Notes and Queries, Number 17, February 23, 1850

W. DURRANT COOPER.

Norman Pedigrees.—In answer to "B.'s" query (No. 14. p. 214.), an excellent Gazetteer was published in Paris, 1831, entitled Dictionnaire Complet Géographique, Statistique, et Commercial de la France et de ses Colonies; par M. Briand-de-Verzé, pp. 856. Many of the names of the Conqueror's Norman companions will be found in that work; as, for instance, Geoffrey de "Mandeville, village. Calvados arrondissement, 31½ O.N.O. de Bayeaux," &c.

Norman de Beauchamp: three Beauchamps are mentioned; that 51. from Avranches will be the one in question.

C.I.R.

Oxford, Feb. 19. 1850.

Norman Pedigrees.—Your correspondent "B." (No. 14. p. 214.) would probably find part of the information he seeks in Domesday Book, seu Censualis Willelmi Primi Regis Angliæ. But query? Is "B." right in supposing the prefix "De" to be French? Does it not rather originate in the Latin?

"Domesday" is written in Latin throughout; and the "de," denoting the place, is there occasionally followed by what seems to be the Latin ablative case. I copy an example:—

"Canonici de Hansone ten. l. hida de Sansone," (i.e. loc. in co. Stafford.)

Then of the person it is said—

"Sanson ten. de rege, &c.... iii. hid. træ in Hargedone," &c.

J.S.

Translation of Ælian.—In answer to the query of "G.M." in No. 15. p. 232., I beg to state that in Lowndes's Manual, vol. i. p. 13., is the following notice under the head of "Ælianus Claudius:"—

"Various Histories translated by T. Stanley, London, 1665, 8vo. 5s. This translation is by the son of the learned editor of Æschylus, and was reprinted 1670. 1677."

C.I.R.

Ave Trici and Gheeze Ysenoudi.—I regret that I cannot give "H.L.B." any further information about these ladies than the colophon I transcribed affords. To me, however, it is quite clear that they were sisters of some convent in Flanders or Holland; the name of their spiritual father, Nicolas Wyt, and the names of the ladies, clearly indicate this.

S.W.S.

Daysman (No. 12. p. 188.)– It seems to me that a preferable etymology may be found to that given by Nares and Jacob. The arbiter or judge might formerly have occupied a dais or lit de justice, or he might have been selected from those entitled to sit on the raised parts of the courts of law, i.e. jurisconsulti, or barristers as we call them. I have heard another etymology, which however I do not favour, that the arbiter, chosen from men of the same rank as the disputants, should be paid for loss of his day's work.

GEORGE OLIVER.

Perhaps the following may be of some use in clearing up this point. In the Graphic Illustrator, a literary and antiquarian miscellany edited by E.W. Brayley, London, 1834, at p. 14, towards the end of an article on the Tudor Style of Architecture, signed T.M. is the following:—

"This room (talking of the great halls in old manor-houses) was in every manor-house a necessary appendage for holding 'the court,' the services belonging to which are equally denominated 'the homage,' with those of the king's palace. The dais, or raised part of the upper end of the hall, was so called, from the administration of justice. A dais-man is still a popular term for an arbitrator in the North, and Domesday-Book (with the name of which I suppose every one to be familiar) is known to be a list of manor-houses."

C.D. LAMONT.

Greenock.

[Our correspondents will probably find some confirmation of their ingenious suggestion in the following passage from The Vision of Piers Ploughman:—

"And at the day of domeAt the heighe deys sitte."Ll. 4898-9. ed. Wright.]

Saveguard.—"BURIENSIS" (No. 13. p. 202.) is informed that a saveguard was an article of dress worn by women, some fifty or sixty years ago, over the skirts of their gowns when riding on horseback, chiefly when they sat on pillions, on a double horse, as it was called.

It was a sort of outside petticoat, usually made of serge, linsey-wolsey, or some other strong material: and its use was to guard the gown from injury by the dirt of the (then very dirty) roads. It was succeeded by the well-known riding-habit; though I have seen it used on a side-siddle by a rider who did not possess the more modern dress.

P.H.F.

Amongst the bequests to the Clothworkers' Company of London is one by Barbara Burnell, by will dated 27th June, 1630, wherein she directs the company to bestow 4l. 6s. yearly in woollen cloth to make six waistcoats and six safeguards for six poor women.17

Also we find that John Skepworth, by will dated 17th Oct. 1678, gave two closes of land to the parish of Louth, to the intent that the churchwardens and overseers of the poor there should apply the rents and profits of the same in providing so much coarse woollen cloth as would make ten suits yearly to be given to ten poor people of Louth, the men to have coats and breeches, and the women to have waistcoats and safeguards.18

If "BURIENSIS" has a friend belonging to the Clothworkers' Company, it is probable that he will acquire much information on this subject from their old records.

