Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text.

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NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

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No. 194.] SATURDAY, JULY 16. 1853.. [With Index, price 10d.. Stamped Edition 11d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:-- Page
Derivation of the Word "Island" 49
Weather Rules, by Edward Peacock 50
On the modern Practice of assuming Arms 50
Morlee and Lovel, by L. B. Larking 51
Shakspeare Correspondence, by Robert Rawlinson and
John Macray 51
Unpublished Letter 53

MINOR NOTES:--Lines on the Institution of the Order
of the Garter--Old Ship--The Letter "h" in "humble"--
"The Angels' Whisper"--Pronunciation of Coke--The
Advice supposed to have been given to Julius III. 53

QUERIES:--
Bishop Gardiner "De Vera Obedientia" 54

MINOR QUERIES:--Lord Byron--Curious Custom of
ringing Bells for the Dead--Unpublished Essay by
Lamb--Peculiar Ornament in Crosthwaite Church--
Cromwell's Portrait--Governor Brooks--Old Books--The
Privileges of the See of Canterbury--Heraldic
Colour pertaining to Ireland--Descendants of Judas
Iscariot--Parish Clerks and Politics--"Virgin Wife
and widowed Maid"--"Cutting off the little Heads of
Light"--Medal of Sir Robert Walpole--La Fete des
Chaudrons--Who first thought of Table-turning?--
College Guide 55

MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:--Done Pedigree--Scotch
Newspapers, &c.--Dictum de Kenilworth--Dr. Harwood 57

REPLIES:--
Names of Places, by J. J. A. Worsaae 58
Cleaning old Oak, by Henry Herbert Hele, &c. 58
Burial in an Erect Posture, by Cuthbert Bede, B.A. 59
Lawyers' Bags 59

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:--New Photographic
Process 60

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:--The Ring Finger--The
Order of St. John of Jerusalem--Calvin's Correspondence--
Old Booty's Case--Chatterton--House-marks, &c.--
Bibliography--Parochial Libraries--Faithful Teate--
Lack-a-daisy--Bacon--Angel-beast: Cleek: Longtriloo--
Hans Krauwinckel--Revolving Toy--Rub-a-dub--Muffs worn
by Gentlemen--Detached Church Towers--Christian
Names--Hogarth's Pictures--Old Fogie--Clem--Kissing
Hands--Uniform of the Foot Guards--Book Inscriptions--
Humbug--Sir Isaac Newton and Voltaire on Railway
Travelling--Engine-a-verge--"Populus vult decipi," &c.--
Sir John Vanbrugh--Erroneous Forms of Speech--
Devonianisms 61

MISCELLANEOUS:--
Books and Odd Volumes wanted 65
Notices to Correspondents 66
Advertisements 66

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Notes.

DERIVATION OF THE WORD "ISLAND."

Lexicographers from time to time have handed down to us, and proposed for our choice, two derivations of our English word _Island_; and, that one of these two is correct, has, I believe, never yet been called in question. The first which they offer, and that most usually accepted as the true one, is the A.-S. _Ealand_, _Ealond_, _Igland_; Belg. _Eylandt_: the first syllable of which, they inform us, is _ea_, Low Germ. _aue_, water, _i.e._ water-land, or land surrounded by water. If this etymon be deemed unsatisfactory, they offer the following: from the Fr. _isle_, It. _isola_, Lat. _insula_, the word _island_, they say, is easily deflected.

At the risk of being thought presumptuous, I do not hesitate to say, that both these alternatives are manifestly erroneous; and, for the following reason, I propose a third source, which seems to carry conviction with it: first, from analogy; and secondly, from the usage of the language from which our English word is undoubtedly derived, the Anglo-Saxon.

First, from analogy. Let us only consider how frequently names are given to parts of our hills, shores, rivers, &c., from their supposed resemblance to parts of the human body. Thus, for instance, we have a _head_ land, a _neck_ of land, a _tongue_ of land, a _nose_ of land (as in Ness, in Orfordness, Dungeness, and, on the opposite coast, Grinez); also a _mouth_ of a river or harbour, a _brow_ of a hill, _back_ or _chine_ of a hill, _foot_ of a hill; an _arm_ of the sea, _sinus_ or bosom of the sea. With these examples, and many more like them, before us, why should we ignore an _eye_ of land as unlikely to be the original of our word _island_? The correspondence between the two is exact. How frequently is the term _eye_ applied to any small spot standing by itself, and peering out as it were, in fact an _insulated_ spot: thus we have the _eye_ of an apple, the _eye_ or centre of a target, the _eye_ of a stream (_i.e._ where the stream collects into a point--a point well known to salmon fishers), and very many other instances. What more natural term, then, to apply to a spot of land standing alone in the midst of an expanse of water than an _eye_ of land? {50}

