SLIPSHOD ENGLISH (7th S. iv. 85, 157, 278). Further illustrations may be found in the query on 'Married Women's Surnames,' p. 127. In the sentences, "The custom of a married woman

says:

"Observe that the Games we have mark'd

here, are the smallest that can be play'd upon the
Cards." The author of Annals of Gaming,' 1775,
speaking of Piquet (p. 86), says :-"No one should
play at it, unless he is acquainted with everything
joueurs de profession."
that can be done upon the cards by the most expert

changing her surname," and "The first recorded
instance of a woman being called by her husband's
surname," the genitive woman's should be substi-
tuted for the accusative woman.
Though clear
enough to the understanding, this will be more per-
ceptible to the ear in a sentence in which the pro-
noun is used. For example, I am sure that E. D.
would not "The cause of him being arrested,"
say,
for "The cause of his being arrested." On the
last line of the
natural.
same column, the adverb
merely is used to restrict the verb, whereas the
limitation is intended to affect what follows. The
verb and the adverb should be transposed, just as
in the expression "I only spoke three words,"
which should be "I spoke only three words."

To change from consideration of the language to that of the subject of E. D.'s inquiry. It is hardly correct in point of fact to say that it is customary in the United States for a woman to add her husband's surname to her own. It is frequently done, but the proportion of cases is very small, certainly not more than five in a hundred, and these are generally of persons prominently before the public. The Spanish custom of appending the matronymic, to which E. D. alludes, is very common, and is sometimes a source of perplexity to those not familiar with it.

Philadelphia, U.S.

GASTON DE BERNEVAL.

Allow me once more to draw the attention of readers of N. & Q.' to the slipshod English which, in spite of the Editor's care, finds its way into its columns. What can be worse, in the way of ellipse, than the following: "No pupil of Wren's would be likely to make the blunder Gibbs has in St. Martin's." I suppose the writer means to say that "No pupil of Wren [not Wren's] would be likely to make the blunder [which] Gibbs has [made] in St. Martin's." But if that was his meaning, could he not have expressed it at full length? Do, Mr. Editor, try and defend the Queen's English against both ellipse and pleonasm, two of its sworn foes! E. WALFORD, M.A.

Hyde Park Mansions, N.W.

[Style is so much a part of the man, that the Editor, in the case of signed articles, does not feel justified in attempting very numerous corrections.]

"ON THE CARDS" (7th S. iv. 507).-I think that this phrase is much older than this century. It is, of course, evidently taken from the custom of

That which is " on the cards," therefore, may be the phrase in common parlance seems easy and a game, a stake, or a trick; and the adoption of JULIAN MARSHALL.

is known of this ballad will be found in Edward EDWARD UNDERHILL (7th S. iv. 367).—All that Underhill's 'Narrative of his Imprisonment,' printed with annotations in Nichols's Narratives of the Reformation' (Camden Society). Mr. Nichols was of opinion that even if now in existence, it would probably be impossible to identify it. One of Underhill's ballads is printed at the close of this narrative; and its original, in his tall, upright handwriting, may be found in Harl. MS. 424, fol. 9. It has, however, no controversial tendency, but is a diatribe against avarice and selfishness. HERMENTRUDE.

ELA FAMILY (7th S. iv. 149, 452).—EBORACUM is mistaken if he thinks that the place Kirk Ella owes its name to any person named Ella. Its original name was Elveley, and remained so until the middle of the sixteenth century; see 6th S. xi. 121, n.; 7th S. i. 245, 375; Yorksh. Archæol. Jour., vii. 58, n.; 'Memorials of Ripon,' ii. 186. Not being aware of this, editors have often been unable to identify "parochia Elvellensis"; thus in 'Fasti Ebor.,' i. 431, and in the Archeol. Jour., 1860, P. 32, it is printed Elneley, the writer in the latter place adding "probably Emly near Huddersfield.” The prefix Kirk, and the other places, East Ella and South Ella, are modern; but West Ella is not. Elshaw likewise, which EBORACUM also adduces, has no connexion with Ella, but was anciently Elveshow; see 'Memorials of Ripon,' i. 60, 263.

W. C. B.

'GREATER LONDON': AN INACCURATE QUOTATION (7th S. iv. 407, 454).-With much respect for MR. WALFORD, I can only charitably assume that he had not compared my transcript of the Lethieullier inscription with what he terms his "version" of it. Had he done so, he would hardly have imagined the only fault I had to find with him

I

hats were becoming obsolete), and offered to the
British public at the reasonable figure of four
shillings and ninepence. Albert Smith sang :-

Then his hat cost about four and nine,
With a brim very broad and quite flat.
'Tis a pity that medical students
Have such love for a gossamer hat.

