Volume 4 — Queries.

ETYMOLOGY OF FONTAINEBLEAU.

The Description Routière et Géographique de l'Empire Français, already cited by me on the subject of Bicêtre, furnishes the following particulars respecting the derivation of Fontainebleau:

"Ce bassin sert de décharge à la fontaine, qui a donné, dit-on, son nom à Fontainebleau. Elle est nommée, dans les anciennes chartes, Fons Blaudi. Quelques modernes substituent à cette étymologie celle de belle eau, d'où ils font également dériver Fontainebleau. L'une et l'autre sont rejetées par Expilly, et remplacées par une troisième de sa façon, qui est évidente, selon lui, et qui, selon ses lecteurs, est la plus absurde de toutes. Je vais citer ce passage pour faire sentir jusqu'à quel travers d'esprit peut conduire la manie des étymologies. 'Pourquoi,' dit-il, 'se donner la torture à ce sujet? Il suffit de la moindre notion de la chasse pour savoir que, quand le chasseur appelle les chiens, il crie: Thia hillaut! N'est-il pas vraisemblable que le château ayant été bâti en pays de chasse, les habitans des environs, entendant continuellement le mot hillaut, l'appellèrent de ce nom, auquel ils joignirent celui de la fontaine près de laquelle il avait été bâti. De Fontaine hillaut on fit insensiblement Fontainebleau.'"

TWO Queries suggest themselves here. Who or what was Blaudus or Blaudum? Is our Tally-ho derived from Thia hillaut, or vice versâ? As to the "travers d'esprit," so gravely imputed to Expilly, it is clear to me that his solution of the matter must be taken as a burlesque on etymologists, rather than as any evidence of his own extravagance in that respect.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, June, 1851.

FORCE OF CONSCIENCE.

The following relation has often been reprinted in religious magazines and the like. It is given by Dr. Fordyce, Professor of Philosophy at Aberdeen, in his Dialogues concerning Education (London, 1748, vol. ii. p. 401.), as "a true story, which happened in a neighbouring state not many years ago." Can any of your readers furnish me with Dr. F.'s authority for the assertion?—the Doctor himself gives none. One would think that, if true, its truth might be easily verified. If its truth cannot be satisfactorily established, to reprint such tales cannot but be most mischievous:—

"A jeweller of considerable wealth having occasion to travel to some distance from the place of his abode, took with him a servant in order to take care of his portmanteau. Having occasion to dismount on the road, the servant, watching his opportunity, took a pistol from his master's saddle and shot him dead on the spot; then rifled him of his money and jewels, and threw the body into the nearest river. With this booty he made off to a distant part of the country.... He was at length admitted to a share of the government of the town, and rose from one post to another, till at length he was chosen to be chief magistrate.... One day as he sat on the bench with some of his brethren in the magistracy, a criminal was brought before him who was accused of murdering his master. The evidence was full; the jury brought in their verdict that the prisoner was guilty; and the whole assembly awaited the sentence of the President of the court, which he happened to be on that day.... At length coming down from the bench he placed himself by the guilty man at the bar and made a full confession of his own guilt, and of all its aggravations.... We may easily suppose the great amazement of all the assembly, and especially of his fellow-judges. They proceeded, however, upon this confession, to pass sentence upon him, and he died with all the symptoms of penitent mind."

J. K.

ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE NORTH.

English letters are exciting a daily increasing interest in the north of Europe—that hardy and romantic country whence we ourselves are descended. But their means for purchase are very scanty, and I have been requested by the chief librarians of the Royal Library, Stockholm, and the University Library, Copenhagen, to endeavour to procure them English books by gift from private individuals and public societies and libraries.

Can you assist me in this work by making this their prayer known in your widely-spread columns?

Any English works, large or small, old or new, in any department of literature, but especially in archæology, folk-lore, history, theology, belles-lettres, &c., particularly books privately printed, or otherwise scarce or dear, will be most acceptable. Every donor will have the goodness to state for which library his gift is intended. So many have duplicates, or copies of books, which they no longer use or need, that many will doubtless be able to assist in this pleasant book-gathering for our Scandinavian cousins.

GEORGE STEPHENS, Professor of English Literature in the University of Copenhagen.

Mill Farm, Barnes, Surrey, July, 1851.

[We have good reason to know the great interest which our Scandinavian brethren take in the literature of this country, and hope this appeal of MR. STEPHENS will be liberally responded to. Any donations for the libraries in question, which, we believe, are both public libraries, may be left for him at the office of "NOTES AND QUERIES."]

Minor Queries.

1. Painted Prints of Overton.

—In Vol. iii., pp. 324, 325., under the title "The Bellman and his History," are quoted some lines from Gay's Trivia, book ii. p. 482. The last line is—

Who was Overton, and what were his prints that Gay in these lines makes the companions of the bellman's song?

F. L. H.

2. Fourth Fare.

—In the accounts of the churchwardens of St. Edmund's, Sarum, temp. Edw. IV., this item often occurs, for which a payment was made. Does it not mean the dying knell, from the German "to depart."

