PRONUNCIATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL, The recent decision of Sir F. Kelly upon the pronunciation of the word pharmaceutic,' or pharmaceutical,' is perfectly correct. The claims of euphony and analogy are clearly on his side. It is absurd to suppose that one of the vowels in a diphthong can be arbitrarily dropped or silenced: were such the case

ETYMON OF THE WORD JEST. ---

.: FOUNDERS' LIVERY ENTERTAINMENT, In Stephen Weston's Latifat, or Joke cailed Prece

TEMP, KING HENRY VIIth. dence, he remarks on the sentence “teman mejlis Khosh wekt gesht," to the whole company an excellent time Ar the dinner of the Worshipful Company of Founders, amusement, that "the English word Jest is from on the 31st ult., at the Brunswick Hotel, Blackwall, on gesht in Persian, and not from Gesticulor in Johnson, the plate of each guest was placed a richly embellished or from Gesta Romanorum." In etymological re- | bill of fare of the day, accompanied by a printed bill of searches, Johnson is not to be relied on. The only the charges of an entertainment to about thirty of the person I know, who has treated the word Jest with any | Livery, in 1498, the earliest noticed in their records. thing like caution is Webster, the American, who gives Mr. Williams, the Master of the Company, induced by the Spanish and Portuguese chiste ; but adds a “perhaps" his antiquarian predilections, presented it to his Brother to the Latin gestis. The amusing Lemon gives us the Founders, and as no more were printed than for the serGreek xelp! the hand. The word gesht seems, indeed, vice of those present, it is here reprinted as an historical to be nearly allied to the Latin gesticulor, inasmuch illustration of Civic hospitality in days long since passed as they both relate to bodily actions. The significations by. of gesht are“ walking, perambulation, recreation, Th’ Accompt of the recepts and payments by oon hoole amusement, or diversion,” arising from bodily exercise. yere, of ROBERT SETCOLE, EDMOND BIRD, and JOHN The same may be said of the Latin gestio ; therefore, I PARKER, otherwise called John SENA, Wardeyns of the I think, Weston would have been nearer the truth if he Crafte of Foundours, made and done from (Nov. 17,) the had said gesht from gestio, or vice versa; while the evi- Fest of Saint Clement the [Pope) and Martyr, in (1497] dent signification of the English word Jest, refers us to the xiijth yere of the Reigne of Kyng Henry the vijth, unto a mental amusement. Moreover, gesht in the Persian the same Fest in [1498] the xiiijth yere of the same Kyng. tale becomes a relative to its antecedent sentence, “to be beaten and pounded in a mortar," that implies violent

Payde for the Souper, gesticulation upon poor Nerkis. To trace the word Jest to its origin, is a very difficult First, for brede

iijs. matter. We must first premise that vowels are inter

Item, for ij barells of meale with the bultyng
Item, for ij barells of ale

viijs. changeable, and these again may be changed into their

Item, for the hire of the Halle corresponding semi-vowels; an instance of which is

Item, for v dosen di of chekyns given in Current Notes, p. 41, viz. Jotens, or Yotens, Item, for xxx shulders of moton

vijs. (and Eotenas ?) Finn Magnusen makes Jotunn, come Item, for x dosen of pegions

vija. vjd. from the Hebrew in Maithen or ethen, which he writes Item, for xxxij conyes .

Vs. iiijd. Eten; we may therefore make the following changes, Item, for vij leggs of moton, and iiij whits lotunn, Jotunn, Yotunn, Eten.

(whitebreads ?] .

xviijd. Again, English Earl, and Islandic Jarl ; and in the Item, for v dishes of butter

viijd. ob. Wallachian language we find j substituted for w; as

Item, for di lb. of peper

ixd. Item, for cloues and mace ij onz.

viijd. jele, to wail or howl. Arabic J J, wal-wal, howling, Item, for suger, iij lb.

Item, for reisons of Coraunt wailing; the reduplicate of o, walah, afflicted, terror,

Item, for di onz. of Saffron grief. Sanscrit, waila, to fear, grieve, etc. We may Item, for ij lb. of dates , now come to the word in question,

Item, for v C. peres

xvd. Persian chi, washyah, a jest; from a washi, Item, for salt, vynegre and mustard

vjd. Item, to the Mynstrells

xxd. to cover a story with falsehoods ; the simple meaning of

Item, for C. di of eggs

xvjd. which is to be found in the Sanscrit ue, not; and sat,

Item, to the Coke for his labor, seruants, the truth; it therefore makes vesat, not the truth, an and stuff . untruth; and by pursuing the same course as in Iotunn, Item, to the boteller

xijd. Jotunn, Yotunn, Etan; we shall, I think, obtain the | Item, for v galons of wyne

ijs. üjd. true etymology of Jest, viz. :--vesat, jesat, and jest, a | Item, for üj gallons of creme

xijd. mental amusement or exercise, and not a bodily one. Item, for onyons and herbes

ijd. In the present instance it is necessary to adduce the Item, for the waterberer

iijd. Chinese chony or shwo, to jest ; literally, in discourse,

Item, for washyng of clothes

xxd. to relate doubly to a man; i. e. to say one thing and

Item, for scouryng of the vessells

vjd. mean another.

