3. 'The Maiden's Blush,' Ibid., vol. ii. p. 108, 11. 314-17, where, it being agreed that Joseph should be placed in the pit,

they did it instantly;

And then remorselesse, on the grass hard by Made no more bones, but sate them down to dinner, the original of Fracastorius giving

fundoque relinquant

Suspensum, Ast ipsi circum per gramina fusi
Implentur vili Cerere, et Cariotide pingui.

smallest selection of quotations possible. But the explanation given in the Dictionary' is the result of a careful study, not merely by myself, but by many colleagues, of all the passages (fifty-five in number) known to us; the selection of eleven quotations actually printed was thought sufficient to illustrate the origin of the phrase and its gradual transition into the modern form about 1600. As people not only find difficulties, or things at which they stick, like bones in soup, where they really are, but sometimes pretend to find them, i. e., make 4. "Why she is the fairest blossome in all the them, where they are not, it was natural enough towne: to her sonne, to her, tricke thyselfe up in that the figurative use of "to find no bones in "thy best reparrell, and make no bones at it, but should become at length "to make no bones in," and on a woing " (Greene's 'Francesco's Fortunes,' then "to make no bones at or to," and "to make Grosart, vol. viii. p. 189, 1. line). no bones of." It will perhaps be noticed that in the quotation from Skelton's 'Elynour Rummyng,' the somewhat modernized spelling partly conceals a rime; in the language of the poet, the lady (figuratively) Supped it up at ones,

She found therein no bones.

J. A. H. MURRAY.

Oxford. Bone, as quoted in the last reference from 'The Merchant's Tale' and from the fairy story is simply, of course, a very common old English way of spelling boon; it is also sometimes the French bon. If in Gascoigne's line the reader so chooses to read "made nor bones" he is welcome to do so, though to me it is evidently, as in many instances, equal to "made no difficulties." I say in many instances, because to suppose that in the well-known proverbial phrase "He makes no bones of," or the like, bones is equal boons, is to make sense into nonsense. The expression has been familiar to me from my boyhood, and I never heard it or used it except thus: "I make no bones of the tale told me" = I make no difficulty in believing it, but accept it as a truth; I swallow it as I would food containing no bones, which bones would make it either difficult or impossible to swallow. To take bone in such a phrase as boon, or gift, would be ludicrous. As nuts to crack, besides referring to Nares s. v., where are two excellent examples of this phrase out of three, I give

these.

1. "But the little wretch [a page], bearing a better heart than his poore mistresse, made little bones at it" (a wound that made him lie in torment), and, as the after-text tells us, spoke comfortably to his lady (N. Breton's Miseries of Mavillia,' Grosart's ed., vol. ii. p. 39, c. i. l. 8.

2. Hee (to beguile the simple) makes no bone
To swear by God (for he believes there's none).
J. Sylvester's 'Du Bartas,' Grosart, vol. i.
p. 251, 11. 23-4.

Du Bartas's French being

Il se plait a tromper par sermens les humains,

A cognate phrase is "To give one a bone to pick or gnaw on," for which see Nares's first of his three examples, and Greene, as before, p. 57, 1. 2, also vol. vi. p. 197, 1. 16; and Baret's Alvearie.' 1580, "I have given him a bone to gnawe, or I have caste him in a doubte. 'Injeci scrupulum homini' (Terent.)." Other cognate phrases are, "I cannot swallow that," "It sticks in my throat." BR. NICHOLSON.

O'CONNELL'S PARODY (7th S. iv. 40).—Turning to the references given in the seventh and eighth volumes of the Sixth Series, I find what I believe to be two errors. I very well remember reading O'Connell's parody within a couple of days or so after it had been uttered, and I am pretty sure the following, which I take from one of my notebooks, is the correct version :—

Three Colonels in three distant counties born,
Did Lincoln, Sligo, and Armagh adorn;
The last surpassed in gravity of face,
In piety the second, the first in grace.
The force of Nature could no further go,
To beard the one, she shaved the other two.
This note was written by me more than thirty
years ago, and I believe I copied it from one of the
principal newspapers which reported the saying.

The second error is in making the M.P. for
Sligo county Col. Gore. He really was Col.
Alexander Perceval, of Temple House, afterwards
Serjeant-at-Arms to the House of Lords. I often
saw Col. Sibthorp, more than forty years ago.
He wore an immensity of hair on his face; in
short, except on forehead, nose, and eyes, it was
hair every where, and, wearing his hat in the House
of Commons, the hair left but little of face to be
seen. As to surpassing in grace," I should
think it was the complete contrast which tickled
the members into a roar of laughter. I often heard
O'Connell in the House of Commons; his pleasant,
genial manner there was very different indeed
from the fiery demagogue when addressing a
meeting in the Corn Exchange, Dublin, or on the
hustings.
Y. S. M.

