n s. v. FEB. 10, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
115
Geree, M.A., Fellow of Corpus Christ! Col- i
lege, Oxford : ' The Excellency of a Public j
Spirit : a Sermon (on 1 Cor. x. 24) preach'd I
in .... Winchester at the Assizes. Oxford, I
1706.' The same Catalogue, under John j
Geree, B.C.L., Fellow of Winchester, refers j
to a funeral sermon on the latter by T. Pen- |
rose (poet). The sermon, however, is not
entered among the works of Thomas Penrose j
the poet (see ' N. & Q.,' US. ii. 146, ' Burton's
" Anatomy of Melancholy " : Quotation ir
Reprints' ),but under Thomas Penrose, Rector
of Newbury. The sermon was preachec
in the parish church of Newbury, and pub
lished in that place in 1774. Was John
Geree, B.C.L., a descendant ?
EDWARD BENSLY.
[URLLAD also thanked for reply.]
MISTLETOE (11 S. iv. 502; v. 12). It may be worth while to note that ordinary mistletoe, Viscum album, occasionally to be found on an oak, is not the true oak -mistletoe, which is Loranthus Europceus. M. Holland in his ' Flore Populaire ' states that the latter does not grow in France.
One day, near Nablus, I saw some reddish berried mistletoe, which had, I believe, been taken from an olive tree. I mention this because I have come on a foot-note in Bohn's Pliny's ' Natural History,' vol. iii. p. 433, which, with reference to the asser- tion " after the wild olive has been pruned there springs up a plant that is known as ' phaulias,' " remarks : "A mistletoe ap- parently, growing upon the wild olive. Fee says that no such viscus appears to be known." Perhaps Fee was wrong.
ST. SWITHIN.
ST. CUTHBEKT : HIS BIRDS (11 S. v. 48). I think the form Lomes represents the plural of a M.E. lome, which would correspond to the mod. E. loom, the Shetland name for various species of the Northern diver ; now usually spelt loon. See loom (2) in ' N.E.D.,' and loon (2) in my ' Concise Etymo- logical Dictionary.'
As to Eires, the eider-duck can hardly lose the d, or be related to it. It looks like a mistake for O.F. aires, pi. of aire (whence E. aerie), properly a nest, but also a brood of young birds ; see aerie in ' N.E.D.'
WALTER W. SKEAT.
The 'N.E.D.' gives c "Eires, obs. rare- Some kind of hawk. ( ? Mistake for eyas. ) 1655, Walton, ' Angler ' (ed. 2), 19, ' The Eires, the Brancher, the Ramish Hawk, the Haggard and the two sorts of Lentners.' " A. R. BAYLEY.
" UNITED STATES SECURITY ' ? (11 S. iv. 508).
The slighting reference to " United States
security " in Dickens's ' Christmas Carol '
(published first in 1843) was doubtless due
to the effect of the financial panic of 1837 in
that country on all securities which had
their origin there. Many of these were
utterly worthless, being based on projects
of the wildest speculation. British capital
had been poured into the country to invest
in them, and much of it was entirely lost.
The message of the President to the Con- gress of 1839 states that 200,000,000 of foreign capital was then afloat in the United States. Some of the states repudiated their bonded debts. JOHN TRUE LOOMIS.
Washington, D.C., U.S.
AVIATION (US. iv. 5, 75, 496). There
is a tradition at East Budleigh, Devon, that,
about 450 years ago, one Ralph de Node
invented a pair of wings with which he was
able to fly in the air. One day he mounted
a little too high, and the ambitious Ralph
fell to the ground in a very unceremonious
and unpleasant manner. A. J. DAVY.
Torquay.
MAIDA : NAKED BRITISH SOLDIERS (US. iv. 110, 171, 232, 271, 334, 492; v. 14). An incident which does not appear to have been mentioned during the correspondence on the above subject is related by Napier as having occurred at the bridge of Tordesillas, on the river Duero, on 28 Oct., 1812. The Duke's Brunswickers destroyed the bridge to prevent the French crossing the river, afterwards posting themselves on the bank in a pine wood. The French, arriving, were at first baffled, but sixty officers and non-commissioned officers, headed by Capt.
uinguet, stripped and placed their arms and clothes on a small raft, which they pushed across, swimming the while. They reached the other side safely under cover of a cannonade, although the stream was both strong and chilly, and, " naked as they vere, stormed the tower, whereupon the Brunswickers, amazed at the action, aban- doned the ground."
My attention was called to this curious kirmish by a young officer at present serv- ng in the 69th French Infantry, which he assures me was the regiment which furnished these gallant volunteers, although Napier does not give the number.
ANGLO-PARISIAN.
DINNER-JACKET (11 S. v. 7). In reply to F. J. C.'s first inquiry, I put the fashion's date in England early in the nineties.
HAROLD MALET, Col.
