Chapter C: I. R

_Game of Curling_ (Vol. v., p. 13.).--The third volume of Tytler's _Lives of Scottish Worthies_ (No. 37. of the _Family Library_) contains a series of antiquarian illustrations, of which the last is devoted to "Ancient Scottish Games and Amusements." The author refers particularly to the MS. accounts of the Lord High Treasurer during the reign of King James IV. (1488-1513), in which, however, there appears to be no notice of the "roaring game." The origin of this favourite amusement is certainly involved in mystery, and I have repeatedly failed in my endeavours to ascertain the meaning of the name by which the game is known. On consulting the abridgment of Jamieson's _Dictionary_ for the derivation, I find the following:--

"Perhaps from Teut. _krollen_, _krull-en_, sinuare, flectere,
whence E. _curl_; as the great art of the game is to make the
stones bend or curve in towards the mark, when it is so blocked up
that they cannot be directed in a straight line."

E. N.

_Ancient Trees_ (Vol. iv., pp. 401. &c.).--Notwithstanding the assertion of Dr. Johnson, many fine specimens of timber have long existed to the north of the Tweed. At p. 20. of the _Edinburgh Antiquarian Magazine_ (Edin. 1848) will be found a "List of Scottish Trees, of remarkable magnitude, as they existed in 1812," including numerous examples of the oak, larch, ash, elm, beech, silver fir, Scots fir, sycamore, chesnut, black poplar, and yew. One of the largest in the catalogue is the great yew at Fortingal, in Perthshire, measured by the Hon. Judge Barrington in 1768, when its circumference was no less than fifty-two feet.

E. N.

_Paring the Nails, &c._ (Vol. v., pp. 142. &c.).--

"Now no superfluity of our food, or in general no excrementitious
substance, is looked upon by them (the Egyptian priests) as pure
and clean; such, however, are all kinds of wool and down, our hair
and our nails. It would be the highest absurdity therefore for
those who, whilst they are in a course of purification, are at so
much pains to take off the hair from every part of their own
bodies, at the same time to cloath themselves with that of other
animals. So when we are told by Hesiod 'not to pare our nails,
whilst we are present at the festivals of the Gods,' we ought so
to understand him as if he designed hereby to inculcate that
purity with which we ought to come prepared, before we enter upon
any religious duty, that we have not to make ourselves clean,
whilst we ought to be occupied in attending to the solemnity
itself."--Plutarch's Treatise of _Isis and Osiris_, translated by
Squire, p. 5. 1744.

This note will show the great antiquity of these nail-paring and hair-cutting superstitions. What is there does not come from Egypt?

A. HOLT WHITE.

Miscellaneous

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES

WANTED TO PURCHASE.

POPE'S WORKS, BY WARTON, 1797. Vol. IV.

ROSCOE'S NOVELIST'S LIBRARY.--TRISTRAM SHANDY. Vol. II.

LINGARD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 4to. edit. Vol. VII.

LEBEUF, TRAITE HISTORIQUE SUR LE CHANT ECCLESIASTIQUE.

NOTES AND QUERIES. No. 19.

EDWIN AND EMMA. Tayler, 1776.

GEMMÆ ET SCULPTURÆ ANTIQUÆ DEPICTÆ IN LATINUM VERSÆ, per Jac. Gronovium. Amstelodami, 1685.

MASSARII ANNOTATIONES IN NONUM PLINII HISTORIÆ NATURALIS LIBRUM. Basileæ, 1537.

SWALBACI DISSERTATIO DE CICONIIS, &c. Spiræ, 1630.

SYNTAGMA HERBARUM ENCOMIASTICUM, ABR. ORTELIO INSCRIPTUM. Ex officina Plantin. 1614.

TYRWHITT, THO. CONJECTURÆ IN STRABONEM. London, 1783.

CRAKANTHORP'S DEFENCE OF JUSTINIAN THE EMPEROR AGAINST CARDINAL BARONIUS. London, 1616.

