Imatges de pàgina
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Queries on Popular Phrases. -In The Four Knaves, published by the Percy Society, p. 54.: " Bring in a quart of maligo, right true;

And looke, you rogue, that it be pee and kew." P. 81.:

"The fierce and crewell warre-God at the sharpe?"

P. 83. (with reference to the dress of the knaves on the cards), it is said:

"I think before the Conquest many yeares." Is this opinion of the antiquity of playing cards

warranted?

P. 95.:

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Sir John Mason. - Anthony à Wood says of Sir John Mason, of whom I have before put a Query (Vol. v., p. 537.), that he was born at Abingdon, Berks, son of a cowherd by his wife, the sister of a monk of that place (see Ath. Ox. by Bliss, ii. f. 54.)

In MS. Cott. Claud. c. iii. f... the arms of the said Sir John Mason are given as here set out:

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The second quarter is noted "Langston," the third "Radley," but both incorrectly.

The same arms impaling Isley were on his tomb in old St. Paul's (see Dugdale's St. Paul's, by Ellis, f. 65.).

Can any of your heraldic readers inform me, who the cowherd of gentle lineage was? His widow remarried one Wykes. (See Sir John Mason's G. STEINMAN STEINMAN. will.)

Yolante de Dreux, Widow of Alexander III. King of Scots. - Is it known what became of this French princess, daughter and heiress of Robert IV. Count of Dreux, married 15th of April, 1285, and left a young widow, by her husband's sudden death, within a year afterwards? A.S. A.

Wuzzeerabad.

Mary, Queen of Scots' Daughter, by Earl of Bothwell. This unfortunate child's existence seems now generally acknowledged (vide Lingard, Labanoff, and Castelnan), and she is said to have been eventually "veiled as a nun in the convent of Our Lady," at Soissons, near Paris. Do records exist to show the period of her profession or death? Any notices of her history would be most interesting and affecting; born in captivity (at Lochleven Castle, in February 1568), cradled in adversity, obscurity, and mystery, and died in exile, and probably neglect. A. S. A.

Wuzzeerabad.

Lightning. Is there such a thing as sheetlightning; or is that which is so called merely the reflection of linear lightning, so distant that the G. T. H. flash itself is invisible?

Was Penn ever a Slaveholder? - Did William Penn ever make use of Negro slaves? The assertion is made in Bancroft's History of America, that it is said that he did. Now, as I never have seen such a thing hinted at in any work relating to William Penn, and as here it is only put in an inexcusably loose manner, I should feel better satisfied if the calumny could be entirely refuted; as such a charge was entirely inconsistent with the whole tenor of his life. THOS. CROSFIELD.

Minor Queries Answered.

Authorship of "Voiage du Monde de Descartes." - May I request your aid in determining the authorship of an old French book which I have

recently picked up, bearing the title of Voiage du Monde de Descartes: chez la Veuve de Simon Bénard, M.DC.XCI. INQUISITOR.

[Par le P. Daniel. Barbier adds, "On a inséré le second volume, L'Histoire de la Conjuration faite à Stockholm contre Descartes, par Gervaise de Montpellier."]

Etymology of Sycophant. - Will one of your learned correspondents give us the origin of the word "sycophant"? M. S. M.

[In Brande's Dictionary of Science, &c., we read, "Sycophant (Gr. συκοφάντης; from συκον, α fig, φαίνω, I disclose). It was forbidden by the laws of Athens, at one time, to export figs. The public informers who gave notice of delinquencies against this fiscal law were extremely unpopular, and hence the word came into use to signify an informer or false accuser generally, in which sense it is constantly used by Aristophanes istophanes and the orators. In modern languages lan it has acquired the sense of a mean flatterer."]

Taboo.-What is the meaning, and what the derivation of this word? It is often met with in newspaper writing. D. X.

St. Lucia.