In confirmation of this view, let us look to the original language; there we find the compounds of _eag_, _ea_, _aegh_, the eye, of very frequent occurrence: all of them showing that this compound _ea-land_ is not only legitimate, but extremely probable. Thus we find, _eag-aeple_, the pupil of the eye; _eag-dura_, a window-light, eye-door; _eag ece_, pain in the eye; _eah-hringas_, the orbits of the eyes. In the last instance, the _g_ is dropped; and it is certain that _eag_ was pronounced nearly as eye now is. From all this, is it too much to conclude that _ea-land_ is the same as _eye-land_? But farther, _Ig_ (A.-S.) sometimes stands by itself for an island, as also do _Igland_ and _Igoth_, and _Ii_ was the old name of Iona. Now I cannot find that there ever was the slightest connexion between the A.-S. _Ig_ and _water_; nor do I believe that such an idea would ever have been started, but to support the old derivation of the word; I have never seen a genuine instance of such connexion brought forward. Then the word _Ig_, if it be supposed to mean an _eye_, as I contend, may very well stand by itself for _island_; but, if _water_ be expressed by it, I cannot understand how it can serve to import _land_.

If any farther confirmation be wanted, we have it in the diminutive _eyot_, of which _ait_, _aight_, _eight_ are corruptions.

H. C. K.

---- Rectory, Hereford.

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WEATHER RULES.

Thomas Passenger, who dwelt at the Three Bibles and Star, on London Bridge, was very celebrated during the latter part of the seventeenth century for publishing popular histories and chap-books. His shop seems to have been the principal place of resort for the hawkers who then supplied the provinces with literature. Many of the works which issued from his press are now very rare: one of the most curious, and, at the same time, the rarest, is _The Shepherd's Kalendar: or, the Citizen's and Country Man's Daily Companion_, &c. The contents of this book are of a very singular nature, it being a kind of epitome of the facts it was then thought necessary for a countryman to be acquainted with. A considerable portion of the work is occupied by remarks on the weather, and on lucky and unlucky days: if I were to extract all on those subjects, this communication would extend to an unreasonable length.

We are informed, under the head "Observations on Remarkable Days, to know how the whole Year will succeed in Weather, Plenty," &c., that--

"If the sun shine clear and bright on Christmas-day, it promiseth a
peaceable year from clamours and strife, and foretells much plenty to
ensue; but if the wind blow stormy towards sunset, it betokeneth
sickness in the spring and autumn quarters."

"If January 25 (being St. Paul's day) be fair, it promises a happy
year; but if cloudy, windy, or rainy, otherwise: hear in this case what
an ancient judicious astrologer writes:

'If St. Paul be fair and clear,
It promises then a happy year;
But if it chance to snow or rain,
Then will be dear all sorts of grain:
Or if the wind do blow aloft,
Great stirs will vex the world full oft;
And if dark clouds do muff the sky,
Then foul and cattle oft will die.'"

"Mists or hoar frosts on the tenth of March betokens (_sic_) a
plentiful year, but not without some diseases."

"If, in the fall of the leaf in October, many of them wither on the
bows, and hang there, it betokens a frosty winter and much snow."

Under "The Signs of Rain in Creatures" we have the following:

"When the hern or bitron flies low, the air is gross, and thickening
into showers."

"The froggs much croaking in ditches and pools, &c., in the evening,
foretells rain in little time to follow: also, the sweating of stone
pillars or tombs denotes rain."

"The often doping or diving of water fowl foreshows rain is at hand."

"The peacock's much crying denotes rain."