HALLERI (A.) ELEMENTA PHYSIOLOGIÆ CORPORIS HUMANI. 8 Vols. 4to. Lausannæ and Lugd. Batav. 1757-66. Vol. III.

RACCOLTA DI OPUSCULI SCIENTIFICI, &c., dal Padre Calogera. Venezia, 1728-57.

THE WHOLE DUTY OF A CHRISTIAN, by Way of Question and Answer: designed for the Use of Charity Schools. By Robert Nelson, 1718.

QUARTERLY REVIEW. Nos. 153. to 166., both inclusive.

BELL'S FUGITIVE POETRY COLLECTION. Vols. X. and XVI. 12mo. 1790.

THE CRITIC, London Literary Journal. First 6 Nos. for 1851.

VOLTAIRE, OEUVRES COMPLETES DE. Aux Deux-Ponts. Chez Sanson et Compagnie. Vols. I. & II. 1791-2.

SCOTT'S CONTINUATION OF MILNER'S CHURCH HISTORY. Part II. of Vol. II. 8vo.

SPECTATOR. No. 1223. Dec. 6, 1851.

EDWIN AND EMMA. Taylor, 1776.

ANNUAL REGISTER, from 1816 inclusive to the present time.

MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL TRANSACTIONS. From Part II. of Vol. XI. March, 1819; and also from Vol. XXX.

THE CODE MATRIMONIAL. Paris, 1770.

PRO MATRIMONIO PRINCIPIS CUM DEFUNCTÆ UXORIS SORORE CONTRACTO RESPONSUM JURIS, COLLEGII JURISCONSULTORUM IN ACADEMIA RINTELENSI. Published about 1655.

[Star symbol] 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.

_We are this week compelled to omit our usual_ Notices of Books, &c.

_Among other interesting communications which we are this week compelled to postpone from want of room, is one of great interest from the_ KNIGHT OF KERRY, _on the portrait in his possession of the Old Countess of Desmond; one by_ LORD BRAYBROOKE _on the celebrated interview between Bonaparte and Lord Whitworth; and Archbishop Laud's Notes on Prynne's Breviate._

REPLIES RECEIVED.--_Epitaph on Voltaire--Meaning of Blaen--Music by Handel--Plague Stones--George Trout--Title of Reverend--King's College Chapel--Cromwell's Skull--Song of "Miss Bailey"--Macaronic Poetry--Story of Ginevra--Sir E. Seaward's Narrative--Arms of Manchester--Fern Seed, &c.--"Man proposes," &c.--Mispronounced Names of Places--Palace of Lucifer--Alecknegate--Bigot--White Feather--Ballad of Lord Delamere--Old Scots March--Maps of Africa--St. Paul and the Heathen Writers--"Wise above that which is written"--Paring the Nails--Rev. John Paget--History of Commerce--London Street Characters--Great Bowyer Bible--Wiclif, Orthography of--Ancient Trees--Game of Curling--Family Likenesses--English Translation of the Canons--Quotations wanted--Ecclesiastical Geography._

H. T. H. _Queries respecting Irish Antiquities are quite within the province of_ "N. & Q."

MAY MARRIAGES. CONSTANT READER _is referred to our_ Second Volume, p. 52., _for an answer to his Query upon this subject._

COMBE'S WORKS. _We have received an obliging Note from_ MR. COLE, _in which he informs us that the List of Combe's Works referred to in_ The Athenæum _and_ "N. & Q." (Vol. v., p. 194.), _has been placed by him at the service of the_ Gentleman's Magazine, _and will probably appear in the April Number of that Journal._

MONASTIC ESTABLISHMENTS IN SCOTLAND. CEYREP _will feel obliged by the transcript of the List of these Establishments contained in Cardonnel, so kindly offered by_ M. S. _at_ p. 189.

H. W. _The proper line is_--

"When Greeks join Greeks then is the tug of war."

_It is from Lee's_ Alexander the Great.

E. N. _The Epigram beginning "Cum sapiente Pius" has already appeared in our columns. See_ Vol. ii., p. 461.