Notes and Queries, Number 38, July 20, 1850

The Latin pipio or pipo, whence the Italian pipare, and the French pépier, is the ultimate origin of the verb to peep; which, in old English, bore the sense of chirping, and is so used in the authorised version of Isaiah, viii. 19., x. 14. Halliwell, in his Archaic Dictionary, explains "peep" as "a flock of chickens," but cites no example. To peep, however, in the sense of taking a rapid look at anything through a small aperture, is an old use of the word, as is proved by the expression Peeping Tom of Coventry. As so used, it corresponds with the German gucken. Mr. Richardson remarks that this meaning was probably suggested by the young chick looking out of the half-broken shell. It is quite certain that the "peep of day" has nothing to do with sound; but expresses the first appearance of the sun, as he just looks over the eastern hills.

    L.

Martinet.—Will the following passage throw any light on the origin of the word Martinet?

Une discipline, devenue encore plus exacte, avait mis dans l'armée un nouvel ordre. Il n'y avait point encore d'inspecteurs de cavalerie et d'infanterie, comme nous en avons vu depuis, mais deux hommes uniques chacun dans leur genre en fesaient les fonctions. Martinet mettait alors l'infanterie sur le pied de discipline où elle est aujourd'hui. Le Chevalier de Fourilles fesait la même change dans la cavalerie. Il y avait un an que Martinet avait mis la baionnette en usage dans quelque régimens, &c.—Voltaire, Siècle de Louis XIV. c. 10.

    C. Forbes.

July 2.

Guy's Porridge Pot.—In the porter's lodge at Warwick Castle are preserved some enormous pieces of armour, which, according to tradition, were worn by the famous champion "Guy, Earl of Warwick;" and in addition (with other marvellous curiosities) is also exhibited Guy's porridge pot, of bell metal, said to weigh 300 lbs., and to contain 120 gallons. There is also a flesh-fork to ring it.

Mr. Nichols, in his History of Leicestershire, Part ii. vol. iii., remarks,

"A turnpike road from Ashby to Whitwick, passes through Talbot Lane. Of this lane and the famous large pot at Warwick Castle, we have an old traditionary couplet:

"'There's nothing left of Talbot's name,
But Talbot's Pot and Talbot's Lane.'

"Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, died in 1439. His eldest daughter, Margaret, was married to John Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury, by whom she had one son, John Viscount Lisle, from whom the Dudleys descended, Viscount Lisle and Earl of Warwick."

It would therefore appear that neither the armour nor the pot belonged to the "noble Guy"—the armour being comparatively of modern manufacture, and the pot, it appears, descended from the Talbots to the Warwick family: which pot is generally filled with punch on the birth of a male heir to that noble family.

    W. Reader.

Queries

NICHOLAS FERRAR OF LITTLE GIDDING

Dr. Peckard, in his Preface to the Life of Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding, says the memoir he published was edited or compiled by him from "the original MS. still in my possession" (p. xi.); and in the Appendix adds, that "Mr. John Ferrar," the elder brother of Nicholas, was the author of it (p. 279.).

How he compiled or edited "the original MS." he states with much candour in his Preface (p. xv.):

"The editor's intention," in altering the narrative, "was to give what is not observed in the original, a regular series of facts; and through the whole a sort of evenness and simplicity of stile equally free from meanness and affectation. In short, to make the old and the new, as far as he could, uniform; that he might not appear to have sewed a piece of new cloth to an old garment, and made its condition worse by his endeavours to mend it."

Again, at page 308., he says,

"There is an antient MS. in folio, giving an account of Mr. N. Ferrar, which at length, from Gidding, came into the hands of Mr. Ed. Ferrar of Huntingdon, and is now in the possession of the editor. Mr. Peck had the use of this MS. as appears by several marginal notes in his handwriting; from this and some loose and unconnected papers of Mr. Peck.... the editor, as well as he was able, has made out the foregoing memoirs."

Can any of your numerous correspondents inform me if this "antient MS." is still in existence, and in whose possession?

Peckard was related to the Ferrars, and was Master of Magdalen Coll., Cambridge.

In "A Catalogue of MSS. (once) at Gidding," Peckard, p. 306., the third article is "Lives, Characters, Histories, and Tales for moral and religious Instruction, in five volumes folio, neatly bound and gilt, by Mary Collet." This work, with five others, "undoubtedly were all written by N. Ferrar, Sen.," says Dr. Peckard; and in the Memoir, at page 191., he gives a list of these "short histories," ninety-eight in number, "which are still remaining in my possession;" and adds further, at p. 194.,

"These lives, characters, and moral essays would, I think, fill two or three volumes in 8vo., but they are written in so minute a character, that I cannot form any conjecture to be depended upon."

