peasants' " widdicote," but pronounced as -th- (soft). (There is a further pun in " overcote.") Possibly some of your readers who were interested in the fifties may still feel drawn to illustrate this word.
H. H. JOHNSON.
FBESCOES AT AVIGNON (11 S. x. 250). Mr. Richard Le Gallienne did not find frescoes in the ville sonnante because they are still covered with whitewash. So, at least, I was assured in the great church when
there just after the Papal Palace had got
rid of its troops, there billeted, and, after the
troops, of the flower show like the palmer-
worm after the caterpillar.
Next to Avignon, for wanton damage done by the French to things French, I found the Abbey of Fontevrault, where lie our Angevin sovereigns in dust and dirt and the discomfort- able surroundings of a prisoners' mass per- functorily performed. H. H. JOHNSON. 68, Abbey Road, Torquay.
DBEAMS AND LITEBATUBE (11 S. x. 447, 512). A remarkable dream, in which a tune was composed and the last line of the words sung to the tune, is recorded in the ' Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (Rev. C. L. Dodgson)/ by S. D. Collingwood, p. 221 :
" I found myself seated, with many others, in darkness, in a large amphitheatre. Deep stillness prevailed. A kind of hushed expectancy was upon us. We sat awaiting I know not what. Before us hung a vast and dark curtain, and between it and us was a kind of stage. Suddenly an intense wish seized me to look upon the forms of some of the heroes of past days. I cannot say whom in particular I longed to behold, but even as I wished, a faint light flickered over the stage, and I was aware of a silent procession of figures moving from right to left across the platform in front of me. As each figure approached the left-hand corner it turned and gazed at me, and I knew (by what means I cannot say) its name. One only I recall Saint George ; the light shone with a peculiar blueish lustre on his shield and helmet as he turned and slowly faced me. The figures were shadowy, and floated like mist before me ; as each one disappeared an invisible choir behind the curtain sang the * Dream Music.' I awoke with
the melody ringing in my ears, and the words of
last line complete, ' I see the shadows falling,
the
and slowly pass away.' The rest I could not
recall."
The musical score of the tune dreamed, and
some verses incorporating the last line in the
dream, are produced in the book.
HUGH SADLEB.
ROUPELL AND THACKEBAY (11 S. X. 427). I think the reference required is in * The Roundabout Papers,' in the one entitled ' On a Pear-Tree.' Thackeray there men- tions " Rupilius," who was M.P. for Lam- beth, and who was convicted of some crime.
DIEGO.
" EPHESIANS " : A SHAKESPEABIAN TERM (11 S. x. 450, 497).
Ephesians of the old church.
' 2 Henry IV.,' II. ii. 163.
I think some other authority besides Dr. Brewer is necessary before connecting feeze (' N.E.D.') with the Shakespearian word Ephesians. Nares makes this comment : " Why they were called Ephesians is not