[Dr. Ogilvie, in The Imperial Dictionary, has given the following derivation :

"TABOO, v. t. To forbid, or to forbid the use of; to interdict, approach, or use; as to taboo the ground set apart as a sanctuary for criminals. Tabooed ground is held sacred and inviolable. In the isles of the Pacific it is of great force among the inhabitants, as denoting prohibition or religious interdict."]

Shaston, where? - I have recently met with a tradesman's token, issued by one "Edward Burd" of Shaston, during the middle of the seventeenth century, but I have not been successful in finding in what county this place is situated, although I have searched the Gazetteer; and I shall be glad if any correspondent can supply the information.

J. N. CHADWICK.

[In Langdale's Topographical History of Yorkshire, there is a place in the West Riding called Shafton (spelt Sharston in Adams' Index Villaris) in the parish of Felkirk, wapentake of Staincross, five miles from Barnsley, seven from Wakefield, and nine from Pontefract.]

Etymology of Devon, &c. - What is the etymology of the word Devon? and of the word Worcestershire? I have heard or read the derivation of the latter from Wig, and ceaster, the AngloSaxon words for war and city. But why should it have been thus named? Also the etymology of Dorsetshire and Somerset? ARTHUR C. WILSON.

[Devon. The earliest inhabitants of this county were the Damnonii or Dumnonii, derived by some from two Phœnician words, dan, or dun, a hill, and moina, mines. The Cornish Britons named the county Dunan; the Welsh Deuffneynt, defined by Camden to

mean "deep valleys." By the Saxons it was called Devenascyre and Devnascyre, or Devonshire,

Worcester. - The etymology of Worcester is with some plausibility adduced from "Wyre-Cestre," the Camp or Castle of Wyre, under which name a forest still exists in the neighbourhood of Burdley.

Dorset. - This county was anciently inhabited by a people whom Ptolemy calls Durotriges, a name which

Mr. Hutchins (after Camden) derives from the British

words Dwr, water, and Trig, an inhabitant, or dwellers by the water side. The Saxons called them Dorsettan, whence the modern name.

Somerset, says the Magna Britannia, is called by the Saxons Sumertun, from the "summer-like temperature of the air." The Welsh for the same reason call it Glad-arhaf.]

Charles Inglis, First Bishop of Nova Scotia, 1787. Preferments in church, university, date and place of death, with age, &c., of this prelate are solicited. A. S. A.

Wuzzeerabad.

[During the years 1755-58, Mr. Inglis conducted a free school at Lancaster, U. S., where he became favourably known to the clergy of the neighbourhood, who recommended him to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to succeed Mr. Neill as minister to Dover Mission. With these testimonials he came to England, was admitted by the Bishop of London to holy orders, and arrived at his mission station, Dover, on the 1st July, 1759, where he laboured for six years. In 1765, Mr. Inglis obtained permission of the Society to accept the appointment of assistant to Dr. Auchmuty, and catechist to the negroes at New York. On the death of Dr. Auchmuty, he was elected by the churchwardens and vestry to succeed him as rector of Trinity Church. On the breaking out of the war, none suffered greater pecuniary loss than Mr. Inglis; for not only was his private estate confiscated, but he was compelled also to abandon his rectory, and to accompany some loyalists of his congregation to Annapolis in Nova Scotia. In 1783 he was obliged to fly to England for his life, where he was consecrated bishop of Nova Scotia on the 12th of August, 1787. He departed this life in February, 1816, having laboured in the service of religion for more than fifty years in the North American colonies.]

Replies.

THE FLEMISH CLOTHIERS IN WALES.

(Vol. vi., p. 36.)

F. M. may be referred, for an account of the Flemish colonies established in the district of Rôs, in Pembrokeshire, and Gower, in Glamorganshire, to different extracts which I gave in Vol. iv., p. 4. To this I may add, that both colonies speak the English language, to the uter exclusion of Welsh, retaining, re howeve several words quite peculiar to themselves, and apparently of a Flemish origin. A very few of these I give, as they occur to me; but I have been informed that the distinguished ethnologist Dr. Latham had commenced collecting them with a view to publication :

Semet, a sieve.

