Chapter C: Forbes

Temple.

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ETYMOLOGICAL NOTES.

1. _Gnatch._--"The covetous man dares not gnatch" (Hammond's _Catechism_). From this, and the examples in Halliwell's _Dictionary_, the sense seems to be "to move." Is it related to "gnake?"

2. _Pert._--I lately met with an instance of the use of this word in the etymological sense _peritus_: "I beant peart at making button-holes," said a needlewoman.

3. _Rococo._--A far-fetched etymology suggests itself. A wealthy noble from the north might express his admiration for the luxuries of Paris by the Russian word [Cyrillic: roskosha], or Polish _roskosz_. A Frenchman, catching the sound, might apply it to anything extravagant enough to astonish a barbarian.

4. _Cad._--The letters from Scotland ascribed to a Captain Burtt, employed in surveying the forfeited estates, give an account of the "cawdies," or errand boys, of Edinburgh.

5. _Fun_, perhaps Irish, _fonamhad_, jeering, mockery (Lhuyd, _Archæologia Britannica_).

6. _Bumbailiff._--The French have _pousse-cul_, for the follower or assistant to the sergeant.

7. Epergne, perhaps _épargne_, a save-all or hold-all. Here seems no more difficulty in the transfer of the name than in that of chiffonier, from a rag-basket to a piece of ornamental furniture.

8. _Doggrel._--Has the word any connexion with _sdrucciolo_?

9. _Derrick._--A spar arranged to form an extempore crane. I think Derrick was the name of an executioner.

10. _Mece_, A.-S., a knife. The word is found in the Sclavonic and Tartar dialects. I thinly I remember some years ago reading in a newspaper of rioters armed with "pea makes." I do not remember any other instance of its use in English.

F.Q.

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MISTAKES IN GIBBON.

The following references may be of use to a future editor of Gibbon; Mr. Milman has not, I believe, rectified any of the mistakes pointed out by the authors cited.

In the Netherlands ... 50,000 in less than fifty years were ...
sacrificed to the intolerance of popery. (Fra Paolo, _Sarpi
Conc. Trid._ 1. i. p. 422. ed. sec. Grotius, in his _Annal.
Belq._ 1. v. pp. 1G, 17. duod., including _all_ the persecutions
of Charles V, makes the number 100,000. The supposed
contradiction between these two historians supplied Mr. Gibbon
with an argument by which he satisfied himself that be had
completely demolished the whole credibility of Eusebius's
history. See conclusion of his 16th book.) [Mendham's _Life of
Pius V._, p. 303. and note; compare p. 252., where Gibbon's
attack on Eusebius is discussed.]

In Forster's _Mahometanism Unveiled_, several of Gibbon's statements are questioned. I have not the book at hand, and did not think the corrections very important when I read it some time {277} back. The reader who has it may see pp. 339. 385. 461-2. 472. 483. 498. of the second volume.

In Dr. Maitland's _Dark Ages_, p. 229. seq. note, a gross blunder is pointed out.

See too the _Gentlemans Magazine_, July, 1839, p. 49.

Dr. Maitland, in his _Facts and Documents relating to the ancient Albigenses and Waldenses_, p. 217. note, corrects an error respecting the _Book of Sentences_.

"Gibbon, speaking of this _Book of Sentences_, in a note on his
54th chapter, says, 'Of a list of criminals which fills nineteen
folio pages, only _fifteen_ men and _four_ women were delivered
to the secular arm.' Vol. v. p. 535. I believe he should have
said _thirty-two_ men and _eight_ women; and imagine that he was
misled by the fact that the index-maker most commonly (but by no
means always) states the nature of the sentence passed on each
person. From the book, however, it appears that forty persons
were so delivered, viz., twenty-nine Albigenses, seven
Waldenses, and four Beguins."

The following mistake was pointed out by the learned Cork correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, I think in 1838; it has misled the writer of the article "Anicius", in Smith's _Dictionary of Ancient Biography_, and is not corrected by Mr. Milman (Gibbon, chap. xxxi. note 14 and text):--

"During the first five ages, the name of the Anicians was
unknown. The earliest date in the annals of Pighius is that of
M. Anicius Gallus, Tr. Plebis A.U.C. 506. Another Tribune, Q.
Anicius, A.U.C. 508, is distinguished by the epithet
Prænestinus."