Item, for ij quarters of coles

viijd. Item, for quartern of fagots

xd. More oversights may probably be found in Weston's

Item, for candells, tappers, and trasshes little Vocabulary of European Words, which are the

Item, for Porter

iiijd. same in Arabic and Persian; as in Ale, (Ahl), etc. Southwick Vicarage, August 5, T. R. Brown,

Sum payd for the Souper, iijl. xijs. vd. .

vjs. vijs.

ixd.

vijd.

ijd.

MANUSCRIPTS OF THE XIMENES POLYGLOT.

RICHARD BAXTER THE NONCONFORMIST. The story about the Manuscripts of Ximenes, noticed The biography prefixed to the folio edition of his colin Current Notes, vol. iv. p. 51, having been used for lected works, is wholly silent as to his marriage, and in sky-rockets, was a facetia to divert the many enquiries Rose's New General Biographical Dictionary there is about them. They are extant at Madrid.

but a slight passing notice. The following abstract of Woburn.

B. B. WIFFEN. his marriage license, as registered in the Vicar-Gene

ral's office, will therefore be read with interest. . ARGYLE LIBRARY.–Current Notes, vol. iv. p. 60.

1662. April 29. Richard Baxter, of St. Botolph's, I do not recollect where the copy is of the Catalogue

Aldersgate, London, Clerk, aged about forty years, batchefrom whence I obtained Reed's note, most probably in

lor; and Margaret Charleton of Christ Church, London, the British Museum. A copy was in Reed's library, vide

about twenty-eight years, spinster; and at his own disSale Catalogue, 1807, No. 184.

posal, to marry at Christ Church aforesaid. Alledged by

| Francis Tyton, of St. Dunstan's in the West. The fire at Luton did not destroy the library, it was removed when the estate of Luton was sold ; and is, I

His wife Margaret, a person of great piety, and who believe, safely secured in cases, during the minority of

of entered fully into her husband's views, was the daughter the present Marquis.

of Francis Charleton, Esq. of Shropshire, and a magisWoburn Abbey, July 27. JOHN MARTIN.

trate. She appears to have been deceased, at the time he made his will, dated July 7, 1689, as in that instru

ment she is not mentioned. In the preamble he styles POETICAL SIGN-BOARDS IN SCOTLAND.

himself. Richard Baxter, of London, Clerk ;' but the

word · Clerk' is erased in the marriage licence; a fact At the village of Ravelstone, near Edinburgh, over deserving of notice, as he was then with Dr. Bates, one the door of a roadside inn, was a few years since, and is of the lecturers at St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street; and this possibly there still, a painted sign-board of a swan is possibly one of the many traits of the intolerant inveswimming in the water ; and below it, these lines : teracy that after the Restoration was constantly in opeAs the Swan loves water clear,

ration against him. So do men good ale and beer.

Baxter died Dec. 8, 1691, and was interred in Christ Another sign-board, at Morningside, also near Edin

Church, Newgate Street. burgh, has a beehive painted, and these lines under it :Within this Hive we are all alive ;

The following, printed from a contemporary manuOur drink as sweet as honey ;

script, has reference to the burial of this celebrated NonIf you are dry, come in and try,

conformist :But don't forget the money!

A NEW CATCE. The following is, however, the most singular of the

This worthy corpse, where shall we lay? sort, that I know. At Brechin, in Forfarshire, over the

In hallow'd, or in unhallow'd clay? door of a shoemaker, named Tytler, who kept shop

Th' unhallow'd best befits him dead, there about forty years since, was a painted sign-board,

Who living from the hallow'd fled. having the representation of a pair of torn, and a pair of mended shoes, and underneath:

Then, in the vestry be his tomb,

Since that he made his drinking-room;
When boots or shoes are nearly ended,

While to avoid the Common Prayer,
Here they can be neatly mended,

He soop'd off his French pottage there.
BY GEORGE TYTLER:
But, Gentlefolks, what do you think?

But now, alas ! near Newgate thrown,
I must have the ready clink.

Ere Tyburn could obtain its own;
Tytler died within the last ten years, still many of the

He's gone to sleep with brethren blest, living chronicles' of Brechin have a full recollection of

In Baxter's Saints Eerlasting Rest. the well known sign-board.

