Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 111, December 13, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. — John Shaqi
Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 111, December 13, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 111, December 13, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
_Modern Greek Names of Places._--It is commonly stated in books of
geography that the modern name of Athens is _Statines_. In Hennin's
_Manuel de Numismatique Ancienne_ it is stated to be _Satines_ or
_Atini_; and Mr. Akerman, in his most excellent _Numismatic Manual_,
makes the same statement. We find it stated also universally that the
modern name of Cos is _Stanco_; and this has been repeated in all maps
and charts until the recently published Admiralty Chart, No. VI. of the
Archipelago series, where it is called _Cos_.
The origin of this and other similar blunders is curious. Athens retains
its plural termination, and is always used with the article,
αι Αθηναι. If you ask a peasant walking from the Piræus whither he is
going, he will answer you, Εις τας Αθηνας, but will rapidly
enunciate it as follows, 'σ'τ'σΑθηνας, whence _Statines_,
lately reduced to _Satines_.
I am surprised that Cos was not set down as _Stinco_ rather than
_Stanco_, for if you hail a Coan vessel, and ask whither it is bound,
the καραβουκυρι, or skiff-master, would certainly reply
στην Κῳ, if Cos were his destination.
I find that both M. Hennin and Mr. Akerman assert that Thebes is now
called _Stives_. I conversed with a noble-looking youth on the ruins of
Eleusis, and asking him from what part of the country he came, I shall
not easily forget the stately dignity with which he tossed his capote
over his shoulder, and answered ειμι Θηβαίος--I am a Theban.
The bold Boeotian would have stared in amazement had I spoken to him of
_Stives_, although, if homeward-bound, he would have said he was going
'σ τας Θηβας.
The Turks have made Istambol or Stamboul out of στην πολιν; and
we may, perhaps, hear from our friends, the Nepaulese ambassadors, that
the capital of England is called _Tolondon_, and that of France _Apari_.
L. H. J. T.
"_There is no mistake._"--The Duke of Wellington's reply to Mr.
Huskisson, "There is no mistake," has become familiar in the mouths of
both those who remember the political circumstances that gave rise to
it, and those who have received it traditionally, without inquiring into
the origin of it. You may perhaps think it worthy of a "Note" that this
was not the first occasion on which the Duke used those celebrated
words. The Duke (then Earl of Wellington) in a private letter to Lord
Bathurst, dated Flores de Avila, 24th July, 1812, writes in the
following easy style:
"I hope that you will be pleased with _our_ battle, of which the
dispatch contains as accurate an account as I can give you. _There
was no mistake_, everything went on as it ought; and there never
was an army so beaten in so short a time."
The whole letter is well deserving of insertion; but my object is simply
to draw attention to the occasion on which the Duke first used the
sentence now so well known.
F. W. J.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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