Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/69

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

9eh S. IV. July 15, '99.] 49 NOTES AND QUERIES. shot with the bow, not done to death by the hounds. In any case, I am pretty sure that no special costume was adopted for the sport. Though untrue, this notion as to the origin of the scarlet coat does not seem like folk- lore, but rather to be the invention of some man of letters. In any case, it would be interesting to know its origin. K. P. D. E. Cattle as Criminals, and their Execu- tion.—I have read that there is extant an order issued by the magistrates of Gisors in 1405, commanding payment to be made to the carpenter who had erected the scaffold on which an ox had been executed "for its demerits." Were cattle ever treated as criminals and executed in any part of the United Kingdom ? Such executions were common, I believe, on the Continent even in the seventeenth century. What was its origin; and were the cattle so executed black or white in colour ? R. Hedger Wallace. The Ten Virgins.—1 have two coloured prints of the parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins. The names of painter and engraver are cut away, but the figures are evidently a mother and four daughters, English, aristocratic, and very beautiful. Will any one kindly throw some light on the subject? David A. Noon. " Howl."—Being asked by a man to tell our surveyor of drains that his men had not been "to see after the howl," I inquired what a "howl" is. The answer was, "A wooden waterway under a road." I cannot find the word in any dictionary. Is it in general use ; and what is its derivation ? C. C. B. Ep worth. "That" Elliptical.—In such phrases as "To do that is righteous in Thy sight" is " that" a demonstrative, with relative under- stood, or vice versd 1 Does it stand for " that [which]" or " f the thing] that" ? I have been told that it is demonstrative, and that I ought to emphasize it : but I am inclined to regard it as relative, and therefore u nemphatic. It seems to me that 2 Chron. xx. 21 is a de- cisive proof of this interpretation; for in that place " that" must be relative, as the demon- strative is " those," understood. W. E. B. [See Earle, 'Simple Grammar of English ' ftp., p. 69; Nesfield, 'English Grammar Past and Pre- sent,' p. 154.] Author of Translation Wanted.—Who was the author of the following lines, from the well-known passage in the'Ars Poetica,' " Segnius irritant animos demissa," <fec. ?— Sounds which address the ear are lost and die, But truths submitted to the faithful sight Are writ and graven with a beam of light. G. J. W. A Louvre.— What kind of a dance is this ? Littre gives no explanation of the word in this sense. H. T. B. JEANETTE LOLLIER, BoUQUETliRE DU Palais Royal.—Where can I find an account of her? She lived in the reign of Louis XVI. Jermyn. The Wife of Thomas Moore.—Some years ago I asked a question through the medium or ' N. & Q.' with reference to the wife of Thomas Moore, which failed to elicit an answer. Perhaps I may be more fortunate this time. Is there any portrait or engraving of the lady extant? She seems to have been remarkable for her beauty, frequent refer- ences to which are to be found in the 'Diary' of her husband. May I also repeat another question which I have put before without any success, but which I think would have deserved a reply from anybody who had happened to know. What became of Moore's effects after the death of his widow in 1867 ? She bequeathed his library, I believe, to the Royal Irish Academy. But what was done with the other relics of the poet and his " Bessy "• and what has been the subsequent history of Hopeston [?] College ? Morgan McMahon. Republican Five-franc Piece. — If the subject has not already been noticed in former issues of ' N. & Q., the enclosed clever reading of the Republican French five-franc piece, taken from the Spectator of 3 June, deserves a place:— "The 'Twenty Years' Resident' who refers in the Spectator of 20 May to the punctuation on French coins after the words 'Liberte, Egalite, Fraternity,' must evidently have heard of an old Slay upon words which used to be indulged in by .oyahsts and other malcontents after the establish- ment of the Republic in France. The same punctua- tion can be found on nearly all the silver coins that have been struck since the fall of the Empire, and the same joke on the double meaning of the word ' point' was made so far back as the early seventies, but together with the following clever jeu de mots drawn from some other features of the coin. The head of the Republic on these coins (and they form the bulk of the silver money now in circulation) is that of a rather stout-looking female, with a bounti- ful supply of hair fastened up in 'tresses.' Above this head is a star, and below it appears the name of the master of the Mint, or of the artist who de- signed the figure (I forget which), ' Oudinet,' The joke I refer to, and which was a very popular one