Notes and Queries, Number 41, August 10, 1850

"Rykelot, a magpie?"—The popular and provincial names of animals deserve more careful notice than they have received from glossarists. I need scarcely observe how frequently personal names were derived from those of birds. In the Hundred Rolls we find a "Richard Rikelot" in Huntingdonshire (vol. ii. p. 626.). I know not what has led to the supposition that this name denotes the magpie. It may possibly be traced to the same root as that of a cognate species, the cornix frugivora; Roeck, Germ., according to Gesner; Friesic, roek; Ang.-S. hroc, the rook: but I am at a loss to discover anything similar in old French to explain the occurrence of the termination, which seems to be a popular or familiar diminutive, a Gallicism, analogous to partlot.

"Wrusum or Wursum."—The latter is the correct reading. Trotter Brockett includes the word amongst Northern Provincialisms.—"Wursum, pus, particularly when foul." Jamieson is inclined to derive the word woursom or worsum, used in the same sense by Douglas, in his translation of Virgil, and by other North Country writers, from Ang.-S. Wyr, pus, and sum, as denoting quality.

"Sabraz."—This term has perplexed me much in preparing notes on the portion of the Promptorium I have now in hand. In the Harl. MS. 221. is found "Sabrace, sabracia, Comm." The authority cited, the Commentarius Curialium, is still unknown to me; and I have failed in searching for the word sabracia, which is not found in Ducange, or other glossaries of debased Latinity. Mr. Halliwell gives "Sabras, salve, plaster;" but he cites no authority. It appears, however, rather to signify a tonic or astringent solution than a salve. I have hitherto found it only in the following passage (Sloane MS. 73., f. 211., late xv. sec.) in a recipe for making "cheuerel lether of perchemyne." The directions are, that it be "basked to and fro" in a hot solution of "alome roche;—aftir take xelkis of eyren and breke hem smale in a disch, as thou woldist make therof a caudel, and put these to thyn alome water, and chaufe it; thanne take it doun fro the fier, and put it in the cornetrey; thanne tak thi lether and basche it wel in this sabras, to it be wel drunken up into the lether." A little flour is then to be added, the mixture heated, and the "perchemyn well basked therein, and th't that saberas be wel drunken up into the lether;" and if it enters not well into the leather, "lay it abroad in a good long vessel that be scheld, the fleschside upward, and poure thi sabrace al abouen the lether, and rubbe it wel yn." It is further recommended to "late the lether ligge so still al a nyzt in his owen sabras."

"I-menbred, a girdle i-menbred." (Thus, in old French, "menbrer, membrer," &c., Roquefort). Charpentier gives similar use of the Latin word,—"Membrare, instruere, ornare, Gall. garnir;" citing a French document, dated 1352: "Item, unam zonam de serico Membratam de argento et esmandis;" and another of 1366: "Duas zonas de serico, argento stofatas et Membratas." The term was thus used also in England, as in the inventory of valuables belonging to Edward I. in 1300 (Liber Garderobæ, p. 347.):—"Una zona, cum cathenis argenti annell' cum targ' et membris argenti." It might be supposed from this expression, that the membra were, strictly speaking, the transverse bars of metals, or cloux, Fr., by which the girdle was divided into several compartments, the intervening spaces being filled by chased ornaments of goldsmiths' work, and occasionally by armorial scutcheons, "targie."

But enough for the present. I should esteem it a favour if your correspondent would inform me where these curious terms are found, as the context would greatly facilitate their elucidation.

    ALBERT WAY.

Wonham, Reigate, August 3.

Replies to Minor Queries

Solingen (Vol. ii., p. 135.).—Will you allow me to state, for the information of T.S. LAWRENCE, who inquires who Salingen, the sword cutler, was,—that Solingen is the name of a small town near Elberfeld, in Westphalia; a sort of Sheffield for the whole of that part of Germany. Immense quantities of cutlery of all sorts are made there, and many knives are, I was told, made there, stamped with English names, and imported into England as true British ware,—being equally good with ours, and, of course, cheaper. Solingen is still, and has been for centuries, renowned for its sword blades. You cannot ride through the town without meeting a troop or two of girls with a load of sword blades on their heads.

