Chapter C: I. R

_Nugget_ (Vol. vi., pp. 171. 281.; Vol. vii., p.143.).--T. K. arrogantly sets aside the etymology of W. S.; and, in lieu of the Persian _nugud_ of the latter, would have us believe that _nugget_ is nothing more than a Yankee corruption of _an ingot_. I {273} hold with W. S. notwithstanding, and so will all who have had any dealings with the _Bengalees_: the term _nuggut pisa_ being with them a common one for "hard cash;" and as the Hindostanee language is largely indebted to the Persian, the derivation of W. S. is no doubt correct. To account for its occurrence in Australia, it is only necessary to say that that country has been for some years past a _sanatarium_ for the debilitated _Qui Hye's_, many of whom have settled there; and becoming interested in the "diggings," have given the significant term of _nuggut_ to what has in reality turned out _hard cash_, both to them and to certain lucky gentlemen in this city--holders of the script of the "Great _Nuggut_ Vein" of Australia.

J. O.

_Blackguard_ (Vol. vii., p. 77.).--It may, in some degree, support the first portion of the argument so interestingly stated by SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT respecting the derivation of this term, to record that, in my youth, when at school at the New Academy in Edinburgh, some five or six-and-twenty years ago, I used frequently to be engaged, with my schoolfellows, in regular pitched battles, technically called by us _bickers_, with the town boys, consisting chiefly of butchers' and bakers' boys, whom we were accustomed to designate as _the blackguards_, without, I am sure, ever attaching to that word the more opprobrious meaning which it now generally bears; but only indicating by it those of a lower rank in life than ourselves, _the gentlemen_.

May I venture to add, that whilst the former portion of SIR J. E. TENNENT'S Note seems to me to be fully satisfactory in proof that the term _blackguard_ is originally derived from the ancient appellation of menials employed in the lowest and most dirty offices of a great household, and that it is thus purely English,--the last two paragraphs, on the other hand, appear to advocate an unnecessary and far-fetched derivation of the word from the French, and which, I humbly conceive, the true sense of the alleged roots, _blague_, _blaguer_, _blagueur_, by no means justifies; it being impossible to admit that these are, in any sort, "corresponding terms" with _blackguard_.

G. W. R. GORDON.

Stockholm.

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Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

Long and anxiously has the reading public been looking for Mr. Layard's account of his further discoveries in Nineveh and Babylon. That account has at length appeared in one large octavo volume, under the title of _Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, with Travels in Armenia, Kurdistan, and the Desert, being the result of a Second Expedition undertaken for the Trustees of the British Museum, by_ Austen H. Layard, M.P., and is enriched with maps, plans, and woodcut illustrations, to the extent of some hundreds. And on examining it we find that the vast amount of new light which Mr. Layard's discoveries in the wide and hitherto untilled field of Assyrian antiquities had already thrown on Sacred History, is increased to a great extent by those further researches, of which the details are now given to the public. With his ready powers of observation, and his talent for graphic description, Mr. Layard's book, as a mere volume of travels over a country of such interest, would well repay perusal: but when we find in addition, as we do in every page and line, fresh and startling illustration of the truth of Holy Writ--when we have put before us such pictures of what Nineveh and Babylon must have been, and find, as we do, men distinguished in every branch of learning lending their assistance to turn Mr. Layard's discoveries to the best account, we feel we cannot be too loud in our praises of Mr. Layard's zeal, energy, and judgment, or too grateful to Mr. Murray for giving us at once the results which those qualities have enabled Mr. Layard to gain for us, in so cheap, complete, yet fully embellished a form.

The blockade of Mainz was not a bad day for the already world-renowned story of _Reynard the Fox_, since that led Göthe to dress the old fable up again in his musical hexameters, and so give it new popularity. From Göthe's version a very able and spirited English paraphrase is now in the course of publication. We say paraphrase, because the author of _Reynard the Fox, after the German version of Göthe, with illustrations by_ J. Wolf, takes as his motto the very significant but appropriate description which Göthe gave of his own work, "Zwischen Uebersetzung und Umarbeitung schwebend." However, the version is a very pleasant one, and the illustrations are characteristic and in good taste.

An _Antiquarian Photographic Club_, for the exchange among its members of photographs of objects of antiquarian interest, on the principle of the _Antiquarian Etching Club_, is in the course of formation.

BOOKS RECEIVED.--_The Family Shakspeare, in which nothing is added to the original Text, but those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read in a Family, by_ T. Bowdler, Vol. V., containing Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus, Julius Cæsar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Cymbeline.--The new volume of Bohn's _Standard Library_ contains the eighth and concluding volume of the _History of the Christian Church_, as published by Neander. The publisher holds out a prospect of a translation of the posthumous volume compiled from Neander's Papers by Dr. Schneider, and with it of a general index to the whole work.--_The Physical and Metaphysical Works of Lord Bacon, including his Dignity and Advancement of Learning, in Nine Books, and his Novum Organum, or Precepts for the Interpretation of Nature_, by Joseph Devey, M.A., forms the new volume of Bohn's _Scientific Library_.

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{274}

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES

WANTED TO PURCHASE.

GMELIN'S HANDBOOK OF CHEMISTRY. Inorganic Part.

ARCHÆOLOGIA. Vols. III., IV., V., VI., VII., VIII., X., XXVII., XXVIII., unbound.

THE HISTORY OF SHENSTONE, by the REV. H. SAUNDERS. 4to. London, 1794.

LUBBOCK'S ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON THE TIDES.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vol. I., and Parts I. and II. of Vol. II.

CURTIS'S BOTANICAL MAGAZINE. 1st and 2nd Series collected.

TODD'S CYCLOPÆDIA OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. Complete, or any Portion.

GLADSTONE'S (W. E.) TWO LETTERS TO THE EARL OF ABERDEEN ON THE STATE PROSECUTIONS OF THE NEAPOLITAN GOVERNMENT. 1st Edition. 8vo.

SWIFT'S WORKS. Dublin: G. Faulkner. 19 Vols. 8vo. 1768. Vol. I.

PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE UNDER DIFFICULTIES. Original Edition. Vol. I.

THE BOOK OF ADAM.

THE CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE. Vol. for 1763.

PRO MATRIMONIO PRINCIPIS CUM DEFUNCTÆ UXORIS SORORE CONTRACTO RESPONSUM JURIS COLLEGII JURISCONSULTORUM IN ACADEMIA RINTELENSI (circa 1655).

MONNER JURISCONSULT., DE MATRIMONIO.

BRÜCKNER, DE MATRIMONIO.

*** _Correspondents sending Lists of Books Wanted are requested to send their names._

*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, _carriage free_, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES." 186. Fleet Street.

* * * * *

Notices to Correspondents.

[Omega]. [Phi]. _The volume referred to is the well-known reprint of the First Edition of Shakspeare._

TYRO. _How can we address a letter to this Correspondent?_

A. C. W. _The_ yolk _of an Egg is the_ yelk, _or yellow of the egg. In Beaumont and Fletcher's_ Wife for a Month _it is so written_:

"like to poach'd eggs,
That had the _yelk_ suck'd out."

_See Richardson's_ Dictionary, s. v.

JARLTZBERG. _The name_ Radical _is only an abbreviated form of_ Radical Reformer, _which was the title originally assumed by the political party now known as_ Radicals.