GINGHAM (8th S. iv. 386, 516). On looking over PROF. SKEAT'S interesting book, 'A Student's Pastime, I see that he has reprinted verbatim his note at the first reference, in which he adopted Littré's derivation of gingham from Guingamp, in Brittany, notwithstanding MR. BIRKBECK TERRY'S pertinent suggestion that evidence should be produced (1) as to when the word first makes its appearance in England, and (2) as to the earliest date when the material so called was manufactured at Guingamp. As Dr. Murray's 'Dictionary' is now approaching the letter G, it may be desirable to take up the word again. It is odd that no refer subject, Yule and Burnell's 'Glossary of Anglo borrowed the word from the Breton town. Various other references are given in the 'Glossary,' none of which supports the Guingamp theory, whilst in the Supplement will be found a list of stuffs from Van Twist, 1648, which comprises Gamiguins, Baftas, Chelas, Assamanis, Madafoene, Beronis, Tricandias, Trica Chittes, Langans, Toffochillen, and Dotias. Certainly no English word ever found itself in more uncouth company than this, and one can hardly avoid the assumption that gamiguins are of similar extraction to the rest of the batch. In a list of cloths at Pulicat, given by Valentijn under date 1726, we find "Gekeperde Ginggangs" (twilled ginghams), an orthography which seems to lend some colour to the derivation in Jansz's Javanese Dictionary': "Ginggang, a sort of striped or checquered East Indian lijnwand"-the last word, according to Yule and Burnell, being ence has been made to the best authority on the applied to cotton as well as linen stuffs. PROF. SKEAT attaches some weight to the fact that gingIndian Words.' This is a book which I do not ham is an old English spelling of Guingamp, and think PROF. SKEAT has once cited in the valuable cites "the towne of Gyngham" in the 'Paston little work to which I have referred. And yet the Letters. On the other hand, Yule and Burnell compilers of it are not men to be ignored. Sir state that they have seen the name of a place on Henry Yule stood in the first rank among European the northern side of Sumatra written Gingham, writers on historical geography, whilst Dr. Burnell and they cite 'Bennett's Wanderings,' ii. 5, 6, and occupied an equally commanding position in the Elmore's 'Directory to India and China Seas,' domain of Oriental philology. Gingham is a word which was treated by them at considerable length. It is defined in the 'Draper's Dictionary' as a kind of stuff made from cotton yarn dyed before being In discussing Littré's derivation, Messrs. woven. Yule and Burnell say : "We may observe that the productions of Guingamp, and of the Côtes-du-Nord generally, are of linen, a manufacture dating from the fifteenth century. If it could be shown that gingham was either originally applied to linen fabrics, or that the word occurs before the Indian trade began, we should be more willing to admit the French etymology as possible." 1802, pp. 63-4. Considering that no evidence Neither postulate being established, other ety"RARELY" (8th S. x. 333, 366, 421, 518; xi. mologies were carefully examined, and the general 109). - The disquisition of F. H., while interesting conclusion was arrived at that, like chintz and in itself, is not particularly germane to the issue. calico, the term was one originating in the Indian It is partly irrelevant and partly superfluous. trade, and that probably it came from the Archi- F. H. appears to misunderstand the point under pelago. The earliest mention of the word seems to discussion. In one of his paragraphs he unwit occur in Cesare Federici, c. 1566-7, who, according to Ramusio, iii. 387 v., says there were at Tana many weavers who made "ormesini e gingani di lana e di bombaso." Curiously enough, on turning in the 'Glossary' to ormesini, we find Hakluyt's English translation of this passage, which runs as follows: "They are makers of Armesie and weavers of girdles of wooll and bumbast" (i. e., a cotton material, whence bombazine). Here it will be seen that gingani is rendered girdles, which I can only attribute to the fact that gingham was at that time unknown in England. Federici's use of the term seems to me to militate strongly against Littré's derivation, unless, indeed, we are to suppose that the Italians, as well as the English, tingly supports and illustrates the contention of the original note on the subject. He writes thus : ""It was not pretendedly, but truly, that he admired them, is unobjectionable, but otherwise is 'It is truly that I was there.' In the first sentence, 'truly' goes, in mental construction, with 'admired'; in the second, the word required to go with 'was' is 'true.'" This is exactly what I said at the outset. It was for this and no more that I contended. If F. H. will consider all the sentences he gives, in the part of the article preceding the paragraph quoted, he will surely see that not a single example is formed on the model of "It is