236
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th S. V. MARCH 24, 1900.
duction of inoculation it was very fatal to
children, the percentage of deaths in their
case was not, I believe, higher than in the
case of the very old. Salmon, writing in
1695, treats of smallpox under 'Infants' Dis-
eases,' and again under ' Diseases of Adults.'
C. 0. B.
'NAMING THE BABY' (9 th S. v. 89).- ' Naming the Baby ' is by Ethel Lynn Beers, and is in a volume of her poems, ' All Quiet on the Potomac.' HENRY T. COATES.
Philadelphia.
WOORE, IN SALOP (9 th S. v. 128). I hope that * N. & Q.' will not be the means of affirm- ing that Wavertree, near Liverpool, is pro nounced Wartree. It is spoken exactly as written. A corruption, of course, is possible. In this case the word becomes Way tree, or something like it. But Wartree is surely unknown in Liverpool. This does not, of course, affect MR. W. H. DUIGNAN'S inter- esting query. GEORGE MARSHALL.
Sefton Park, Liverpool.
GRIGGS AND GREGORIANS (9 th S. v. 127). I believe that this was a convivial and " har- monious " society, which flourished in London about 1730, and was celebrated in a song which appeared in the second volume of Bickham's ' Musical Entertainer.' This was headed by a vignette copied from Hogarth, and representing a variety of heads of people singing in chorus. The song began as follows :
THE MERRY GREGS. Let Poets and Historians Record y brave Gregorians In long and lasting Lays, &c.
JULIAN MARSHALL.
For the "Society of Gregorians" consult ' N. & Q.,' 2 nd S. v. 424 ; vi. 273 ; vii. 156 ; 3 rd S. ii. 447 ; 4 th S. v. 127.
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.
"KAROSS" (9 th S. v. 125). In my former note I quoted the opinion of Sparrman (1785) that this most interesting word is "broken Dutch." I have just corne across a valuable piece of additional evidence which carries back this view another century. In 1673 William Ten Rhyne visited the Cape, and collected a vocabulary, which he divided under two heads, (1) 'The Original Hottentot Words,' (2) 'Some Corrupt Dutch Words ' (published in the fourth volume of k Churchill's Voyages,' p. 845). The important point is that he places " Kaross, a vest or waistcoat," in the latter section, the next item to it being " Jfrallen, a hut or cabin," better known to modern readers as kraal. The Dutch origin pf kaross may, I think, on the authority of
Ten Rhyne, a Dutchman, be considered
certain. The only point remaining is to dis-
cover of what Dutch word it is a corruption.
Can any reader make a suggestion 1 My own
idea is that it may be kuras, in which case
kaross would be a doublet" of cuirass.
JAMES PLATT, Jun.
THE WIFE OF THE THIRD VISCOUNT BOURKE (8 th S. iii. 307, 337). Theobald, third Viscount Bourke (died 15 January, 1653), married, first, Miss Talbot; secondly, Eleanor, daughter of Sir Luke Fitzgerald, Knt. Theobald, fourth Viscount, married, first, Ellen, daughter of Sir Arthur Loftus, and sister to Adam, first Viscount Lis- burne ; secondly, Lady Owens, a knight's widow. Theobald, sixth Viscount, married, first, Mary, daughter of John Browne ; secondly, Margaret, daughter of Bryan Gunning, and widow first of John Edwards, secondly of Wm. Lyster, thirdly of Francis Houston. See Lodge's ' Peerage of Ireland,' vol. ii. p. 334 et seq., ed. 1754. WOLSTAN.
" PRINCE " BOOTHBY (9 th S. v. 127). I have somewhere read that Boothby was called "Prince" from his chivalric courtesy, which on one occasion met an unexpected return. One night an old lady leaving a theatre lost her party and wandered about, exposed to the ridicule of foppish loungers. Boothby, seeing her distress, offered his arm, obtained a sedan chair, and enabled her to return home. Boothby did not know who she was, and acted solely from the wish to aid a helpless woman. The old lady asked his name, and bequeathed to him a considerable fortune.
M. N. G.
"SLIM" (9 th S. v. 146). Halli well notes this word as existing in " various dialects " with the meaning " sly, cunning, crafty " ; but it belongs also to the language of the Boers, from whom the Natal English seem to have directly adopted it. The Dutch slim is defined in ' Kilianus Auctus ' (1642) " per- versus, dolosus, fraudulentus, vafer, astutus ; pervers, ruse, mad re, cauteleux"; in Hex- ham's ' Netherdutch and English Dictipnarie ' (1658), " craftie ; een slim boeve, ofte slim gast, a Subtill, a Craftie, or a Cautelous Knave or Fellowe " ; and similarly in modern diction- aries. " Slim Piet " (artful Peter), as Cron je might fitly have been called when he asked for an armistice, is therefore a good Dutch expression. F. ADAMS.
109, Albany Road, Camberwell.
This word is in common use in the sense of crafty in several of our English dialects, and is duly noted in dictionaries and glossaries.