Tytler, the avowed amender of men's understandings, was cousin to the eccentric James Tytler, memorable as STICKS IN OFFICE! The Madrid Gazette of May 28, the writer of Scottish Songs, and as the compiler and contained an important decree, ordering all Ministers of editor of the second edition of the Encyclopædia Britan- the Crown, whether they appeared in uniform or in nica, and other works ; and also, to Dr. William Henry plain clothes, to carry sticks with gold heads and tassels, Tytler, the translator of Callimachus, said to have been as an emblem of their authority; but the want of the first translation by a Scotchman of any Greek poet. moderation in the weight of the 'gold heads' and apDr. Tytler married a sister of Dr. John Gillies, the his- pendages, have since sunk the officials, sticks and all, torian of Greece.

no one knows where!

Pensions To LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. To Mrs. Hogg, widow of James HOGG, “ the Ettrick THE 12001. annually appropriated as pension's to Shepherd," in consideration of her late husband's poetiliterary persons, and their families, have this year been

cal talent. thus dispensed :

To the widow and daughter of JOSEPH Train, in One hundred pounds per annum to Sir FRANCIS BOND consideration of his personal services to literature, and Head, Bart., in consideration of the contributions he

the valuable aid derived by the late Sir Walter Scott, has made to the literature of this country.

from Mr. Train's antiquarian and literary researches, To Mrs. Moir, widow of David Moir, surgeon, in prosecuted under Sir Walter's directions; and consideration of her late husband's literary and scientific Forty pounds per annum to the daughters of the late works, in connexion with his profession, his poetical | JAMES KENNEY, dramatist, author of Raising the Wind, talents, and the destitute condition of his widow and and other well-known productions. eight children. To Dr. EDWARD Hincks, in consideration of the emi

LINES TO A VIOLET. nent services rendered by him to history and literature by his antiquarian researches, and especially in con

From the German of Hölty. nexion with the Assyrian and other Eastern languages.

Hide in thy dark blue cup, oh! hide To Mrs. Lang, in consideration of the eminent ser

The tears of sadness, 'till my fair vices rendered for a period of upwards of fifty years by

Comes to this murm'ring fountains side, the late Mr. OLIVER Lang, master shipwright at the

And plucks thee to adorn her hair. Woolwich Dockyard; of his numerous valuable inven

Then to her breast, oh! bend, and tell tions and improvements for the advancement of naval

How these fond tears which on thee lie, architecture, and the straitened circumstances in which

Flow from a heart that loves her well, Mrs. Lang is placed.

That lives to weep, and longs to die. To the widow of Sir NicHOLAS HARRIS NICOLAS, in consideration of his many valuable contributions to the historical and antiquarian literature of this country; L ONanny !_Your Correspondent, M. E., Current and the limited circumstances in which his family were Notes, vol. iii., p. 90, is, I think, mistaken in supposing left at his death.

that this ballad was founded upon an earlier one. It To the sister and two daughters of the late JAMES appears, from all the notices that I have met with, to SIMPSON, in consideration of his eminent services in the have been in idea and execution, solely Bishop Percy's cause of education, and the distressed circumstances in which, owing to the expenditure of his own means in Bristol.

J. K. R, W. the furtherance of this object, his family are left.

To the daughters of the late JOSEPI TUCKER, in consideration of their late father's services as Surveyor of BISOP PERCY's ballad of Oh Nanny! wilt thou the Navy for eighteen years, and the distressed condition gang with me? seems to have been suggested by that of to which they are reduced.

the Young Laird and Edinburgh Katy, in Allan RamTo Alaric ALEXANDER Watts, in consideration of say's Tea Table Miscellany, edit. 1733, p. 66. The his services to literature, and to art.

second verse commencesEighty pounds per annum to the Rev. WILLIAM

O Katy! wiltu gang wi me, Hickey, in consideration of the service which his

And leave the dinsome town awhile. writings, published under the signature of “ Martin Doyle," have rendered to the cause of agricultural and social improvement among the people of Ireland; MAJOR ANDRÉ. When was the body of Major and the same amount

André exhumed in America, for interment in England ? To the daughters of Dr. MacGilLIVRAY, in considera

T. A. tion of their late father's contributions to natural history,

The corpse or skeleton of Major André was disinterred at and the destitute condition in which his family are placed Tappau, in America, on August 14, 1821, and placed in a at his decease.

sarcophagus, to be conveyed thence to England. See Cur. Fifty pounds per annum to Mrs. LEE, widow of rent Notes, vol. iii. p. 81. THOMAS EDWARD Bowdica, the celebrated African traveller, in consideration of her contributions to literature, and the straitened circumstances to which she is now Post IN FRANCE. Is it known at what period the reduced.

post was established in France ?

E. D. To Mrs. Glen, widow of Dr. Glex, missionary to the The penny post delivery of letters, established in London, East for nearly thirty years; in consideration of his ser- in 1683, was the model of that instituted in Paris, in June

terature by his translation of the Old | 1760. The French have since adopted the English system vices to biblical literature by his translation of the old / 1960° The main he t wastitatea in Paris, in June Testament into Persian, and her distressed condition. of penny postage stamps.

