Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850

7. "Why that's my dainty Ariel."—Ditto. Act v. sc. 1.

I do not know the precise nature of the "old authorities" which MR. SINGER opposes to my conjecture: but may we not demur to the conclusiveness of any "old authorities" on such a point? Etymology seems to be one of the developing sciences, in which we know more, and better, than our forefathers, as our descendants will know more, and better, than we do.

To end with a brace of queries. Are not delicioe, delicatus, more probably from deligere than from delicere? And whence comes the word dainty? I cannot believe in the derivation from dens, "a tooth."

    B.H. KENNEDY.

AËROSTATION

Your correspondent C.B.M. (Vol. ii., p 199.) will find a long article on Aërostation in Rees' Cyclopædia; but his inquiry reminds me of a conversation I had with the late Sir Anthony Carlisle, about a year before his death. He wished to consult me on the subject of flying by mechanical means, and that I should assist him in some of his arrangements. He had devoted many years of his life to the consideration of this subject, and made numerous experiments at great cost, which induced him to believe in the possibility of enabling man to fly by means of artificial wings. However visionary this idea might be, he had collected innumerable and extremely interesting data, having examined the anatomical structure of almost every winged thing in the creation, and compared the weight of the body with the area of the wings when expanded in the act of volitation as well as the natural habits of birds, insects, bats, and fishes, with reference to their powers of flying and duration of flight.

These notes would form a valuable addition to natural history, whatever might be thought of the purpose for which they were collected, during a period of thirty years; and it is much to be regretted they were never published. His own opinion was, that the publication, during his life would injure his practice as a physician. It would be impossible without the aid of diagrams, and I do not remember sufficient, to explain his mechanical contrivances; but the general principle was, to suspend the man under a kind of flat parachute of extremely thin feather-edge boards, with a power of adjusting the angle at which it was placed, and allowing the man the full use of his arms and legs to work any machinery placed beneath; the area of the parachute being proportioned, as in birds to the weight of the man, who was to start from the top of a high tower, or some elevated position, flying against the wind.

    HENRY WILKINSON.

Brompton.

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES

Long Lonkin (Vol. ii., p. 168.).—If SELEUCUS will refer to Mr. Chamber's Collection of Scottish Ballads, he will find there the whole story under the name of Lammilsin, of which Lonkin appears to me to be a corruption. In the 6th verse it is rendered:

"He said to his ladye fair,
Before he gaed abuird,
Beware, beware o, Lammilsin!
For he lyeth in the wudde."

Then the story goes on to state that Lammilsin crept in at a little shot window, and after some conversation with the "fause nourrice" they decide to

"Stab the babe, and make it cry,
And that will bring her down."

Which being done, they murder the unhappy lady. Shortly after, Lord Weirie comes home, and has the "fause nourrice" burnt at the stake. From the circumstance that the name of the husband of the murdered lady was Weirie, it is conjectured that this tragedy took place at Balwearie Castle, in Fife, and the old people about there constantly affirm that it really occurred. I am not aware that there exists any connection between the hero of this story and the nursery rhyme; for, as I before stated, I think Lonkin a corruption of Lammilsin.

    H.H.C.

Rowley Powley (Vol. ii., p. 74.).—Andre Valladier, who died about the middle of the sixteenth century, was a popular preacher and the king's almoner. He gained great applause for his funeral oration on Henry IV. In his sermon for the second Sunday in Lent (Rouen, 1628), he says;—

"Le paon est gentil et miste, bien que par la parfaite beauté de sa houppe, par la rareté et noblesse de sa teste, par la gentilesse et netteté de son cou, par l'ornement de ses pennes et par la majesté de tout le reste de son corps, il ravit tous ceux qui le contemplent attentivement; toutefois au rencontre de sa femelle, pour l'attirer à son amour, il déploye sa pompe, fait montrer et parade de son plumage bizarré, et RIOLLÉ PIOLLÉ se presente à elle avec piafe, et luy donne la plus belle visée de sa roue. De mesme ce Dieu admirable, amoreux des hommes, pour nous ravir d'amour à soy, desploye le lustre de ses plus accomplies beautez, et comme un amant transporté de sa bienaimée se montre pour nous allecher à cetter transformation de nous en luy, de nostre misère en sa gloire."—Ap. Predicatoriuna p. 132-3: Dijon, 1841.

    H.B.C.

Guy's Armour (Vol. ii., pp. 55. 187.).—With respect to the armour said to have belonged to Guy, Earl of Warwick, your correspondent NASO is referred to Grose's Military Antiquities, vol. ii. pl. 42., where he will find an engraving of a bascinet of the fourteenth century, much dilapidated, but having still a fragment of the moveable vizor adhering to the pivot on which it worked. Whether this interesting relic is still at Warwick Castle or not, I cannot pretend to say, as I was unfortunately prevented joining the British Archæological Association at the Warwick congress in 1847, and have never visited that part of the country; but the bascinet which was there in Grose's time was at least of the date of Guido de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, the builder of Guy's Tower, who died in 1315, and who has always been confounded with the fabulous Guy: and if it has disappeared, we have to regret the loss of the only specimen of an English bascinet of that period that I am aware of in this country.

