illustration of the very advanced state of Hungarian civilization and of the vaunted superiority of Hungarian morals. At the same time, I should be loth to imply that the Magyars were not at all times a more moral race than the Neapolitans (despite things I have personally known of BudaPesth), or than the quasi-French upper class of Naples. But I ask, Where do their superior morals come in this story? That education was more advanced, that law was more developed, in Hungary than at Naples in 1345 would, I think, severely task my censor to prove. However, I pretend to know nothing about Hungary, although I may have mentioned already that I have at least been both at Visegrád and Buda. to the genuineness of this sword there is no doubt picked up some hundred years after the fight near Lastly, as to Boccaccio, I had better once and for all explain, if necessary, that the offending word "expurgated," in parentheses, in the passage quoted from my volume anent the poet's story- R.U.S. Institution, Whitehall. telling, was slipped in by me for the simple reason that I did not choose to suppose the youthful genius HAMILTON'S 'Calendar of STATE PAPERS' (8th would have made a degrading use of his verbal S. vi. 159).-I see in your notice of Mr. Hamilton's powers by pouring things corrupt into girlish ears.Calendar' the writer states that there is a large At all periods of his mature life Boccaccio must but very imperfect collection "of Civil War newshave had a fund of tales, both humorous and tragic, papers in the British Museum." Perhaps he would upon which to draw at will. Of his other amorous be glad to know that the collection in the small works, owing their inspiration to his residence at and large quartos of the Thomason Collection in King Robert's court and to the combined influences the Museum is as near completeness as can be of Ovid and Fiametta, let me call to L. L. K.'s reasonably expected. I suspect he has been led attention 'La Teseide,' 'L' Amorosa Visione,' astray by consulting the Catalogue of Old News'Filostrato,' 'L' Ameto.' "In Napoli può dirsi papers. These are, as he says, very defective. che non solo si formi il romanziere e il poeta, ma SAMUEL R. GARDINER. s'annunci anche l'umanista" ('Studi sul Boccaccio,' V. Crescini, p. 49, 1887). In spite, therefore, of the strictures of L. L. K., I think I shall always be able to maintain that the licentiousness prevailing at the Neapolitan court was not created by Joanna, and that during the early years of her reign she could have had very little, if any, power to restrain it; also, that, instead of being the victim of her murderous nature, Andrew was the victim partly to his own imprudence in liberating the Pepini, though still more to the ambition and jealousy of his Neapolitan kinsfolk. As to the queen's differences with Andrew, Cipolla appositely reminds us that in 1801 Paul I. of Russia fell victim to a conspiracy headed by Count Pahlen, and was succeeded by Alexander I., who had fully consented to his deposition, though by no means to his father's assassination. ST. CLAIR BADDELEY. The Editor is anxious to bring to a conclusion matter which has now become controversial rather than historic, and begs his contributors to aid him in so doing.] WOLFE'S SWORD (8th S. vi. 187).—The sword worn by General Wolfe in Canada and when he was killed at Quebec is now in the museum of the Royal United Service Institution at Whitehall, having been presented in 1849 by Mr. George Warde. As SIR DAVID RAE (8th S. vi. 188).-He was born clergyman of the Episcopal persuasion in Edinin 1729; was the son of the Rev. David Rae, a burgh, at one time in St. Andrews; was buried in Inveresk Churchyard. His portrait, by Raeburn, in hall of Parliament House, Edinburgh, presented by his granddaughter, Eliza Colt Rae. Lord Cockburn takes notice of him in his Memorials,' p. 118 (Edinburgh, 1856, Black). See biographical sketch in Kay's Portraits' (Edinburgh, Paton, 1837); Scottish Nation,' vol. iii. p. 732 (Fullarton, 1863). WM. CRAWFORD, "DESCAMISADO" (8th S. vi. 167, 192).—At the Spanish monarch Ferdinand VII. compelled him beginning of 1820 the revolution against the to restore the constitution of the Cortes of 1812, which he had abolished in 1814. Absolutism was re-established in 1823 by the armed intervention of the French; but during the period of popular government the name Descamisados was applied by the royalists to the most violent section of the liberal party. These, however, might have replied in the language of Casti (Novella ii. fin.) :— Quei che felici son, non han camicia; for they not only accepted, but prided themselves on the opprobrious name, like their similarly named French prototypes of 1793 the Sans-culottes. The name, perhaps, still survives in Spain as a general term for persons of ultra-liberal views. DR. MURRAY might have found the information he seeks in Larousse's Dictionnaire Universel,' which treats Descamisados at some length, and gives a translation of an ordinance of Ferdinand VII. in which the word occurs more than once. F. ADAMS. 