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Article NOTES ON ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCH. Page 1 of 7 →
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Notes On Antiquarian Research.
NOTES ON ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCH .
( Continued from page 492 . ) CHAPTER VI . HirniBEAS , " Yet as a dog committed close , For some offence by chance breaks loose , And quits his clog . "
"We were enjoying the dog-days at Killarney some years ago , which is overrun with dogs , as every observer can testify . The dogs in that hot season presented a most ludicrous appearance , for during the heat of summer , they all , major or minor , wear in front of their necks , a clog , or round log of wood , which is innocently supposed to
hinder them from biting in the event of their going mad . Some wear so small a piece of wood , that one is inclined to think their masters imagine the wood to contain some secret virtue , while it is at the same time highly ornamental . "We have never seen the custom observed in England , and believe it to be truly Irish .
" And sage opinions of the moon sells . " It is a regular sell , " and " he is sold , " are common expressions ; and in lack of a better explanation of the word sell , we illustrate its meaning by this line . Moon sells are omens derived from the moon , and from their invariably turning out wrong , a hoax , or anything
which deceived , gained the name of a sell . May not from these " moon-sells" be derived the name of the good Irish family " Mansell ?" There are many surnames , the derivation of which would be a most interesting discovery , affording much more amusement to general readers than tables of genealogy . Thus the ancestors of the many
families named " Smith , " worked at the forge ; and the first Stephensons , Jacksons , Johnsons , Thomsons , Nicholsons , were the sons of Stephen , Jack , John , Tom , and Nichol . " How many scores a flea will jump . "
Upon this line Dr . Nash has the following note : — " Aristophanes , in his comedy of the ' Clouds , ' act i . sc . 2 , introduced a scholar of Socrates , describing the method in which Socrates , and his friend Choerephon , endeavoured to ascertain how many lengths of his own feet a flea will jump . — xf ^ vWav ' oiroaovg & X \ otro rov £ avrr ] q Aot ) ac ,
' quot pedes suos pulex saltaret . ' They did not measure , as our author says , by the length of the body ; they dipped the feet of the flea in melted wax , which presently hardened into shoes : these they took off , and measured the leap of the flea with them , " & c . This insect ( pulex irrit ^ ins ) , Maunder , in his " Natural History , " tells us attains its natural size in the course of ten or twelve days . Considering the short life of this species , much must we wonder that
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Notes On Antiquarian Research.
NOTES ON ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCH .
( Continued from page 492 . ) CHAPTER VI . HirniBEAS , " Yet as a dog committed close , For some offence by chance breaks loose , And quits his clog . "
"We were enjoying the dog-days at Killarney some years ago , which is overrun with dogs , as every observer can testify . The dogs in that hot season presented a most ludicrous appearance , for during the heat of summer , they all , major or minor , wear in front of their necks , a clog , or round log of wood , which is innocently supposed to
hinder them from biting in the event of their going mad . Some wear so small a piece of wood , that one is inclined to think their masters imagine the wood to contain some secret virtue , while it is at the same time highly ornamental . "We have never seen the custom observed in England , and believe it to be truly Irish .
" And sage opinions of the moon sells . " It is a regular sell , " and " he is sold , " are common expressions ; and in lack of a better explanation of the word sell , we illustrate its meaning by this line . Moon sells are omens derived from the moon , and from their invariably turning out wrong , a hoax , or anything
which deceived , gained the name of a sell . May not from these " moon-sells" be derived the name of the good Irish family " Mansell ?" There are many surnames , the derivation of which would be a most interesting discovery , affording much more amusement to general readers than tables of genealogy . Thus the ancestors of the many
families named " Smith , " worked at the forge ; and the first Stephensons , Jacksons , Johnsons , Thomsons , Nicholsons , were the sons of Stephen , Jack , John , Tom , and Nichol . " How many scores a flea will jump . "
Upon this line Dr . Nash has the following note : — " Aristophanes , in his comedy of the ' Clouds , ' act i . sc . 2 , introduced a scholar of Socrates , describing the method in which Socrates , and his friend Choerephon , endeavoured to ascertain how many lengths of his own feet a flea will jump . — xf ^ vWav ' oiroaovg & X \ otro rov £ avrr ] q Aot ) ac ,
' quot pedes suos pulex saltaret . ' They did not measure , as our author says , by the length of the body ; they dipped the feet of the flea in melted wax , which presently hardened into shoes : these they took off , and measured the leap of the flea with them , " & c . This insect ( pulex irrit ^ ins ) , Maunder , in his " Natural History , " tells us attains its natural size in the course of ten or twelve days . Considering the short life of this species , much must we wonder that