We learn from Pliny, _H.N._ xxxiii. 6., that Q. Anicius Prænestinus was the colleague as curule ædile of Flavius, the famous _scriba_ of Appius Cæcus, B.C. 304, A.U.C. 450. (See Fischer, _Röm. Zeittafeln_, p. 61-2.) Pliny's words are--

"[Flavius] tantam gratiam plebis adeptus est ... ut ædilis
curulis crearetur cum Q. Anicio Prænestino."

Gibbon's chapter on Mahomet seems to be particularly superficial; it is to be hoped that a future editor will correct it by the aid of Von Hammer's labours.

J.E.B. MAYOR.

Marlborough College.

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MINOR NOTES

_"Ockley's History of the Saracens," and unauthentic Works._--At the end of a late edition of Washington Irving's _Life of Mahomet_, those "who feel inclined to peruse further details of the life of Mahomet, or to pursue the course of Saracenic history," are referred to _Ockley_. Students should be aware of the character of the histories they peruse. And it appears, from a note in Hallam's _Middle Ages_ (vol. ii. p. 168.), that Wakidi, from whom Ockley translated his work, was a "mere fabulist," as Reiske observes, in his preface to Abulfeda.

Query, Would it not be well, if some of your more learned correspondents would communicate to students, through the medium of "NOTES AND QUERIES," a list of such books as are genuine but not authentic; and authentic but not genuine, or altogether spurious? or would point out the sources from which such information can be obtained?

P.H.F.

_The Hippopotamus._--Your correspondent L. (Vol. ii., p. 35.) says, "None of the Greek writers appear to have seen a live hippopotamus:" and again, "The hippopotamus, being an inhabitant of the Upper Nile, was imperfectly known to the ancients." Herodotus says (ii. 71.) that this animal was held sacred by the Nomos of Papremis, but not by the other Egyptians. The city of Papremis is fixed by Bähr in the west of the Delta (ad ii. 63.); and Mannert conjectured it to be the same as the later Xoïs, lying between the Sebennytic and Canopic branches, but nearer to the former. Sir Gardner Wilkinson says, several representations of the hippopotamus were found at Thebes, one of which he gives (_Egyptians_, vol. iii. pl. xv.). Herodotus' way of speaking would seem to show that he was describing from his own observation: he used Hecatæus, no doubt, but did not blindly copy him. Hence, I think, we may infer that Herodotus himself saw the hippopotamus, and that this animal was found, in his day, even as far north as the Delta: and also, that the species is gradually dying out, as the aurochs is nearly gone, and the dodo quite. The crocodile is no longer found in the Delta.

E.S. JACKSON

_America._--The probability of a short western passage to India is mentioned in _Aristotle de Coelo_, ii., near the end.

F.Q.

_Pascal's Lettres Provinciales._--I take the liberty of forwarding to you the following "Note," suggested by two curious blunders which fell under my notice some time ago.

In Mr. Stamp's reprint of the Rev. C. Elliott's _Delineation of Romanism_ (London, 8vo. 1844), I find (p. 471., in note) a long paragraph on Pascal's _Lettres Provinciales_:--

"This exquisite production," says the English editor, "_is
accompanied, in some editions of it, with the learned and
judicious observations of Nicole_, who, under the fictitious
name of Guillaume Wendrock, has fully demonstrated the truths of
those facts which Pascal had advanced without quoting his
authorities; and has placed, in a full and striking light,
several interesting circumstances which that great man had
treated with perhaps too much brevity. _These letters ... were
translated into Latin by Ruchelius_."

From Mr. Stamp's remarks the reader is led to conclude that the _text_ of the _Lettres Provinciales_ {278} is accompanied in some editions by observations of Wendrock (Nicole), likewise in the French language. Now such an assertion merely proves how carelessly some annotators will study the subjects they attempt to elucidate. Nicole _translated_ into Latin the _Provincial Letters_; and the masterly disquisitions which he added to the volume were, in their turn, "made French" by Mademoiselle de Joncoux, and annexed to the editions of 1700, 1712, 1735.

