of an octavo volume, about the middle of the book; but I have wholly forgotten the name of the narrator and of the work in which the narrative appears. I am perfectly acquainted with the details of the tragedy; but there are a number of difficulties in the way of ascertaining the precise date which the contemporary record now eluding my memory would assist me to overcome. Any in formation would very greatly oblige. Temple.

NEMO.

wheat which was much discoloured by this pest. I feared the crop was spoilt; but about ten days or a fortnight before harvest a heavy rain came, which washed the rust away, and the crop looked nearly right at harvest time. A LINCOLNSHIRE FARMER. VILLON.-Whence did Villon take the thought contained in the well-known line of his ballad of 'Dead Ladies,'

seyde':

Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?

LONG PERNE COURT.-In a document dated 1553, certain persons are empowered "to hold Courts called Long_Perne Courtys." Any information about Long Perne Court will be gratefully received by W. WINTERS.

Church Yard, Waltham Abbey.

SMUT.-What is the exact meaning of this word as applied to the wheat crop? I have always used it to indicate a disease in wheat which causes the grain at harvest time to be full of black powder in the place of flour. In that part of England where I live, the farm-labourers employ the word in this way, and would not understand a person who used it to designate anything else. During the last two or three years I have met with it applied in newspapers to the black ears which are sometimes to be seen in corn crops at the time the plant is flowering. There seems to be little analogy between these black ears and the true smut, except that there is a black powder produced in both cases. The true smut is most injurious to the It discolours the good grains, and gives to them a disgusting smell and taste. The dust of the black ears blows away, and the farmer does not suffer except by the loss of the produce of a few ears of corn.

corn crop.

In J. E. Taylor's interesting 'Half - Hours in Green Lanes,' fourth ed., 1877, p. 313, smut is applied in a third manner. He says, "If you are short of objects for the miscroscope, you cannot do better than turn into the nearest wheatfield, where the sicklier heads, covered with the black powder called 'smut,' will afford you microscopic fungi in abundance." I am not quite certain what is meant here. Mr. Taylor may be writing of that growth which I have called black heads, but I think he is not. He seems to me to mean what I have been in the habit of calling "rust." The colour is not black, but a dark reddish brown. It is a fungoid growth, which attacks not the grain, but the chaff; though if the attack be severe, it injures the grain by arresting its growth. The rust adheres but loosely to the chaff. I had last year a nine-acre field of

Ye, farwel al the snowgh of ferne yere, which Rev. W. Skeat remarks (Bohn's edition, vol. iii. p. 278) "is probably a line from some popular ballad in which the transitoriness of woman's love is compared to last year's snow." It is improbable, however, that Villon took it from Chaucer, and most likely both may have a French origin. A. COLLINGWOOD LEE.

Waltham Abbey, Essex.

Replies.

"THE INGOLDSBY LEGENDS.' (7th S. vi. 508.)

6

Bentley's Miscellany began to appear in January, 1837, under the editorship of Charles Dickens, and in the number for February was published "Fireside Stories," No. 1. The Spectre of Tappington,' with a carefully etched illustration by R. W. Buss. This was the first of the papers which were subsequently collected and issued in three volumes (or "series ") as "The Ingoldsby Legends.' The next two plates were etched by George Cruikshank in his most masterly style, being A Lay of St. Nicholas' and 'The Witches' Frolick'; but the stories-whether entitled Fire-side Stories," or "The Golden Legend," or County Legends "were, for the most part, sent out without illustrations, for Buss did not appear again in Bentley, Cruikshank was busy upon Oliver Twist,'' Nights at Sea,' and other matters, and Leech's pencil was not employed until some time after the editorship had been handed over to Harrison Ainsworth, the event being notified to the public in a 'Familiar Epistle, from a Parent to a Child,' signed ❝ Boz," which occupies pp. 219-20 of the Miscellany for March, 1839. The back of the contents-leaf in this number contains the following announcement :—

"THOMAS INGOLDSBY, who has so powerfully aided us from the commencement by his unrivalled Legends,' promises to give us in future numbers more of his productions, which are always so popular." The first of Leech's etchings occurs in the Miscellany for October, 1840 (his name is spelt "Leach" on the contents-page), and illustrates 'The Black Mousquetaire'; the artist signs it with his well

known rebus; next, in the number for May, 1841, is 'The Confession,' illustrative of' The Old Woman Clothed in Grey,' which is signed "J. Leech." George Cruikshank at this period was in active hostility to Bentley, the circumstances of the dispute being familiar to all who have studied the various biographies of the artist, and the work done by him for the Miscellany was performed in the most perfunctory manner, as any one may see who will compare the etchings to Guy Fawkes' with those to Jack Sheppard,' which preceded, and "The Miser's Daughter,' which followed in the list of Ainsworth's romances. INVESTIGATOR'S query is answered in a curious confidence addressed to the public on the fly-leaf of Ainsworth's Magazine for February, 1842, and entitled 'A Few Words to the Public about Richard Bentley,' by Mr. George Cruikshank. Herein the artist says:

"Mr. Bentley, the publisher, evidently wishes to create the supposition that I illustrate his Miscellany. On the contrary, I wish the public to understand that I do no such thing. It is true that, according to a one-sided agreement (of which more may be heard hereafter), I supply a single etching per month. But I supply only that single etching. And even that can hardly be called my design, since the subject of it is regularly furnished to me by Mr. Bentley, and I have never even read a page of any of the stories thus 'illustrated.'

The italics in the above extract are Cruikshank's, and it is plain that the omission of his usual signature (for which a meaningless scribble is sometimes substituted) and the addition of such a formula as "the subject furnished by Mr. Bentley," in the left-hand bottom corner of The Dead Drummer,' were factors in his scheme for annoying the publisher and hastening his own deliverance from the hated agreement. His etchings in the twelfth and thirteenth volumes of the Miscellany are simply disgraceful, contrasting strongly with the carefully finished illustrations to 'Mr. Ledbury' and 'Richard Savage' by John Leech; therefore the publisher, no doubt despairing of being able to persuade the public that such an unfinished scrawl as 'Jerry Jarvis's Wig' was really the work of their favourite's hand, caused the words " George Cruikshank fecit" to be engraved beneath the design. In spite of all this it is worthy of notice how the native humour of the man occasionally predominated over his settled determination to bring discredit upon Bentley-the exit of the friar from Old Nick's sack under the influence of St. Medard's oyster-knife is very funny, and so is the by-play in 'The Lay of St. Cuthbert.' To conclude, the whole of the etchings to the first issue of "The Ingoldsby Legends,' with the single exception mentioned above, are by George Cruikshank and John Leech, the unsigned ones being exclusively by the former artist. ALFRED WALLIS.

Exeter.

[MR. JOSEPH BEARD, MR. J. F. MANSERGH, and MR. A. M. PHILIPS furnish corroborative information.]

CHAINS OF STRAW (7th S. vi. 428).—The colloquy entitled by Erasmus 'Peregrinatio Religionis Ergo, is a bitter satire upon pilgrimages and relics, and the words in question may have been employed to indicate the worthlessness of the gifts bestowed at the shrines visited in return for the more valuable offerings made by the pilgrims. St. James of Compostella presented Ogygius, as he narrates, with "hoc imbricatum putamen." Menedemus replies, "Cur ista potius donat quan alia." Ogyg.: "Quoniam his abundat, suggerente vicino mari. Upon this the notes of Southey to his poem 'The Pilgrim to Compostella' may be consulted. The images of saints made of common metals (lead and tin) may indicate a like return for the gold and silver offerings at the shrine. In a similar way the Virgo Parathalassia in England, to whom Ogygius. had also made a pilgrimage, may be represented as requiting her votaries with chains of straw ("culmei, e stramine facti," of little or no value, as we say a man of straw") and a "rosary looking like serpents' eggs" ("quæ cum prodeunt cohærent") as is noted by Cornelius Schrevelius, editor of the variorum edition of the 'Colloquia,' in 1664. He also suggests that this shrine of the Virgin was at Saint Maries (St. Mary's), near Falmouth. W. E. BUCKLEY.

earl, who was father of Eufemia, wife of King Robert II. F. N. R. will find in Theiner's 'Vetera Monumenta a Papal dispensation in respect to the marriage of Earl Hugh with Margaret Graham, which shows that his first wife was not a sister of Bruce's. Ascertained dates, in fact, forbid the idea H. B.

"DOLCE FAR NIENTE " (7th S. vii. 28).-Your correspondent CLIVE wishes to know whether the origin of this proverbial expression can be traced to any Italian author. In Geflügelte Worte: Der Citatenschatz des Deutschen Volks,' by Georg Büchmann (tenth edition, Berlin, 1877), I find it stated (p. 150) that "Il dolce far niente" (usually quoted in England without the article) is a translation of "Illud jucundum nil agere" in Pliny, 'Epistles,' viii. 9. Büchmann goes on to remark that it is not surprising the Italians should have made this phrase their property, since the delights of doing nothing are nowhere greater than in Italy. It may be added that the book here quoted from is an exceedingly useful compilation. Those puzzling lines, “Incidio in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim" and "Tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis" are both therein referred to their sources. It is, besides, highly instructive to learn which of our English quotations have become "Winged Words " among the Germans. EDWARD BENSLY.

