NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
"When found, make a note of."—Captain Cuttle.
No. 32. Saturday, June 8. 1850. Price Threepence.
Stamped Edition 4d.
CONTENTS.
Notes:— Presence of Strangers in the House of Commons 17 The Agapemone, by Richard Greene 17 London Irish Registers, by Robert Cole 18 Folk Lore—Divination by Bible and Key—Charm for Warts—Boy or Girl 19 Queries:— Poet Laureates 20 Minor Queries:—Wood Paper—Latin Line—New Edition of Milton—Barum and Sarum—Roman Roads—John Dutton, of Dutton—Rome—Prolocutor of Convocation—Language of Queen Mary's Days—Vault Interments—Archbishop Williams' Persecutor, R.K.—The Sun feminine in English—Construe and translate—Men but Children of a Larger Growth—Clerical Costume—Ergh, Er, or Argh—Burial Service—Gaol Chaplains—Hanging out the Broom—George Lord Goring—Bands 21 Replies:— Derivation of "News" and "Noise" by Samuel Hickson 23 The Dodo Queries, by H.E. Strickland 24 Bohn's Edition of Milton 24 Umbrellas 25 Emancipation of the Jews 25 Replies to Minor Queries:—Wellington, Wyrwast and Cokam—Sir William Skipwyth—Dr. Johnson and Dr. Warton—Worm of Lambton—Shakspeare's Will—Josias Ibach Stada—The Temple or a Temple—Bawn—"Heigh ho! says Rowley"—Arabic Numerals—Pusan—"I'd preach as though"—"Fools rush in"—Allusion in Friar Brackley's Sermon—Earwig—Sir R. Haigh's Letter-book—Marescautia—Memoirs of an American Lady—Poem by Sir E. Dyer, &c. 26 Miscellanies:— Blue Boar Inn, Holborn—Lady Morgan and Curry—Sir Walter Scott and Erasmus—Parallel Passages—Grays Ode—The Grand Style—Hoppesteris—Sheridan's last Residence 30 Miscellaneous:— Notes on Books, Catalogues, Sales, &c. 31 Notices to Correspondents 31 Advertisements 32NOTES.
PRESENCE OF STRANGERS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
In the late debate on Mr. Grantley Berkeley's motion for a fixed duty on corn, Sir Benjamin Hall is reported to have imagined the presence of a stranger to witness the debate, and to have said that he was imagining what every one knew the rules of the House rendered an impossibility. It is strange that so intelligent a member of the House of Commons should be ignorant of the fact that the old sessional orders, which absolutely prohibited the presence of strangers in the House of Commons, were abandoned in 1845, and that a standing order now exists in their place which recognises and regulates their presence. The insertion of this "note" may prevent many "queries" in after times, when the sayings and doings of 1850 have become matters of antiquarian discussion.
The following standing orders were made by the House of Commons on the 5th of February, 1845, on the motion of Mr. Christie, (see Hansard, and Commons' Journals of that day), and superseded the old sessional orders, which purported to exclude strangers entirely from the House of Commons:—
"That the serjeant at arms attending this House do from time to time take into his custody any stranger whom he may see, or who may be reported to him to be, in any part of the House or gallery appropriated to the members of this House; and also any stranger who, having been admitted into any other part of the House or gallery, shall misconduct himself, or shall not withdraw when strangers are directed to withdraw while the House, or any committee of the whole House, is sitting; and that no person so taken into custody be discharged out of custody without the special order of the House.
"That no member of this House do presume to bring any stranger into any part of the House or gallery appropriated to the members of this House while the House, or a committee of the whole House, is sitting."
Now, therefore, strangers are only liable to be taken into custody if in a part of the House appropriated to members, or misconducting themselves, or refusing to withdraw when ordered by the Speaker to do so; and Sir Benjamin Hall imagined no impossibility.
CH.
THE AGAPEMONE.
