(Vol. vi., p. 543.)
B. B. WOODWARD (urged, probably, by R. RAWLINSON'S question in Vol. vi., p.
412.) sends you the following inscription,
"Sit mihi nec glis servus, nec hospes hirudo,"
copied from over the entrance to an old hostel in the town of Wymondham,
Norfolk. He says he quotes from memory.
Vol. vii., p. 23., you give an English translation of the inscription:
"From servant lazy as dormouse,
Or leeching guest, God keep my house;"
but suggest that "hirudo" should be "hiru_n_do," and produce some apt
classical quotations supposing it may be so, requesting MR. WOODWARD to
look again at the original inscription.
In a recent Number (Vol. vii., p. 190.) MR. WOODWARD appears to have done
this, and sends you the inscriptions correctly (as I beg to vouch, having
often read and copied it, and living within four miles of the spot), thus:
"Nec mihi glis servus, nec hospes hirudo."
Permit me to add to this corroboration, that I should venture a different
translation of the word "hospes" from your correspondent's, and render the
notice thus:
"Good attendance and cheap charges:"
taking "hospes" not as guest but host, and the literal words, "My servant
is not a dormouse, nor (I) the host a leech."
Ainsworth gives authority for "hospes" meaning host as well as guest, and
quotes Ovid's _Metamorphoses_ in support of it.