Notes and Queries, Number 27, May 4, 1850

Londes and ludes as ether after her lif dawes."
p. 4

In this poem, ludes and ledes are used indiscriminately, but most frequently in the sense of men, people. Sir Frederick Madden has shown, from the equivalent words in the French original of Robert of Brunne, "that he always uses the word in the meaning of possessions, whether consisting of tenements, rents, fees, &c.;" in short, wealth.

If, therefore, the word has this sense in old English, we might expect to find it in Anglo-Saxon, and I think it is quite clear that we have it at least in one instance. In the Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, vol. i. p. 184., an oath is given, in which the following passage occurs:

"Do spa to lane
beo þé he þinum
I leat me be minum
ne 3ypne le þines
ne laedes ne landes
ne sac ne socne
ne þu mines ne þeapst
ne mint ic þe nan þio3."

Mr. Thorpe has not translated the word, nor is it noticed in his Glossary; but I think there can be no doubt that it should be rendered by goods, chattels, or wealth, i.e., movable property.

This will be even more obvious from an extract given by Bishop Nicholson, in the preface to Wilkin's Leges Saxonicæ p. vii. It is part of the oath of a Scotish baron of much later date, and the sense here is unequivocal:—

"I becom zour man my liege king in land, lith[2 - Sir F. Palgrave has given this extract in the Appendix to his Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, p. ccccvii., where, by an error of the press, or of transcription, the word stands lich. It may be as well to remark, that the corresponding word in Latin formulas of the same kind is "catallis," i.e. chattels. A passage in Havelok, v. 2515., will clearly demonstrate that lith was at least one kind of chattel, and equivalent to fe (fee)."Thanne he was ded that SathanasSket was seysed al that his was,In the King's hand il del,Lond and lith, and other catel,And the King ful sone it yafUbbe in the hond with a fayr staf,And seyde, 'Her ich sayse theIn al the lond in al the fe.'"], life and lim, warldly honour, homage, fealty, and leawty, against all that live and die."

Numerous examples are to be found in the M.H. German, of which I will cite a few:

"Ir habt doch zu iuwere hant
Beidin liute unde lant."

    Tristr. 13934.
"Und bevelhet ir liute unde lant."

    Iwein. 2889.
"Ich teile ir liute unde lant."

    Id. 7714.
And in the old translation of the Liber Dialogorum of St. Gregory, printed in the cloister of S. Ulrich at Augspurg in 1473:—

"In der Statt waren hoch Türen und schöne Heüser von Silber und Gold, und aller Hand leüt, und die Frawen und Man naÿgten im alle."

Lastly, Jo. Morsheim in his Untreuer Frawen:—

"Das was mein Herr gar gerne hört,
Und ob es Leut und Land bethort."

Now, when we recollect the state of the people in those times, the serf-like vassalage, the Hörigkeit or Leibeigenthum, which prevailed, we cannot be surprised that a word which signified possessions should designate also the people. It must still, however, be quite uncertain which is the secondary sense.

The root of the word, as Grimm justly remarks, is very obscure; and yet it seems to me that he himself has indirectly pointed it out:—

"Goth. liudan[3 - The author of Tripartita seu de Analogia Linguacum, under the words "Leute" and "Barn," says:—"Respice Ebr. Id. Ebr. ledah, partus, proles est. Ebr. lad, led, gigno." A remarkable coincidence at least with Grimm's derivation of léôd from the Goth. liudan, crescere.] (crescere); O.H.G. liotan (sometimes unorganic, hliotan); O.H.G. liut (populus); A.-S. lëóð; O.N. lióð: Goth. lauths -is (homo), ju33alauths -dis (adolescens); O.H.G. sumar -lota (virgulta palmitis, i.e. qui una æstate creverunt, Gl. Rhb. 926'b, Jun. 242.); M.H.G. corrupted into sumer -late (M.S. i. 124'b. 2. 161'a. virga herba). It is doubtful whether ludja (facies), O.H.G. andlutti, is to be reckoned among them."—Deutsche Gram. ii. 21. For this last see Diefenbach, Vergl. Gram. der Goth. Spr. i. 242.

In his Erlauterungen zu Elene, p. 166., Grimm further remarks:—

"The verb is leoðan, leað, luðon (crescere), O.S. lioðan, lôð, luðun. Leluðon (Cædm. 93. 28.) is creverunt, pullulant; and 3eloðen (ap. Hickes, p. 135. note) onustus, but rather cretus. Elene, 1227. 3eloðen unðep leápum (cretus sub foliis)."