H. T. E.

Clyst St. George, June 3. 1851.

3. John Wood, Architect.

—Can any of your readers inform me if any likeness is in existence of the author of An Essay towards a Description of Bath? or if any of his descendants are still living? He built the Bristol Exchange; and Bath is indebted to him for many of its most noble edifices. He was a magistrate for the county of Somerset, and died in 1754.

GAMMA.

4. Derivation of "Spon."

—Can you or your readers give me a derivation of the word "spon," in its application to street names? There is "Spon End," and also "Spon Street," in Coventry, "Spon Lane" at West Bromwich, and "Spon Terrace" at Birmingham. Can you supply any other instances?

Mr. Halliwell merely says, "Spon, a shaving of wood;" and it is used in this sense in Scott's Sir Tristrem, p. 119.:

C. H. B.

Clarence Street, Islington.

5. Dell, in what County?

—I shall feel obliged if any of your correspondents can tell me whereabouts this place is, and in what county?

J. N. C.

6. Bummaree or Bumaree.

—There is a large class of salesmen in Billingsgate Market not recognised as such by the trade, but styled Bumarees, who get a living by purchasing large parcels of fish of the factor or common salesman, and selling it out in smaller quantities to the fishmongers and other retailing buyers. This whole-sale retailing of fish is also called bummareeing it, hence the name of these (self-styled) salesmen.

I have not been able to find any clue to the meaning of this word thus used in any authority that I possess, though the word has been recognised in statutes and bye-laws of the markets for upwards of one hundred years.

As I feel very interested in this matter, may I be allowed to call the attention of some of your very learned correspondents to this matter, and ask for the probable etymology and exact orthography of the word.

I have been informed that the only other use of the word known is with the confectioners, who use Bummaree pans.

The prefix "bum" is used to express the lowest of the kind in bum-bailiff, and also further additionally in connexion with selling in "bum-boat." I cannot think that "bona venalia," goods set to sale, among the Romans, give any clue to Bummaree. This, and other derivations equally unsatisfactory, have been submitted by those who have hitherto directed their attention to this subject.

BLOWEN.

7. Thread the Needle.

—What is the game so called? and what its origin?

In it these words occur:

I have somewhere seen the name of Thread-the-Needle-Gate. Where is, or was, it? and whence was the London street so named?

R. S. H.

Morwenstow.

8. Proof of a Sword.

—Is the following statement correct and true (I mean, as to the trial of the sword blade, not the anecdote)?

"A troop of horse are riding along under the command of 'Duke William' of Cumberland, in the '45. A little old Highlander joins the march; a strong lusty soldier laughs at, and insults him. He is allowed to demand satisfaction, and fight it out at once: he craves the loan of a sword; one is handed to him. But Donald had seen too many snows to trust his life to the blade of untried metal: he minutely examined the handle, the edge, the point, and the spring, and finally turning aside to a pool of water, and applying the flat side of the blade to its surface, with one smart stroke broke it in two."

Is this a good test of a sword blade? Would any sword stand it?

Would the Toledo blade, at the Crystal Palace, that rolls up into the form of a serpent, bear it?

What is the usual test of a good blade?

ENSIS.

9. Shelley's Children.

—Are any of Shelley's children, by his first wife, still living and where?—a friend of mine, who was her companion, having a relic of her, which she would gladly give into their possession.

PHILO.

10. Ackey Trade.

—I have in my cabinet a silver coin (shilling size) which has on the obverse, besides the bust of the kind, the date 1818, and the legend, the following under the head (between it and the legend), "½ Ackey Trade;" and I shall be glad to have an explanation of what is meant by the "Ackey Trade?" The reverse has the arms and crest of the African Company. The legend is "Free Trade to Africa by Act of Parliament, 1750."

J. N. C.

11. Baskerville the Printer.

—I was informed in 1835, by a friend living at Birmingham, that the coffin containing the body of that celebrated printer was then lying in a timber yard in that town under a pile of deals—a fact which was well known there.

Is it still in the same place? And why? And is there any portrait, engraved or otherwise, of him? Mr. Merridew of Coventry, and others, have assured me there was not.

G. C.

12. Statue of Charles II.

—What became of the fine statue of Charles II. on horseback which formerly stood in Stock's Market, the site of the present Mansion House?

It was placed on a conduit at the "sole cost and charges of that worthy citizen and alderman Sir Robert Viner, Bart." I have seen a print of it, folio. (London, pub. 1708.)

G. CREED.

13. La Mère Jeanne.

—In Hallam's Literature of Europe, 2nd edition, vol. i. p. 461., I read this passage:—

"Two crude Attempts at introducing the Eastern tongues were made soon afterwards (1530). One of these was by William Postel, a man of some parts, and more reading; but chiefly known, while he was remembered at all, for mad reveries of fanaticism, and an idolatrous veneration for a saint of his own manufacture, La Mère Jeanne, the Joanna Southcote of the sixteenth century."

Has any account of the character and proceedings of "La Mère Jeanne" been handed down to us; and, if so, where is it to be found?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, June, 1851.