66

NAPOLEON LITERATURE (7th S. iv. 69).—In the Aux Dieux qu'il ne croid point eslevant ses deux mains. British Museum Catalogue there is the following

note after the mention of this work: "Baron A. H.
de Jomini? translated from the French." This
general was of Swiss extraction, and entered the
French army under the protection of Ney in 1804.
He fought in Prussia, the Peninsula, and Russia.
After the battle of Bautzen Napoleon refused him
the rank of général de division, and in consequence
he joined the allies. He wrote several military
works, and died in 1869. (See Biographie des
Hommes Vivants,' tom. iii., Paris, 1817.)
DE V. PAYEN-PAYNE.

University College, W.C.

6

SITWELL STOTEVILLE (7th S. iii. 27, 154, 314, 397, 505; iv. 16, 112).—I have given the correct etymology of the name Sitwell in my note on the prefix -ny or -ney in place-names. The word has no connexion whatever with Stoteville or Stuteville. S. O. ADDY.

Sheffield,

·

"NOT A BOLT OUT OF THE BLUE" (7th S. iii. 388, 522).-At p. 347 of the third volume of Carlyle's French Revolution' the following words occur: "Arrestment, sudden really as a bolt out of the blue, has hit strange victims." This will account for Mr. Parnell making use of the phrase, and explains his meaning.

ALFRED GATTY, D.D. SQUAILING (7th S. iv. 169).-Throwing at cocks, a sport for which Shrove Tuesday was the great day:

"You squail at us on Shrove Tuesday; you feed us with cockbread and arm us with steel spurs, that we may mangle and kill each other for your sport; you build

cock-pits, you make us fight Welsh mains, and give subscription cups to the winner."-Southey, The Doctor.' See also Brand's 'Popular Antiquities' for the custom of throwing at cocks.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road. "Squale, to throw a stick, as at a cock." Westcountry word, given by Grose in his 'Provincial Glossary.' H. G. GRIFFINhoofe.

[See N. & Q.,' 6th S. viii. 495.]

MRS. GLASSE (7th S. iv. 148).-Homlyn is ob-
viously the fish defined in Jamieson's 'Dictionary'
as "Hommelin, the rough ray."
G. N.

The homlyn is the spotted ray (Raja maculata).
The term is still in use.
W. R. TATE.
Walpole Vicarage, Halesworth.

tendency, and this very capricious form of "over-
grown cutaneous papilla" follows or is produced
by various irritants and even non-irritants. They
disappear as capriciously as they come; hence a
wart is a very good subject for the superstitious
charmer.
WILLIAM Rendle.

ARCHBISHOP JOHN Stafford (7th S. iv. 168).— Though I can say nothing as to the relationship between John and Edmund Stafford, yet I can inform MR. NORRIS who Edmund was with absolute certainty, which may help him to establish other points. He was the son of Richard Stafford, Lord of Clifton (son of Edmund, first Baron, and Margaret Basset of Drayton) by Isabel his wife; was aged thirty-six in 4 Ric. II.; and died at Bishop's Clyst, August or September, 1419. He had a brother Thomas, whose son Thomas, aged thirty, was returned heir of his uncle the Bishop in 7 Hen. V. HERMENTRUDE.

SALE OF SIR M. M. SYKES'S ENGRAVINGS (7th S. iv. 180).-These were all sold (in five separate collections) in the year 1824 at Sotheby's. The catalogues, with prices and names of purchasers, are all in the Library of the British Museum. F. N.

BOOK-PLATE (7th S. iv. 148).-Pace W. M. M., this is not a book-plate at all, but an advertisement of the best sort of sealing-wax, and has appeared in this form in 'N. & Q." (2nd S. xi. 329): "Fijn Zegellak wel brand en vast houd," which implies that the sealing-wax was of Dutch manufacture. Like J. P. O. in the above notice, I have often ED. MARSHALL, seen the impress on wax.

[Other correspondents write to the same effect.]

POEM BY MOORE (7th S. iv._127).—This will be found in Galignani's edition, Paris, 1829, 18, Rue Vivienne; 'Irish Melodies,' No. ix., p. 316.

'DAME WIGGINS OF LEE' (7th S. iv. 127).Perhaps I may be permitted to answer my own question. Since inquiring in the columns of EGG-WATER (7th S. iv. 128).—The idea in Corn-N. & Q.' as to this amusing little book for chilwall, and probably elsewhere, is also that the white of egg if spilt on the flesh begets warts, and hence great care is used in breaking the egg to avoid this evil contact. It is impossible to say what will and what will not appear to produce warts, the post hoc is not always the propter hoc. There is often a marked family or individual

dren, published in 1823, and recently republished by Mr. Ruskin, I have discovered that it was written by a Mrs. Sharpe, sister of a grocer of that name in Bishopsgate Street, and illustrated by Mr. R. Stennet. Ascribed by Mr. Ruskin to A. K. Newman & Co., of the Minerva Press, I find the publication really due to a contemporary firm,

Cardinal Perron as its author, but he has not not the author of it. (Godwin, 'De Præsul. verified the reference, which I subjoin :Angl.,' ed. Richardson, ii. 66.) E. VENABLES.

