Notes and Queries, Number 24, April 13, 1850 | Page 6

Clutterbuck's _History_); also as to the arms, crest, and motto, as borne by him, and whether he was in any way related to Michael Browne of Hampton Court, Herefordshire, who married Elizabeth Philippa, daughter of Lord Coningsby, as stated in Collins's Peerage. He also desires information as to any enrolment of arms previous to the Visitations, by which the bearings of families who had grants of land from the Conqueror may be ascertained; as, for instance, a family who began to decay about the end of the 14th century, having previously been of great rank and position.
The Badger.--Can any body point out to me any allusion, earlier than that in Sir T. Browne's Vulgar Errors, to the popular idea that the legs of the badger were shorter on one side than on the other, whence Mr. Macaulay says, "I think that Titus Oates was as uneven as a badger?"
W.R.F.
Ecclesiastical Year.--Note in an old parish register, A.D. 1706. "Annus Domini Secundum Ecclesi? Anglican? Supputationem incipit 25to Mensis Martij."
Query the authority for this? the reason seems easy to define.
NATHAN.
Sir William Coventry.--Pepys mentions in his Diary, that Sir William Conventry kept a journal of public events. Is anything known of this journal? It is not known of at Longleat, where are several papers of Sir William Conventry's.
A MS. letter from Lord Weymouth to Sir Robert Southwell, giving an account of Sir W. Conventry's death, was sold at the sale of Lord de Clifford's papers in 1834. Can any of your readers inform me where this letter now is?
C.
Shrew.--Is shrew, as applied to the shrew-mouse, and as applied to a scolding woman, the same word? If so, what is its derivation?
The following derivations of the word are cited by Mr. Bell. Saxon, "Schreadan," to cut; "Schrif," to censure; "Scheorfian," to bite; "Schyrvan," to beguile. German, "Schreiven," to clamour; none of which, it is obvious, come very near to "Schreava," the undoubted Saxon origin of the word shrew.
Now it was a custom amongst our forefathers to endeavour to provide a remedy against the baneful influence of the shrew-mouse by plugging the wretched animal alive in a hole made in the body of an ash tree, any branch of which was thenceforth held to be possessed of a power to cure the disease caused by the mouse. It thereupon occurred to me that just as brock, a still existing name for the badger, is clearly from the Saxon broc, persecution, in allusion to the custom of baiting the animal; so schreava might be from _schr?f_, a hollow, in allusion to the hole in the ash tree; and on that supposition I considered "shrew," as applied to a woman, to be a different word, perhaps from the German schreyen, to clamour. I have, however, found mentioned in Bailey's Dictionary a Teutonic word, which may reconcile both senses of "shrew,"--I mean beschreyen, to bewitch. I shall be obliged to any of your subscribers who will enlighten me upon the subject.
W.R.F.
A Chip in Porridge.--What is the origin and exact force of this phrase? Sir Charles Napier, in his recent general order, informs the Bengal army that
"The reviews which the Commander-in-Chief makes of the troops are not to be taken as so many 'chips in porridge.'"
I heard a witness, a short time since, say, on entering the witness-box--
"My Lord, I am like a 'chip in porridge'; I can say nothing either for or against the plaintiff."
Q.D.
Temple Stanyan.--Who was Temple Stanyan, concerning whom I find in an old note-book the following quaint entry?
"Written on a window at College, by Mr. Temple Stanyan, the author of a _History of Greece_:--
"Temple Stanyan, his window. God give him grace thereout to look! And, when the folk walk to and fro', To study man instead of book!"
A.G.
Tandem.--You are aware that we have a practical pun now naturalised in our language, in the word "tandem." Are any of your correspondents acquainted with another instance?
[Greek: Sigma].
"_As lazy as Ludlum's dog, as laid him down to bark._"--This comparison is so general and familiar in South Yorkshire (Sheffield especially) as to be frequently quoted by the first half, the other being mentally supplied by the hearer. There must, of course, be some legend of Ludlum and his dog, or they must have been a pair of well-known characters, to give piquancy to the phrase. Will any of your readers who are familiar with the district favour me with an explanation?
D.V.S.
Anecdote of a Peal of Bells.--There is a story, that a person had long been absent from the land of his nativity, where in early life, he had assisted in setting up a singularly fine peal of bells. On his return home, after a lapse of many years, he had to be rowed over some water, when it happened that the bells struck out in peal; the sound of which