Like most other
In the reign of Elizabeth, the following proclamation was issued against "The Sectaries of the Family of Love:"—
"Whereas, by report of sundry of the Bishops of this Realm, and others having care of souls, the Queen's Majesty is informed, that in sundry places of her said Realm, in their several Dioceses there are certain persons which do secretly, in corners, make privy assemblies of divers simple unlearned people, and after they have craftily and hypocritically allured them to esteem them to be more holy and perfect men than other are, they do then teach them damnable heresies, directly contrary to divers of the principal Articles of our Belief and Christian Faith and in some parts so absurd and fanatical, as by feigning to themselves a monstrous new kind of speech, never found in the Scriptures, nor in ancient Father or writer of Christ's Church, by which they do move ignorant and simple people at the first rather to marvel at them, than to understand them but yet to colour their sect withal, they name themselves to be of the Family of Love, and then as many as shall be allowed by them to be of that family to be elect and saved, and all others, of what Church soever they be, to be rejected and damned. And for that upon conventing of some of them before the Bishops and Ordinaries, it is found that the ground of their sect, is maintained by certain lewd, heretical, and seditious books first made in the Dutch tongue, and lately translated into English, and printed beyond the seas, and secretly brought over into the Realm, the author whereof they name H.N., without yielding to him, upon their examination, any other name, in whose name they have certain books set forth, called Evangelium Regni, or, A Joyful Message of the Kingdom; Documental Sentences, The Prophecie of the Spirit of Love; a Publishing of the Peace upon the Earth, and such like.
"And considering also it is found, that these Sectaries hold opinion, that they may before any magistrate, ecclesiastical or temporal, or any other person not being professed to be of their sect (which they term the Family of Love), by oath or otherwise deny any thing for their advantage, so as though many of them are well known to be teachers and spreaders abroad of these dangerous and damnable sects, yet by their own confession they cannot be condemned, whereby they are more dangerous in any Christian Realm: Therefore, her Majesty being very sorry to see so great an evil by the malice of the Devil, first begun and practised in other countries, to be now brought into this her Realm, and that by her Bishops and Ordinaries she understandeth it very requisite, not only to have these dangerous Heretics and Sectaries to be severely punished, but that also all other means be used by her Majesty's Royal authority, which is given her of God to defend Christ's Church, to root them out from further infecting her Realm, she hath thought meet and convenient, and so by this her Proclamation she willeth and commandeth, that all her Officers and Ministers temporal shall, in all their several vocations, assist the Archbishops and Bishops of her Realm, and all other persons ecclesiastical, having care of souls, to search out all persons duly suspected to be either teachers or professors of the foresaid damnable sects, and by all good means to proceed severely against them being found culpable, by order of the Laws either ecclesiastical or temporal: and that, also, search be made in all places suspected, for the books and writings maintaining the said Heresies and Sects, and them to destroy and burn.
"And wheresoever such Books shall be found after the publication hereof, in custody of any person, other than such as the Ordinaries shall permit, to the intent to peruse the same for confutation thereof, the same persons to be attached and committed to close prison, there to remain, or otherwise by Law to be condemned, until the same shall be purged and cleared of the same heresies, or shall recant the same, and be thought meet by the Ordinary of the place to be delivered. And that whoever in this Realm shall either print, or bring, or cause to be brought into this Realm, any of the said Books, the same persons to be attached and committed to prison, and to receive such bodily punishment and other mulct as fautors of damnable heresies. And to the execution hereof, her Majesty chargeth all her Officers and Ministers, both ecclesiastical and temporal, to have special regard, as they will answer not only afore God, whose glory and truth is by these damnable Sects greatly sought to be defaced, but also will avoid her Majesty's indignation, which in such cases as these are, they ought not to escape, if they shall be found negligent and careless in the execution of their authorities.
"Given at our Mannour of Richmond, the third of October, in the two-and-twentieth year of our Reign.
"God Save The Queen."
Richard Greene.
Lichfield, May 28. 1850.
LONDON PARISH REGISTERS.
The interleaving, of a little work in my possession, published by Kearsley in 1787, intitled Account of the several Wards, Precincts, and Parishes in the City of London, contains MS. notes of the commencement of the registers of fifty of the London parishes, and of four of Southwark, the annexed list1 of which may be of use to some of the readers of "Notes and Queries." The book formerly belonged to Sir George Nayler, whose signature it bears on a fly-leaf.