E. G. YOUNGER, M.D.

They were not, however, successful, but were overcome by Metellus. Strabo connects the two original sources of the invention very neatly when, in writing of the inhabitants of these islands, he observes :

Σφενδονῆται ἄριστοι λέγονται, καὶ τοῦτ' ἤσκησαν, ὡς φασι, διαφερόντως, ἐξ ὅτου Φοίνικες κατέσχον τὰς νήσους.— Geogr. L. iii. p. 168. Cæsar availed himself of them :

"Eo de nocte Cæsar, iisdem ducibus usus, qui nuncii ab Iccio venerant, Numidas et Cretas sagittarios et funditores Baleares subsidio oppidanis (Remorum) misit.”

The word goss, applied to a hat, is usually supposed to be a shortened form of gossamer, with reference to the use of gossamer silk in the manufacture of hats. Bardsley thinks that the origin of the surname is to be found in goose, cf. 'English'De Bell. Gall.,' ii. 7. Surnames,' p. 494, ed. 1875. Ferguson, in The Teutonic Name-System,' p. 309, thinks that the name is connected with goz, another form of gaud = Goth. F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY.

[Other correspondents reply to the same effect.] THE SLING (7th S. iv. 427).-The sling, as operdón, is mentioned once in Homer, as part of the equipment of Helenus, and borne by his attendant, in the combat with Menelaus ('II.,' N. xiii. 1. 600). It appears under the synonym, εύστροφος διὸς ἄωτος, as a part of the arms with which the Locrians came supplied (ib., 1. 716). When the Athenians landed, B.C. 425, upon the island of Sphacteria to attack the Lacedemonian garrison, they feared that in the event of a retreat they might be set upon, inter alia, kai operdóvais (Thuc., iv. 32).

Virgil has an excellent description of the use of the sling in the combat between Mezentius and the son of Arcens:

Stridentem fundam, positis Mezentius hastis,
Ipse ter adducta circum caput egit habena;
Et media adversi liquefacto tempora plumbo
Diffidit, ac multa porrectum extendit arena.
'En.,' ix. 586-9.

Pliny attributes the invention to the Phoenicians ('N. H.,' vii. 56). Others attribute the invention to the inhabitants of the Baleares Insula, who were famous for the use of the sling. So Livy has, in reference to their alliance with the Carthaginians and opposition to the Roman fleet :

The use of slings by the early Britons forms the subject of some notices in 'N. & Q.,' 1 S. v. 537; vi. 17, 377. ED. MARSHALL.

See the following: The Use of the Sling as a Warlike Weapon among the Ancients,' by W. Hawkins, 4to., illustrated, 1847; the article "Sling" in Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible.'

See Virgil,'Eneid,' ix. 665 :

W. C. B.

Intendunt acres arcus, amentaque torquent.
JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

PUBLIC PENANCE (7th S. iv. 469).-The instance referred to by MR. WALFORD is not the last. The following appeared in the Liverpool Mercury of August 2, 1882, and as the remarks of the clergyman are pertinent, I give the report in extenso :

did penance at All Saints' Church, East Clevedon, for the "On Sunday evening a man named Llewellyn Hartree seduction of a servant girl, who now awaits her trial for manslaughter. The church was crowded, and after the evening prayer, as the vicar was about to enter the pulpit, he requested the congregation to remain seated. He then said: We are about to deal with a matter of a most ancient character-a case of Church discipline. It is a very common reproach to us English Churchmen that we are the only body of Christians in the world amongst whom holy discipline is dead. Among the Catholics or in the Eastern Church, the Presbyterians of Scotland, or the English dissenters, I know not any body of Christians where salutary discipline is dead except the feel it would be a perfectly intolerable evil for a parish Church of England. I as firmly as any one in this church priest, at his own discretion, to call before him in the becomes very different when he is acting with the consent of the churchwardens, congregation, and parishioners. The offender will now come into the church to ask forgiveness of his fellow men, the one he has wronged, and Almighty God.' The churchwarden then brought the man into the church. On reaching the This he did, and the senior churchwarden then handed chancel steps the vicar motioned the man to kneel. the vicar a paper, when he said to the man, 'Do you acknowledge this to be your handwriting? He in a low voice said, 'Yes.' The declaration was then read as follows: I, Llewellyn Hartree, do acknowledge to be guilty of the most grievous sin, for which I do hereby ask the forgiveness of my fellow men, and of the woman I have wronged, and of Almighty God. In proof of my repentance I promise to carry out the penance laid upon me in the presence of this congregation.'