14, Eastlake Road, Camberwell, S.E. The not goesne, because there is no oe in Anglo-Saxon, though the symbol occurs in Northumbrian. A.-S. word was gasne, with long æ, which produced long open e in Mid. English, and such words were spelt with ea in Tudor times. It is allied to A.-S. gad, Goth. gaidw, lack. For examples, see four in Stratmann's 'Mid. Eng. Dictionary'; five in Halliwell's 'Dictionary,' under" Geason" and "Geson"; and further, in my 'Notes to P. Plowman,' p. 318, where I observe that Ray notes "Geazon, scarce, hard to come by," as being an Essex word. As Ray wrote in 1691, he gives a later instance than that in 1660; but he considered the word provincial, and I dare say it is still in use. Nall includes it in his EastAnglian glossary, printed in 1866. WALTER W. SKEAT. The Encyclopaedic Dictionary' gives camiA quotation from 'Poor Robin' of so late a date sado, and in Elwes's 'Spanish Dictionary will be as 1712 is given in Nares's 'Glossary' by his found "Descamisado= without a shirt, very poor." "editors:These words seem much the same as the older sansculotte. EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A. Hastings WILLIAM WALLER, OF FLEET STREET, BOOKSELLER (8th S. v. 487; vi. 91, 191).-MR. E. WALFORD is quite right. My old friend and for some time neighbour in Fleet Street Mr. John Waller still lives, and continues to issue his catalogues of autographs from his residence, 2, Artesian Road, Bayswater. His father took him into partnership on his coming of age, in 1837, the business being then conducted in a very old house,_now pulled down, near to St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street. On the expiration of the lease his son removed to No. 58, next to Mr. Adams's, the publisher of Bradshaw's guides, and continued there until his retirement in 1875. JOHN C. FRANCIS. William Waller, a native of Suffolk, the second son of Thomas Waller, bookseller at Wickham Market, in that county, commenced business as a bookseller at 188, Fleet Street, in 1835, in an ancient house (demolished 1859) two doors west of St. Dunstan's Church. He died May 24, 1869, aged eighty-three, and was interred in Highgate Cemetery. The business was continued at 58, Fleet Street, until his retirement about twenty years since, by his only son, Mr. John Waller (born April 20, 1816), to whom the writer is indebted for the information contained in this note. DANIEL HIPWELL. GEASON OR GESON (8th S. vi. 188).—The more correct spelling is with ea, as the Middle English was gesen, with open e. It means "rare "" rather than "wonderful," and a still better translation is "scarce." It was fairly common in the sixteenth century, and previously; but I should say that it was not much used after 1660. The A.-S. form was Still oysters and fresh herrings are in season, But strawberries, cherries, and green pease are geason. Coles, in his English Dictionary' (my copy dated 1732), notes geazon as an Essex word, and our old writers seem to have treated it merely as a useful rhyme. Halliwell's three examples occur probably in rhyme, as do three of my own noting : Whenne eggis and crayme be gesoun. Russell's Boke of Nurture,' p. 170 (ed. Furnivall). 'Hye Way to the Spyttel House,' 691. A prose example, "geasone and scant," occurs in Lindsay of Pitscottie's 'Chronicles, p. xxiii, ed. The A.-S. word quoted by your correspondent should have been printed gasne, or better Dalyell. gæsen, but the inaccuracy is probably not his. Readers who can refer to the E.E.T.S. 'Babees Book,' &c., will find a marvel of interpretation in the line from Russell quoted above. Dr. Furnivall actually glosses geson as "plentiful," its very contrary. Evidently the word was an utter stranger to him; but the unlucky gloss is connected with a no less curious interpretation of "Custade Costable" at the end of the previous line as a kind of custard"! With geson correctly interpreted, it would have occurred to him that when eggs and cream are scarce in the market custards may be "costly" (costable). Or we may put it conversely. True is it that blunders, like misfortunes, are fond of company. F. ADAMS. 