Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/490

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482


NOTES AND QUERIES. [iis.xji.DEc.i8, 1915.


that when one wrongly chargeth an other with the fault himselfe did, he that is wrongly charged, saith to the other, Thouplayest Scogan with mee." The word occurs frequently throughout the book, and also the adjective " Scoganish," which is not recognized in the ' N.E.D.' The first reference in the ' N.E.D.' s.v. Scoggin is dated 1579. The ' D.N.B.' gives an account of John Scogan, Court Jester to Edward IV., but throws doubt on his ever having existed.

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

RATS ET CRAPAUDS. Dans son numero du 21 Septembre le Cri de Paris donne la curieuse information suivante.

Les tranchees de notre front sont infestees de rats innombrables, et on a tout essaye pour les en debarrasser. Les fox-terriers et autres chiens ratiers sont chez nous plutot rares ; la propagation, chez les maudits rongeurs, des maladies pasteuriennes est difficile, faute de virus speciaux en quantite suffisante.

" Un autre moyen, encore nioins couteux et tout aussi efficace, est celui qu'on emploie dans la marine. On sait que les rats pullulent k, bord des na vires ; or 1' experience a de*montre que la presence d' un seul crapaud les e"pouyante et les chasse. Mettez done, de distance en distance, des crapauds dans des cages de bois et vous verrez aussitot les rats disparaitre."

Je me rappelais bien avoir lu dans Pline une espece de repertoire de semblables in- compatibilites d'humeur entre animaux que notre imagination ne rassemble pas d' ordi- naire. Je n'ai rien trouve, chez lui, qui se rapporte au cas qui nous interesse.

On peut, sans doute, considerer le silence de Pline et 1' affirmation du Cri de Paris comme un commencement de preuves ecrites, mais 1* opinion et, si possible, 1' experience d'un de vos lecteurs ferait bien mieux mon affaire. PIERRE TURPIN.

The Bayle, Folkestone.

" JERRY-BUILDER." What is the origin of this name ? If any reader can tell me, he will answer a question that I have for many years put unsuccessfully to many persons the only satisfaction I can get being a very doubtful suggestion about the walls of Jericho. Surely there must be a better solution than this. Who was the original Jerry ? T. G.

[The late SIR JAMES MURRAY had a long article on this word at 9 S. vii. 305, and it had received dis- cussion in our columns some years before. The earliest colloquial connexion of the word "jerry" with the 5 building trade seems to date from the late sixties '; and Ruskin's use of "jerry-built" in ForsClavigera'in 1875 is its first appearance in literature. The origin of the expression has not


AUTHOR WANTED. Who wrote the poem entitled ' The Legend of St. George,' com- mencing :

" St. George for Merrie England ! "

Was once our battle-cry, and in what publication did it appear ? There are seventeen stanzas. A. B.

LOCKER'S ' LONDON LYRICS ' : THE COSMO- POLITAN CLUB. Of the 1874 edition of Locker's ' London Lyrics ' eighty copies were done up in boards for presentation to the members of the Cosmopolitan Club, of which Locker was a member. Were these illustrated- with Doyle's cuts on India paper ? Some copies exist with and some without the cuts. Was any inscription inserted referring to the club ? Are any members of the club still alive ?

FRANCIS E. MURRAY.

258, Kew Road, Kew Gardens.

THOMAS GRIFFIN TARPLEY. Information is wanted concerning Dr. Tarpley, a Vir- ginian loyalist who came to England in or about 1783. He is mentioned in Hutchin- son's 'Massachusetts.' He is said to have had large estates on the banks of the Rappahannock. Mariied to Lady Catharine Mackenzie, 'of the Seaforth family, he had a son Kenneth Mackenzie Reid Tarpley, incumbent of a Northamptonshire parish, married to a daughter of Rev. T. Hornsby, astronomer. Dr. Tarpley occurs in the list of Leyden students. EDWARD SMITH.

Wandsworth.

MOIRA COALS. In an advertisement in The Times of October, 1815, it is stated that orders may be given for Moira coals at the Gray's Inn Hotel, Holborn. What were they ? J. LANDFEAR LUCAS.

Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey.

SOLOMON SCHOMBERG.

"A | Letter | To His Excellency the Right Honourable the | Earl of Shelhurne. | By Solomon Schomberg, | Public Notary. | Homo sum, humaui nihil a me alienum puto. | London : | Printed for the Author ; and sold at No. 60, opposite I Surgeons Hall, in the Old-Baily." Folio, 8 pp.

Who was the author ? Was he related to Dr. Isaac and Ralph Schomberg and their brother the Admiral Sir Alexander ? The pamphlet was published circa 1766. I do not find it in the British Museum Catalogue. A small pamphlet on the Schomberg family appeared at Oxford in 1874. It is not in the B.M., and I should be grateful to any reader of ' N. & Q.' who would kindly let me have a glance at it.

ISRAEL SOLOMONS*