- SHAKESPEARE's ROMEO AND JULIET.

The CROSS AND THE CRESCENT. ROMEUS and Julietta, translated by Brooke, was TAE Emperor, Charles the Sixth, on the commenceprinted in 1562, 8vo., and of Shakespeare's Romeo and ment of the war between Austria and the Turks, in Juliet, “newly corrected, augmented, and amended,” | 1717, took leave of his general, Prince Eugene, in these there were editions printed for John Smethwick, in words, “ Prince, I have set over you a general who is 1607 and 1609, 4to. The following memoranda appear always to be called to your council, and in whose name all to allude to an edition of Romeus and Julietta, not now your operations are to be undertaken." The Emperor known. They are from a portion of a leaf of some then placed in his hand a crucifix richly set with diapublisher's shop-book, used in the binding of an old monds; at the foot was an inscription, JEşUS CHRISTUS volume, and refer to payments to printers of the books GENERALISSIMUS, “ Forget not,'' added the Emperor, named. Thomas Creede printed several of Shakespeare's “ that you are fighting his battles who shed his blood for plays for various publishers from 1594, onward. He man upon the cross; under his supreme guidance attack printed the Merry Wives of Windsor, in 1602, for and overwhelm the enemies of Christ and Christianity." Arthur Jackson, whose memorandum this might have been.

MR. GEORGE BRETTINGHAM SOWERBY, F.L.S., of To Snodham, the 23 of December 1609, towards the 70, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, author of several Soles latter hopes, and Errapaters, 203 ; more 88 ; highly approved works on Natural History, died July more 108.

26, in his sixty-fifth year, at his residence in HornseyTo Creede towards printing of Pastoralls de Juleitta 4s.

road, To Mr. Creed, the 6 of Januarie 1610, towards printing of Pasterall de Juletta

MR. SAMUEL Nixon, Sculptor, who executed the No printer in the present day would thank a publisher statue of King William the Fourth, at the end of Eastfor such instalments,

P. C.

cheap, leading to London Bridge, died in his fifty-first year, on the 2nd instant, at his residence, Manby Place, Kennington Common.

EPIGRAM FROM AUSONIUS.

RICHARD PRIESTLEY, THE BOOKSELLER.

MANY readers of Current Notes will doubtless reBoth are in want-the pauper and the peer:

member the late RICHARD PRIESTLEY, Bookseller, in The latter craves court favours and rewards;

Holborn, but who died a recipient of Sutton's benevolence, The beggar only asks his bread and beer;

in Charter House, on February 4, 1852, in his eightySurely his need is much less than my lord's!

first year. At the termination of the War in 1815, his stock, unencumbered, was worth upwards of thirty

thousand pounds, but the decline that ensued in the AMERICAN DEFINITION OF UNCLE Sam.'

prices of old established Classical Works, of which his

stock mainly consisted, induced his printing of editions, The recent query of Young America,' as to the ori- by modern editors of distinguished acquirements and gin of the terms • John Bull' and · Uncle Sam,' elicited erudition, and in forms more consonant with the requirefrom the editor of the New York Sunday Times, the ments and taste of our day. The sale, equivocal and following reply:

slow, did not reimburse the great outlay of production, Englishmen are called “John Bulls,' we believe, because

and embarrassment ensued. His daughter, MARY ANN they are generally reputed to be cross and uncommunica.

PRIESTLEY survives, pennyless and in want. Her letter, tive to strangers." "Our national appellation is said to have | addressed to the Editor, thus imploringly describes her originated in the following manner. During the last war | pressing need :with England (in 1814), a man by the name of Elbert “Stern necessity compels me. My circumstances Anderson furnished provisions by contract to the general | leave me penniless! Do you think a small sum could government. A great quantity were barrelled at Troy, be raised to rescue me from the most unhappy situation N. Y., and the barrels were marked with the initials of the in which I am placed, without friends or relations? I contractor's name, E, A., and U. S. for United States. The know not what will become of me, unless some chariinspector of these provisions was one Samuel Wilson, called

table hand be extended towards me. Think of my familiarly • Uncle Sam. One day a workman was asked

dear Father, and pity his unhappy child, so different to what the letters E. A., U. S. upon the barrels signified, when

what my youth promised; to be in such a condition at he said that they stood for Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam.' The joke took and spread among the soldiers, who my age is indeed trying.” afterwards, whenever they saw anything marked • U. S.'

To those to whom a small sum is no object, this declared it belonged to Uncle Sam. By degrees it has appeal is respectfully addressed; and Mr. Willis will found its way into our national vocabulary, and may, for willingly take charge of any kindness thus charitably aught we know, yet be voted to be a classical expression. conferred,