66 14, Eastlake Road, Camberwell, S.E. MR. F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY deplores the loss of a word [Other replies to the same effect are acknowleged. furnishing a rhyme to reason and season, and, we will add, treason.] CHURCHES IN THE CITY OF LONDON (8th S. vi. 44, 136). ve a faint remembrance that the T dragon and grasshopper did once meet together, Chilworth, Surrey. The literary history of the dragon and the grass-legatees who were personally unknown to him, hopper will not be complete without a reference to what is said about these fabulous animals in the "Little Britain" chapter in Washington Irving's "Sketch-Book.' SIR MARTIN WRIGHT (8th S. vi. 108).-Foss, in his 'Judges of England,' is wrong in the conjecture that Sir Martin Wright came of a Hampshire family. His grandfather, William Wright, sen., was an alderman of the city of Oxford, and one of its representatives in Parliament from February 1678/9, to March, 1681. He died Oct. 30, 1693, aged ninety-eight. His father, William Wright, jun., was aged fifteen years in November, 1674, when he entered Trinity College, Oxford. He became a barrister of the Inner Temple, Recorder of Oxford in 1688, and a Welsh judge in 1714. He died in 1721, and by his second wife, Dorothy Finch, of St. Clement's Danes, in the Strand, Middlesex, whom he married in June, 1687, in her twentyfirst year, he had two sons who survived him, viz., Martin and Thomas. The eldest son, Sir Martin Wright, was born March 24, 1691. He was entered of Exeter College, Oxford, in March, 1708/9; called to the bar of the Inner Temple, 1718/9; a bencher of that Inn and Serjeant-at-Law in 1733; Baron of the Exchequer, 1739; and a Justice of the K.B., November, 1740, from which he retired in February, 1755. He died at his house at Fulham, Sept. 26, 1767, leaving by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Hugh Willoughby, M.D., of Barton-Stacey, Hants, two sons and two daughters surviving. His eldest son, Martin Wright, of Epsom, died, in consequence of a fall from his horse while hunting, Oct. 6, 1783, a bachelor. Thomas Wright, the second son, was of St. John's College, Cambridge, and a barrister of Lincoln's Inn. He was born about 1727. He survived his two maiden sisters, who left to him all their property. Elizabeth, the last surviving This Thomas Wright, of Laurence Lane, married Elizabeth, eldest daughter and co-heir of William Woodford, M.D., of Epsom, and by her had an only daughter and heir, Elizabeth Wright, who married, on June 28, 1770, John Guise, of Highnam Court, co. Gloucester, created a baronet in 1783. Sir John Guise died in May, 1794, and Lady Guise in 1808. They were succeeded by their eldest son, Sir Berkeley William Guise, Bart., before mentioned. Southampton. B. W. GREEnfield. THE SKULL OF SIR THOMAS BROWNE (8th S. vi. 64).—The leaden coffin of Sir Thomas Browne was found when workmen were digging the grave of Mrs. Bowman, wife of the then Vicar of St. Peter Mancroft, in August, 1840. The shield-shaped coffin-plate bore the following "Amplissimus Vir Dns. Thomas Browne, Miles, Medicina, Dr. Annos Natus 77 Denatus 19 Die Mensis Octobris, Anno Dni. 1682, hoc Loculo indormiens. Corporis Spagyrici pulvere plumbum in aurum Convertit." Mr. Fitch, a local antiquary, who was present when the coffin was found, wrote a description of the skull and hair to the Society of Antiquaries, and the communication is quoted in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1841. It is said that the coffin-plate was placed in the parish chest; but it is not now to be found. Mr. Fitch directed the sexton to restore the remains to the grave; but the sexton removed the skull and a portion of the hair, which he sold to Dr. E. Lubbock, in whose collection they remained till his death in 1847, when they were handed over to the Museum of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, where they now are. The present_Vicar of St. Peter Mancroft, the Rev. Pelham Burn, was a member of Pembroke College, Oxford, Sir Thomas Browne's college, and was for a time on the Hospital Board of M ment, but was moved to take action for the of the skull by the remark of some ge Mr. Pell London on the matter. Norwich. PLACE-NAMES ENDING IN "SON" (8th S. vi. 127).