14. Man of War, why a Ship of War so called.

—Will any of your readers inform me the origin of a ship of a certain number of guns being called "a man of war?" In Shakspeare the term is applied to Falstaff: Davy inquires of Shallow:

And it is singular to remark, in the same scene, the first of Act V., the Second Part of Henry IV., that the dinner ordered by Shallow for Falstaff is just such as any country gentleman would now provide for an unexpected guest:—

Some pigeons, Davy; a couple of short-legged hens; a joint of mutton; and any pretty little tiny kickshaws, tell William cook."

The only difference is the sex of the cook, as country gentlemen in these days have females in that capacity.

AN M. D.

15. Secret Service Money of Charles II.

—In Mr. Akerman's preface to this work, just published by the Camden Society, I find this passage:

"Amongst these (sums lavished on female favourites) the payments to the Duchess of Portsmouth are most conspicuous. No less a sum than 136,688l. 10s. appears to have been bestowed by the profligate monarch on this woman within the space of one year."—See Payments under the year 1681, p. 42.

Now, on turning to the year and page designated, I find that the whole of the class in which the Duchess's name appears amounts for that year only to about 22,000l., of which the Duchess of Portsmouth appears to have received about 12,000 in several quarterly payments on account of an annual pension or pensions of that amount: so in other years. This is a very different sum from 136,000l. I would beg leave to inquire of the editor, or of any of your Camdenite correspondents, whether there is an error in Mr. Akerman's statement, or only in my way of reading it?

C.

16. Hampton Court.

—Miss Strickland, in the Queens of England, after saying that the Queen (Elizabeth of York, Henry VII.'s wife) had stayed at Hampton Court eight days, continues:

"It is worth noticing that Hampton Court was a favourite residence of Elizabeth of York long before Cardinal Wolsey had it."

Now, in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1834, is a copy of the lease from the prior of St. John of Jerusalem to Cardinal Wolsey of their manor of Hampton Court, it having been in the possession of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John since 1211, when Joan Lady Grey left it by will to that order. Where, then, was Elizabeth of York's residence? Did she hold a lease of the manor and manor-house of Hampton of the Knights Hospitallers? Or was there another royal residence in that locality?

TEE BEE.

Minor Queries Answered.

De Rebus Hibernicis.—

1. Silvester Giraldus Cambrensis, born in Wales, A.D. 1145, was the author of numerous works. Can any one furnish a list of them?

2. What is the date of the Annals of the Four Masters?

3. Who was Tigernach, and when did he live?

4. What are the Annals of Ulster, and when were they written?

WILLIAM E. C. NOURSE.

[1. The printed works, as well as the manuscript collections, of Giraldus, are so numerous, and deposited in so many different libraries, that we must refer our correspondent to Sir R. C. Hoare's description of them in his Introduction to the translation of Giraldus' Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales, vol. i. pp. liv.-lxxii. 4to. 1806.

2. The Annals of Dunagall, otherwise called The Annals of the Four Masters, were compiled between A.D. 1632 and 1636. From a MS. in the Duke of Buckingham's library at Stowe, Dr. O'Conor published the first part of these Annals, extending from the earliest period to A.D. 1172, in his Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores. The latter portion has since been edited, with a translation and notes, by John O'Donovan, Esq., M.R.I.A., in 3 vols. 4to.

3. Tigernach was Abbot of Cluain-mac-nois, and died A.D. 1088. He wrote the Annals of Ireland, from A.M. 3596 to his own time.

4. The Annals of Ulster were compiled by Cathald Mac Magnus (Charles Maguire), who died A.D. 1498. They commence with the reign of Feradach Fionnfachtnach, monarch of Ireland, A.D. 60, and are carried down to the author's own time. They were afterwards continued to the year 1504, by Roderick O'Cassidy, Archdeacon of Clogher. See O' Reilly's Chronological Account of Irish Writers.]

Abridgment of the Assizes.

—Where can one see, or what is the correct title of the book containing Abridgment of the Assizes, and Iters of Pickring and Lancaster? It is referred to in Manwood on Forest Laws.

S. S.

[Richard Tottle, dwelling at the Hand and Star in Fleet Street, and who was "licensed to print all manner of books touching the common laws of England," published in the middle of the sixteenth century the following work:—"The Abridgment of the Book of Assises, lately perused over and corrected, and now newely imprinted by Richard Tottle, the last day of September, 1555." It is probable that the Iters of Pickring and Lancaster are still in manuscript.]

Life of Cromwell.

—I have in my possession a Life of Cromwell, written by R. B. "without passion or partiality," printed by N. Crouch in the Poultry, 1715. Query, who was this R. B.?

PHILO.

[The author was Richard or Robert Burton, alias Nathaniel Crouch, who, says Dunton in his Life and Errors, "melted down the best of our English histories into twelve penny books, which are filled with wonders, rarities, and curiosities." The first edition of The History of Cromwell was published in 1693, "relating only matters of fact without reflection or observation."]