Allhallows, Barking begins 1558 ————— London Wall " 1567 [1559 Pop. ret.] ————— Lombard Street " 1550 ————— Staining " 1642 St. Andrew Undershaft " 1558 St. Antholin " 1538 St. Bennet Fink " 1538 ————— Gracechurch " 1558 St. Clement, Eastcheap " 1539 St. Dionis Backchurch " 1538 St. Dunstan in the East " 1558 St. Edmund the King " 1670 St. Gabriel, Fenchurch " 1571 St. Gregory " 1539 [1559 Pop. ret., probably an error of transcriber.] St. James Garlickhithe " 1535 St. John Baptist " 1682 [1538 Pop. ret.]before 1546 —————— Royal begins 1558 St. Mildred, Poultry " 1538 St. Nicholas Acons " 1539 —————— Coleabby " 1695 [1538 Pop. ret.] —————— Olave " 1703 St. Peter, Cornhill " 1538 St. Peter le Poor " 1538 [1561 Pop. ret.] St. Stephen, Coleman Street " 1558 —————— Walbrook " 1557 St. Swithin " 1615 [1754 Pop. ret.] St. Andrew, Holborn " 1551 [1558 Pop. ret.] St. Bartholomew the Great " 1616 ——————— the Less " 1547 St. Botolph, Aldgate " 1558 St. Bride " 16532 St. Dunstan in the West " 1554 [1558 Pop. ret.] St. Sepulchre " 1663 Note.—The register prior burnt at the fire of London. St. Olave, Southwark. "Register said by Bray's Survey to be as early as 1586. Vide vol. i. 111-607; but on a search made this day it appears that the register does not begin till 1685. Qy. if not a book lost?—5th Oct. 1829." [1685 Pop. ret.] St. George, Southwark, beg. abt. 1600 [1602 Pop. ret.] St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, begins 1548 (Lysons); but from end of 1642 to 1653 only two entries made; viz. one in Nov. 1643, and another Aug. 1645, which finishes the first volume; and the second volume begins in 1653. St. Saviour, Southwark, begins temp. Eliz. [1570 Pop. ret.] St. Thomas, Southwark, begins 1614.
Rob. Cole.
FOLK LORE.
Divination by Bible and Key seems not merely confined to this country, but to prevail in Asia. The following passage from Pérégrinations en Orient, par Eusèbe de Salle, vol. i. p. 167., Paris, 1840, may throw some additional light on this superstition. The author is speaking of his sojourn at Antioch, in the house of the English consul.
"En rentrant dans le salon, je trouvai Mistriss B. assise sur son divan, près d'un natif Syrien Chrétien. Ils tenaient à eux deux une Bible, suspendue à une grosse clé par un mouchoir fin. Mistriss B. ne se rappelait pas avoir reçu un bijou qu'un Aleppin affirmait lui avoir remis. Le Syrien disait une prière, puis prononçait alternativement les noms de la dame et de l'Aleppin. La Bible pivota au nom de la dame déclarée par-là en erreur. Elle se leva à l'instant, et ayant fait des recherches plus exactes, finit par trouver le bijou."
I hardly think that this would be an English superstition transplanted to the East; it is more probable that it was originally derived frown Syria.
E.C.
Newcastle-on-Tyne, May 19. 1850.
Charm for Warts.—Count most carefully the number of warts; take a corresponding number of nodules or knots from the stalks of any of the cerealia (wheat, oats, barley); wrap these in a cloth, and deposit the packet in the earth; all the steps of the operation being done secretly. As the nodules decay the warts will disappear. Some artists think it necessary that each wart should be touched by a separate nodule.
This practice was very rife in the north of Scotland some fifty years since, and no doubt is so still. It was regarded as very effective, and certainly had plenty of evidence of the post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc order in its favour.
Is this practice prevalent in England?
It will be remarked that this belongs to the category of Vicarious Charms, which have in all times and in all ages, in great things and in small things, been one of the favourite resources of poor mortals in their difficulties. Such charms (for all analogous practices may be so called) are, in point of fact, sacrifices made on the principle so widely adopted,—qui facit per alium facit per se. The common witch-charm of melting an image of wax stuck full of pins before a slow fire, is a familiar
Emdee.