H. EDWARDS.

Derivation of "Calamity" (No. 14. p. 215.)—"Calamity" is from the Latin calamitas, from calamus a straw or stalk of corn, signifying, 1st, the agricultural misfortune of the corn being beaten down or laid by a storm; and thence, any other trouble or disaster:—

"Ipsa egreditur nostri fundi calamitas."

Ter. Eun. i. 1.

Upon which the commentator in the Delph. ed. has this note:—

"Calamitas est grando et tempestas, quæ calamos segetum prosternit et conterit. Unde Cicero Verrem vocat 'calamitosam tempestatem.'"

Ainsworth, quoting the above passage from Terence, adds:—

"Ubi Donatus. Proprie calamitatem rustici vocant quod comminuat calamum; h.e. culmen et segetem."

The etymology of its synonym, "disaster," is more direct—δυσ αστηρ, a star of evil influence, or, as we say, "born under an ill planet."

Φιλολογοσ.

Forcellini, s.v. Calamitas, says:—

"Proprie significat imminutionem clademque calamorum segetis, quæ grandine vel impetuoso aliquo turbine aut alia quapiam de causa fit."

He then quotes Servius, Ad Georg, i. 151:—

"Robigo genus est vitii, quo culmi pereunt, quod a rusticanis calamitas dicitur."

Then follows the note of Donatus on Ter. Eun. i. 1. 34.

It appears to me, if "calamitas" were derived from calamus, it would mean something very different from what it does.

Another suggestion is, that the first syllable is the same as the root of cad-o, to fall; l and d, everybody knows, are easily interchangeable: as Odysseus, Ulixes: δακρυον, lacrima, tear, &c. &c. If so, calamitas is a corrupted form of cadamitas. Mar. Victorinus, De Orthogr. p. 2456., says:—

"Gueius Pompeius Magnus et scribebat et dicebat Kadamitatem pro Kalamitatem."—(Quoted from Bothe's Poetæ," Scenici Latinorum, vol. v. p. 21.)

But how is the -amitas to be explained? I may as well add, that Döderlein, with his usual felicity, derives it from κολουω.

EDWARD S. JACKSON.

I beg to refer MR. F.S. MARTIN (No. 14. p. 215.), for the derivation of "Calamity," to the Etymologicon Linguæ Latinæ of Gerard Vossius, or to the Totius Latinitatis Lexicon of Facciolatus and Forcellinus. He will there find that the word calamitas was first used with reference to the storms which destroyed the stalks (calami) of corn, and afterwards came to signify metaphorically, any severe misfortune. The terrific hail-storm of the summer of 1843, which destroyed the crops of corn through several of the eastern and midland counties of this kingdom, was a calamity in the original sense of the word.

"W.P.P." has also kindly replied to this query by furnishing a part of the Article on Calamitas in Vossius; and "J.F.M." adds, Calamitas means—

"The spindling of the corn, which with us is rare, but in hotter countries common: insomuch as the word calamitas was first derived from calamus, when the corn could not get out of the stalk."—Bacon, Nat. Hist. sect. 669.

Derivation of "Zero" (No. 14. p. 215.).—Zero Ital.; Fr. un chiffre, un rien, a cipher in arithmetic, a nought; whence the proverb avere nel zero, mépriser souverainement, to value at nothing, to have a sovereign contempt for. I do not know what the etymology of the word may be; but the application is obvious to that point in the scale of the thermometer below the numbered degrees to which, in ordinary temperatures, the mercury does not sink.

Φιλολογοσ.

Deanery of Gloucester, Feb. 7. 1850.

"Zero" (No. 14. p. 215.)—Zero, as is well known, is an Italian word signifying the arithmetical figure of nought (0). It has been conjectured that it is derived from the transposition from the Hebrew word ezor, a girdle, the zero assuming that form. (See Furetière, vol. iii.) Prof. le Moine, of Leyden (quoted by Ménage), claims for it also an Eastern origin, and thinks we have received it from the Arabians, together with their method of reckoning ciphers. He suggests that it may be a corruption from the Hebrew [Hebrew: rphs], safara, to number.

Complutensian Polyglot.—I cannot pretend to reply to "MR. JEBB'S" inquiry under this head in No. 12. p. 213.; but perhaps it may assist him in his researches, should he not have seen the pamphlet, to refer to Bishop Smallridge's "Enquiry into the Authority of the Primitive Complutensian Edition of the New Testament, as principally founded on the most ancient Vatican MS., together with some research after that MS. In order to decide the dispute about 1 John v. 7. In a letter to Dr. Bentley. 8vo. London, 1722."