As for Rachelius, if Mr. Stamp had taken the trouble to refer to Placcius' _Theatr. Anonym. et Pseud._, he night have seen (Art. 2,883.) that this worthy was merely a German _editor_, not a translator of Pascal cum Wendrock.

The second blunder I have to notice has been perpetrated by the writer of an otherwise excellent article on Pascal in the last number of the _British Quarterly Review_ (No. 20. August). He mentions Bossuet's edition of the _Pensées_, speaks of "_the prelate_," and evidently ascribes to the famous Bishop of Meaux, _who died in_ 1704, the edition of Pascal's _Thoughts, published in_ 1779 _by Bossuet_. (See pp. 140. 142.)

GUSTAVE MASSON.

_Porson's Epigram._--I made the following Note many years ago:--

"The late Professor Porson's own account of his academic visits
to the Continent:--

"'I went to Frankfort, and got drunk With that most learn'd
professor--Brunck: I went to Worts, and got more drunken, With
that more learn'd professor Ruhncken.'"

But I do not remember where or from whom I got it. Is anything known about it, or its authenticity?

P.H.F.

* * * * *

QUERIES.

"ORKNEYINGA SAGA."

In the introduction to Lord Ellesmere's _Guide to Northern Archæology_, p. xi., is mentioned the intended publication by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen, of a volume of historical antiquities to be called _Antiquitates Britannicæ et Hibernicæ_. In the contents of this volume is noticed the _Orkneyinga Saga_, a history of the Orkney and Zetland Isles from A.D. 865 to 1234, of which there is only the edition Copenhagen, 1780, "chiefly printed," it is said, "from a modern paper manuscript, and by no means from the celebrated Codex Flateyensis written on parchment in the fourteenth century." This would show that the Codex Flateyensis was the most valuable manuscript of the work published under the name of the _Orkneyinga Saga_, of which its editor, Jonas Jonæus, in his introductory address to the reader, says its author and age are equally unknown: "auctor incertus incerto æque tempore scripsit." The _Orkneyinga Saga_ concludes with the burning of Adam Bishop, of Caithness, by the mob at Thurso while John was Earl of Orkney, and according to Dalrymple's _Annals_ in A.D. 1222; but in the narrative given by the historian Torfæus, in his _Orcades_, of Haco, King of Norway's expedition against the western coast of Scotland in 1263, which terminated in the defeat of the invaders by the Scots at Largs, in Ayrshire, and the death of King Haco on his return back in the palace of the bishop of Orkney at Kirkwall, reference is made to the Codex Flateyensis as to the burial of King Haco in the city of Bergen, in Norway, where his remains were finally deposited, after lying some months before the shrine of the patron saint in the cathedral of Saint Magnus, at Kirkwall. There is not a syllable of King Haco or his expedition in the _Orkneyinga Saga_; and as I cannot reconcile this reference of Torfæus (2nd edition, 1715, book ii. p. 170.) with the _Saga_, the favour of information is desired from some of your antiquarian correspondents. The Codex Flateyensis has been ascribed to a pensioner of the king of Norway resident in Flottay, one of the southern isles of Orkney, but with more probability can be attributed to some of the monks of the monastery built on the small island of Flatey, lying in Breida Fiord, a gulf on the west coast of Iceland.

W.H.F.

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MINOR QUERIES.

_Incumbents of Church Livings in Kent._--I have by me the following MS. note:--"A list of B.A.'s graduated at Cambridge from 1500 to 1735 may be found in 'Additional MSS. British Museum, No. 5,585.'" Will any of your correspondents inform me if this reference is correct, and if the list can be examined?

Is there in the British Museum or elsewhere a list of incumbents of church livings in Kent (with name and birthplace) from 1600 to 1660?

BRANBRIDGES.

_York Buildings Company._--This company existed about the middle of the last century. I shall be glad to be informed where the papers connected with it are to be met with, and may be referred to.

WDN.

_Saying ascribed to Montaigne._--The saying, "I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that ties them," is usually ascribed to Montaigne. In what part of his works are these words to be found? I heard doubts expressed of their genuineness some years ago by a reader of the _Essays_; and my own search for them has also proved hitherto unsuccessful.