-AS MR. WILSON has only given modern forms, which are useless for etymological purposes, no definite answer can be given to his question. But judging from the analogy of other names of which the old forms are known, he may not improbably find that the names he mentions are corruptions of husum (dative plural of hus), signifying 46 at the houses." Thus we know that Newsome was formerly Niwehusum and Neuhuson; that Newsham was Neuhuson; that Newsholme was Newsom; and that Newsam was Neuhusum, all of which mean "at the new houses." So Howsham was formerly Husum and Husun; Huddleston was Hunchilhuson; Moorsholme was Morehusum; Wothersome was Wodehusum; and Loftsome was Lofthusum. Hence, since ancient names are usually recorded in the dative, MR. WILSON's Milson may prove to be a corruption of Mylnhusum or Milhuson, "at the mill houses," and Stenson of Stanhusum, "at the stone houses." ISAAC TAYLOR. PRONUNCIATION OF "HINDOSTAN" (8th S. vi. 187). The right pronunciation, according to native usage, is Indostawn and Afghănĭstawn. D. LEMON SOLE (8th S. v. 509; vi. 78, 131, 198). --We call this fish limande sole in French. As limande means flounder, the name shows that the fish partakes at the same time of the qualities of both sole and flounder. Lemon would thus be a corruption (Anglice) of the French word limande. H. D. ་ QUEEN OF SHEBA (8th S. vi. 148).-There is a copy of Jaubert's translation of Edrisi's Geography' in the British Museum. Under the "First Climate," section 6, the author, in describing the coast of Arabia from Aden eastwards, says: "Dans ce dernier pays [that of Hadramaut] il existe deux villes éloignées l'une de l'autre d'une journée: ce sont celles de Sabam et de Mariam. Au nombre des villes de l'Hadramaut est aussi celle de [here the translator notes, "le nom a été omis et la place même manque "] qui est actuellement en ruines; c'était la ville de Saba, d'où était issue Belkis, épouse de Salomon, fils de David (que le salut soit sur eux !)." Edrisi afterwards informs us that the country in question produces a species of aloe, thence called W. T. LYNN. The legendary name of the Queen of Sheba was Merquerda. It was fabled that from her son by Solomon the Abyssinians and Prester John were descended. This is the story told by Rauwolff (see Ray's 'Collection of Curious Travels and Voyages'). That the title of "the Nubian Geographer" given to the Sherif El-Edrîsî was a false one was well known before Gibbon wrote. The anonymous English translator of Abu'l Ghâzi's 'History of the Tatars' (London, 1730), who appears to have been familiar with his writings, notes it. For the origin of the title see the invaluable Chambers. C. C. B. A PIONEER NEWSPAPER (8th S. vi. 25, 154).— The Lincoln, Rutland, and Stamford Mercury is certainly a venerable journal; but it will be seen No complete set is known by facts hereafter quoted that it first appeared in 1712, and not in 1695. to be extant, and for some thirty-seven years after its appearance twenty-five numbers formed a The issue of January 23, 1717/8, was volume. No. 4, vol. xi. In the Burney collection of papers, British Museum, is a good copy, 8vo., of the Stamford Mercury, from Thursday, January 4, 1727/8, to Thursday, December 26, 1728, forming vols. xxxi. and xxxii., and another single copy I have seen of December 9, 1738, is numbered 23, vol. xxxviii. It is thus evident that its antiquity is not so high as 1695, and the vol. cc. on the last issue of August 24, 1894, does not "fix" in with those above named. It was first printed in St. Martin's, Stamford Baron, by Bailey & Thompson. At a meeting of the Hall (says the corporate records), held January 14, 1713/4, it was ordered that Thomas Bailey and William Thompson (the latter buried at All Saints', Stamford, May 5, 1732), living in St. Martin's, in the county of Northampditions following, viz., first they are to enter into ton, be admitted free of this Corporation, on conarticles to take a house and come to live within the borough before Michaelmas next; secondly, to print for the Corporation all such papers, warrants, passports, summonses, &c., as shall be made use of within this borough for the space of seven years next to come; thirdly, to make use of and employ such poor people in their service to dinge (wet) newspapers, &c., as shall be recommended to them by the Mayor for the time being, and no others; and fourthly and lastly, to give security to save the town harmless from their respective charges. At a sale that took place some forty or more years ago at the Red Hall, Bourne (the seat of a branch of the Digbys of co. Rutland), was sold a copy, No. 82 (no printer's name), of the Stamford Post: to which is added the Weekly Miscellany (price Thursday, December 27, to Thursone penny *ን There are a number of country papers which are undoubtedly of a very great age; but, not content with this, they are striving to outdo each other in making fabulous claims to antiquity. The Stamford Mercury claims 1695; Berrow's Worcester Journal, going one better, claims 1690. The precise value of these claims is shown in Willing's 'British and Irish Press Guide,' 1894, pp. 224-6, and also in some of the previous volumes of 'N. & Q.' WM. RAYNER. 