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devices, must be of very early origin. See
an interesting article in the June number of
Modern Language Notes (xiv. 333), by Mr.
Oliver Farrer Emerson, in which he quotes
from the Early English 'Genesis and Exodus,'
11. 3178-91, which describe Moses finding the
bones of Joseph :-

Almost redi was here fare,
Moyses bi-dozt him ful gare
Of dat de is kin haued sworen,
Iosepes bones sulen ben boren ;
Oc de Nil* haued so wide spiled,
þat his graue is oor vnder hiled,
On an gold gad de name god
Is grauen, and leid up-on de flod;
Moyses it folwede dider it flet,
And stod dor de graue under let;
por he doluen, and hauen sozt,
And funden, and hauen up-brozt
þe bones ut of de erde wroken,
Summe hole, & summe broken.

Mr. Emerson adds the Latin of Petrus | Comestor ('Historia Scholastica,' Exod. xxvii., in Migne, Patrol.,' cxcviii. 1155):

"Factum est autem ut Nilus, præter solitum,

impietyes." Here the adjective is evidently used in the sense of "heathenish.”

On p. 361, under date 7 December, 1616, Roe writes of "little Temples and alters of Pagods and Gentiliticall [sic] Idolatrye." In this case (and possibly in the former) gentilical may be meant. DONALD FERGUSON. Croydon.

MISPRINT.-For the benefit of those who, like myself, take an unholy pleasure in the errors of the press, I consign the following to the pages of N. & Q.' :—

"Scourging of the White Horse (The), by the author of Tom Brown's School Days, illustrated by Richard Boyle," &c. FRANK REDE FOWKE.

24, Victoria Grove, Chelsea, S. W.

"CHARACTERIE." The editors of the 'H.E.D.' appear to have missed this word, which occurs in more than one work on shorthand, and particularly in Dr. Timothy Bright's Characterie: an Art of Shorte, by Character (London, 1588).

adhuc inundaret terram, in qua erat sepulcrum Swifte, and Secret WrJAMES DALLAS.

Joseph. Tenebantur autem juramento asportare ossa ejus. Tulit Moyses scriptum in lamina aurea nomen Domini tetragrammaton, quæ superposita aquæ, supernatavit, usque dum veniens staret supra ubi erat sepulcrum. Et effodientes sustulerunt Ossa, quæ sublata leguntur eis prophetasse, forte de

difficultate itineris.'

It appears that there are two Talmudic versions of the discovery :

"According to one, Moses was told that the bones were sunk in the bottom of the Nile, but, at his prayer that they should be shown him, the coffin rose to the surface of the river. According to the other, Joseph's coffin was hidden away in the royal sepulehre, among the sarcophagi of the kings, and Moses did not know which it was. He prayed, and the coffin of Joseph moved out from among the other sarcophagi by some miraculous power."

My apology for so long a quotation is that Modern Language Notes is not in the hands of many students of folk-lore.

C.C.C., Oxford.

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ROBT. J. WHITWELL.

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GENTILITIAL = HEATHENISH.--The 'Historical English Dictionary records the adjective gentilitial with the the senses of (1) national, (2) family, (3) of gentle birth. In the 'Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe,' recently issued by the Hakluyt Society, on p. 179, under date 16 May, 1616, the diarist writes: "This Eueninnge the king went to Pocara......a village of the Bannians... full of their Pagodes and other gentilitiall

*This is clearly the right reading; see the Latin The ail of the Corpus MS. is a scribal

below. blunder.

A RELIC OF OLD LONDON: GODFREY'S COURT.-The following from the London Argus, 26 August, is worthy of a niche in 'N. & Q.':

"An interesting street name-stone has just been discovered in demolishing a set of old cupboards at St. Lawrence Jewry, near the Guildhall, The stone is oblong and massive, and bears the inscription :GODFREYS

COVRT
1670.

Godfrey's Court is situated in Milk Street, in the
parish of St. Mary Magdalene, which was united to
that of St. Lawrence after the Great Fire, the
former not being rebuilt. The Court is quite small,
and is shown in Ogilby and Morgan's map of the
City, 1677, a date at which the stone just discovered
was already in position. It is not yet known what
may be done with the stone, but it is by no means
impossible that it may be offered to the Guildhall
Museum."
C. P. HALE.