    J.R. PLANCHÊ

Alarm (Vol. ii., pp. 151. 183.).—The origin of this word appears to be the Italian cry, all'arme; gridare all'arme is to give the alarm. Hence the French alarme, and from the French is borrowed the English word. Alarum for alarm, is merely a corruption produced by mispronunciation. The letters l and r before m are difficult to pronounce; and they are in general, according to the refined standard of our pronunciation, so far softened as only to lengthen the preceding vowel. In provincial pronunciation, however, the force of the former letter is often preserved, and the pronunciation is facilitated by the insertion of a vowel before the final m. The Irish, in particular, adopt this mode of pronouncing; even in public speaking they say callum, firrum, farrum, for calm, firm, farm. The old word chrisom for chrism, is an analogous change: the Italians have in like manner lengthened chrisma into cresima; the French have softened it into chrême.

    L.

Alarm.—It is in favour of the derivation à l'arme that the Italian is allarme; some dictionaries even have dare all'arme, with the apostrophe, for to give alarm. It is against it that the German word Lärm is used precisely as the English alarm. Your correspondent CH. thinks the French derivation suspiciously ingenious: here I must differ; I think it suspiciously obvious. I will give him a suggestion which I think really suspiciously ingenious: in fact, had not the opportunity occurred for illustrating ingenuity, I should not have ventured it. May it not be that alarme and allarme is formed in the obvious way, as to arms; while alarum and Lärm wholly unconnected with them? May it not sometimes happen that, by coincidence, the same sounds and meanings go together in different languages without community of origin? Is it not possible that larum and Lärm are imitations of the stroke and subsequent resonance of a large bell? Denoting the continued sound of m by m-m-m, I think that lrm-m-m-lrm-m-m-lrm-m-m &c., is as good an imitation of a large bell at some distance as letters can make. And in the old English use of the word, the alarum refers more often to a bell than to any thing else.

The introduction of the military word into English can be traced, as to time, with a certain probability. In 1579, Thomas Digges published his Arithmeticall Militare Treatise named Stratioticos, which he informs us is mainly the writing of his father, Leonard Digges. At page 170. the father seems to finish with "and so I mean to finishe this treatise:" while the son, as we must suppose, adds p. 171. and what follows. In the father's part the word alarm is not mentioned, that I can find. If it occurred anywhere, it would be in describing the duties of the scout-master; but here we have nothing but warning and surprise, never alarm. But in the son's appendix, the word alarme does occur twice in one page (173.). It also occurs in the body of the second edition of the book, when of course it is the son who inserts it. We may say then, that, in all probability, the military technical term was introduced in the third quarter of the sixteenth century. This, I suspect, is too late to allow us to suppose that the vernacular force which Shakspeare takes it to have, could have been gained for it by the time he wrote.

The second edition was published in 1590; about this time the spelling of the English language made a very rapid approach to its present form. This is seen to a remarkable extent in the two editions of the Stratioticos; in the first, the commanding officer of a regiment is always corronel, in the second collonel. But the most striking instance I now remember, is the following. In the first edition of Robert Recorde's Castle of Knowledge (1556) occurs the following tetrastich:—

"If reasons reache transcende the skye,
Why shoulde it then to earthe be bounde?
The witte is wronged and leadde awrye,
If mynde be maried to the grounde."

In the second edition (1596) the above is spelt as we should now do it, except in having skie and awrie.

    M.

Prelates of France (Vol. ii., p. 182.).—In answer to a Minor Query of P.C.S.S., I can inform him that I have in my possession, if it be of any use to him, a manuscript entitled Tableau de l'Ordre religieux en France, avant et depuis l'Edit de 1768, containing the houses, number of religions, and revenues, and the several dioceses in which they were to be found.

    M.

Midgham House, Newbury, Berks.

Haberdasher (Vol. ii., p. 167.).—

"Haberdasher, a retailer of goods, a dealer in small wares; T. haubvertauscher, from haab; B. have; It. haveri, haberi, goods, wares; and tauscher, vertauscher, a dealer, an exchanger; G. tuiskar; D. tusker; B. tuischer."

This derivation of the term haberdasher is from Thomson's Etymons, and seems to be satisfactory.

Haberdascher was the name of a trade at least as early as the reign of Edward III.; but it is not easy to decide what was the sort of trade or business then carried on under that name. Any elucidation of that point would be very acceptable.

    D.

"Rapido contrarius orbi" (Vol. ii., p. 120.).—No answer having appeared to the inquiry of N.B., it may be stated that, in Hartshorne's Book-Rarities of Cambridge, mention is made of a painting, in Emanuel College, of "Abp. Sancroft, sitting at a writing-table with arms, and motto, Rapido contrarius orbi. P.P. Lens, F.L."

Brayley, in his Concise Account of Lambeth Palace, describes a portrait, in the vestry, of "A young man in a clerical habit, or rather that of a student, with a motto beneath, 'Rapido contrarium orbo'" (whether the motto, as thus given, is the printer's or the painter's error does not appear), "supposed to be Abp. Sancroft when young.—Date 1650."

    G.A.S.

Robertson of Muirtown (Vol. ii., p. 135.).—C.R.M. will find a pedigree of the family of Robertson of Muirton in a small duodecimo entitled:

"The History and Martial Atchievements of the Robertsons of Strowan. Edinburgh: printed for and by Alex. Robertson in Morison's Close; where Subscribers may call for their copies."

The date of publication is not given; I think, however, it must have been printed soon after 1st January 1771, which is the latest date in the body of the work.

The greater portion of the volume is occupied with the poems of Alexander Robertson of Strowan who died in 1749.

    A.R.X.

Paisley.