May I suggest to your inquirer JARLTZBERG that the derivation of blackguard is as likely to be blagarode, the Russian for nobleman, as many words are to be descended from their reputed parents.

    C.B.M.

P.C.S.S. believes that a little research would have enabled MR. LAWRENCE (Vol. ii., p. 135.) to ascertain that Solingen (not Salingen) was not the name of a sword cutler, but of a place in Prussian Westphalia, long celebrated for the fabrication of that weapon, as well as of fencing-foils. Of the latter instrument P.C.S.S. has several pairs in his possession, all marked with the inscription "In Solingen." That the Solingen manufactory still flourishes there, is stated in Murray's Handbook for Northern Germany, p. 373.

    P.C.S.S.

Blackguard (Vol. ii., p. 134.).—In the second vol. of B. Jonson's works by Gifford, page 169., there is the following note on this word:—

"In all great houses, but particularly in the royal residences, there were a number of mean, dirty dependants, whose office it was to attend the wool-yard, sculleries, &c.; of these the most forlorn wretches seem to have been selected to carry coals to the kitchens, halls, &c. To this smutty regiment, who attended the progresses, and rode in the carts with the pots and kettles, the people in derision gave the name of black-guards"

I find also the following in Butlerts Hudibras, part 3.:—

"Thou art some paltry, blackguard sprite,
Condemn'd to drudgery in the night;
Thou hast no work to do in the house,
Nor halfpenny to drop in shoes."

    AREDJID KOOEZ.
The Three Dukes (Vol. ii., p. 9.).—Perhaps a note which I have just stumbled upon, in a MS. account of the Griffin family, may furnish some clue as to "the Dukes who killed the Beadell."

"Edward Griffin was probably the same person, to whom a pardon was granted, April 11. 1671, for the death of Peter Werriel; in the like manner as was granted to the Duke of Albemarle and the Duke of Monmouth."

At all events, both casualties occurred in the same spring, and a reference to the gazettes of the day would perhaps set the question at rest.

    BRAYBROOKE.

Audley End.

Bonny Dundee (Vol. ii., p. 134.) is the name attached to one of the most beautiful of the Scotch melodies. The song is said to be very old. The words, which I recollect to have heard sung to it more than half a century ago, began:

"'O, whar gat ye that hauers-meal bannock,
My bonny young lassie, now tell it to me?'
'I got it frae a sodger laddie,
Between Saint Johnstone and bonnie Dundee."

It is clear that it is to the town, not the man (though from the portraits of him he was very handsome), that the epithet applies. My version of the song differs from that given in Cromek's Burns, and also from Allan Cuningham's; and I am disposed to think my memory at fault from the so near recurrence of the word "bonnie" in the stanza.

Neither the date of the birth of Viscount Dundee, nor his age at the time of his death, is mentioned by the Scottish Peerage writers, Crawford, Douglas, or Wood.

    F.R.S.L. and E.

Was Quarles pensioned? (Vol. i., p. 201.).—I believe that no reply has been made to this Query. The following passage, transcribed from the "Epistle Dedicatory" to the surreptitious edition of Quarles's Judgment and Mercy, affords a slight negative proof to the contrary:

"And being so usefull, I dare not doubt your patronage of this child, which survives a father whose utmost abilities were (till death darkened that great light in his soule) sacrificed to your service."

Now if Charles had conferred a pension on Quarles, is it not exceedingly probable that the publisher and dedicator, Richard Royston, would have recalled so honourable a circumstance to the memory of his "most gratious sovereign King Charles" in this "Epistle Dedicatory," when he had so excellent an opportunity of doing so?

    T.M.B.