J.M.

Oxford, Feb. 5.

Sir William Rider.—In reply to the queries of "H.F.," No. 12. p. 186., respecting Sir William Rider, I beg to say that among the many MS. notes which I have collected relating to the Rider family, &c., I find the following from the Visitation of Surry, 1623, and from a MS. book of Pedigrees of Peers in the Herald's College, with additions.

"Thomas Rider married a daughter of – Poole of Stafforde, by whom he had Sir William Rider, born at Muchalstone, co. Stafforde, Sheriff of London, 1591, Citizen and Haberdasher, Lord Mayor, 1600. Will dated 1 Nov., and proved 9 Nov. 1610, 8 Jas. I. (94 Wood); buried at Low Layton, Essex, &c. Sir William married Elizabeth, da. of R. Stone, of Helme, co. Norfolk; by whom he had, besides other children and descendants, Mary daughter and coheiress, who married Sir Thomas Lake, of Canons, Middlesex, from whose issue descended Viscount Lake."

S.S.

Pokership (No. 12. p. 185., and No. 14. p. 218.).—It is to be regretted that no information has been supplied respecting the meaning of this remarkable word, either from local sources or from the surveys of crown lands in the Exchequer or Land Revenue offices. In one or the other of these quarters we should surely find something which would dispense with further conjecture. In the meantime the following facts, obtained from records easily accessible, will probably be sufficient to dispose of the explanations hitherto suggested, and to show that the poker of Bringwood forest was neither a parker nor a purser.

The offices conveyed to Sir R. Harley by James I. had been, before his reign, the subject of crown grants, after the honor of Wigmore had become vested in the crown by the merger of the earldom of March in the crown. Hence, I find that in the act 13 Edward IV. (A.D. 1473), for the resumption of royal grants, there is a saving of a prior grant of the "office of keeper of oure forest or chace of Boryngwode," and of the fees for the "kepyng of the Dikes within oure counte of Hereford, parcelles of oure seid forest." (6 Rot. Parl. p. 94.)

In a similar act of resumption, 1 Henry VII., there is a like saving in favour of Thomas Grove, to whom had been granted the keepership of Boryngwood chase in "Wigmoresland," and "the pokershipp and keping of the diche of the same." The parkership of Wigmore Park is saved in the same act. (6 Rot. Parl. p. 353 and 383.)

In the first year of Henry VIII. there is a Receiver's Account of Wigmore, in which I observe the following deductions claimed in respect of the fees and salaries of officers:-

"In feodo Thomæ Grove, forestarii de Bringewod,6l. 1s. 6d.– ejusdem Thomæ, fossat'de Prestwode dych,18d.– Edm. Sharp, parcarii parci de Wiggemour,6l. 1s. 6d.– Thomæ Grove, pocar' omnium boscorumin Wiggemourslonde – 30s. 4d."

There is another like account rendered in 23 & 24 Hen. VII. These, and no doubt many other accounts and documents respecting the honor of Wigmore and its appartenances, are among the Exchequer records, and we are entitled to infer from them, firstly, that a parcarius and a pocarius are two different offices; secondly, that, whether the duty of the latter was performed on the dikes or in the woods of Boringwood chase, the theory of Mr. Bolton Corney (pace cl. viri dixerim) is very deficient in probability. If the above authorities had not fallen under my notice, I should have confidently adopted the conjecture of the noble Querist, who first drew attention to the word, and, so far from considering the substitution of "poker" for "parker" an improbable blunder of the copyist, I should have pronounced it fortunate for the house of Harley that their founder had not been converted into a porcarius or pig-driver.

E. SMIRKE.

Pokership.—I had flattered myself that Parkership was the real interpretation of the above word, but I have once more doubts on the subject. I this morning accidentally stumbled upon the word "Porcellagium," which is interpreted in Ducange's Glossary, "Tributum ex porcis seu porcellis."

Porcarius also occurs as Porcorum custos, and mention is made of "Porcorum servitium quo quis porcos domini sui pascentes servare tenetur."

Now, considering how much value was formerly attached to the right of turning out swine in wooded wastes, during the acorn season, it seems probable that Sir R. Harley might be the king's "Porcarius," or receiver of the money paid for an annual license to depasture hogs in the royal forests; and, after all, Porkership is as like to Pokership as Parkership, and one mistake would be as easily made as the other.

BRAYBROOKE.

Audley End, Feb. 16.