"Fundis ut nunc plurimum, ita tunc solo eo telo ute-church any notorious offender for public rebuke, but it bantur, nec quisquam alterius gentis unus tantum ea arte, quantum inter alios omnes Baleares excellunt: itaque tanta vis lapidum creberrimæ grandinis modo in propinquantem jam terræ classem effusa est, ut, intrare portum non ausi averterent in altum naves."-B.C. 206, lib. xxviii. c. 37.

Florus writes of another attack upon the Romans at a later time, B.C. 123, in very similar terms :"Sed quum venientem ab alto Romanam classem prospexissent, prædam putantes, ausi etiam occurrere; et primo impetu ingenti lapidum saxorumque nimbo classem operuerunt. Tribus quisque fundis præliatur. Certos esse quis miretur ictus, quum hæc sola genti arma sint, id unum ab infantia studium? Cibum puer a matre non accipit, nisi quem, ipsa monstrante, percussit.' 'Hist. Rom.,' 1. iii. c. 8.

The

6

vicar then said, 'The penance laid upon you is that you go to the assize court at Wells, when it shall next be held, and take your place where I shall set you beside the prisoner at the bar. Will you accept that penance?' The man answered, 'Yes.' Turning to the congregation, the vicar said, 'I am going to ask you all a question. Seeing that this man has humbled himself in the house of God, and provided he fulfils his promise, will you forThe congregation give him? If so, answer "I will.' The vicar continued: One thing replied, I will,' more. Will you all, so far as opportunity may permit, so help this man towards living a better life, and shield him from reproach in this matter? If so, answer "I will." The congregation replied, I will.' The vicar then, turning to the young man, pronounced these words: God be with thee, my son, and give thee the peace of true repentance to live a better life from this time henceforth. Amen.' The vicar afterwards ascended the pulpit and preached a sermon from the twenty-first verse of the eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew." EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

I have heard of a later case of public penance than 1850, but I do not recollect the details. The sinner's name began with a T, and it occurred in Chester. Doubtless correspondents from that city could give full particulars to MR. Walford.

PAUL Q. KARKEEK.

THE MITRE IN HERALDRY (7th S. iv. 486).There is a view of Ockwells House, Berkshire, with coloured illustrations of four of the window

serve."

The name

The repre-
a mitre. Some thirty examples will be found in
Bedford's Blazon of Episcopacy.'
C. R. MANNING.
sentatives of some of these continued to bear the
mitre in their arms, as in the case of the family of
Peploe, of Salop.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.

Founded on

We

their own Manifestoes, and on Facts and Documents The Real History of the Rosicrucians. collected from the Writings of Initiated Brethren, By Arthur Edward Waite. (Redway.) WE have read the 'Anacalypsus' of Godfrey Higgins, and the 'De Miraculis Mortuorum' of L. F. Garmann. How vain our Having performed these feats, it has been our wont to arranged as to be unconquerable by us. boast that no book could be so wild, stupid, or illpretensions were Mr. Waite has demonstrated. have found it as impossible to pierce the dense fog in which he has enveloped himself as it would be to read a book in a language the very characters of which were unknown to us. His Real History of the Rosicrucians' is not a history of anything in the heavens above or the earth beneath. It is a mere string of facts, fancies, and guesses, which have some relation to the mysticism which the brethren of the Rosy Cross have professed. The Percy Anecdotes' might as well be called a "history of men, manners, and morals," or the Anatomy of Melancholy treated as a serious contribution to mental tive. The man is indeed to be envied who can derive science. The foregoing books are amusing and instruc

entertainment from Mr. Waite's pages.