Wieste, dreary, desolate.
Eddish, stubble.

Mabsant, a marriage feast.
Vlaithens, a species of porridge.

Perch, to sit down.

Toit, free, gay, untrammelled. Pilm, dust.

Drownd, a greyhound.

Vorion, the headlands of a ploughed field. Nummet, anything eaten in the hand, equivalent

to luncheon in English. &c. &c.

The names also which prevail amongst them are very different from those of their Welsh neighbours: as Holland, Hullin (perhaps a corruption of the last), Guy, Clement, Givelin, &c. They keep carefully apart from the Welsh, who also regard them with contempt, and who still designate them by the name of "The Flemings." Intermarriages are of the rarest occurrence, and, ethnologically speaking, the differences of the two races are most striking. The Flemings are taller, and less finely knit, than the Cymry; yet they have fine independent upright figures, the expression of which is made more emphatic by their large clear blue eyes, their placid - perhaps almost phlegmatic-countenances, and the quietude of their movements. The most striking trait, however, of the physiog nomy is the great length from the inner corner of the eye to the nostril.

If they were indeed, as is generally affirmed. planted by Henry I., for the purpose of instructing the Welsh in the weaving of woollens, they have admirably fulfilled their task; and even yet their whittles, scarfs, &c., are celebrated for their fine

texture and brilliant scarlet colour. SELEUCUS.

Your correspondent F. M. will find many particulars on this subject in Fuller's Worthies, article Pembrokeshire;" and in Norris's Etchings of Tenby, &c., 4to.: London, 1812.

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S. S. S.

See "N. & Q.," Vol. iv., pp. 370, 371. and 453. J. LEWELYN CURTIS.

SPRINGS AND WELLS, MONKISH BURIALS, ETC. (Vol. vi., p. 28.)

The Note of MR. RAWLINSON respecting celebrated springs and wells, is one calculated to draw forth much curious and interesting information on a pleasing subject, and I beg to send you the following particulars in aid of this result; although, as far as I am aware, no lingering belief exists that "fairy elves their watch are keeping" over any of the wells in this locality.

In the western suburbs of the town of Leicester, by the side of the ancient via vicinalis, leading from the Roman Ratæ to the Vosse Road, and about seventy yards beyond the old Bow Bridge (so romantically associated with the closing scenes in the eventful life of Richard III.), rises a constant spring of beautifully limpid water, and known St. Augus Augustine's, or, more commonly, St. Austin's Well. It derived its designation from its vicinity to the Augustine monastery, situated immediately on the opposite side of the river Soar. The well is now covered and enclosed; but within the memory of persons still living it was in the state thus described by Nichols (Hist. Leic. vol. i. p. 300.)

as

"The well is three quarters of a yard broad, and the same in length within its enclosure, the depth of its water from the lip, or back-edging on the earth, where it commonly overflows, is half a yard. It is covered with a millstone, and enclosed with brick on three

sides; that towards the Bow Bridge and the town, is

open."

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This well will come under the list of those mentioned by MR. RAWLINSON as "good for sore eyes," it having been formerly in great repute as a remedy in these cases; and even since the enclosure of the well, many applications for water from the pump erected in the adjoining ground have, I know, been made for the same purpose. Permit me to record, as a further instance of the strange metamorphoses which proper names undergo in the oral traditions of the people (see the articles on the "Tanthony Bell" in "N. & Q.," Vol. iii., pp. 428. 484.), that on making some inquiries a few years ago of the oldest inhabitant" of the neighbourhood, respecting St. Augustine's Well, he at first pleaded ignorance of it, but at length, suddenly enlightened, exclaimed "Oh! you mean Tostings's Well!" Nor may it be uninteresting to mention, as an illustration of the modes of burial anciently practised by some of the religious orders *, that in the year 1842, on making some excavations in the ground lying between the well and the river Soar (which is said to have been the burial ground of the monastery, and in which now moulders all that remains of "the last of the Plantagenets"), several skeletons were discovered. They had evidently been interred without coffins, and one, which was carefully uncovered, was found lying with the arms crossed, not over the breast, but over the abdomen, in a similar manner to that delineated on the rare brass of a priest at Fulbourn, Cambridge.