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KING ALFRED'S PARLIAMENT AT SHIFFORD. Mr. J. M. Falkner, in his recently published 'History of Oxfordshire,' p. 41, note, refers to the story of Alfred's holding a parliament at "Sifford," supposed to be Shifford, in the parish of Bampton, co. Oxford. He remarks that " some contend that the meeting place was East Shefford," in Berkshire. From the reference to one of the Cotton MSS.," and from the translation, I conclude that this information is derived from Dr. Plot's ' History of Oxfordshire,' 1705, p. 23. The O.E. passage given by the latter is part of the collection of apophthegms known

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"TIFFIN."--I was always under the impression that this was an Indian or Anglo-Indian word for luncheon. Turning, however, to Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue' for another purpose, I find: "Tiffing; eating or drinking out of meal time"; like "taking a snack." The origin of the word lies, therefore, in English slang. JULIAN MARSHALL.

as The Proverbs of King Alfred,' which is Elizabeth, alluded to by Shakspere. The printed in Wright's 'Reliquiæ Antique,' in monuments of the Fitton family have been Kemble's 'Saloman and Saturn (Elfric much injured and mutilated. On my last Society), and in Dr. Morris's Old English visit to Gawsworth, some twenty years ago, Miscellany (Early English Society, 1872), the canopies had entirely disappeared, and p. 102. This is preserved in early thirteenth- much interesting heraldry upon them was century MSS., but seems, from the language, destroyed. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. to be somewhat older. The Cottonian Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. MS in question is described in Wanley's 'Catalogus,' p. 231, and was destroyed in the Cottonian fire. The Trinity College, Cambridge, MS. was recovered by Mr. Aldis Wright in 1896, and formed the subject of an interesting paper in the Proceedings of the Philological Society for 1896-7, p. 401 sqq., by my friend Prof. Skeat. The Jesus College, Oxford, MS. printed by Morris reads "Seaford" against the "Sifforde" of the others, and suggests Seaford, co. Sussex, as the place intended. Curiously enough, Kemble, without the knowledge of any MS. statement to this effect, translated "Sifforde" as Seaford. This is much more likely than the Oxfordshire site, since that county, being in Mercia, was not under Alfred's government. In the light of modern knowledge, it is wrong to speak of an assembly in Alfred's time as a parliament." The Earl Elfric, "the wise lawsmith," who is mentioned as an important actor, is unknown as a councillor of Alfred, and rather suggests confusion with the times of King Ethelred. No English nobleman of Alfred's time, or even of Athelred's, would be described contemporaneously as an "earl." Although philologically of very great interest, The Proverbs of King Alfred' are historically worthless. W. H. STEVENSON.

EPITAPH AT GAWSWORTH, Co. CHESTER.-
There are many curious specimens of epi-
taphs embalmed in the pages of N. &
and the following is certainly peculiar and
unique. It is on the tomb of Sir Edward
Fitton, baronet, who died 10 May, 1619, aged
forty-six, and is inscribed beneath the effigies
of him and his wife. The reference is, of
course, to Psalm cxxviii. :—

Least tongues in future ages should be dumbe,
The very stones thus spcake about our tombe,
Loe two made one, whence sprange these many more,
Of whom a king once prophecy'd before;
Here's the blest man, his wife the fruitfull vine,
His children th' olive plants, a gracefull line,
• Whose soules and body's beauties sentence them
Fittons, to weare a heavenly diadem.

There are fourteen small kneeling figures, male and female, on the tomb and on that adjoining. In the middle of them is a female figure in a sitting posture wearing a ruff and hood, supposed by some to be their aunt Mary Fitton, maid of honour to Queen

THE TOLEDO. Those who have been familiar for thirty or forty years with Italy must regret to find that so many of the wellknown street-names consecrated by historic usage have been replaced by new-fangled terms such as Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Via Cavour, or Strada Garibaldi, which are repeated with wearisome monotony. Especially to be regretted is the disappearance

of the old historic names of two of the noblest streets in Italy if not in Europe, the Toledo at Naples and the Toledo at Palermo, which commemorate the rule of two famous viceroys, both of them Marquises of Toledo, one of whom was a Viceroy of Naples, the other a Viceroy of Sicily.

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ISAAC TAYLOR.

