Notes and Queries, Number 74, March 29, 1851

Your correspondent suggests "arista;" can he support this historically? If not, it is surely far-fetched. Let me draw attention to a word in our English Bible, which has been misunderstood before now by readers who were quite at home in the original languages: "earing nor harvest" (Genesis). Without some acquaintance with the earlier forms of our mother tongue, one is liable to take earing to mean the same as "harvest," from the association of ears of corn. But it is the substantive from the Anglo-Saxon verb erian, to plough, to till: so that "earing nor harvest" = "sowing nor reaping." From erian we may pass on to arare, and from that to arista: in the long pedigree of language they are scarcely unconnected: but the Anglo-Saxon is not derived from the Latin; they are, each in its own language, genuine and independent forms. But it is curious to see what an attraction these distant cousins have for one another, let them only come within each other's sphere of gravitation.

In, Yorkshire the verb to earland is still a living expression; and a Yorkshireman, who has more Saxon than Latin in him, will not write "arable land," but "earable land." A Yorkshire clergyman tells me that this orthography has been perpetuated in a local act of parliament of no very ancient date.

Putting all these facts together, I am inclined to think that "arrish" must first mean "land for tillage;" and that the connexion of the word with "gleaning" or "gleaners" is the effect of association, and therefore of later date.

But it must be observed, there is a difference between "arrish" and "harrisers." Can it be shown that Dorset-men are given to aspirating their words? Besides this, there is a great difference between "arrissers" and "arrishers" for counties so near as Dorset and Devon. And again, while I am quite familiar with the word "arrish," I never heard "arrishers," and I believe it is unknown in Devonshire.

J. E.

Oxford.

Harrisers or Arrishers.—Doubtless, by this time, some dozen Devonshire correspondents will have informed you, for the benefit of Clericus Rusticus, that arrishers is the term prevailing in that county for "stubble." The Dorset harrisers are therefore, perhaps, the second set of gleaners, who are admitted to the fields to pick up from the stubble, or arrishes, the little left behind by the reapers' families. A third set of gleaners has been admitted from time immemorial, namely, the Anser stipularis, which feeds itself into plump condition for Michaelmas by picking up, from between the stubble, the corns which fell from the ears during reaping and sheaving. The Devonshire designation for this excellent sort of poultry—known elsewhere as "stubble geese"—is "arrish geese."

The derivation of the word must be left to a better provinial philologist than

W. H. W.

Chaucer's "Fifty Wekes" (Vol. iii., p. 202.).—A. E. B.'s natural and ingeniously-argued conjecture, that Chaucer, by the "fifty wekes" of the Knightes Tale, "meant to imply the interval of a solar year,"—whether we shall rest in accepting the poet's measure of time loosely and poetically, or (which I would gladly feel myself authorised to do) find in it, with your correspondent, an astronomical and historical reason,—is fully secured by the comparison with Chaucer's original.

The Theseus of Boccaccio says, appointing the listed fight:

"E termine vi sia a ciò donatoD'un anno intero."

To which the poet subjoins:

"E così fu ordinato."

See Teseide, v. 98.

A. L. X.

The Almond Tree, &c. (Vol. iii., p. 203.).—The allusions in Hall's poem, stanzas iii. & v., refer to the fine allegorical description of human decrepitude in Ecclesiastes, xii. 5, 6., when

"'The almond tree shall flourish' (white hairs), and 'the silver cord shall be loosed,' and 'the golden bowl broken,' and 'the mourners shall go about the streets.'"

The pertinence of these solemn figures has been sufficiently explained by biblical commentators. It is to be presumed that the reference to a source so well known as the Bible would have occurred at once to the Querist, had not the allusions, in the preceding stanza, to the heathen fable of Medea, diverted his thoughts from that more familiar channel.

V.

Belgravia.

[Similar explanations have been kindly furnished by S. C., Hermes, P. K., R. P., J. F. M., J. D. A., and also by W. (2), who refers to Mead's Medica Sacra for an explanation of the whole passage.]

St. Thomas's Onions (Vol. iii., p. 187.).—In reference to the Query, Why is St. Thomas frequently mentioned in connexion with onions? I fancy the reason to be this. There is a variety of the onion tribe commonly called potato or multiplying onion. It is the rule to plant this onion on St. Thomas's day. From this circumstance it appears to me likely that this sort of onion may be so called, though I never heard of it before. They are fit for use as large hard onions some time before the other sort.

J. Wodderspoon.

Norwich, March 10. 1851.

Roman Catholic Peers (Vol. iii., p. 209.).—The proper comment has been passed on the Duke of Norfolk, but not on the other two Roman Catholic peers mentioned by Miss Martineau. She names Lord Clifford and Lord Dormer as "having obtained entrance at last to the legislative assembly, where their fathers sat and ruled when their faith was the law of the land." The term "fathers" is of course figuratively used, but we may conclude the writer meant to imply their ancestors possessing the same dignity of peerage, and enjoying, in virtue thereof, the right of "sitting and ruling" in the senate of their country. If such was the lady's meaning, what is her historical accuracy? The first Lord Dormer was created in the reign of James I., in the year 1615; and, dying the next year, never sat in parliament: and it has been remarked as a very singular fact that this barony had existed for upwards of two centuries before any of its possessors did so. But the first Lord Dormer, who sat in the House of Lords, was admitted, not by the Roman Catholic Relief Act, but by the fact of his being willing to take the usual oaths: this was John, the tenth lord, who succeeded his half-brother in 1819, and died without issue in 1826. As for Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, that family was not raised to the peerage until the year 1672, in the reign of Charles II.