In addition to this holy well, we have also another in the town called St. James's Well, but I am not aware that there is any legend connected with it, except that it had a hermitage adjoining

* " The xxvj day of July (1556) was bered at the Sayvoy a whyt monke of the Charterhowsse, and bered in ys monke('s) wede with grett lyght."- Machyn's Diary, p. 110.

it, or that any particular virtue was attributed to it: whilst in the county we have on Charnwood Forest the well giving its name to Holy-Well-Haw, and the spring on Bosworth Field, rendered famous by the tradition of Richard III. having drunk at it during the battle, and which is surmounted by an inscription to that effect from the pen of the learned Dr. Parr, LEICESTRIENSIS.

"OH, GO FROM THE WINDOW!"
(Vol. vi., p. 75.)

The following stanzas of this old ballad occur in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, 1611 (Act III. Sc. 5.) :

"Go from my window, love, go;
Go from my window, my dear!
The wind and the rain
Will drive you back again;

You cannot be lodged here.

"Begone, begone, my juggy, my puggy,
Begone, my love, my dear !
The weather is warm,
'Twill do thee no harm;

Thou canst not be lodged here."

Fragments are again quoted in The Woman's Prize (Act I. Sc. 3.); and in Monsieur Thomas (Act III. Sc. 3.). But the song is much older than the seventeenth century. The tune is preserved in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book; in Barley's New Booke of Tablature, 1596; and in Morley's First Booke of Consort Lessons, 1598. It is also one of those ballads that received the honour of "moralisation," in Andro Hart's Compendious Booke of Godly and Spirituall Songs. In the latter shape it is so curious that I subjoin it, for the especial benefit of those readers who may not have met with a "godly" version of one of Old England's sinful ditties:

In

"Quho [who] is at my windo, who, who?
Goe from my windo, goe, goe,
Quho calls there, so like ane strangere ?

Goe from my windo, goe, goe.
"Lord, I am here, ane wrached mortal,
That for thy mercie dois crie and call
Unto thee, my Lord celestiall;

See who is at my windo, who?

"O gracious Lord celestiall,
As thou art Lord and King eternall;
Grant us grace that we may enter all,
And in at thy doore let me goe.

"Quho is at my windo, quho?
Goe from my windo, goe;

Cry no more there, like ane strangere,

But in at my doore thou goe!"

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Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, ed. 1620, sort of paraphrase or companion song to this, but it is far too contemptible to be worth transcribing. It is inserted with some variations (not for the

better) in the fourth volume of Durfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1719.

"Go from my window," retained its popularity until a late period. It is mentioned in Otway's Soldier's Fortune, and several other plays of about the same time.

Traditional versions are probably still floating about the country. The late Mr. Bacon of Norwich used to sing one, which, to judge from the first stanza (the only one that could be recalled to memory) promised an improvement upon the ancient copy :

"Go from my window, my love, my dove,
Go from my window, my dear!

For the wind is in the west,

And the cuckoo's in his nest,

And you can't have a lodging here."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

MITIGATION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TO A FORGER.

(Vol. v., p. 444.)

After an interval of several years from the time of my hearing the story referred to by H. B. С., and of which I made no note at the time, I met my informant last week, and had an opportunity of correcting certain failures of memory. I find that it was only said in the neighbourhood where he had lived, that the forger had escaped from the hulks by counterfeiting a government order for his own release. What, therefore, was stated by me as a fact, had been only a report. The petition was presented to the judges as they descended the steps of the "Judges' Lodgings" at York, which is a considerable edifice. A Yorkshire parson may be excused for unwittingly allowing the minster to obtrude itself into a good story. I cannot now divest myself of the first impression; but, of course, I submit. The obdurate judge was Baron Graham. The trial took place about thirty-five years ago.

