chips of Russia
leather; indeed, in but one instance have I known them fail.

NEWBURIENSIS.

_The Porter Family_ (Vol. viii., p. 364.).--1. The reason of the word
_Agincourt_ being placed above the inscription in Bristol Cathedral is,
that the Porter family were descendants of Sir William Porter who fought at
Agincourt.

2. Charles Lempriere Porter was the son of Dr. Porter.

3. This family was descended from Endymion Porter of classic and loyal
memory.[3]

J. R. W.

Bristol.

[Footnote 3: [The biographical notices of Endymion Porter are extremely
scanty. Can our correspondent furnish any particulars respecting
him?--ED.]]

_Buckle_ (Vol. viii., p. 304.).--This word is in common use by the artizans
who work upon sheet-iron, to denote the curl which a sheet of iron acquires
in passing through a pair of rollers. The word has been derived from the
French _boucle_, a curl. The shoe-buckle has got its name from its curved
form. In the days in which every man in this country, who was in easy
circumstances, wore a wig, it was well known that to put a wig in _buckle_,
meant to arrange its curls in due form.

"When Hopkins dies, a thousand lights attend
The wretch, who living sav'd a candle's end:
Should'ring God's altar a vile image stands,
Belies his features, nay, extends his hands;
That live-long wig which Gorgon's self might own,
Eternal _buckle_ takes in Parian stone."--Pope, _Moral Essays_, Epistle
III.

N. W. S.

_The "Forlorn Hope"_ (Vol. viii., p. 411.).--This is no quotation; but the
expression arose in the army from its leader or captain, who, being often a
disappointed man, or one indifferent to consequences, now ran the "forlorn
hope" either of ending his days or obtaining a tomb in Westminster Abbey.
From the captain, after a time, the term descended to all the little
gallant band. In no part of our community will you find such {527} meaning
expressions (often very slang ones) used as in the army. A lady, without
hearing anything to shock "ears polite," might listen to the talk of a mess
table, and be unable to understand clearly in what the conversation
consisted. "He is gone to the bad"--meaning, he is ruined. "A wigging from
the office" (a very favourite expression)--a reprimand from the colonel.
"Wigging" naturally arising from tearing the hair in anger or sorrow, and
the office of course substituting the place from whence it comes for the
person who sent it. Besides may othe