Notes and Queries, Number 11, January 12, 1850 by Various
page 48 of 62 (77%)
page 48 of 62 (77%)
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_Ancient Tiles._--Two birds, back to back, with heads turned to each other, were common on ancient tiles. What are they intended to represent or to emblemise? B. _Pilgrimage of Kings, &c.--Blind Man's Buff--Muffin--Hundred Weight, &c.--_ 1. Can your readers oblige me with the name of the author and the date of a work entitled _The Pilgrimage of Kings and Princes_, of which I possess an imperfect copy--a small quarto? 2. What is the etymology of the game Blind Man's _Buff?_ I am led to doubt whether that was the old spelling of it, for in a catalogue now before me I find a quarto work by Martin Parker, entitled _The Poet's Blind Man's Bough, or Have among you my Blind Harpers,_ 1641. 3. What is the origin of the word _muffin?_ It is not in _Johnson's Dictionary._ Perhaps this sort of tea-cake was not known in his day. 4. By what logic do we call one hundred and _twelve_ pounds merely a hundred weight? 5. I shall feel still more obliged if your readers can inform me of any works on natural history, particularly adapted for a literary man to refer to at times when poetical, mythological, scriptural, and historical associations connected with animals and plants are in question. I am constantly feeling the want of a work of the kind to comprehend zoological similes and allusions, and also notices of customs and superstitions connected with animals, when reading our old poets and chroniclers. Even the most celebrated zoological works are of no use to me in such inquiries. STEPHEN BEAUCHAMP. |
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