In order to put H. B. C. still more closely on the trail, I will mention, whilst my information is fresh, that my friend also told me that it was about the second known instance of the royal clemency being extended to a condemned forger. The previous case was scarcely less interesting. A forger was sentenced to be hanged; but there were extenuating circumstances, and a petition to the crown in his favour was circulated for signature. One person who signed it was a dissenting minister named Fawcett, who sometime before had published a Commentary on the Bible, with which George III. had been so well pleased, that he sent for him, and told him he should be glad to serve him. Mr. Fawcett, however, replied, that his majesty could give him nothing in this life which he valued. The king then told him, that

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In MR. SINGER's remarks upon my defence of this expression, I can only find one tangible point admitting of reply. Against the mere assertion of adverse opinion, without argument, I have no desire to contend.

The alleged "fatal objection," in the present instance, is this:

"The context requires a plural noun to be in concord with they and their, and therefore this bosom multiplied' cannot be right."

Now, I can scarcely believe it possible that MR. SINGER could have overlooked the parallel metaphor to which I directed attention in the fifth clause of my original argument; and yet in that metaphor this very same peculiarity of expression (which MR. SINGER is pleased to call error) is much more prominent, viz.:

"At once pluck out

The multitudinous tongue, let them not lick
The sweet which is their poison."

This passage is, I presume, of undoubted genuineness; and yet, in it them and their are in much closer apparent connexion with the singular noun, than in the case objected to; consequently, with such a palpable example, within a few lines, of a repetition of the very difficulty he was animadverting upon, I cannot conceive how MR. SINGER could indulge in the vein he has respecting it.

But the truth is, that no real difficulty exists at all; because it is quite plain that the dominant antecedent throughout the whole speech, to such words as they, them, their, &c., is "the people," in this question of Brutus which occurs a few lines previously:

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the armorial ensigns attributed to each by Burke in his Armorie bear striking affinity not only with each other, but even, to some extent, with the obviously (at first sight) distinct families of Rees, Reid, or Rede. On the kindred name Wrey Wotton remarks (vol. iii. p. 362.):

" From an old pedigree of this family I find Robert Le Wrey living 2nd King Stephen (A.D. 1136); and by the prefixed adjunct they seem to take their name from some office. Others denominate them from their habitation of Wrey, co. Devon."

The halberds in the coat of arms, and the old crest of the family (an arm holding a commander's truncheon), seem to confirm the idea of their official origin. The old word to ree or ray, according to Bailey, signifies "to agitate corn in a sieve, that the chaffy or lighter parts may gather together." Might Le Wrey have had originally some such signification, adopted, like the patronymic Malleus or Mallet, from the bruising propensities of the first bearer of the name?

The connexion (if Burke can be depended on) between this name and some of its numerous

affinities (supposing the variations to have been adopted at pleasure, as in the case of the great naturalist), may be inferred from the subjoined tabular view which (if not trespassing too much on your space) may perhaps interest some of your philological or antiquarian readers : Az. on a chief or, 3 martlets gules, borne by

- Wray and Ray

- Wrey and Ray

Sa. a fess between 3 poleaxes arg. helved gu., borne by (To this last name (Ray) Burke assigns the "Bourchier" crest only as that of the family, as borne by Sir Bourchier Wrey, Bart., in conjunction with his paternal crest.)

Az. a chevron ermine between 3 battleaxes or, handled gu., on a chief of the last 3 martlets gu., borne by

(This coat, it will be seen, is formed on the blending of the two shields above given.)

- Wrey

Azure 3 crescents or, borne by - Ray and Rythee

The same coat with roundles (for cadency?) borne by

The same between 4 crescents,

borne by

(Barons Rythee temp. Edw. I.)

- Wray and Reay

Rea and Ree

Azure 6 crescents or, borne by - Rye Per pale wavy argent and sable 3 crescents counterchanged, borne by

Argent, on a bend sable, between 3 crescents, as many annulets or, borne by

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Reed

Rees

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