"GINNS" IN THE FYLDE. In Nodal and Milner's 'Glossary of the Lancashire Dialect' (English Dialect Society) I find the following: Ginn, Gynn (Fylde), sb., a road or "" And in a very passage down to the sea.' brief Glossary of Old Words used in the Fylde, bordering on the Sea Coast,' printed in the Rev. William Thornber's 'Historical and Descriptive Account of Blackpool and its Neighbourhood' (Poulton, 1837), I read,

Ginn, a road down to the sea.' These passages seem to imply that, in the Fylde, a road or passage down to the sea" is comtion. I know of one instance in the Fylde monly called a ginn. This needs confirmain which the word ginn occurs as a placename. About a mile north of Blackpool there is a small ravine running down to the sands, and known as The Ginn. It is described in Porter's History of the Fylde' as a deep and wide fissure in the cliffs' (p. 318). Close to the ravine there is, or was twenty-five years ago, an old-fashioned publichouse called "The Ginn Inn." On the map of Lancashire in Bowen's 'English Atlas

"

(c. 1761) the ravine is distinctly shown, and
is named "Warbreck Gin." Warbreck is a
hamlet half a mile away. I am anxious to
leárn whether the name Ginn occurs else-
where, either in the Fylde or in any other
part of England.
J. R. BOYLE.

PITT PORTRAITS.-At an auction sale held by Engall, Sanders & Engall, at the auction mart, Cheltenham, on 23 June, 1865, there were the following:-

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"Lot 237. Portrait of William Pitt, son of the Earl of Chatham. This celebrated portrait of Pitt is acknowledged to be one of the finest specimens of portraiture; by Gainsborough. "Lot 245. William Pitt (afterwards Earl of Chatham), by Barker of Dublin; this picture was painted in 1750."

"LOON."-The modern dictionary includes this word, but explains it in only one of its two uses. In the Encyclopaedic Dictionary,' e.g., it is defined as a rogue, a worthless This sale also included a portrait of Boswell person, a naughty woman," and the explanation is added that "the word is of both by Reynolds, 1790; of Handel by Hudson, genders." In the comprehensive statement 1744; of Wolfe by Gainsborough; of Gray of the world's iniquity embodied in his and Prior by Hogarth. I do not know who Prologue to Æneid,' viii., Gavin Douglas the proprietor of the property was nor the makes his dreamer address the "selcouth prices realized, and the present whereabouts sage" in the unqualified accusation "Lovne, of the portraits is equally unknown to me; thou leis," that is, “Loon, thou liest." Here, but I think that the fact of the Pitt portraits no doubt, the word may be taken as equivalent being in this sale is worthy of notice. I sent to "rogue" or slanderer," or something my copy of the catalogue a few weeks ago to equally uncomplimentary. In his 'Complaynt the S.K.M., where it may be consulted by to the King, 1. 405, Sir David Lyndsay those interested. suggests that loafers should be sent to the galleys :—

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And, as for sleuthfull idyll lownis,
Sall fetterit be in the gailyeownis.
Then there is no doubt as to the meaning he
attaches to it in the 'Satyre of the Thrie
Estaitis,' 1. 3642 :—

This linimer luiks as lyke ane lown
As any that ever saw.

The "limmer" or knave in question is Flattery
in the guise of a friar, whom two officers
relieve of his hood and gown, giving him
the explanation that when travelling "fra
toun to toun" he will suffer less from heat if
denuded of these articles of dress.

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In addition to this use of the word, which, as now shown, has notable literary sanction, there is another which has currency at the present time, and ought to be recognized. A 'loon in certain parts of the Scottish Lowlands (Jamieson in 'Sc. Dict.' says in the eastern counties only) is a lad or a boy, the term as so employed implying nothing whatever as to character. It is quite likely to be discoverable somewhere in literature, although at the moment I cannot cite an instance. I am able, however, to give an illustration at first hand. An old man, desirous of giving

me an idea of his son's appearance when
about fourteen years of age, pointed to a
youth by my side and said, He was aboot
the size o' the loon there." The tone indicated
nothing depreciatory, but was altogether
kindly and gracious. It may just be added
that this occurred in Fifeshire, where this
quite impartial application of the word is
perfectly common.
THOMAS BAYNE.

47, Lansdowne Gardens, S. W.

Queries.

W. ROBERTS.

nation on family matters of only private interest WE must request correspondents desiring inforto affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

"A HIGHLAND DONALD HASTIE."-In Burns's poem 'The Inventory' he tells the Surveyor of Taxes that he has "four brutes o' gallant The fourth he describes as mettle."

a Highland Donald hastie, A damn'd red-wud Kilburnie blastie. What would the Surveyor of Taxes understand by the expression "a Donald hastie "? A. L. MAYHEW. Oxford.