rarely that one of them emerges." His fun about decapitation and inversion is not supported, as it ought to have been, by his argument and his illustrations. His first pair now for all I know-to which, the calculations of sentences have adjectival not substantival clauses, being made in London, it was easy to go for a while the adverbs in every one of the others go, to standard. It is really-I speak in all seriousness quote himself, "in mental construction" with the subordinate verbs. Sentences of this kind cannot, of course, be inverted without ridiculous results. According to the method adopted by F. H., one might transpose "This is the house that Jack puilt" into "That Jack built this is the house," and then laugh consumedly at the quaint abortion produced. But such a performance would add nothing to a discussion on the relation of a substantival clause to the main verb of the sentence in which it occurs. One would have gladly recognized something even remotely akin to the subject, just as the newly-made widow of a Scottish story admitted, when told of the death of Mrs. Tamson's coo, that "it aye helped a wee. The divagations of F. H. give no help at all. The rest of F. H.'s article is in complete accord " ance with what I have said all along. Hundreds of instances could very easily be given of sentences like "It is very rarely that one of them emerges." I said so at the beginning, and other contributors have supported the statement. The extracts given by F. H. will not be exactly superfluous, however, if they succeed in convincing MR. INGLEBY, in his reverence for the prevailing greatness of custom, that in this particular instance custom is going exactly contrary to his views. Finally, the most rigid grammarian, pace COL. PRIDEAUX, would certainly prefer "Seldom does one of them emerge" to the periphrastic and cumbrous "It is seldom that one of them emerges." THOMAS BAYNE. Helensburgh, N.B. ARABIC STAR NAMES (8th S. xi. 89). - If MR. WILSON has not referred to that well-known, learned, and most interesting work 'Mazzaroth, by Miss Frances Rolleston (London, Rivingtons), it may be worth doing so. He will there find a great many ancient Hebrew and Arabian star names, and much curious information on the subject, as well as the names of ancient Arabian and other astronomical works-it being a book that has never had full justice done it. A. B. G. MR. T. WILSON should procure C. L. Ideler's work, 'Untersuchungen über den Ursprung und die Bedeutung der Sternnamen,' published at Berlin in 1809. No other book gives this information so completely. The Arabic words are given, but they are translated and explained in W. T. LYNN. German. Blackheath. HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE (8th S. xi. 107). The answer is obvious-mere practical reasons. I do not know how old the phrase is; but quite clearly, whenever it began, there was a scale of feet on a pier of the bridge-there may be -a subject worthy of inquiry why so many modern searchers cannot be satisfied with an answer of clear common sense, but must go about to find a recondite one. Longford, Coventry. C. F. S. WARREN, M.A. "LI MAISIE HIERLEKIN' (8th S. xi. 108). There is much about the night Hellequin in Tyrrwhitt's glossary to Chaucer, under the word meinie. The Duke of Normandy, in pursuing some knights, perceives a dance of people in black, and then remembers the story of Hellequin and his followers. These were apparitions who traversed the country at night. Hellequin was a knight who, having spent his substance in the wars of Charles Martel against the Saracens, lived afterwards by pillage, and was doomed to appear after death. E. YARDLEY. BISHOPS' WIGS (8th S. xi. 104). - I recently acquired for a few shillings the wig worn by Dr. Percy, Bishop of Carlisle 1827-1856. I had always believed that his predecessor, Dr. Goodenough, was the last Bishop of Carlisle who wore a wig; but the pedigree of this wig is undoubted. I am told, however, that Dr. Percy only wore it in the House of Lords. It is very dissimilar to the great cauliflower wigs one usually associates with bishops. In colour it is nearly black, follows closely the natural shape of the head, and looks rather like the close-cropped curly head of a negro. It comes to a point on the forehead, and the ears are well covered. Inside are three parchment labels: (1) "Ravenscroft, Bishops' Wig Maker"; (2) the Royal Arms; (3) "Lord Bishop of Carlisle." The Graphic last summer published a number illustrating the early years of the Queen's reign: one was a picture of the bishops paying their respects to Her Majesty on her birthday. Some, or all, of them (I write from memory) wore wigs of this pattern. RICHARD S. FERGUSON. "Peter Lombard," the instructive and amusing gossip of the Church Times, says that the question has recently been mooted as to the time when Archbishop Sumner discontinued his wig. Some say 1859, some say 1860. I heard the Archbishop preach in St. Stephen's, Westbourne