"Saint Augustin parle du citre, quand il écrit contre les Manichéens, qui disoient que les Catholiques estoient gens adounez au vin, et qu'eux n'en bûvoient point. Il leur répond, qu'il estoit vray, mais qu'ils bûvoient d'un suc tiré de pommes, qui estoit plus delicieux que tous les vins, et que tous les brûvages du monde. Tertullien dit aussi, succum ex pomis vinosissimum, le citre enyvre comme le vin. et l'yvresse en est plus mauvaise, parce qu'il est plus froid. Perroniana et Thuana,' p. 65, Col., 1694, cf. p. 237, where he assigns to St. Augustine the passage attributed to Tertullian at p. 65.

The following is such a passage in St. Augustine as that which is referred to :

"Bibat autem mulsum, carcnum passum, et nonnullorum pomorum expressos succos, vini speciem satis imitantes, atque id etiam suavitate vincentes."-S. Aug., 'De Moribus Manichæorum,' lib. ii. cap. xiii. tom. i. col. 788 a, Basil, 1569.

ED. MARSHALL.

Sydney Smith has a story which illustrates MR. BONE'S extract. When he went into Somersetshire the servants from his Yorkshire parish were scandalized by people getting drunk upon cider, to the neglect of beer, which they considered to be in the economy of nature the only legitimate means for producing intoxication. I cannot give the exact reference, but think it occurs in one of his 'Letters.' EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M. A. The Library, Claremont, Hastings.

John Le Breton (see sixth volume of the 'Dictionary of National Biography") was Bishop of Hereford from 1269 to 1275. He has often been regarded as the author of a book on English law (highly praised by Fuller), which is, in fact, principally a condensation of the famous work of Bracton or Brattun,' De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ'; but possibly the belief may only have arisen from the similarity of their names, particularly as the spelling of the name of Judge Bracton (who was appointed Chancellor of the Cathedral of Exeter in 1264, and died in 1268) is W. T. LYNN. very uncertain. Blackheath.

[MR. H. G. GRIFFINHOOFE, G. F. R. B., REV. E. MARSHALL, T. R. B., MR. H. W. FORSYTH HAWOOD, MR. D. HIPWELL, and very many others supply information to the same effect.]

THE GOOD OLD NORMAN ERA (7th S. iii. 388, 500).-The customs about which MR. WALFORD inquires were customs of Shrewsbury in the time of Edward the Confessor, as recorded in Domesday; they were discussed in Salopian Shreds and Patches in 1878 (vol. iii. pp. 32, 38, 52) by the Rev. Mackenzie Walcott and other authorities. Many of the privileges mentioned by the Rev. J. W. Warter BISHOP OF HEREFORD (7th S. iv. 149).-Accord-in existence a few years ago; see the chapter on as appertaining to lords of the manors were still ing to Heylin ('Peerage') the surname of this "Ancient Tenures and Customs" in Duke's 'Antibishop was Breton. He is styled "the great quities of Shropshire.' A grant by Henry VIII. of lawyer," and was promoted to the see in 1268. the manor of Albrighton recites the rights of the He was succeeded in it in 1275 by S. Thomas Can- manor, which include "Natives and Villians with telupe, Chancellor of Oxford and Lord Chancellor. their retinue Wards Marriages Escheats Reliefs Referring to Sir Jonathan Trelawney, is not Herietts Courts Court Letes profits Views of ALPHA wrong in calling him "Bishop of Winchester"? If Heylin is to be trusted, he was the W. B. Frankpledge," &c. forty-sixth Bishop of Exeter, having been translated to that see from Bristol in 1689. He may have been subsequently translated to Winchester, but I find no account of it, neither am I aware that any life has been published of him. Is he not the subject of the poem beginning with "And shall Trelawney die"? I have a notion that he is. EDMUND TEW, M.A.

'EAST LYNNE' (7th S. iii. 266, 459, 526).—I am glad to know, on such excellent authority as that of MR. BENTLEY, that the charge brought against the late Mrs. Henry Wood by the Pall Mall Gazette was so far unfounded, only it seems strange that the criticism should have been reprinted twenty years later by a literary magazine without drawing forth a word of comment. For an author Surnames in their modern acceptation, trans- to publish the same book under different titles, mitted regularly from father to children, are hardly although in different countries, is not a commendto be found in common use so early as the four-able practice, though there may be ample excuse teenth century. The bishop concerning whom Q. V. inquires was known as "le Breton," from the country of himself or his ancestors. John le Breton was consecrated Bishop of Hereford Jan. 2, 1269. He died May 12, 1275. He had been previously Canon and Prebendary of the cathedral church. A work, De Juribus Anglicanis,' is attributed to him by Godwin, who states that even in his day it was very highly valued. Selden, however, has clearly proved that he was

for so doing, and it is only natural that where the authorship is not openly acknowledged there should be charges of plagiarism.

My charge of want of originality in Mrs. Wood's novels was meant to cover much more than I perhaps indicated in endeavouring to make my note as brief as possible. An author may strike out an original line for him or her self, and serve up the same dish over and over again, varying the dressing, so to speak, with each different appear