ARMORIAL.-Can any of your readers tell me to what family or person the following armorial bearings, as shown in a simple, unadorned book-plate, belong? Arms, Or, a rose gules (or ppr.), on a chief azure two mullets azure [1] Crest, A cubit arm ppr., the hand grasping by its stalk a rose ppr. vested gules, issuant from a ducal coronet or, Motto, "Quisque faber fortunæ suæ." They are not to be found in Papworth and Morant. The book-plate is unnamed.

MICHAEL FERRAR, Arm.

ROOS AND CROMWELL FAMILIES. (See ante, pp. 229, 293.)-Since my query appeared, much investigation of pedigrees and records has taken place, and although subsequent connexion between these families occurred,

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yet there was found none at a date prior to the building in Kirton upon which their arms were in juxtaposition. I am therefore inclined to think that the three water-bougets do not represent Roos, but Kirton or Kirkton, as Papworth and Morant and other heraldic works give the same arms to the latter family, although they are supposed to have borne Barry of six, gu. and arg." Unfortunately, all trace of tincture has disappeared, or that would have settled the matter, as the Kirkton arms were Az., three water-bougets arg., and those of Roos, Gu., three water-bougets arg. (or erm. or or). I venture a suggestion that the building was erected by Sir John Kirkton (who died 1367-8), as he is described as lord of Kirkton and also lord of Tateshale, and he being the last male of that ancient race, at his death the Tateshale property devolved upon one of the Cromwell descendants. However, there is the fact that inquis. p.m make him to have been lord of both Kirton and Tattershale, so it may account for the entrance arch to the old building springing from the coats of his two lordships, Kirkton on the dexter and Cromwell quartering Tateshale on the sinister side. Can any readers of 'N. & Q.' inform me how Sir John Kirkton or his ancestors became possessed of Tateshale, or what right he had to use the quartered arms of Cromwell and Tateshale; or give the alliances of these families?

C. T. J. MOORE, C.B., F.S.A. Frampton Hall, near Boston.

BEN JONSON.-I wish to ask if any reader of 'N. & Q.' can give me the reference to the passage in Ben Jonson where he says that

soul is a succedaneum for salt :

:

"A certain degree of soul, as Ben Jonson reminds us, is indispensable to keep the very body from destruction of the frightfulest sort; to save us,' says he, the expense of salt.""-Carlyle's Past and Present,' book ii. chap. ii. p. 42.

"In our and old Jonson's dialect, man has lost the soul out of him; and now, after the due period, ―begins to find the want of it...... Man has lost his soul, and vainly seeks antiseptic salt."-P. 118.

EDWARD E. MORRIS.

The University, Melbourne.

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AILANTHUS. This ornamental tree was introduced into this country from China; but the word is said in the dictionaries to be derived from the name of a species which grows in the Moluccas, and to mean "tree of heaven on account of the great height attained by it. Can any of your readers say in what language it has that meaning? It does not appear that it can have such a signification in Malay, since a tree in that language is "pokok" or "pohun," whilst "soorga"

or "surga" stands for heaven. (See W. E. Maxwell's 'Manual of the Malay Language.') W. T. LYNN.

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"POLDER "LOOPHOLE."-In the 'Etymologisch Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal,' door Dr. Johannes Franck ('s Gravenhage, 1892), it is said of the very common Dutch word polder that "de etymologie is nog niet gevonden." Therefore every student of the language has the right and the duty to try to find it. Does any phonetic law forbid the word to come from paludaria (terra)= marshy land?

Talking of Dutch word-lore, is it impossible that English loophole come from Lowland loop=the barrel of a gun? Presumably before guns were invented the word meant the projecting parts of the other instruments of war which would run out of the holes in the walls of fortresses in time of need. Or is the word connected with loopen to run? Are there not fortresses of medieval date in which there are wind-doors or wind-eyes large enough for a man to squeeze through and run away? The modern Dutch word for the thing is lits-gat. Can this mean a slit for a body to go out through? If so, it is a distant cousin of lych-gate.

The peasants in Zuid Holland say ulder in the sense of English udder. This does not appear in the ordinary dictionaries, of which Campagnes Schoolwoordenboek' is probably the worst. They give uier.

PALAMEDES.