Boy or Girl.—The following mode was adopted a few years ago in a branch of my family residing in Denbighshire, with the view of discovering the sex of an infant previous to its birth. As I do not remember to have met with it in other localities, it may, perhaps, be an interesting addition to your "Folk Lore." An old woman of the village, strongly attached to the family, asked permission to use a harmless charm to learn if the expected infant would be male or female. Accordingly she joined the servants at their supper, where she assisted in clearing a shoulder of mutton of every particle of meat. She then held the blade-bone to the fire until it was scorched, so as to permit her to force her thumbs through the thin part. Through the holes thus made she passed a string, and having knotted the ends together, she drove in a nail over the back door and left the house, giving strict injunctions to the servants to hang the bone up in that place the last thing at night. Then they were carefully to observe who should first enter that door on the following morning, exclusive of the members of the household, and the sex of the child would be that of the first comer. This rather vexed some of the servants, who wished for a boy, as two or three women came regularly each morning to the house, and a man was scarcely ever seen there; but to their delight the first comer on this occasion proved to be a man, and in a few weeks the old woman's reputation was established throughout the neighbourhood by the birth of a boy.
M.E.F.
Queries.
POET LAUREATES.
Can any of the contributors to your most useful "NOTES AND QUERIES" favour me with the title of any work which gives an account of the origin, office, emoluments, and privileges of Poet Laureate. Selden, in his Titles of Honour (Works, vol. iii. p. 451.), shows the Counts Palatine had the right of conferring the dignity claimed by the German Emperors. The first payment I am aware of is to Master Henry de Abrinces, the Versifier (I suppose Poet Laureate), who received 6d. a day,—4l. 7s., as will be seen in the Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, edited by Frederick Devon.
Warton (History of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 129.) gives no further information, and is the author generally quoted; but the particular matter sought for is wanting.
The first patent, according to the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, article "Laureate," is stated, as regards the existing office, to date from 5th Charles I., 1630; and assigns as the annual gratuity 100l., and a tierce of Spanish Canary wine out of the royal cellars.
Prior to this, the emoluments appear uncertain, as will be seen by Gifford's statement relative to the amount paid to B. Jonson, vol. i. cxi.:—
"Hitherto the Laureateship appears to have been a mere trifle, adopted at pleasure by those who were employed to write for the court, but conveying no privileges, and establishing no claim to a salary."
I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of the phrase "employed to write for the court." Certain it is, the question I now raise was pressed then, as it was to satisfy Ben Jonson's want of information Selden wrote on the subject in his Titles of Honour.
These emoluments, rights, and privileges have been matters of Laureate dispute, even to the days of Southey. In volume iv. of his correspondence, many hints of this will be found; e.g., at page 310., with reference to Gifford's statement, and "my proper rights."
The Abbé Resnel says,—"L'illustre Dryden l'a porté comme Poète du Roy," which rather reduces its academic dignity; and adds, "Le Sieur Cyber, comédien de profession, est actuellement en possession du titre de Poète Lauréate, et qu'il jouit en même tems de deux cens livres sterling de pension, à la charge de présenter tous les ans, deux pièces de vers à la famille royale."
I am afraid, however, the Abbé drew upon his imagination for the amount of the salary; and that he would find the people were never so hostile to the court as to sanction so heavy an infliction upon the royal family, as they would have met with from the quit-rent ode, the peppercorn of praise paid by Elkanah Settle, Cibber, or H.J. Pye.
The Abbé, however, is not so amusing in his mistake (if mistaken) relative to this point, as I find another foreign author has been upon two Poet Laureates, Dryden and Settle. Vincenzo Lancetti, in his Pseudonimia Milano, 1836, tells us:—
"Anche la durezza di alcuni cognomi ha più volte consigliato un raddolcimento, che li rendesse più facili a pronunziarsi. Percio Macloughlin divenne Macklin; Machloch, Mallet; ed Elkana Settle fu poi —— John Dryden!"
—a metamorphose greater, I suspect, than any to be found in Ovid, and a transmigration of soul far beyond those imagined by the philosophers of the East.
S.H.
Athenæum.