There is a list given of Lucky Days, which contains all the red letter saints' days of the Reformed English kalendar. We are also informed that there are other days in each month which "are successful enough." Thus--

"In January there are three, viz. 16. 18. 26.
In February there are four, viz. 10. 19. 27. 28.
In March there are two, viz. 14. 18.
In April there are three, viz. 13. 22. 27.
In May there are five, viz. 3. 5. 7. 11. 19.
In June there are four, viz. 10. 17. 20. 27.
In July there are six, viz. 1. 13. 19. 21. 27. 30.
In August there are three, viz. 3. 7. 9.
In September there are five, viz. 4. 8. 11. 15. 19.
In October there are three, viz. 1. 8. 13.
In November there are four, viz. 3. 9. 11. 15.
In December there are three, viz. 9. 13. 17."

EDWARD PEACOCK.

Bottesford, Messingham, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

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ON THE MODERN PRACTICE OF ASSUMING ARMS.

"If any person be advanced into an office or dignity of publique
administration, be it eyther ecclesiasticall, martiall, or ciuill: so
that the same office comprehendeth in it _dignitatem vel dignitatis
titulum_, either dignitie or (at the least) a title of dignitye: the
Heralde must not refuse to devise to such a publique person, upon his
instant request and willingnes to beare the same without reproche, a
coate of armes: and thenceforth to matriculate him, with his {51}
intermarriages, and issues descending, in the register of the Gentle
and Noble."

Thus wrote Sir John Ferne in _The Blazon of Gentrie_, printed in the year 1586. So also Coates, in his additions to Gwillim, writing in 1724, says:

"For though arms, in their first acceptation, were (as is shewed) taken
up at any gentleman's pleasure, yet hath that liberty for many ages
been deny'd, and they, by regal authority, made the rewards and ensigns
of merit, &c., the gracious favours of princes; no one being, by the
law of gentility in England, allowed the bearing thereof, but those
that either have them by descent, or grant, or purchase from the body
or badge of any prisoner they in open and lawful war had taken."

He proceeds to adduce various authorities on this subject, for which I would refer to the Introduction to the last edition of Gwillim's _Heraldry_, p. 16. &c.

Porny defines _assumptive arms_ to be--

"Such as are taken up by the caprice or fancy of _upstarts_, who, being
advanced to a degree of fortune, assume them without having deserved
them by any glorious action. This, indeed (he adds), is _great abuse of
heraldry_; but yet so common, and so much tolerated, almost everywhere,
that little or no notice is taken of it."

This was written in 1765. Archdeacon Nares, in his very amusing _Heraldic Anomalies_, printed in 1823, says:

"At present, _similarity of name_ is quite enough to lead any man to
conclude himself to be a branch of some very ancient or noble stock,
and, if occasion arise, to assume the arms appropriate to such
families, without any appeal to the Heralds' office; nor would any
_Alderman Gathergrease_, living in affluence, be without such marks and
symbols on his plate, seals, carriages, &c., with no higher authority,
perhaps, than his own fancy and conceit."

It must be confessed that the middle of the nineteenth century offers the most ample facilities for the would-be aristocrats of the age, and _that_ without troubling Sir Charles Young or the College of Arms; witness the following advertisement cut from a newspaper of the day:--

"THE FAMILY LIVERY.--Arms and Crests correctly ascertained, and in any
case a steel die expressly cut for the buttons, free of cost," &c.

There can, indeed, be no doubt that this foolish practice of assuming arms without right has of late years grown to an absurd height; and I fear the assumption is by no means confined to persons who have risen by trade, or by some lucky speculation in railways &c.; even those who have been "_advanced into an office or dignity of publique administration_" have but seldom made their "_instant request_" to the heralds "_to devise a coate of armes to be borne by them without reproch_."

The episcopal bench, in particular, are very generally faulty in this respect, and, for the greater part, content themselves (if not by birth entitled to bear arms) by assuming the coat of some old-established family of the same, or _nearly the same_, name. In the case of temporal peerages, which are not seldom, thanks to the ancient constitution of England, renovated from the middle and lower classes, the practice is more in accordance with the precepts of _The Blazon of Gentrie_; but I believe there is at least _one instance_, that of a lawyer of the greatest eminence, who was last year advanced to a peerage, and to the highest rank in his profession, who has assumed both arms and supporters without the fiat of the College of Arms. The "novi homines" of a former age set a better example to those of the present day, and were not ashamed to go honestly to the proper office and take out their patent of arms, thus "founding a family" who have a _right_ to the ensigns of honour which they assume.

SPES.

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MORLEE AND LOVEL.

The following document, in connexion with the trial between Morlee and Lovell, in the Court of Chivalry, will probably interest your heraldic readers.