WORDS OF SONG WANTED.-Can any of your correspondents furnish me with the words of an old song which I have reason to believe was a favourite with the peasantry of Somersetshire, if not of the south-west of England generally, about the middle or end of last century? It describes the life led by a hardworking man and a discontented wife who wants him to emigrate to Virginia. I can only give a few of the lines, and even these I have never seen in print. The interest of the verses lies not in their literary merit, but in the story they tell, for, according to the narrative, after long nagging the man at last apparently consents to emigrate as desired. He gets his wife on board a vessel bound for America, and makes a secret bargain with the captain, who undertakes to carry her off and sell her as a slave to some of the planters. Now, are there any authentic instances on record of such acts having been perpetrated? Sir Walter Scott, in "The Heart of Midlothian,' refers to a similar occurrence, for the son of Effie Deans and Robertson is entrapped and carried across the seas to work

as a slave in similar fashion. Both are fictitious narratives of course, though I have little doubt they are founded on fact, but I wish to make certain. Any information on the subject would oblige. The words of the song I know are:

When this poor man comes home at e'en
And brings her every penny,
Yet still she cried, Why don't you pack
And sail unto Virginny?
Virginny is a lovely place

Where many might make money;
There's good fat bacon a groat a pound,
And fourteen eggs a penny.
The dénoúment is as follows:-
O when she came on quarter-deck,

Finding her husband missing.

On seeing him on shore she cries out in agony, but too late to effect her purpose:O stay with me, O stay, good man, And I never more will offend you.

R. FERGIE.

Roull Road, Corstorphine, Midlothian.

'THE TELEGRAPH.'-In the Daily Chronicle of 11 Nov., 1898, appeared the following:"In the latest number of the Pall Mall Maga zine, I find some political doggerel by Dante G. Rossetti on The English Revolution of 1848,

in which occurs this line :

It was but yesterday the Times, and Post, and Telegraph.

Now, what Telegraph? The Daily Telegraph was not started till 1855, and the lines seem to bear internal evidence of having been scribbled in 1848."

As I cannot find that this question was answered, I should be glad to have it put in 'N. & Q' There was, of course, an earlier Telegraph than the present Daily Telegraph, which existed in 1795 (for which see N. & Q., 9th S. ii. 128, 192), but that had faded out, I believe, long before 1848.

ALFRED F. ROBBINS. HORDON. -I should be glad to know whether there is any one in the north of England or elsewhere of the same surname as myself. My grandfather, Hanworth or Han with, son of Thomas Hordon, of Bishop Auckland, was born 12 March, 1782; married to Sarah Martin at the parish church of St. George's, Middlesex, 2 Ñov., 1802; and died 27 Jan., 1842.

HELEN HORDON.

ROSMER. (See 9th S. iii. 487.)-At the above reference we find the Norse word rosmar, meaning "walrus," corrupted in Chinese. It seems, however, that hvalros is the proper form for " walrus," but rosmar is preserved in dialect use, strangely similar to rosemary, Trichæus rosmarus.

It appears that Walter de Eurus, Earl of Rosmer, held land in Somersetshire at the

Conquest; of his sons, one was Walter of Rosmer, who settled in Normandy, and his descendants became Earls of Evreux. Can this line be traced? Another son was Edward of Salisbury, progenitor of Ela Devereux, who married William Longsword, who is stated to have assumed the title of Earl Rosmer. Now, seeing that the Normans came from Norway, one asks, Was this Rosmer so imported to France? A. HALL. 13, Paternoster Row, E.C.

HENRY STEPHENS.--I should be greatly obliged for any information as to the antecedents and family of a Henry Stephens, doctor or surgeon, of Devonport, living there Capt. Philemon Pownall, R.N., of Sharpham, about 1760-80. He was closely related to who was slain 1780, and to the HennGennyses of Whitleigh Hall, St. Budeaux. He had four daughters. One married General Robert Williams, R.M., of Stonehouse, whose third daughter, Gratina Williams, married, 2 October, 1827, Admiral Richard Darton Thomas. A second Miss Stephens married Pengelly, of H.M. Dockyard, Devonport; and Lieut. John Knapman, R.N.; a third a Mr. a fourth, Elizabeth Stephens, married, in 1785, Foscarinus Tartliff Dyer. Both the latter are buried at St. George's, Stonehouse. Information as to which part of Cornwall or Devonshire the Stephens family came from would be particularly acceptable.

A. S. DYER.

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