rosa aurea

Two things in this book strike us as particularly senselights, in the additional plates to Lysons's 'Berkshire. The arms there given are, in one plate, less. We have page after page concerning the mystical those of Henry VI. and his queen, with the meanings of the rose and the sign of the cross. Now, It need not surprise us, theremottoes, "Dieu et mon droit" and "Humble et as to the first, it is the most attractive of flowers, and is very widely distributed. loiall"; and, in the other plate, of Norreys (not fore, that the "flos florum" should have become the Marreys), the owners of the house, and Beaufort, flower of Venus, a type of the blessed virgin, a mute to kings Duke of Somerset. But the arms of Norreys are symbol at burials, a Plantagenet and a Stuart badge, that not those usually borne by that family, but Argent, the Popes should have sent the " a chevron between three ravens' heads erased as a symbol of joy and hope, or that garlands of roses sable. Crest, a raven, wings elevated, sable. should have been used as a type of joy at the Feast of Corpus Christi. What does astonish is that any one Motto, "Feythfully should imagine that the heavenly rose of Dante's divine Supporters, two beavers. This coat appears to have boen borne by vision has anything to do with the senseless dreams of John Norreys, Esq., the builder of Ockwells those misguided persons, medieval and modern, who House, in 1465, as heir of the family of Ravens- have manufactured a stupid, and in some instances recroft. It comes, he "Norrys" occurs at the foot of volting, mysticism from the purest and holiest symbols which nature affords us. It is only fair to say that Mr. the light. He impales, Quarterly, 1 and 4, Bendy Waite is not the originator of the idea. of ten, or and azure (Mountfort); 2 and 3, Or, two tells us, from Eliphas Levi, who made the profound disbars gules and a bend azure (Wake of Kent). covery that the Roman de la Rose' and the Divina There is no mitre to be seen here or in the other Commedia' are two opposite forms of the same work. The pages that are given to the cross are even more glass that Lysons has engraved. He mentions, silly. Mr. Waite has had many forerunners. p. *705, that among the other arms in these beauti-obvious that the cross is one of the simplest of signs, ful windows are the Abbey of Westminster, and and it is but natural that many peoples should have hit these were anciently, Azure, on a chief indented on it as a type or symbol of something. To suppose or, a crozier on the dexter and a mitre on the that the Christian use of this sign has come from heasinister, both gules. This is, therefore, probably thenism or the secret societies shows a want of imaginaas well as of ecclesiastical history and art. the coat intended in the report of the law case to tive appreciation of the central fact of the Gospel history which your correspondent refers. The mitre is a Culture, and Genius. By Samuel Smiles. (Murray.) very rare charge in the arms of a private family Life and Labour; or, Characteristics of Men of Industry, DR. SMILES's books are always pleasant reading, and are (see Papworth's 'Ordinary,' p. 979), but it occurs in those of several bishoprics and religious houses, invariably full of wide and varied information. Life as Carlyle, Chester, Llandaff, and Norwich; and and Labour' has been written on the same lines as 'Selfmany bishops differenced their paternal arms with Help' and 'Character.' It treats in eleven chapters of

It is

"The Man and the Gentleman"; "Great Men: Great Workers"; "Great Young Men"; "Great Old Men"; "Lineage of Talent and Genius"; "The Literary Ailment: over Brain-work: Health and Hobbies"; "Town and Country Life"; "Single and Married: Helps-meet"; "Evening of Life: Last Thoughts of Great Men." It is one of those rare books which you may open at any page and immediately commence to read. Turn where you will you are sure to find some anecdote which will arrest your attention. Owing to its clear and attractive style, Life and Labour' should be popular alike with old and young. All may profit from the judicious counsel which will be found in its pages. We regret that Dr. Smiles but rarely gives any references to the authorities from which he quotes. It undoubtedly detracts from the usefulness of his book, but we must console ourselves with the fact that an index has been vouchsafed to us.

Temple Bar, which brims over with amusing gossip and mirthful anecdote.-The English Illustrated has, under the title of Et Cætera,' some delightful literary gossip by Mr. H. D. Traill. The letterpress and illustrations to Antwerp are equally good, and Coaching Days and Coaching Ways' is brilliantly continued by Mr. Tristram and his illustrators.-The account of “ Gretna Green " and President Keller are noteworthy in a good number of the Cornhill. 'Notes by a Naturalist should be named "Notes by a Bird Slaughterer," since the massacre of birds seems the chief claim of the writer to consideration. Our Small Ignorances' is certainly not misnamed, since the first page gives two misquotations.-All the Year Round deals with Thackeray's Brighton' and 'A London Suburb.'-The Century has a capital portrait of Mr. Ruskin. Mr. E. V. Smalley has an excellent description (illustrated) of the Upper Missouri. As regards both letterpress and engravings, it maintains its high character.