Minor Queries.
Wood Paper.—The reprint of the Works of Bishop Wilkins, London, 1802, 2 vols. 8vo., is said to be on paper made from wood pulp. It has all the appearance of it in roughness, thickness, and very unequal opacity. Any sheet looked at with a candle behind it is like a firmament scattered with luminous nebulæ. I can find mention of straw paper, as patented about the time; but I should think it almost impossible (knowing how light the Indian rice paper is) that the heavy fabric above mentioned should be of straw. Is it from wood? If so, what is the history of the invention, and what other works were printed in it?
M.
Latin Line.—I should be very much obliged to anybody who can tell where this line comes from:—
"Exiguum hoc magni pignus amoris habe,"
which was engraved on a present from a distinguished person to a relation of mine, who tried in several quarters to learn where it came from.
C.B.
Milton, New Edition of.—I observe in Mr. Mayor's communication (Vol. i. p. 427.), that some one is engaged in editing Milton. May I ask who, and whether the contemplated edition includes prose and poetry?
CH.
Barum and Sarum.—By what theory, rule, or analogy, if any, can the contractions be accounted for of two names so dissimilar, into words terminating so much alike, as those of Salisbury into Sarum—Barnstaple into Barum?
S.S.S.
Roman Roads.—Can you inform me in whose possession is the MS. essay on "Roman Roads," written by the late Dr. Charles Mason, to which I find allusion in a MS. letter of Mr. North's?
Buriensis.
John Dutton, of Dutton.—In the Vagrant Act, 17 George II., c. 5., the heir and assigns of John Dutton, of Dutton, co. Chester, deceased, Esq., are exempt from the pains and penalties of vagrancy. Query—Who was the said John Dutton, and why was such a boon conferred on his heirs for ever?
B.
Rome, Ancient and Modern.—I observed, in a shop in Rome, in 1847, a large plan of that city, in which, on the same surface, both ancient and modern Rome were represented; the shading of the streets and buildings being such as to distinguish the one from the other. Thus, in looking at the modern Forum, you saw, as it were underneath it, the ancient Forum; and so in the other parts of the city. Can any of your readers inform me as to the name of the
If I remember rightly, the border to the plan was composed of the Pianta Capitolina, or fragments of the ancient plan preserved in the Capitol. In the event of the map above referred to not being accessible, can I obtain a copy of this latter plan by itself, and how?
A.B.M.
Prolocutor of Convocation.—W.D.M. inquires who was Prolocutor of the Lower House of Convocation during its session in 1717-18?
Language of Queen Mary's Days.—In the first vol. of Evelyn's Diary (the last edition) I find the following notice:—
"18th, Went to Beverley, a large town with two churches, St. John's and St. Mary's, not much inferior to the best of our cathedrals. Here a very old woman showed us the monuments, and being above 100 years of age, spake the language of Queen Mary's days, in whose time she was born; she was widow of a sexton, who had belonged to the church a hundred years."
Will any of your readers inform me what was the language spoken in Queen Mary's days, and what peculiarity distinguished it from the language used in Evelyn's days?
A learned author has suggested, that the difference arose from the slow progress in social improvement in the North of England, caused by the difficulty of communication with the court and its refinements. I am still anxious to ascertain what the difference was.
Fra. Mewburn.
Darlington.
Vault Interments.—I shall be very glad of any information as to the origin and date of the practice of depositing coffins in vaults, and whether this custom obtains in any other country than our own.
Walter Lewis.
Edward Street, Portman Square.
Archbishop Williams' Persecutor, R.K.—Any information will be thankfully received of the ancestors, collaterals, or descendants, of the notorious R.K.—the unprincipled persecutor of Archbp. Williams, mentioned in Fuller's Church Hist., B. xi. cent. 17.; and in Hacket's Life of the Archbishop (abridgment), p. 190.
F.K.
The Sun feminine in English.—It has been often remarked, that the northern nations made the sun to be feminine.3 Do any of your readers know any instances of the English using this gender of the sun? I have found the following:—
"So it will be at that time with the sun; for though she be the brightest and clearest creature, above all others, yet, for all that Christ with His glory and majesty will obscure her."—Latimer's Works, Parker Soc. edit. vol. ii. p. 54.