[We are enabled to confirm the accuracy of Lord Braybrooke's conjecture as to Pokership being the office conferred upon Sir Robert Harley, inasmuch as we are in expectation of receiving an account of the various forms of its name from a gentleman who has not only the ability, but also peculiar facilities for illustrating this and similar obscure terms.]

Havior—Heavier or Hever.-Supposed etymology of Havior, Heavier, and Hever, as applied by park-keepers to an emasculated male deer.—"NOTES AND QUERIES," (No. 15. p. 230.)

Pennant, in his British Zoology, 8vo. edition, 1776, vol. i. p. 38., and 8vo. edition, 1812, vol. i. p. 45., under the article, "Goat" says:—

"The meat of a castrated goat of six or seven years old, (which is called Hyfr,) is reckoned the best; being generally very sweet and fat. This makes an excellent pasty, goes under the name of rock venison, and is little inferior to that of the deer."

As Pennant was a Welchman, a scholar and a naturalist, he will probably be considered good authority; and Hyfr, the most likely origin of the altered terms of the deer park-keepers.

The word occurs twice in page 61. vol. ii. of the Sportsman's Cabinet, in the article on the Stag or Red Deer, where it is printed Heavier; and it will be found also as Hever, in Mr. Jesse's Scenes and Tales of Country Life, at page 349.

WM. YARRELL.

Ryder Street, St. James, Feb. 11. 1850.

Mr. Halliwell gives the words haver and havering, in the same sense as havior. Are not these words identical with aver, averium, in the sense of cattle, tame beasts? Averium, from the old French, aveir, i.e. avoir, originally meant any personal property; but like catalla, chattels, it came to signify more particularly the most important part of a peasant's possessions—namely, his live stock. Thus, in the laws of William the Conqueror (Thorpe's Ancient Laws, vol. ii. p. 469.), we find:—

"Si præpositus hundredi equos aut boves aut oves aut porcos vel cujuscumque generis averia vagancia restare fecerit," &c.

The word may naturally enough have been applied to deer reduced to the state of tame and domesticated cattle.

C.W.G.

[TREBOR furnishes us with a reference to Pegge's Anonymiana, who endeavours to show that the proper term is "halfer;" on the same principle that an entire horse is spoken of, the word being pronounced "hâver" by those who call half "hâfe," while those who pronounce half with the open a say "hauver:" while J. Westby Gibson suggests that Havior is Evir, from the Latin "Eviro, Eviratus, Eviratio," but admits that he can give no authority for the use of Evir.]

Sir W. Hamilton (No. 14. p. 216.).—Douglas says, that this Sir W. Hamilton was not son, but grandson and brother of the 1st and 2nd earls of Abercorn, his father having died vitâ patris. I therefore doubt that the inscription has been miscopied. "He was," Douglas says, "resident at Rome, on the part of the Queen Dowager;" but this could hardly be the service alluded to.

C.

Dr. Johnson's Library (no. 14. p. 214.).—I have a copy of Dr. Johnson's Sale Catalogue. The title is as follows:

"A catalogue of the valuable Library of Books of the late learned Samuel Johnson, Esq., LL.D., deceased, which will be sold by auction (by Order of the Executors) by Mr. Christie, at his Great Room in Pall Mall, on Wednesday, February 16. 1785. and three following Days. To be viewed on Monday and Tuesday preceding the Sale, which will begin each Day at 12 o'Clock. Catalogues may be had as above."

It is a Catalogue of 28 pages and 662 lots, of which 650 are books. The twelve last are prints, chiefly "framed and glazed." The Catalogue is very rare; there is not a copy in the British Museum, and Messrs. Christie and Manson are without one. I may add, as your correspondent is curious about Johnson's Library, that I have the presentation copy to the Doctor of Twiss's Travels in Spain, with "the gift of the Author" in Johnson's handwriting, immediately beneath Twiss's MS. presentation. The Twiss was in Lot 284.

PETER CUNNINGHAM.

MISCELLANIES

Etymology of "News."—The word "news" is not derived, as many suppose, from the adjective new, but from a practice that obtained in newspapers of an early date, of prefixing to the title the letters expressive of the cardinal points, thus:—

meaning that their intelligence was derived from all quarters of the globe. This must, at any rate, be allowed as ingenious etymology.

J.U.G. GUTCH.

THE GOLDEN AGE

(From the Latin.)Why "golden," when that age alone, we're told,Was blest with happy ignorance of gold—More justly we our venal times might call"The Golden Age," for gold is all in all.RUFUS.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC

Messrs. Sotheby and Co. will sell on Monday next two collections of Autographs; the first consisting of Autograph Letters, the property of a gentleman; which will be immediately followed by that belonging to the late Mr. Rodd, and the extensive Correspondence of the late William Upcott, Esq., comprising several thousand Autograph Letters. Mr. Rodd's collection comprises many letters of great historical and literary interest.