PART IV. of the reissue by Messrs. Cassell & Co. of Old and New London' is principally occupied with the Temple, of which, in early and late days, many excellent illustrations are given. Our Own Country,' Part XXXVI., has the conclusion of the Isle of Wight and the beginning of Dundee. Between the two is sandwiched Dorking, of which a full-page plate is given, with views of Box Hill, Leith Hill, Deepdene, and other interesting spots. The Laureate's house is also depicted.-Part XLVIII. of the Encyclopedic Dictionary concludes Vol. IV.. to which the title-page is given. Under the heads "Mass," "Marriage," and "Medicine" admirably full and trustworthy information may be found.--Part XXIV. of Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare gives' Richard II.' The illustrations to this play are strikingly dramatic. -Part XX. of The Life and Times of Queen Victoria depicts the visit of the Shah, the marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh, the proclamation of the Queen as Empress, and other events of 1873-6.-Little Folks has been increased in size, and forms an attractive periodical.— Woman's World improves as it proceeds, and has a pleasing sketch of Mrs. Craik, the author of John Halifax,' and a good account of Kirby Hall.-Part I. of a reissue of the admirable Dictionary of Cookery has a capital sheet of maxims, which should be hung up in every kitchen.-Part IV. of The World of Wit and Humour also appears.

IT may perhaps be accepted as of happy augury that the magazines of the new year deal more largely than has been their wont with literary and artistic matters, and are less occupied with military, social, and political problems. In the Fortnightly it is true that the author of Greater Britain' gives the third of his series of startling revelations concerning The British Army,' and sounds a note of alarm to which our statesmen will do well not to shut their ears. Prof. Tyrrell's paper on 'The Old School of Classics and the New' ridicules very amusingly the affectations of spelling classical names which mar much modern work, both in prose and verse. Mr. Swinburne is once more rhapsodical concerning babies, and Mr. Saintsbury continues his papers on 'The Present State of the Novel.-Mr. Matthew Arnold, in the Nineteenth Century, deals with Prof. Dowden's recent 'Life of Shelley' with a freedom that is likely to bring him a smart castigation at the hands of the Shelley worshippers. Prof. Palgrave on 'The Doctrine of Art' takes what must be regarded as a pessimistic view. Mr. Swinburne's clever skit, Dethroning Tennyson,' has already attracted much notice. It contains a little delicately veiled banter as well as some keen and direct satire. Sir Henry Thompson is again eloquent in favour of cremation, and Sir W. W. Hunter, under the title of 'A River of Ruined Capitals,' deals with what it seems we are now to call, pace Prof. Tyrrell, the Hugli.-Two excellent literary articles in Macmillan are Dr. Birkbeck Hill upon Dr. Johnson's Style' and Miss Cartwright upon Sacharissa's Letters.' Mr. S. M. Burrows, in Something like a Bag,' describes, we are happy to say, a capture of tame elephants, and not a brutal record of slaughter. Mr. Clark Russell's 'Pictures at Sea' are very striking.-An excellent number of the Gentleman's contains an admirable paper by the Rev. S. Baring Gould upon Marlit, otherwise Eugene John, the German novelist; an account by Mr. Bent of Samothrace; Bonnie Prince Charlie,' an historical sketch from the Stuart Papers; the Story of the Assassination of Alexander II.'; and a paper by Mr. G. Barnett Smith upon John Hookham Frere.' In the Resur- OUR old correspondent, the Rev. John Pickford, M.A., rection,' by Mr. Sidney R. Thompson, has unusual rector of Newbourne, Suffolk, has printed for private excellence. The contents of Murray's are exception- circulation a second edition of his List of Contributions ally light and readable. A Voyage in the Northern to Notes and Queries.' The brochure enumerates more Light is, perhaps, the most literary in flavour. The than eight hundred articles, written at one time under London and North-Western Railway' and 'The Royal the signature "Oxoniensis," but of later years under his Irish Constabulary' are dealt with, and there is a own name. It is inscribed by him to his friends the seasonable paper on oysters.-In Longman's Mr. Archer Dean of Norwich and Mr. J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, and gives the first series of answers to the queries he put to he appends, with reference to the companionship afforded various actors. Very curious some of them are. Mr. by a love of literature, the fine quatrain of Tibullus :— Manston has a readable paper on Coquilles,' or printers' Sic ego desertis possum bene vivere sylvis, blunders. A very touching article is that on The UnQua nullo humano sit via trita pede, employed and the Donna.-Mr. Frith's Recollections' Tu mibi curarum requies, tu nocte vel atra are the subject of a discursive and brilliant paper in Lumen, et in solis tu mihi turba locis,

6

Le Livre for last month, which appears later than usual, contains a very interesting and ingenious account, in part a defence, of Edward Bulwer. Lord Lytton, by Le Vicomte R. du Pontavice de Heussey, accompanied by an excellent portrait. M. L. Derôme writes on Les Vicissitudes de la Mémoire de Perrault,' the famous author of the fairy stories. Lyons, the brilliant record of which as regards printing is known, is founding a society" des amis des livres de Lyons" for the republication of rarities. Of this interesting association the regulations are published.