Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/505

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9* s. V.JUNE 23, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


493


It may be noted that in Thornbury's ' Old and New London,' vol. ii. p. 146, it is stated that the church was built in 1696 by Caius Gabriel Gibber, the sculptor, at the expen.se of Christian V., King of Denmark, for the use of Danish merchants arid sailors in Lon- don. Both the architect and his famous son, Colley Gibber, were buried there. I am not aware of the above ever having been printed. JAMES ROBERTS BROWN.

44, Tregunter Road, S.W.

" DORP." I have recently come across the following line in Chapman's ' Iliads ' (book xi. v. 587) :

All the dorp boors with terror fled. Our prey was rich and great,

where Nestor is addressing Patroclus in the " Ah mihi prseteritos," <fec., vein. This is the only instance which I know of dorp being used as an English word. It is given in my 1755 edition of Bailey's ' Dictionary,' but not in my 1727 edition, or in my 1786 Johnson. It is not in my Richardson. Chapman, of course, by " dorp boors " means villagers. We are now only familiar with dorp owing to the Boer rebellion ; and Chapman's words might, with all propriety, be used in describing the recent disappearance from Kroonstadt of the Trans vaalers before Lord Roberts : All the dorp boors with terror fled.

MICHAEL FERRAR. Little Gidding.

'H.E.D.': " CURSE OF SCOTLAND." A great deal has appeared in * N. & Q.' on both these subjects, and I would not add to what has already been written only that a new fact about the above term has been embodied in the great work, and not previously noted, because it is placed in an obscure position. The earliest printed record of the application of the expression the "Curse of Scotland " to the nine of diamonds hitherto has been sup- posed to be in Dr. Hpustoun's 'Memoirs,' published in 1747, referring to 1715, and so it is set out in ' H.E.D.' under * Curse ' (ii. 1273, col. ii., 4c). But, in another place, the * Dic- tionary ' discloses that there is a still earlier allusion, viz., in 1710, in the third volume of the British Apollo, a London periodical com- menced in 1708 : " The Nine of Diamonds is

call'd the Curse of Scotland" ('H.E.D.,

iii. 315, col. i., 5b, s.v. ' Diamond '). < Somehow the quotation has not appeared in its best and proper place in the 'Dictionary'; but one can understand that a slip of the kind might readily occur in the enormous mass of labour embraced. Lately I have had occasion to examine my three volumes of it particularly


in reference to a series of technical terms, and have been greatly impressed with the wealth of quotation and its accuracy. Out of several hundred instances I did not detect more than one mistake in a date and un- luckily I omitted to take a note of it at the time, or I would give the reference here. I think, however, that an unfortunate error has been made about a large proportion of the quotations, in allowing them to be taken from inferior or post editions. It detracts from the complete confidence that the work should inspire as to their trustworthiness. If a later quotation has been compared with the ori- ginal, why not insert the original reference ? If not so verified, there may be a difference. It is a pity that this fault is not put right in the reissue of the work now in progress.

J. S. M. T.

DR. THOMAS WILSON. It is well that the confusion should at last be cleared up in the ' Dictionary of National Biography ' between Dr. Thomas Wilson, the Master of Requests, and Sir Thomas Wilson, the Keeper of the Records, as the error has been repeated more than once, among its own biographies, of supposing them the same.

To those who know the remarkable circum- stances of the death of his notable pupils, it seems rather a strange phrase to describe Dr. Thomas as tutor " to the successive Dukes of Suffolk."

The article would seem to imply that the quotation from Udall's 'Ralph Roister Doister ' appeared in the first edition of his ' Rule of Reason,' 1551, as is erroneously stated in the biography of Udall. It really appeared for the first time in the third edition of that remarkable work.

Any person wishing to add to the life may like to know that his marriage, by special licence from the Bishop of London, took place at Terling, Essex :

"The 15th day of July, 1576, was raaryed the Right Worshipful M r Thomas Wilson, Esquire, M r of the Requests, to M Jane Pinchin, of Writtle, gent., Widow."

If Dr. Thomas died in 1581, there seems, therefore, a very short interval between this marriage, given as first, the death of his first wife, the marriage of a second, and the birth of his family, as recorded in the ' Dictionary.' CHARLOTTE CARMICHAEL STOPES.

HANOVER SQUARE CONCERT ROOMS. (See ante, p. 354.) In the sixties, when these were the finest concert rooms in London, Messrs. Ashdown & Parry issued a monthly magazine of new copj right music, edited by Lindsay Sloper, bearing the title Hanover Square. On