Dear Listers, If you enter the search term 'Peccavi' in books.google.com you will receive hundreds of hits and a few of them refer to the Scinde story of Ellenborough and Napier. Apparently, the journal called 'Eagle' was aware in 1918 of the real authorship of the use of this word in the context of Scinde in Punch. The link to this journal on the third page of books.google.com has no preview at all, but text of the link itself has the following brief but adequate content, which I reproduce verbatim: < Eagle published 1917 p. 205 PECCAVI. "Sir, (To the Editor of The Eagle)...that the ban (sic) mot (Peccavi) was sent to Punch by her and an acknowledgement received by her from the Editor... > On the next page of books.google.com is a link to a book called 'Brewer's Famous Quotations : 5,000 Quotations and the stories behind them' by Nigel Rees. (I could not see what connection this book has with the well-known Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, perhaps the author has selected 5,000 entries from Brewer and researched the stories behind them.) This book has Limited Preview. P. 369 of the this book gives some more history of this matter. < Peccavi - I have Sindh. 18 May 1844. Punch suggested that Caesar's 'Veni, vidi, vici' was beaten for brevity by Napier's dispatch to Lord Ellenborough, Peccavi. ODQ credits the joke to Catherine Winkworth (1827-78). She was a young girl, so it was sent into Punch on her behalf. She later became a noted translator of hymns. It seems, however, that the supposed remark was soon taken as genuine, even at Punch itself. On 22 March 1856 the magazine (confusing sender and receiver in original) included the couplet "Peccavi - I have Scinde" wrote Lord Ellen, so proud. More briefly, Dalhousie wrote - "Vovi - I have Oude." > An aside. This also gives an interesting insight into Google's page-ranking algorithm, about which I had read elsewhere. It appears rather remarkable that most links about 'Peccavi' that have the Napier-Scinde connection come near the top of the search results while several other entries regarding repentance (the real context) come lower down. How did Google anticipate that I was looking for the Napier-Scinde connection? Apparently, several queries directed to Google about 'Peccavi' were for the Napier-Scinde connection. So all such pages have received more frequent clicks, making them rise higher in the page ranking and appear near the top. This makes it easy for those looking for the Napier-Scinde connection get what they want. Conversely, those looking for other contexts of Peccavi are going to have a harder time to get what they want! Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, December 21, 2007

She was a very clever, witty little girl.........I wonder what became of her? Cheers, Lynne. :)) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Arvind Kolhatkar" <akolhatkar@rogers.com> To: <india-british-raj@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 3:12 AM Subject: Re: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] ''Peccavi''-- found at last !!! > Dear Listers, > > If you enter the search term 'Peccavi' in books.google.com you will > receive hundreds of hits and a few of them refer to the Scinde story of > Ellenborough and Napier. Apparently, the journal called 'Eagle' was aware > in 1918 of the real authorship of the use of this word in the context of > Scinde in Punch. The link to this journal on the third page of > books.google.com has no preview at all, but text of the link itself has > the following brief but adequate content, which I reproduce verbatim: > < > Eagle published 1917 > p. 205 > PECCAVI. "Sir, (To the Editor of The Eagle)...that the ban (sic) mot > (Peccavi) was sent to Punch by her and an acknowledgement received by her > from the Editor... >> > > On the next page of books.google.com is a link to a book called 'Brewer's > Famous Quotations : 5,000 Quotations and the stories behind them' by Nigel > Rees. (I could not see what connection this book has with the well-known > Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, perhaps the author has selected > 5,000 entries from Brewer and researched the stories behind them.) This > book has Limited Preview. P. 369 of the this book gives some more history > of this matter. > > < > Peccavi - I have Sindh. > > 18 May 1844. Punch suggested that Caesar's 'Veni, vidi, vici' was beaten > for brevity by Napier's dispatch to Lord Ellenborough, Peccavi. ODQ > credits the joke to Catherine Winkworth (1827-78). She was a young girl, > so it was sent into Punch on her behalf. She later became a noted > translator of hymns. > > It seems, however, that the supposed remark was soon taken as genuine, > even at Punch itself. On 22 March 1856 the magazine (confusing sender and > receiver in original) included the couplet "Peccavi - I have Scinde" wrote > Lord Ellen, so proud. More briefly, Dalhousie wrote - "Vovi - I have > Oude." >> > > An aside. This also gives an interesting insight into Google's > page-ranking algorithm, about which I had read elsewhere. It appears > rather remarkable that most links about 'Peccavi' that have the > Napier-Scinde connection come near the top of the search results while > several other entries regarding repentance (the real context) come lower > down. How did Google anticipate that I was looking for the Napier-Scinde > connection? Apparently, several queries directed to Google about > 'Peccavi' were for the Napier-Scinde connection. So all such pages have > received more frequent clicks, making them rise higher in the page ranking > and appear near the top. This makes it easy for those looking for the > Napier-Scinde connection get what they want. Conversely, those looking > for other contexts of Peccavi are going to have a harder time to get what > they want! > > Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, December 21, 2007 > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.5/1191 - Release Date: > 12/20/2007 2:14 PM > >