Messrs. Puttick and Simpson will sell by auction on Friday, March the 8th, and seven following days, the extensive and very important Stock of Books of Mr. James Carpenter, of Bond Street, who is retiring from business. The characteristics of this fine collection are the numerous books of prints and illustrated works which it contains, such as the matchless Series of Piranesi's Works, being the dedication copy to the king of Sweden: a copy of Boswell's Life of Johnson, in 8 vols. folio, illustrated with nearly six hundred Portraits and Views.

We heard some time since that the long-established and highly-respectable house of Payne and Foss, of Pall Mall, had succeeded the late Mr. Rodd in the agency of purchasing for the British Museum. The rumour proved to be unfounded, and now receives a formal contradiction by the announcement that Messrs. Payne and Foss are retiring from business, and that the first portion of their extensive and valuable Stock of Books will be sold by auction by Messrs. Sotheby and Co.; the first division in a ten days' sale, commencing on the 18th and terminating on the 28th March; which will be followed by the second division, which will also occupy ten days, and commence on Monday the 8th April. The lovers of choice copies of fine editions of first-class books will have, on this occasion, such an opportunity of enriching their collections as rarely presents itself.

We have received the following Catalogues:—

"Number Two, for 1850, of John Miller's Catalogue of Books, old and new, on sale at 43. Chandos Street, Trafalgar Square."

"Catalogue of curious and rare Books, recently purchased, now on sale by George Bumstead, 205. High Holborn."

"Catalogue (No. 5.) of Books, Theological and Miscellaneous, and Catalogue (No. 6.) of Books, consisting chiefly of Foreign Literature and Theology, on sale by Andrew Clark, No. 4. City Road."

"Cheap List of useful and curious Books relating to Ecclesiastical History, Councils, Ceremonies, the Puritans, &c., on sale by S. and I. Palmer, 24. Red Lion Street, Holborn."

"A List of Books, chiefly curious ones, now selling by Thomas Kerslake, Bookseller, at No. 3. Park Street, Bristol."

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES

WANTED TO PURCHASE

(In continuation of Lists in former Nos.)

HIERONYMUS MAGIUS DE TINTINABILIS. 12mo. 1608 and 1664.

A. STOCKFLEET DE CAMPANARUM USU.

REIMANU'S DISSERTATIO DE CAMPANIS.

NICOL. EGGER'S DISSERTATIO DE ORIGINE ET NOMINE CAMPANARUM. EJUSDEM DISSERTATIO DE CAMPANARUM MATERIA ET FORMA.

PACICHELLI DE TINTINABULO NOTANO LUCUBRATIO.

WALLERI DISSERTATIO DE CAMPANIS ET PRÆCIPUIS EARUM USIBUS.

HILCHER DE CAMPANIS TEMPLORUM.

ARNOLDUS DE CAMPANARUM USU. 12mo. 1665.

ROCCHA DE CAMPANIS COMMENTARIUS. 1612.

THIERS, TRAITE DES CLOCHES.

MITZLER DE CAMPANIS. ESCHENWECKER DE EO QUOD IUSTUM EST CIRCA CAMPANIS.

PINGRE'S ACCOUNT OF HIS VOYAGE TO RODRIGUEZ, published (?) at Paris about 1762.

DUDLEY RYDER'S REPORT ON THE PETITION OF BERKELEY SEYMOUR, ESQ., CLAIMING THE BARONY OF SEYMOUR AND DUKEDOM OF SOMERSET. Published 1750, pp. 15. folio.

PRIVATE ACT, 12 WM 3., FOR THE SALE OF THE ESTATES OF ARTHUR LACY, ESQ., CO. SOMERSET.

BELL ON THE HAND. Bridgewater Treatises.

Odd Volumes.

MADRAS JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. Vols I. to IX. CATALOGUE OF HARLEIAN MSS., Vol. IV. WOODS'S ATHENÆ OXONIENSES (ed. Bliss.), Vol. III.

*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price. carriage free, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Among the many papers which we are unavoidably obliged to postpone are an original and inedited Letter by Horace Walpole, Mr. Singer's Reply to C.W.G. on Ælfric's Colloquies, an interesting communication from Mr. Coles respecting Arabella Stuart, a paper by Mr. Rye on the Queen of Robert Bruce, and T.S.D.'s able article on Arabic Numerals.