Chapter C: J. R. (2.)

Burton Crescent.

_Drachmarus._--Can any of your readers kindly inform me, under what name "Drachmarus," one of the Schoolmen, is commonly known?

J. SANSOM.

_Strutt's Queen Hoo Hall._--Some years back I purchased of a son of the late Joseph Strutt, a copy of _Queen Hoo Hall_, containing manuscript {106} memoranda by that son relating to his father and to Walter Scott. Amongst other matters it states, that the original manuscript of that romance was submitted to Mr. Scott before it was published, and that he retained it a long time before he published his _Waverley Novels_. Mr. Strutt, jun., accuses him of taking hints and facts from his parent's work. He also stated that the story of the Illuminator in _Queen Hoo Hall_ is mainly an account of the life of his father. The three volumes I gave to my friend and patron, Mr. John Broadly, whose very fine and choice library was sold by auction after his death, with the copy of the work referred to. I am desirous of ascertaining in whose possession these volumes are? I have a beautiful miniature portrait of Joseph Strutt.

J. BRITTON.

17. Burton Street, Jan. 21. 1851.

_Cardinal's Monument_.--Passing into the church of St. Saviour, Southwark, yesterday by the centre door on the south, I observed on a pillar to the right, a sculpture of a cardinal's hat with the usual cord and tassels properly coloured, beneath which was a coat of arms, quartering alternately three lions and three fleur-de-lis. There is no name or date upon it. It would be interesting to know to whom it refers.

J. D. A.

_Names Bacon and Fagan_.--The very curious and interesting information which has come to light in the replies to my Query about the origin of the patronymic BACON, emboldens me to put another question upon the subject.

I have long suspected, but have been unable to prove, that the names Bacon and Fagan were originally one and the same. Bacon, it appears, is a Saxon word, meaning "of the beech tree." Fagan, I presume, is as undoubtedly from the Latin "de fago," "of the beech tree."

The approximation of sound in these names is sufficiently evident. That the letters C and G have been commonly convertible between the Latin and Saxon is without doubt. Query: Have B and F been at all used convertibly? Or can any of your readers, by any other means, strengthen the probability, or prove the truth, of my conjecture?

NOCAB.

_Blunder_.--What is the origin of this word? In Woolston's _First Discourse on Miracles_ (Lond. 1729), at p 28., I find this passage:--

"In another place he intimates what are meant by oxen and sheep, viz.,
the literal sense of the Scriptures. And if the literal sense be
irrational and nonsensical, the metaphor we must allow to be proper,
inasmuch as nowadays dull and foolish and absurd stuff we call _Bulls_,
_Fatlings_, and _Blunders_."

This would seem to imply that in Woolston's days _blunder_ was the name of some animal; but in no dictionary have I been able to find such a signification attributed to it. The Germans use the words _bock_ and _pudel_ in the same sense as our word _blunder_.