Büchmann, in the 'Geflügelte Worte,' at "Il dolce far niente," gives no reference to an author for the phrase, but compares with it Pliny's "Jucundum tamen nihil agere" (Ep.,' viii. 9). The context of the passage is:

"Olim non librum in manus, non stylum sumpsi. Olim nescio, quid sit otium, quid quies, quid denique illud iners quidem, jucundum tamen nihil agere, nihil esse: adeo multa me negotia amicorum nec secedere nec studere patiuntur."

In 3rd S. ix. 99, in answer to a query, there is reference to a parallel sentiment in Horace, 'Od.,' i.i. 20, about lying half the day under the arbutus or by the spring.

ED. MARSHALL.

In 'La Gerusalemme Liberata ("Clarendon Press Series") is given the following note to 1. 8, stanza xxxvii, canto i. :—

"Nulla and niente are often used after a verb in the sense of something or anything. Thus se io posso far nulla' means 'if I can do anything.' Therefore, the common expression il dolce far niente,' first vulgarized (says Robello) by the newspapers, means exactly the opposite of what it is generally intended to mean. The right phrase would be il dolce non far niente.""

I suspect this to be an error. Dante uses niente and nulla without the negative particle in the sense of "nothing" ('Inf., c. xxii. 143; 'Par.,' c. xxvii. 93; 'Inf.,' c. xxviii. 20, et passim.

B. D. MOSELEY.

SILVAIN (7th S. vi. 509; vii. 74).-This M. Silvain, M.P., must be, I think, George Augustus Selwyn,

whose surname might be written as above by a Frenchman. G. A. Selwyn, Esq., of Matson, in Gloucestershire, was M.P. for Gloucester city from Nov., 1754, to July, 1780, and for the Luggershall division of Wiltshire from Oct., 1780, to 1791, in which latter year he died. In the year 1768 he was returned both for Gloucester and for the united burghs of Wigton, New Galloway, Stranraer, and Whitehorn, but elected to sit for the city of Gloucester. Mr. Selwyn twice held the offices of Surveyor of the Meltings of the Mint and of Registrar of the Chancery Court of Barbadoes, the first time, when he was also Paymaster to the Board of Works, in 1755, and the second time in 1782, when he was also made Surveyor of the Crown Lands.

JULIUS STEGGALL.

0.

Is not this name Sylvanus, read into English? The latter form is not uncommon in North Wales and Cornwall. I have met it in Norfolk. [Silvain was the name of Garrick's secretary. See Fitzgerald's 'Life of Garrick,' i. 311.]

the Glasgow water-wife, recorded by MR. BLACK, MERMAID (6th S. v. 365, 478).-The advice of may be compared with the following story. Once, Weilerstadt, the voice of an invisible being cried when the plague had carried off many people in

from heaven :

Esset pimpernell',

So sterbet ihr nicht äll'.

The survivors followed this recommendation, and so saved their lives (B. Baader, 'Volkssagen aus dem Lande Baden,' 1851, p. 256). B. L. R. C.

'ONCE A WEEK' (7th S. vi. 306, 418; vii. 34). "Et ego in Arcadiâ." And therefore, as my dear old Once a Week is in question, I ask leave to express an opinion that no magazine of this Victorian era has more happily combined the four great qualities of purity of tone, excellence in literature and in art, handiness of form and clearness of type, and cheapness. Under happier auspices such a magazine should have lasted and flourished (as Chambers's does) throughout the century. A. J. M.

TOUCH (6th S. xii. 407, 519; 7th S. i. 76).-I have recently come across some notes in a back volume on the origin and etymology of the surname Touch. SIR JAMES PICTON and others assume that the name is the same as Touche, La Touche, and De la Touche, and that it was introduced by Huguenot refugees after the Revocation of the that it is of different and more remote origin. The Edict of Nantes. But there is ground for believing Touch Hills, in Stirlingshire, have borne that name for centuries, and Touch House, the seat of Sir Henry Seton-Stewart, Bart., evidently derives its name from the same source.

On July 28, 1339, Andrew de Moravia received