Park, in the spring (before Easter) of 1859, and his Grace certainly wore his wig on that occasion. In the days when prelates wore wigs, hirsute appendages were not so common as at present among the clergy. Beards were few, and moustaches unknown. The late Bishop Wilberforce (of Oxford and Winchester) did not object to whiskers, but disliked these being of a "peculiar cut." One arrangement, much patronized by High Churchmen, was a very short whisker, called at Oxford in my time "the Anglican half-inch." But S. Oxon did object to moustaches. A friend of mine told me that at Cuddesdon, having received Deacon's Orders, the bishop, in bidding him good-bye, said, "Mr. E., when you present yourself for Priest's Orders, pray be a little less military in your appearance." Not long ago I noticed an advertisement from a vicar or rector wanting a curate. He intimated that no lawn-tennis man, or one with moustaches only, need apply. GEORGE ANGUS. St. Andrews, N.B. E. WALFORD. COIN (8th S. xi. 107).-A correspondent (4th S. viii. 328) stated that six and thirties" were mentioned in an old arithmetic book of the early part of the present century, and asked for further information. Another correspondent replied that the piece was of thirty-six grotes, issued by the Hanse town of Bremen, and was in circulation in North Germany, the value being about eighteenpence. MR. SAMUEL SHAW, of Andover, asserted they were gold Portuguese coins, in circulation and current in England early in this century, and that there was a double piece current at 31. 12s., the weights being close upon half an ounce and one ounce avoirdupois respectively. 71, Brecknock Road, EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. "FEER AND FLET" (8th S. x. 76, 166, 339, 422; xi. 17, 113).-It seems to me that ferry-house is almost certainly correct. "The house called Ferry-house" is good enough for a surrender at a Court Baron of 1897-more especially as Mr. FÈRET has found a ferry-house in the neighbourhood. I suppose it might possibly mean fire-house; but then, as MR. FERET says, what does that mean? Whereas we know well enough what a ferry-house is. But how on earth can it mean almshouse? Modern etymology is a great deal too much for me. Than this it is far more probable that it is "Feret-house," and that the original resting-place of MR. FERET's ancestors has been unexpectedly discovered. Longford, Coventry. C. F. S. WARREN, M.A. "DEAR KNOWS" (8th S. xi. 5, 57). - The Rev. T. F. Thiselton Dyer, in 'English Folk-lore, 1880, pp. 224-5, quotes as follows from 'N. & Q.,' but does not give the reference : "T-of P- was on his death-bed. His wife sat by his bed-side one night praying, when a light, about the size of a penny candle, shone upon his breast. The priest of Carham, Northumberland, said it was a good sign, and that he would go to heaven; but my informant Jack didn't seem quite so sanguine as the clergyman, for he uttered that truly Northumberland ejaculation, 'Dear kens!' in a highly interrogative manner." Is not the use of dear in "Dear me!" similar, "help" or some such word being omitted? F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. The term "Dear knows" is a variant of "God knows," used as an adjuration I call God to witness that such and such a thing is true. LYSART. OLD ARMINGHALL (8th S. x. 473, 523; xi. 112). -There seems to be but little chance of anything now turning up to throw more light on the early history of this interesting building. My present object is in the mean time to correct some of the erroneous statements which have appeared not only in 'N. & Q.,' but in various other places. Beginning with Blomefield, I may say at once that his authority as to the porch is utterly worthless, his language here, as in many other places, being so confused that it seems to me almost impossible to make out what he means. Next comes Cotman, whose large etching, admirable as a specimen of graphic art, is not altogether satisfactory as a faithful representation of the elaborate detail of the old sculptor's work, which is far better given in the pencil drawing made by my sister in 1816, i.e., just eighty-one years ago; which I have reason to believe is the only drawing in existence which gives an accurate representation of the porch as it then existed. I gave Mr. Mason a facsimile copy of this, and he made use of it in his 'History of Norfolk,' as mentioned by MR. HOOPER in his note of 26 Dec., 1896 (' N. & Q.,' 8th S. x.); but the very reduced copy which he has given is not satisfactory. That is doubtless in great measure the fault of his artist; but the blunder in giving my sister a wrong name, "Elizabeth" instead of "Fanny," which he had before him in large type"plain as a pikestaff" is entirely his own. Nor do I know how he got the date of the inscription 1487, for, unless I am greatly mistaken, the date which I gave him was 1587, which was taken from the copy made by my sister in 1816, when it was doubtless more legible