It has been surmised that LEDE was connected with the O.N. hlÿt[4 - Thus, Anthon, Teutschen Landwirthschaft, Th. i. p. 61.:—"Das Land eines jeden Dorfes, einer jeden Germarkung war wirklich getheilt und, wie es sehr wahrscheinlich, alsdan verlost worden. Daher nannte man dasjenige, was zu einem Grunstüke an Äkern, Wiesen gehörte, ein Los (Sors). Das Burgundische Gesetz redet ausfdrücklich vom Lande das man in Lose erhalten hat (Terra sortis titulo acquisita, Tit. i. § 1.)" Schmeller, in his Bayrishces Wort. B. v. Lud-aigen, also points to the connection of Lud with hluz-hlut, sors, portio; but he rather inclines to derive it from the Low-Latin, ALLODIUM. It appears to me that the converse of this is most likely to have been the case, and that this very word LEDS or LÆDS is likely to furnish a more satisfactory etymology of ALLODIUM than has hitherto been offered.]—which not only signified sors, portio, but res consistentia—and the A.-S. hlet, hlyt, lot, portion, inheritance: thus, in the A.-S. Psal. xxx. 18., on hanðum ðinum hlÿt mín, my heritage is in thy hands. Notker's version is: Mín lôz ist in dínen handen. I have since found that Kindlinger (Geschichte der Deutchen Hörigkeit) has made an attempt to derive it from Lied, Lit, which in Dutch, Flemish, and Low German, still signify a limb; I think, unsuccessfully.

Ray, in his Gloss. Northanymbr., has "unlead, nomen opprobrii;" but he gives a false derivation: Grose, in his Provincial Glossary, "unleed or unlead, a general name for any crawling venomous creature, as a toad, &c. It is sometimes ascribed to a man, and then it denotes a sly wicked fellow, that in a manner creeps to do mischief. See Mr. Nicholson's Catalogue."

In the 2d edition of Mr. Brockett's Glossary, we have: "Unletes, displacers or destroyers of the farmer's produce."

This provincial preservation of a word of such rare occurrence in Anglo-Saxon, and of which no example has yet been found in old English, is a remarkable circumstance. The word has evidently signified, like the Gothic, in the first place poor; then wretched, miserable; and hence, perhaps, its opprobrious sense of mischievous or wicked.

"In those rude times when wealth or movable property consisted almost entirely of living money, in which debts were contracted and paid, and for which land was given in mortgage or sold; it is quite certain that the serfs were transferred with the land, the lord considering them as so much live-stock, or part of his chattels."

A vestige of this feeling with regard to dependants remains in the use of the word Man (which formerly had the same sense as lede). We still speak of "a general and his men," and use the expression "our men." But, happily for the masses of mankind, few vestiges of serfdom and slavery, and those in a mitigated form, now virtually exist.

    S.W. SINGER.

April 16. 1850.

BP. COSIN'S MSS.—INDEX TO BAKER'S MSS

Your correspondent "J. SANSOM" (No. 19. p. 303.) may perhaps find some unpublished remains of Bp. Cosin in Baker's MSS.; from the excellent index to which (Cambridge, 1848, p. 57.) I transcribe the following notices, premising that of the volumes of the MSS. the first twenty-three are in the British Museum, and the remainder in the University Library, (not, as Mr. Carlyle says in a note in, I think, the 3d vol. of his Letters. &c. of Cromwell in the library of Trin. Coll.).

"Cosin, Bp.– Notes of, in his Common Prayer, edit. 1636, xx. 175. Benefactions to See of Durham, xxx. 377-380. Conference with Abp. of Trebisond, xx. 178. Diary in Paris, 1651, xxxvi. 329. Intended donation for a Senate-House, xxx. 454. Letters to Peter Gunning, principally concerning the authority of the Apocrypha, vi. 174-180. 230-238. Manual of Devotion, xxxvi. 338."

As the editors of the Index to Baker's MSS. invite corrections from those who use the MSS., you will perhaps be willing to print the following additions and corrections, which may be of use in case a new edition of the Index should be required:—

Preface, p. vii. add, in Thoresby Correspondence, one or two of Baker's Letters have been printed, others have appeared in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes.

Index, p. 2. Altars, suppression of, in Ely Diocese, 1550, xxx. 213. Printed in the British Magazine, Oct. 1849, p. 401.

P. 5. Babraham, Hullier, Vicar of, burnt for heresy. Brit. Mag. Nov. 1849, p. 543.

P. 13. Bucer incepts as Dr. of Divinty, 1549, xxiv. 114. See Dr. Lamb's Documents from MSS. C.C.C.C. p. 153.

Appointed to lecture by Edw. VI., 1549, xxx. 370. See Dr. Lamb, p. 152.

Letter of University to Edw., recommending his family to care, x. 396. Dr. Lamb, p. 154.

P. 14. Buckingham, Dr. Eglisham's account of his poisoning James I., xxxii. 149-153. See Hurl. Misc.

Buckmaster's Letter concerning the King's Divorce, x. 243. This is printed in Burnet, vol. iii. lib. 1. collect. No. 16., from a copy sent by Baker, but more fully in Dr. Lamb, p. 23., and in Cooper's Annals.

P. 25. Renunciation of the Pope, 1535. See Ant. Harmer, Specimen, p. 163.

P. 51. Cowel, Dr., charge against, and defence of his Antisanderus. Brit. Mag. Aug. 1849, p. 184.

Cranmer, extract from C.C.C. MS. concerning. Brit. Mag. Aug. 1849, p. 169, seq.

Cranmer, life of, xxxi. 1-3. Brit. Mag. Aug. 1849, p. 165.