"Not that the sun itself, of her substance, shall be darkened; no, not so; for she shall give her light, but it shall not be seen for this great light and clearness wherein our Saviour shall appear."—(Ib. p. 98.)
Thos. Cox.
Construe and translate.—In my school-days, verbal rendering from Latin or Greek into English was construing; the same on paper was translating. Whence this difference of phrase?
M.
Men but Children of a larger growth.—Can you give one the author of the following line?
"Men are but children of a larger growth."
R.G.
Clerical Costume.—In the Diary of the Rev. Giles Moore, rector of Hosted Keynes, in Sussex, published in the first volume of the Sussex Archæological Collections, there is the following account of his dress:—
"I went to Lewis and bought 4 yards of broad black cloth at 16s. the yard, and two yards and 1/2 of scarlet serge for a waistcoat, 11s. 1d., and 1/4 of an ounce of scarlet silke, 1s."
and this appears to have been his regular dress. Will any of your correspondents inform me whether this scarlet serge waistcoat was commonly worn by the clergy in those times, namely, in 1671?
R.W.B.
Ergh, Er, or Argh.—In Dr. Whitaker's History of Whalley, p. 37., ed. 1818, are the following observations on the above word:—
"This is a singular word, which occurs, however both to the north and south of the Ribble, though much more frequently to the north. To the south, I know not that it occurs, but in Angles-ark and Brettargh. To the north are Battarghes, Ergh-holme, Stras-ergh, Sir-ergh, Feiz-er, Goosen-ergh. In all the Teutonic dialects I meet with nothing resembling this word, excepting the Swedish Arf, terra (vide Ihre in voce), which, if the last letter be pronounced gutturally, is precisely the same with argh."
Can any of your readers give a more satisfactory explanation of this local term?
T.W.
Burnley, May 4. 1850.
Burial Service.—During a conversation on the various sanitary measures now projecting in the metropolis, and particularly on the idea lately started of re-introducing the ancient practice of burning the bodies of the deceased, one of our company remarked that the words "ashes to ashes," used in our present form of burial, would in such a case be literally applicable; and a question arose why the word "ashes" should have been introduced at all, and whether its introduction might not have been owing to the actual cremation of the funeral pyre at the burial of Gentile Christians? We were none of us profound enough to quote or produce any facts from the monuments and records of the early converts to account for the expression; but I conceive it probable that a solution could be readily given by some of your learned correspondents. The burning of the dead does not appear to be in itself an anti-christian ceremony, nor necessarily connected with Pagan idolatries, and therefore might have been tolerated in the case of Gentile believers like any other indifferent usage.
Cinis.
Gaol Chaplains.—When were they first appointed? Did the following advice of Latimer, in a sermon before King Edward, in 1549, take any effect?
"Oh, I would ye would resort to prisons! A commendable thing in a Christian realm: I would wish there were curates of prisons, that we might say, the 'curate of Newgate, the curate of the Fleet,' and I would have them waged for their labour. It is a holiday work to visit the prisoners, for they be kept from sermons."—Vol. i. p. 180.
Thos. Cox.
Hanging out the Broom (Vol. i., p. 385.).—This custom exists in the West of England, but is oftener talked of than practised. It is jocularly understood to indicate that the deserted inmate is in want of a companion, and is really to receive the visits of his friends. Can it be in any way analogous to the custom of hoisting broom at the mast-head of a vessel which is to be disposed of?
S.S.S.
George Lord Goring, well known in history as Colonel Goring and General Goring, until the elevation of his father to the earldom of Norwich, in Nov. 1644, is said by Lodge to have left England in November, 1645, and after passing some time in France, to have gone into the Netherlands, where he obtained a commission as Lieutenant-General in the Spanish army. Lodge adds, upon the authority of Dugdale, that he closed his singular life in that country, in the character of a Dominican friar, and his father surviving him, he never became Earl of Norwich. A recent publication, speaking
Can any of your readers inform me when and where he died, and whether any particulars are known respecting him after his retirement abroad, and when his marriage took place with his wife Lady Lettice Boyle, daughter of the Earl of Cork, who died in 1643? The confusion that is made between the father and son is very great.