than it can be now, if, indeed, any trace of it remains. This date certainly corresponds better with Mr. WALTER RYE'S conjecture. As to the MS. note in Miss EYTON'S copy of 'Excursions through Norfolk,' it is hardly worth serious discussion. However, as the writer confesses it to be a "theory of his own "-and a very poor theory it is; indeed, about as far from the fact as it well can be there is no more to be said. In conclusion, I may add that the 'Anti quarian Repository,' to which Chambers, with his usual utter disregard of accuracy, and apparent inability to copy the plainest printed document before his eyes, refers, is no other than the great and well-known work of Grose and Astle and others, viz., the 'Antiquarian Repertory' (4 vols. 4to., 1807-9). F. NORGATE. was like in 1816 will P.S.-I forgot to say that any one who wishes to see what the old porch find the drawing I have above mentioned very accurately reproduced in vol. ii. of Green's 'Illustrated History,' p. 790, although, of course, considerably reduced. 'MIDDLEMARCH (8th S. xi. 109). - Three things are to be considered before MR. PALMER'S suggestion is pronounced a probability: (1) whether George Eliot is likely to have applied the name of a whole district to one town; (2) whether there is any authority for the name Middle Mercia; (3) whether Mercia remained long enough in English to acquire the dialectic pronunciation Marcia; I doubt if such was the original A.-S. pronunciation. March means a boundary-perhaps Middlemarch is the Midland boundary-perhaps it is the Cambridge town of March translated to the Midlands; in the absence of any evidence one guess is as likely as another. Or, lastly, and most probably, though doubtless the first half of the name refers to the situation of the town, the second is a mere arbitrary and alliterative addition. Longford, Coventry. C. F. S. WARREN, M.A. ST. DISTAFF'S DAY (8th S. xi. 105). See the article in 'The Book of Days,' i. 68. The name was a jocular one, given for the reason suggested in the note to Grosart's 'Herrick.' I know of no literary use of the name except Herrick's; but under the name of "Rock day" the "festival" is mentioned in Warner's 'Albion's England,' p. 121 : "Rock, and plow modaies gams sal gang, with saint-feasts and kirk-sights"; and in the article referred to above there is a quotation from Burns which appears to refer to a similar feast a little later in the year : On Fasten's eve we had a rocking. Rock=distaff. Minsheu, under "Distaffe," has: "B. Rocke, spin-rocke. T. Rocken. H. Ruéca. Sic Ang. Rocke," &c. С. С. В. REV. THOMAS LOCKEY SOLEY (8th S. xi. 49). -Thomas Lockey Soley was the youngest son of John Soley, Esq., of Sandbourne, in Kidderminster, co. Worcester, who died 17 Oct., 1730, aged fiftyfour, and was buried at Ribbesford by Elizabeth his wife, daughter and sole heir of John Lockey, of London, merchant (Nash, 'History and Antiquities of Worcestershire,' 1782, ii. 192, 272). He matriculated from Wadham College, Oxford, 17 Feb., 1720/1, then aged seventeen, and proceeded B.C.L. in 1728. He was instituted to the rectory of Northfield with Cofton, Worcestershire, 21 Aug., 1742, and died 27 Feb., 1779, aged seventy-five years and six months. The following arms appear on his monument attached to the north wall of the chancel of Northfield Church: Vert, a chevron per pale, or and gules, between three soles naiant argent. John Soley, Esq., of Sandbourne aforesaid (ob. 1775), buried at Kidderminster, married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Chancellor Lloyd and granddaughter of Dr. William Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester. What relationship did he bear to the subject of this note ? DANIEL HIPWELL. "DYMOCKED" (8th S. xi. 109). - In the West Riding of Yorkshire the potato disease was generally (if incorrectly) termed an epidemic. This was soon contracted to demic, and to this day gardeners and farmers, on the slightest sign of disease, say that the potatoes are demicked. Dymocked is apparently merely a mispronunciation of this word. T. B. J. In the Isle of Axholme, where potatoes are largely grown, the word is demmicked or demmicky, and I have always understood that it refers to epidemic, the name by which the potato disease of 1845 and subsequent years was generally known. С. С. В. ROBERT HALES (8th S. xi. 29). - Sir Robert Hales was the son of Nicholas de Hales, of Hales Place, in Halden, co. Kent, knight, Knight-prior of the Hospital St. John of Jerusalem at that time designated the Knights of Rhodes, Admiral of the North Parts of England temp. Edward III., and made Lord Treasurer by Richard II. 1 Feb., 1381. The rebels, under Wat Tyler, spoiled the hospital, or famous college of the Knights of St. John, by Smithfield, near London, took Sir Robert Hales out of the Tower, and beheaded him on Tower Hill 13 June, 1381. His house at Highbury, "built like another paradise," was utterly destroyed. From his brother Nicholas de Hales were descended the Haleses of Woodchurch and Breaksbourne, co. Kent, baronets, now extinct. JOHN RADCLIFFE. Sir Robert de Hales (from Norfolk) was Prior of St. John of Jerusalem, Admiral of the North Seas, Treasurer under King Richard II., whose reign covers the date of 1381 A.D.; he was brother to Sir Nicholas Hales, of Hales Place, Kent, progenitor of three lines of baronets, and was murdered by Wat Tyler's crew. I see no mention of him in the 'Dict. of Nat. Biog.' LYSART. A LITERARY BLUNDER (8th S. xi. 125). -Mr. Haweis's friend was different from the statesman Charles Sumner. Surely the light of nature might have shown this to any one. However, I find She PRINCESS MATHILDE BONAPARTE (8th S. xi. 129).