I have been thus particular in describing these "histories", because the subjects of them are identical with those in Fuller's Holy and Profane State, the first edition of which was published at Cambridge, in 1642. "The characters I have conformed," says Fuller in his Preface, "to the then standing laws of the realm (a twelvemonth ago were they sent to the press), since which time the wisdom of the King and state hath" altered many things. Nicholas Ferrar died December 2, 1637, and the Query I wish to ask is, Did Fuller compose them (for that he was really the author of them can hardly be doubted) at the suggestion and for the benefit of the community at Gidding, some years before he published them; and is it possible to ascertain and determine if the MS. is in the handwriting of Ferrar or Fuller?

Is there any print or view in existence of the "Nunnery," at Little Gidding?

In the Life of Dr. Thomas Fuller, published anonymously in 1661, it is stated, that at his funeral a customary sermon was preached by Dr. Hardy, Dean of Rochester, "which hath not yet (though it is hoped and much desired may) passe the presse," p. 63.

Query. Was this sermon ever published? and secondly, who was the author of the Life from which the above passage is quoted?

    John Miland.

STUKELEY'S "STONEHENGE."

May I request a space in your periodical for the following Queries, drawn from Dr. Stukeley's Stonehenge and Abury, p. 31.?

1st. "But eternally to be lamented is the loss of that tablet of tin, which was found at this place (Stonehenge) in the time of King Henry VIII., inscribed with many letters, but in so strange a character that neither Sir Thomas Elliott, a learned antiquary, nor Mr. Lilly, master of St. Paul's school, could make any thing out of it. Mr. Sammes may be right, who judges it to have been Punic. I imagine if we call it Irish we shall not err much. No doubt but what it was a memorial of the founders, wrote by the Druids and had it been preserved till now, would have been an invaluable curiosity."

Can you or any of your contributors give me any further information about this inscription?

2. The Doctor continues,

"To make the reader some amends for such a loss I have given a specimen of supposed Druid writing, out of Lambecius' account of the Emperor's library at Vienna. 'Tis wrote on a very thin plate of gold with a sharp-pointed instrument. It was in an urn found at Vienna, rolled up in several cases of other metal, together with funeral exuviæ. It was thought by the curious, one of those epistles which the Celtic people were wont to send to their friends in the other world. The reader may divert himself with trying to explain it."

Has this inscription ever been explained, and how? Stukeley's book is by no means a rare one; therefore I have not trusted myself to copy the inscription: and such as feel disposed to help me in my difficulty would doubtless prefer seeing the Doctor's own illustration at p. 31.

    Henry Cunliffe.

Hyde Park Street.

ATHELSTANE'S FORM OF DONATION.—MEANING OF "SOMAGIA."

Tristram Risdon, in his quaint Survey of the Co. of Devon, after mentioning the foundation of the church of High Bickington by King Athelstane,

"Who," he says, "gave to God and it one hide of land, as appeareth by the donation, a copy whereof, for the antiquity thereof, I will here insert: 'Iche Athelstane king, grome of this home, geve and graunt to the preist of this chirch, one yoke of mye land frelith to holde, woode in my holt house to buyld, bitt grass for all hys beasts, fuel for hys hearth, pannage for hys sowe and piggs, world without end,'"—

adds presently afterwards, that

"Sir John Willington gave Weeksland in this tything, unto Robert Tolla, cum 40 somagia annuatim capiend in Buckenholt (so be the words of the grant) in the time of K. Edw. I."

The Willingtons were lords of the manor of Umberleigh, where Athelstane's palace stood, with its chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity, formerly rich in ancient monuments, and having a chantry near to it. Some of the monuments from this chapel are still preserved in the neighbouring church of Atherington.

My Queries upon this Note are:

1. Whence did Risdon derive his copy of King Athelstane's form of donation? 2. What is the precise meaning of the word Somagia?

In Ducange (ed. Par. 1726, tom. vi. col. 589.) I find:

"Somegia. Præstatio, ut videtur ex summis, v. gr. bladi, frumenti. Charta Philippi Reg. Franc. an. 1210. Idem etiam Savaricus detinet sibi census suos, et venditiones, et quosdam reditus, qui Somegiæ vocantur, et avenam, et captagia hominum et foeminarum suarum, qui reditus cum una Somegiarum in festo B. Remigii persolverentur; deinde secunda Somegia in vicesima die Natalis Domini, et tertia in Octabis Resurrectionis Dominicæ, ei similiter persolventur; caponum etiam suorum in crastino Natalis Domini percipiet solutionem: unaquæque vero somegiarum quatuor denarios bonæ monetæ valet."

Ducange refers also to some kindred words; but, instead of clearing up my difficulty in the word somagia, he presents me with another in captagia, the meaning of which I do not clearly understand. Perhaps some of your more learned contributors will obligingly help me to the true import of these words?

    J. Sansom.