Welsh Journals

NEWS AND NOTES THE PLACE-NAMES OF CORNWALL Mr. J. E. Gover has recently sent me a typescript copy of his valuable work on the place-names of Cornwall and with commendable generosity he has offered to deposit it in the National Library of Wales for six months. It is hoped that students of Celtic philology and history, and particularly students of Welsh place-names, will avail themselves of this opportunity of reading the work while it is in this Library. Mr. Gover would be gratified if readers who know of Welsh parallels to the Cornish place-names would note them in pencil on the opposite blank pages of the typescript. B. G. CHARLES. ALMANACIAU CAIN JONES Cymerodd Cain Jones, Llansantffraid Glyn Dyfrdwy, at olygu Tymmhorol, ac wybrennol Newydd- ion neu Almanac Newydd a gyhoeddid gan J. (J. a W. o 1787) Eddowes yn Amwythig ar farwolaeth Gwilim Howel yn 1775. Cain Jones oedd yn gyfrifol am Almanac 1776. Argraffwyd Almanac 1795 gan J. Marsh yng Ngwrecsam, ac ar y ddalen deitl disgrifir ef fel 'Yr 2ofed yn argraphedig'. Nid oes gofnod am almanac diweddarach gan Cain Jones. Y mae'r rhif yn gywir ar hwn, er i amryfusedd yn rhifo'r argraffiadau ddigwydd yn 1789. 'Y Trydyddarddeg yn Argraphedig' sydd ar ddail teitl Almanaciau 1788 a 1789. Nid oes gopi o Almanac 1794 yn y Llyfrgell Genedlaethol felly nid oes modd gwybod a gywirwyd y rhif y flwyddyn honno. 'Y dwyfedarbymtheg yn argraffedig' sydd ar ddalen deitl Almanac 1793. Y mae copiau o'r rhan fwyaf o'r almanaciau hyn yn y Llyfrgell, ond nid ydynt i gyd yn berffaith. Da o beth a fyddai cael copiau o almanaciau 1782 a 1794 a pherffeithio'r copiau anghyflawn. E. D. JONES. A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON AN EARLY SLANG DICTIONARY Among the books bought from the executors of the late Mr. Howell Davies, Ruabon, is a work entitled Blackguardiana: or, a dictionary of rogues [London, 1795]. It is ascribed by the British Museum Catalogue to James Caulfield, but in reality it consists merely of Francis Grose's Classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue, 1785, with the insertion of a new title page, seventeen leaves containing anecdotal and biographical articles on the words 'abbess', 'banditti', 'courtesan', 'damnable', 'land pir- ates', 'mun' [sic], 'murderers', 'pirates', and 'thieves', twenty full-page portraits (though the title page men- tions only eighteen) of some of the characters described, and, at the end of the book, three leaves of flash and cant songs. The new articles and the portraits were inserted without any reprinting or alteration of the original sheets, so that the insertions had to be placed where they were only approximately in their correct alphabetical order. Thus the article on 'thieves' is placed between 'thorough cough' and 'thorough stitch' and the article on 'banditti' appears in the middle of the one on 'banyan day'. The catchwords, of course, are unaltered, and, where an insertion is made, several pages intervene between the occurrence of a catchword at the foot of one page and its repetition at the top of another. The catchwords affected are, however, reproduced on the last page of each insertion. The imprint is fictitious: the book is said to be 'printed for and sold by John Shepherd, at the Golden Farmer, Bagshot; Sir John Falstaff, at the Boar's Head, Finchley-Common; Sir Henry Morgan, at the Land Pirates, Hounslow' and other notorious rogues. Strangely enough, this imprint (abbrevi- ated to 'John Shepherd: Bagshot') is reproduced without comment in the British Museum Catalogue. Were the cataloguers misled by the unusual form in which Jack Sheppard's name appears ? P. A. L. JONES.