J. G. N.

Election of a Pope (Vol. iii., p. 142.).—Probably T. refers to the (alleged) custom attendant upon the election of a pope, as part of the ceremony alluded to in the following lines in Hudibras:—

"So, cardinals, they say, do gropeAt t'other end the new made Pope"Part I. canto iii. l. 1249. [24mo. ed. of 1720.]

In the notes to the above edition (and probably to other of the old editions) your correspondent will find a detailed explanation of these two lines: I refer him to the work itself, as the "note" is scarcely fit to transcribe here.

J. B. Colman.

Comets (Vol. iii., p. 223.).—There is a copious list of all the comets that have appeared since the creation, and of all that will appear up to A.D. 2000, in the Art de vérifier les Dates, vol. i. part i.; and vol. i. part ii. of the last edition.

C.

Camden and Curwen Families (Vol. iii., pp. 89. 125.).—H. C. will find, in Harl. MS. 1437. fo. 69., a short pedigree of the family of Nicholas Culwen of Gressiard and Stubbe, in the county of Lancaster, showing his descent from Gilbert Culwen or Curwen (a younger brother of Curwen of Workington), who appears to have settled at Stubbe about the middle of the fifteenth century.

Although this pedigree was recorded by authority of Norroy King of Arms, in 1613, while Camden held the office of Clarenceux, it does not show any connexion with Gyles Curwen, who married a daughter and coheir of Barbara, of Poulton Hall, in the county of Lancaster, and whose daughter Elizabeth was the wife of Sampson Camden of London, and mother of Camden. Nevertheless, it may possibly throw some light on the subject.

If H. C. cannot conveniently refer to the Harl. MSS., I will with much pleasure send him a copy of this pedigree, and of another, in the same MS., fo. 29., showing Camden's descent from Gyles Curwen, if he will communicate his address to the Editor of "Notes and Queries."

Llewellyn.

Auriga (Vol. iii., p. 188.).—That part of the Roman bridle which went about the horse's ears (aures), was termed aurea; which, being by a well-known grammatical figure put for the whole head-gear of the horse, suggests as a meaning of Auriga, "is qui AUREAS AGIT, he who manages, guides, or (as we say) handles, the reins."

Pelethronius.

Ecclesfield Hall.

Straw Necklaces (Vol. i., p. 4., &c.).—May not these be possibly only Spenser's "rings of rushes," mentioned by him among other fragile ornaments for the head and neck?

"Sometimes her head she fondly would aguizeWith gaudy girlonds, or fresh flowrets dightAbout her necke, or rings of rushes plight." F. Q. lib. ii. canto vi. st. 7.Ache.

The Nine of Diamonds, called the Curse of Scotland (Vol. i., pp. 61., 90.).—The following explanation is given in a Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785; an ignoble authority, it must be admitted:—

"Diamonds imply royalty, being ornaments to the imperial crown, and every ninth King of Scotland has been observed for many ages to be a tyrant, and a curse to that country."

J. H. M.

"Cum Grano Salis" (Vol. iii., pp. 88. 153.).—I venture to suggest, that in this phrase the allusion is to a rich and unctuous morsel, which, when assisted by a little salt, will be tolerated by the stomach, otherwise will be rejected. In the same way an extravagant statement, when taken with a slight qualification (cum grano salis) will be tolerated by the mind. I should wish to be informed what writer first uses this phrase in a metaphorical sense—not, I conceive, any classical author.

X. Z.

Miscellaneous

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC

Mr. Rees of Llandovery announces for publication by subscription (under the auspices of the Welsh MSS. Society), a new edition of The Myvyrian Archæology of Wales, with English translations and notes, nearly the whole of the historical portions of which, consisting of revised copies of Achan y Saint, historical triads, chronicles, &c. are ready for the press, having been prepared for the late Record Commission, by Aneurin Owen, Esq., and since placed by the Right Hon. the Master of the Rolls at the disposal of the Welsh MSS. Society for publication. As the first volume consists of ancient poetry from the sixth to the fourteenth centuries, much of which, from its present imperfect state, requires to be collated with ancient MS. copies of the poems, not accessible to the former editors; in order to afford more time for that most essential object, it is proposed to commence with the publication of the historical matter: while the laws of Howel Dda, having been recently published by the Record Commission, will not be included; by which means it is expected the original Welsh text and English translations of the rest of the work can be comprised in four or five volumes, as the greatest care will be paid to the quantity of matter and its accuracy, as well as typographical excellence, so as to ensure the largest amount of information at the least expense. We need hardly say that this patriotic undertaking has our heartiest wishes for its success.

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The Camden Society has lately added a very important work to its list of intended publications. It is the St. Paul's Domesday of the Manors belonging to the Cathedral in the year 1222, and is to be edited with an introduction and illustrative notes, by Archdeacon Hale.

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E. N. W. A ring which had belonged to Mary Queen of Scots, very similar to that which E. N. W. possesses, was exhibited some years since. A friend, on whose judgment we place great reliance, is of the opinion that the cutting on E. N. W.'s ring is modern. Could not E. N. W. exhibit it at the Society of Antiquaries? Mr. Akerman, the resident Secretary would take charge of it for that purpose.

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E. M. "Vox Populi Vox Dei" were the words chosen by Archbishop Mepham for his Sermon, when Edw. III. was called to the throne. See "Notes and Queries," Vol. I., pp. 370. 419. 492. for further illustrations.

S. Wmsn. The proposed short and true account of Zacharie Boyd would be acceptable.

H. N. E. Lord Rochester wrote a poem of seventeen stanzas upon Nothing. The Latin poem on the same subject, to which H. N. E. refers, is probably that by Passerat, inserted by Dr. Johnson in his Life of Rochester.

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