G.
Bands.—What is the origin of the clerical and academical custom of wearing bands? Were they not originally used for the purpose of preserving the cassock from being soiled by the beard? This is the only solution that presents itself to my mind.
Oxoniensis Nondum-Graduatus.
Replies.
DERIVATION OF "NEWS" AND "NOISE."
I hasten to repudiate a title to which I have no claim; a compliment towards the close of the letter of your correspondent "CH." (Vol. i., p. 487.) being evidently intended for a gentleman whose christian name, only, differs from mine. The compliment in his case is well-deserved; and it will not lower him in your correspondent's opinion, to know that he is not answerable for the sins laid to my charge. And now for a word in my own behalf.
Indeed, CH. is rather hard upon me, I must confess. In using the simple form of assertion as more convenient,—although I intended thereby merely to express that such was my opinion, and not dreaming of myself as an authority,—I have undoubtedly erred. In the single instance in which I used it, instead of saying "it is," I should have said "I think it is." Throughout the rest of my argument I think the terms made use of are perfectly allowable as expressions of opinion. Your correspondent has been good enough to give "the whole" of my "argument" in recapitulating my "assertions." Singular dogmatism that in laying down the law should condescend to give reasons for it! On the other hand, when I turn to the letter of my friendly censor, I find assertion without argument, which, to my simple apprehension, is of much nearer kin to dogmatism than is the sin with which I am charged.
I cannot help thinking that your correspondent, from his dislike "to be puzzled on so plain a subject," has a misapprehension as to the uses of etymology. I, too, am no etymologist; I am a simple inquirer, anxious for information; frequently, without doubt, "most ignorant" of what I am "most assured;" yet I feel that to treat the subject scientifically it is not enough to guess at the origin of a word, not enough even to know it; that it is important to know not only whence it came, but how it came, what were its relations, by what road it travelled; and treated thus, etymology is of importance, as a branch of a larger science, to the history of the progress of the human race.
Descending now to particulars, let your correspondent show me how "news" was made out of "new." I have shown him how I think it was made; but I am open to conviction.
I repeat my opinion that "news is a noun singular, and as such must have been adopted bodily into the language;" and if it were a "noun of plural form and plural meaning," I still think that the singular form must have preceded it. The two instances CH. gives, "goods" and "riches," are more in point than he appears to suppose, although in support of my argument, and not his. The first is from the Gothic, and is substantially a word implying "possessions," older than the oldest European living languages. "Riches" is most unquestionably in its original acceptation in our language a noun singular, being identically the French "richesse," in which manner it is spelt in our early writers. From the form coinciding with that of our plural, it has acquired also a plural signification. But both words "have been adopted bodily into the language," and thus strengthen my argument that the process of manufacture is with us unknown.
Your correspondent is not quite correct in describing me as putting forward as instances of the early communication between the English and the German languages the derivation of "news" from "Neues," and the similarity between two poems. The first I adduced as an instance of the importance of the inquiry: with regard to the second, I admitted all that your correspondent now says; but with the remark, that the mode of treatment and the measure approaching so near to each other in England and Germany within one half century (and, I may add, at no other period in either of the two nations is the same mode or measure to be found), there was reasonable ground for suspicion of direct or indirect communication. On this subject I asked for information.
In conclusion, I think I observe something of a sarcastic tone in reference to my "novelty." I shall advocate nothing that I do not believe to be true, "whether it be old or new;" but I have found that our authorities are sometimes careless, sometimes unfaithful, and are so given to run in a groove, that when I am in quest of truth I generally discard them altogether, and explore, however laboriously, by myself.
Samuel Hickson.
St. John's Wood, May 27. 1850.
I do not know the reason for the rule your correspondent Mr. S. HICKSON lays down, that such a noun as "news" could not be formed according to English analogy. Why not as well as "goods, the shallows, blacks, for mourning, greens?" There is no singular to any of these as nouns.
Noise is a French word, upon which Menage has an article. There can be no doubt that he and others whom he quotes are right, that it is derived from noxa or noxia in Latin, meaning "strife." They quote:—