-Mathilde Lætitia Wilhelmine Bonaparte, daughter of Jerome Bonaparte and Catherine of Würtemberg, was born at Trieste 27 May, 1820. She was first engaged to her cousin Louis Napoleon (afterwards Napoleon III.); but political eventsamongst them his imprisonment at Ham-intervened, and she married, 1 November, 1840, a Russian, Count Anatole Démidoff, who resided much at Florence. He was created Prince of San Donato in 1841 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany as a reward for his commercial enterprise. He established a silk factory at San Donato. Separation between Démidoff and Princess Mathilde came about in 1845, there being no children of the marriage. The Emperor Nicholas of Russia, "charmé par les bonnes grâces de la princesse, qui était fille de sa cousine germaine, l'entoura d'une affection toute particulière, et exigea de Démidoff qu'il fit à sa femme une pension de 200,000 francs" (Biog. Générale,' Paris, 1863; 'Etat Présent de la Noblesse Française,' Paris, 1868; 'Une Année nçaise, à Florence,' A. Dumas; 'Armoriel,' Rietstap). WILMOT VAUGHAN. "ROUND ROBIN" (8th S. x. 391; xi. 130).—І am sorry to find DR. CHANCE in error with regard to my note on this term. "Round robin" in any other sense than that of a petition was not in my thoughts; but DR. CHANCE assumes that I was treating the expression generally. My view is not, as he takes it to be, that the phrase, absolutely considered, had its origin in the navy, for I knew that this was not the fact. What I said was that "the notion [that our people copied the "round robin" method of petition from France], to be of any worth, must be supported by evidence of a date prior to 1659;* and it must be remembered that the English expression [in the meaning under consideration] seems to have had its origin in the navy." The clauses in brackets express what should have been evident from the context. DR. CHANCE directs my particular attention to the first and last of the references he supplies. I was already acquainted with the quotations from Fuller and Heylin as well as with one much earlier from Coverdale, but they were wide of my special purpose; and as to his last reference, Mr. Smiles's description of the 1643 petition as "the famous round robin" is no proof that the term was in use at an earlier date than the moment when Mr. Smiles himself committed it to paper. Can DR. CHANCE quote from a document of 1643 a passage in which this petition is so designated ? DR. CHANCE refers to my suggestion of roband as a possible etymology for the expression (only, of course, let me observe, in the sense of a petition of nautical origin), but he ought to have noticed that I almost nullified that suggestion by adding : "If a small pancake is called a round robin in Devonshire, we have, perhaps, a better clue." 1064, Albany Road, Camberwell. F. ADAMS. DR. CHANCE must go much further back than Fuller's 'Church History' for the passage he quotes about the "predie round robbin." On 9 June, 1536, Latimer preached one of his uncompromising sermons, and on 23 June the Lower House of Convocation indirectly replied to it, and formulated a list of complaints as to the open blasphemy of holy things, and so forth, alleging, among other things, that "lewd persons were not afraid to say, 'Why should I see the sacring of the high mass? Is it anything but a piece of bread or a little pretty piece Round Robin?"" See Froude's England, vol. ii. p. 477, quoting Strype's 'Memorials,' vol. ii. p. 260. I do not think the full passage bears out the pancake theory. 6 Norwich. JAMES HOOPER. POTATOES AS A CURE FOR RHEUMATISM (8th S. ix. 248, 396, 438; x. 98, 145). -The following appeared in Cassell's Saturday Journal, 18 March, 1896: "The popular superstition that potatoes have special curative properties in cases of rheumatism will probably complaint has a queer collection of alleged 'cures' die hard. One life-long sufferer from that distressing * My authority for this date, promised in my previous note, is: 'Two Discourses of the Navy, 1638 and 1659,' by John Hollond (Navy Records Soc., vol. vii.), pp. 156, 159, the example already quoted being from p. 156. That at p. 159 is: "If letters, round robins, &c., came to the navy office......they were immediately acquainted therewith." |