133, Blenheim Crescent, Notting Hill. "LENGTHY" (8th S. vi. 186).—We have sometimes had the schoolboy's remarks; this note reminds me of an observation of his rather different from the usual. One day he was construing his Homer, and often turned doXixóσKIOS EYXOS by lengthy spear. At last his master said, "Why do you keep saying lengthy? Why can't you say long?" He humbly answered, "Please, sir, for the same reason Homer said Soλixóσkios instead of Solixós." The master was unequal to the C. F. S. WARREN, M.A. occasion. Longford, Coventry. See 'N. & Q.,' 4th S. i. 313; 6th S. iv. 406, 436; Southey's 'Doctor,' 1848, p. 404. W. C. B. YEOMAN (8th S. vi. 104, 178).—Surely there comes a time in the life of a word such as yeoman when it should take on itself a clear and distinctive place in the vocabulary of literary men. If yeoman is used only of "a class of small freeholders" (to borrow one of MR. FERET's excellent definitions), literature is the richer by a most useful and definitive noun. Village life then includes squire, rector or vicar, yeomen, farmers, labourers, when it is most varied. The practical value of definite social "labels" needs no demonstration to the cultured readers of 'N. & Q.' HERBERT STURMER. VILLAGE SUPERSTITIONS (8th S. v. 484; vi. 75, 132). That part of the churchyard overlooking the north was once certainly left uncared for in many parts of England. To-day, churchyard after churchyard of many of the more sequestered villages in this our country may be entered where the northern part is still untouched. Traditionally the north has always been dedicated to the demons, that outgrowth of man's imagination and superstition, and for this reason alone man would shun the idea of making his last resting-place in their midst. Origen supposed the place of everlasting damnation to be in the centre of the earth, the entrance thereto at the North Pole, the very centre of the north. The flashes of the Aurora Borealis continually warned man of his doom, for every time that phenomenon was seen in the heavens man knew that again the gate of hell had been opened to receive another victim, and that the flames of eternal punishment had once more illuminated the world. One of the most striking examples of such a churchyard I have yet seen is that surrounding the beautiful church of Morwenstow, Cornwall (Hawker's "daughter of the rock"). F. G. SAUNDERS. Crouch Hill. SOME NOTES ON BURKE'S 'LANDED GENTRY' (8th S. vi. 21, 155).-Skinner. VERNON is mistaken in supposing that I described the Rev. John Skinner, author of Tullochgorum,' as a Presbyterian schoolmaster; although, if I had done so, the statement would not have been incorrect. If VERNON will read my note again he will see that whom Burke alleges to have been a son of Bishop the "Presbyterian schoolmaster was the person Skinner, of Oxford. The Rev. John Skinner was the son of this schoolmaster, and was himself both a Presbyterian and a schoolmaster when in his teens. He was about twenty when he became an. Episcopalian. ERNEST AXON. "BETTERMENT" (8th S. vi. 144).-If MR. C. P. HALE or General Vielé had referred to the "New English Dictionary' the communication of the former and the positive statement of the latter would have been unnecessary. The General, and not Lord Salisbury, was "all wrong." The word 'betterment" is one of many originally in use in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but afterwards disused, until restored from the United States, where it had been preserved in its original meaning. In the 'Dictionary' the meaning is given, "amendment, improvement, amelioration," &c., with examples of its use in England in 1598 and 1649. Examples of its legal use in the United States in 1809 and 1830. are given in the sense of improvement of property. For example, in 1809 these men demand either to be left owners, or paid for their "betterments." APPLEBY. in the first part of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress,' which "occurs in the dialogue between Christian and Goodwill was written more than 200 years ago; and Todd's 'Johnson's Dictionary (1827) and Latham's 'Dictionary (1866), neither of which refers to this passage, both give the word with a quotation from W. Montagu, Essays,' the year 1654. In the last-named dictionary the word pt. ii. p. 221, which was, I think, published in London in is stated to be obsolete, and in neither of the passages cited is it used in its modern sense; but we cannot. I think, fairly charge the Americans with coining it." POLITICIA |