Collar of Esses (Vol. ii., p. 140.).—MR. J.G. NICHOLS, in his reply to the Query of φ., says, that "the judges" are among those who are now privileged to wear these collars. Allow me to suggest to him that the privilege among them is limited to the chiefs of the three courts. The other judges certainly now never wear them, and I am unaware that they ever did so. I have a large, though by no means a perfect collection of legal portraits, and there is not one puisne judge or baron so distinguished. The earliest legal worthy who is represented with this collar is in the reign of Henry VIII., and it adorns not a chief justice, but a chancellor, viz. Sir Thomas More; and he is the only chancellor upon whose shoulders it appears. This collar is formed by continuous Esses, without any ornament between them. It is united in the front by two portcullises, with a rose pendant. The print is from Holbein's picture, and presents him as chancellor, with the purse. The first chief justice wearing the collar is Sir James Dyer, Ch.C.P. in the reign of Elizabeth. The only difference between it and Sir Thomas More's is, that the rose is placed between the portcullises. I have another, in a later period of the same reign, of Sir Christopher Wray, Ch.K.B., in which the Esses are alternated with ornamental knots. I am not aware of any portrait of a chief baron before Sir Thomas Bury, in the first year of George I.; so that I am uncertain whether the collar was previously worn by that functionary.

It is curious that during the Commonwealth the Collar of Esses was worn by John Glynne, the Chief Justice of the Upper Bench, with a difference; that difference being a quatrefoil, instead of the knot, between each S; and a large jewel, surrounded by smaller ones, being substituted for the portcullises and rose.

These facts may, I hope, be of some use to MR. J.G. NICHOLS in the volume I am glad to see that he contemplates. I hope he will not forget to answer the other Query of φ., "Under what circumstances, and at what dates, was the privilege of wearing these collars reduced to its present limitation?"

    EDWARD FOSS.

The Story of the three Men and their Bag of Money (Vol. ii., p. 132.).—In Tales, and quicke Answers, very mery, and pleasant to rede, is the following, with the title "Howe Demosthenes defended a Mayde:"—

"There were two men on a time, the whiche lefte a great somme of money in kepyng with a maiden, on this condition, that she shulde nat delyuer hit agayne, except they came bothe to gether for hit. Nat lang after one of them cam to hir mornyngly arrayde, and sayde that his felowe was deed, and so required the money, and she delyuered it to hem. Shortly came the tother man, and required to have the moneye that was lefte with her in kepyng. The maiden was than so sorrowfull, both for lacke of the money, and for one to defend her cause, that she thought to hange her selfe. But Demosthenes, that excellent oratour, spake for her and sayd: 'Sir, this mayden is redy to quite her fidelitie, and to deliuer agayne the money that was lefte with her in kepyng, so that thou wylt brynge thy felowe with thee to receyue it.' But that he coude not do."

This is the 69th tale in the collection. I cite from the reprint which appeared in 1831, under the title of The Hundred Merry Tales: or Shakspeare's Jest Book.

    C.H. COOPER

Cambridge, July 29. 1850.

The story of the three men and their bag of money (Vol. ii., p. 132.) is here stated to be "in the Notes to Rogers's Italy": but it is in the body of the work, as a distinct story, headed, "The Bag of Gold."

    ROBERT SNOW.

Will. Robertson of Murton (Vol. ii., p. 155.) is stated by Douglas in his Baronage, p. 413., to be descended in the fourth decree from Alexander Robertson, fifth baron of Strowan. The pedigree of Robertson of Strowan is given in the same vol.

    F.R.S.L. and E.

Long Meg of Westminster.—I am not quite of DR. RIMBAULT'S opinion, that Long Meg of Westminster is a fictitious personage. I believe her to have been as much a real wonton as Moll Cutpurse was a century later.

If the large stone shown as Long Meg's grave had been anywhere else within the walls of Westminster Abbey than where it is, I should have had great dockets about the Westminster tradition. But Long Meg, there is reason to believe from the numerous allusions to her in the Elizabethan dramatists, was a heroine after the Reformation, and her burial, therefore, in the cloisters, where few people of wealth or good reputation were buried between 1538 and 1638, seems to me a common occurrence. Had Islip or Esteney buried her among the abbots in the cloister, I could then have joined in DR. RIMBAULT'S surprise. I have altered the passage, however, to "marking, the grave, it is said." This will meet, I trust, DR. RIMBAULT'S objection, though I have Gifford to support me in the passage as it at present stands: