his 'History of Manchester,' published in 1772, rites were not Roman. See also an article in Dr. has much to say about the dogs of the ancient Britons : "All of them particularly attracted the admiration of the naturalists and the regard of the sportsmen among the Romans, before and after their conquests in the island. But the principal sorts which seem to be natives of the country are these five, the great household dog, the greyhound, the bulldog, the terrier, and the large slow hound. The first is furnished with no sagacity of nose, but has no uncommon degree of vigour and courage, the general strength of its limbs are incredibly great.” In addition to the couplet alluded to by MR. FERGUSON, another poet of the third century extols the greyhound of the British race. The bulldog, says our reverend historian, "enjoys equally a good nose and a gallant spirit. And the latter is so peculiarly great that this animal has perhaps a larger share of courage than any other in the world; the bravery of the breed has gained them the credit of frequent mention in the records of antiquity, The Gauls even purchased them early for the uses of war, and embattled them with their native dogs for the fight......Strabo (p. 305) expressly commends them in general as incomparable hounds on the field." Most likely, then, this would be the dog MR. FERGUSON writes of as being fiercer and more powerful than the greyhound, and as being capable of attacking wolves. "The little terrier, so useful in the destruction of the weezle and polecat of our woods. These and other classes of our woodland vermin, without them, would have multiplied to an excessive degree in the country, and have proved a great annoyance to the poultry-yards and hare-parks of the Britons. The terrier, therefore, was necessary among us in that period." The large slow-hound, Whitaker states, must have hunted" some animal that was at least as heavy and as slow as itself, and that could only have been the British segh, or moose." He further states that "the British dogs were a very gainful article to the Romans." RICHARD LAWSON. Urmston, Manchester. I do not know the qualities of this dog, but I do know that the greyhound degenerated into the lurcher can be easily taught to catch a hare, and to carry it off to his master or owner for the time being; and when this happens at night hares dieappear from a manor, and the wonder is, how. I have the skull of a dog dug up in an old Roman veteran's holding of twenty-five jugera, which had the phalanges of a hare or rabbit in its mouth, as though choked in eating. But this skull is more the shape of our present retriever's. It measures from nose to base of skull 8 in. I should like to know more of the ancient British dog. Abington Pigotts. WM. GRAHAM F. PIGOTT. HUMAN SACRIFICE (8th S. viii. 287).—According to Livy (lib. xxii. ch. 57) a Gallic man and woman and a Greek man and woman were entombed alive; but he adds a remark to the effect that such Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities' ("Sacrificium"), where two soldiers were sacrificed to the god Mars so late as the time of Julius Cæsar for attempted insurrection. His authority is Dio Cassius. G. T. SHERBORN. Twickenham. "BATTLETWIG": "LANDLADY": "BOGGART” (8th S. viii. 85, 255).-The first of these will be found in Wright's Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English,' where the meaning is given, an earwig." According to Wright, the word in this sense is common in the Northern and Midland Counties. 'Landlady," as a name for the insect commonly known as the ladybird, is unfamiliar to me; but I read that in Yorkshire they are called "lady clocks." The name cow-lady" is also in vogue in the northern county. In London I have never heard other than "lady-bird," but have frequently heard of the superstition to which MR. HUSSEY refers in his communication. One may hear, even to this day, children cry out, when catching sight of the insect, the familiar lines:Ladybird, ladybird, fly away, Come again another day. There is, or used to be, a superstition that if a ladybird was killed rainy weather would follow as a consequence. My recollection of the superstition is somewhat hazy, but, so far as my memory serves me, it was as I say. boggart," the following, from a 'Glossary of YorkWith regard to shire Words and Phrases,' may be interesting : "Boggle, Boggart, a fearful object, a hobgoblin. As in most places, so in this quarter have boggles and Well, near Kettleness, on the coast, was a noted spot fairies had their haunts in former times. Claymore where the fairies washed their clothes and beat and bleached them, for on their washing-nights the strokes of their bittles or battledores were heard as far as Runswick. The woods of Mulgrave were haunted by Jeanie of Biggersdale, whose habitation a daring young farmer once ventured to approach and call her by name, when lo! she angrily replied she was coming; and while he was escaping near the running stream, just as his horse he was upon the half which had got beyond the water ! ” was half across, she cut it in two parts; but fortunately "Flay-boggle" is another word found in the in cornfields to frighten away birds. Glossary. This is a name for a scarecrow used C. P. HALE. CANALETTO IN ENGLAND (8th S. viii. 407).— In conexion with this subject I will mention that I have thirty-eight of Canaletto's beautiful etchings of Venice, each measuring 16 in. by 10 in. They are bound up in an oblong folio, and were published at Venice in the year 1742. The book also contains a very fine portrait of him, as well as of Antonius Visentini, who engraved the etchings. On a blank page I find the following MS. note respecting him : Among the pictures in the Deanery at Westminster there is a picture by Canaletto, painted for Bishop Wilcocks. It represents the western part of the Abbey Church, with St. Margaret's in the background. A procession of the Knights of the Bath is coming forth from the porch, proceeding through the churchyard, and entering the south end of King Street, it may be presumed on its way to Whitehall. There was an installation of the Bath 26 June, 1749, and that is probably the date of this picture. See Malcolm's 'Londinium Redivivum,' 1803, vol. i. p. 136. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. Without being able to decide how long or how many times he visited the metropolis, we can fix his lodging. His view of St. James's Park was exhibited at the house of Richard Wiggans, cabinet-maker, Silver Street, Golden Square, 1749. The reason I have queried the name of the according to the London Journal (?), 26 July, newspaper is that some time ago one of my notebooks got mutilated by a little puppy dog gnawing one corner, but the cutting will be found in Lysons's Collectanea,' vol. ii. p. 161. AYEAHR. LEITCHTOWN AND GARTUR ARMS (8th S. viii. 289, 370, 416, 494).—If iteration and reiteration will prove anything, your correspondent MR. W. M. GRAHAM EASTON may be held to have established that Graham of Leitchtown is the head of the house of Menteith. But as he has carefully avoided giving the pedigree of this family (although in one of his contributions he stated it would be published) he can hardly expect the readers of 'N. & Q.' to accept his assumption as correct. In Burke's 'Landed Gentry' (1844) Graham of Leitchtown is said to be descended from the noble house of Graham, Earl of Menteith, through the Gartur family. MR. EASTON evidently does not regard this descent as true, because in an article on Graham of Gartur' (8th S. viii. 134) he gives it as his opinion that the Gartur family branched off Blaircessnoch, whose origin he does not mention. The above appears to be an extract from Epochs How, then, does MR. EASTON Connect Graham of of Painting,' by R. N. Wornum, p. 370. "Venice is further distinguished for its landscape painters, of whom Antonio Canal, or Canale, commonly called Canaletto, enjoys a European reputation. He was born at Venice in 1697, and was taught by his father Bernardo, who was a scene-painter; he himself followed the same occupation until 1719, when he gave it up entirely. Antonio visited Rome at an early age, and here, like his compatriot Giovanni Piranesi, he devoted himself to the study of the magnificent ruins of the ancient capital of the world. He returned to Venice, and astonished the Venetians by his elaborate views of the canals and palaces of the Queen of the Adriatic. In 1746 he came to England, and painted many of the historical buildings of London and other places. He was very successful, and acquired a fortune by his works. He used the Camera Lucida as a help in the great accuracy of his views. Canaletto died at Venice in 1768." C. LEESON PRINCE. one of Signor Canaletto gives notice that he has painted Chelsea College, Ranelagh House, and the River Thames; which, if any gentleman, or others, are pleased to favour him with seeing the same, he will attend at his lodgings at Mr. Viggans, in Silver Street, Golden Square, from fifteen days from this day, July 31, from 8 to 1, and from 3 to 6 at night, each day." Leitchtown with the Earls of Menteith? When he answers this question genealogists will be better able to discuss the merits of the claim he so confidently puts forward on behalf of that family. W. B. C. I thank MR. EASTON for his mild rebuke respecting my too confident reply to the above query. After perusing the authorities he quotes and relies upon I feel more convinced that Argent, on a chief sable three escallops or, are the arms of Graham, Earl of Menteith. If he will refer again to the following, he may alter his opinion: Nisbet (vol. i. p. 79, vol. ii. part i. p. 85, ed. 1804), Lyndsay's MS. (p. 47), Wood's Douglas's 'Peerage' (under "Airtb," vol. i. p. 41, the plate of the arms being incorrect). Papworth, under the above arms, gives Patrick de Graham (Glover's Ordinary') and Graham, Scotland. Burke, in his Armory,' 1844, and 'Extinct Peerage,' 1866, is silent as to the arms of the family. Work man's MS., the same as far as the Graham family is concerned. The query is, How are the arms blazoned in the MS. at the Lyon Office? Will MR. EASTON give his authorities for the statement that the field is or instead of argent in the Menteith arms. JOHN RADCLIFFE. ST. SAMPSON (8th S. viii. 427).-Information is asked at the above reference with respect to St. Sampson, "to whom a fine church is dedicated at Cricklade, Wiltshire." The festival of St. Sampson, Bishop and Confessor, is kept at Dôle, in Brittany, on 28 July, and, according to William of Malmesbury, certain relics of him were brought from Brittany and placed in the Abbey of Middleton, in Dorsetshire. His parents Ammon and Anne came of a distinguished family in South Wales. They had long been childless, and when this son was born, following the example of Hannah, who entrusted her tender child to the care of Eli, they placed him at a very early age under the care of St. Iltut, who brought him up in his monastery. It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to do more in this place than to state very briefly that he spent some years in Ireland, attracted thither by the learning of some Irish monks; that he was consecrated bishop, but without a see; that he journeyed to Dôle, in Brittany, where he established a monastery; that business connected with this house obliged him to visit King Childebert at Paris, which visit led to his nomination as first Bishop of Dôle; and that he died about the year 565 A.D., at the age of eighty-five years. These particulars are condensed from Father Stanton's Menology of England and Wales' (pp. 364, 365). At p. 663 a few additional details are given : "It is said that King Childebert gave the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, and Sark to St. Samson, and that for a time they were attached to his Diocese of Dôle.-M. de la Croix, 'Jersey,' &c., p. 147.” If fuller information is desired, I would refer the querist to Les Vies des Saints de Bretagne,' by Dom Guy-Alexis Lobineau, edited by M. l'Abbé Tresvaux. In the first volume, pp. 202 to 239 are occupied by a life of S. Samson, Évêque de Dol. There were, indeed, other saints named Samson, whom it is not necessary to particularize, for there can be no doubt that the Bishop of Dôle is the saint to whom the Wiltshire church is dedicated. "Le nom de Samson est le premier dans les Litanies Anglaises du VIIe siècle, entre les saints confesseurs de la nation." So says Dom Lobineau. The cathedral church of Dôle bears his name. It seems worth while to add that Middleton or Milton Abbats, in Dorsetshire, was a Benedictine monastery, and that the abbey was dedicated to St. Mary, St. Michael, St. Sampson, and St. Branwalader. Speed and Cressy wrongly place the abbey in Wiltshire. William of Malmesbury records the great wealth of relics pertaining to the church, and says: "Ibi multas sanctorum reliquias ex Britannia transmarina emptas reposuit: inter quos eminent præcipue beatissimi Sampsonis ossa, Dolensis quondam Archiepiscopi sanctissimi, et plane Deo digni viri: cujus virtutes aliquas bic referrem, nisi quia notæ sunt, et indigenarum sanctorum miraculis scribendis occupatus manus habeo." See Dugdale's 'Monasticon Anglicanum,' ii. 344, St. Sampson's (sic) commemoration in the Roman "The Lives of St. Samson know him only as Archbishop connexion at all with St. David's or with York, and as of Dol (a mere vague title in such a case), but with no living in the early part of the sixth century. But in the twelfth century the concurring interests of the clergy of Dol, wishing to establish their independence against the Archbishop of Tours, and of Giraldus Cambrensis, wishthe see of Canterbury, led to the assertion by both that ing to prove the metropolitanship of St. David's against he had been strictly an archbishop." ED. MARSHALL. [Replies enough to fill a number of 'N. & Q.' are acknowledged.] FOXGLOVE (8th S. viii. 155, 186, 336, 393, 452, 495).-I am sorry to have made what PROF. SKEAT regards as being a "misleading suggestion"; I thought I was making a statement of fact, and one, indeed, which PROF. SKEAT would not wish to be in a position to contradict. Naturally, I did not mean to imply that he was the only reader of English, or the sole student who might light upon a word hitherto unregistered by glossarists. My mode of expression was synecdochical, and I have confidence that none of the conners of 'N. & Q' will be misled by it. As Dr. Prior is not in a position to speak for himself, I may perhaps be allowed to say that, unless he changed his theory concerning the derivation of foxglove for the worse between 1863 and 1879, PROF. SKEAT has misrepresented it. In the first edition of Popular Names of British Plants' the author wrote : "It seems most probable that the name was in the first place foxes-glew, or music, A.-S. gliew, in reference to the favourite instrument of an earlier time, a ring of bells hung on an arched support, the tintinnabulum, and thus answering to the Norwegian Revbielde." I am not at all concerned to defend this bold bad guess, but it certainly appears more reason able here than as set forth by PROF. SKEAT: "He actually proposes fox-glee because the flowers resemble bells, and thus refer to music!" Why should gliew be rendered glee when it might quite truthfully be rendered music? ST. SWITHIN. PARISH COUNCILS AND RECORDS (8th S. viii. 445, 496). In too many country parishes the great difficulty of properly preserving these old parish records is from want of a proper place, for in this parish the council was obliged to arrange that for the present they should remain in the large wooden box in the church, under the care of the vicar and churchwardens. If every parish council was obliged by law to build a parish hall (if there was not already such a room), the old parish records might then be properly kept in a safe or cupboard, according to their value, for they cannot be kept in the schoolroom, where many councils have to meet. It should be remembered that the County Councils, by the law that created parish councils, are to see that these documents are safely preserved, therefore county councillors should be stirred up at once to see into this subject. Wingham, Kent. ARTHUR HUSSEY. "WOFUL" (8th S. viii. 184, 258, 417).-The fact that woeful and woful have both been employed as spellings of the same word is sufficiently well known. I wonder that no one cares to ask why. The reason is this, as explained in my 'Primer of English Etymology.' Middle-English had no fewer than three values for the symbol o when long. Thus wo, pronounced wau, i. e., with the sound of au in Paul, is the modern English woe. To, pronounced like modern English toe, is the modern word too or to. Lastly, spoken, pronounced spauken, is the modern English spoken. In Anglo-Saxon these vowels were distinguished. The A.-S. for woe was wa; the A.-S. for too was to; and the unoriginal form spoken was due to analogy with the A.-S. broc-en, pronounced somewhat like brokken (but with only one k). The last is a case of vowel-lengthening; broc-en became brō-ken, by a difference of syllabification. I now leave this last out of account, because the Tudor-English spelling did the same in most cases. Let us now consider only woe and to; or, better still, the words to, a toe, and to, too, both spelt alike in the fifteenth century, when the words were pronounced, respectively, as taw and toe. Tudor - English spelling often distinguished between these sounds. The former was often written oa or oe; the latter oo or o. After this distinction had been made, the sounds again shifted, but the symbols remained unchanged. Hence in modern English we have oak, toe, with ta; and the words too, to, cool, corresponding to the sound of o in stone, corresponding to A.-S. āc, the A.-S. tō, cōl. Hence, by a rule of thumb, setting aside all sounds, we have in modern English, in a large A.-S. vowel is a. And the distinction between oa number of words, the symbols oa, oe, wherever the and oe is merely due to the look of the thing. People prefer oe when the sound is final, merely because they are accustomed to see final e so often, as in stone, home, A.-S. stān, hām (showing that o-e is yet a third way of forming an equation to the A.-S. ā). Examples: oath, A.-S. ath; oak, A.-S. ac; toad, A.-S. tād. And finally, woe, A.-S. wā; toe, A.-S. tā; roe, A.-S. rā; doe, A.-S. dā; foe, A.-S. fah; moe (obsolete), A.-S. mā. And formerly, goe, soe, now always written go, so. Hence the reason for the spelling woe is clear enough. It was practically a phonetic spelling. But in these days, when we already write go and so (for A.-S. gū and sucā), there is no particular reason why we should write woe any longer; yet at the same time it is convenient to distinguish between doe and do, and between toe and to. Briefly, the frequent changes in English symbols and sounds have landed us in that slough of trouble which makes the acquirement of modern enhanced by the fact that schoolmasters, as a rule, spelling so difficult, a difficulty very greatly never learn Anglo-Saxon, and have not the remotest notion of the reasons for our modern spelling. They do not even know that it is explicable. WALTER W. SKEAT. "LUCK MONEY" (8th S. viii. 348, 470).—Of the several correspondents upon this subject, E. S. A. alone alludes to the almost invariable custom connected with the receipt of "luck money," whether Keats intends to say is:- happy lot, but that I am too happy in sympathizing it be as "handsel," i.e., the first money received Poems," "edited by W. M. Rossetti," the text has for the day, or true "luck money," that which is "thy happiness." Is the alteration due to Mr. given back "for luck" by the seller to the buyer. Rossetti? In my humble opinion, he would have Spitting upon it is the essence of the whole trans-done better to let it alone. C. B. MOUNT. action, and is practised to-day not only all over England, but all over the world. We know from many classical authors what virtue was believed, by ancient Greeks and Romans (see Potter, Archæol. Græc.,' i. 417), to lie in the act; and there is also abundant evidence of the belief all through the Middle Ages. At the end of the nineteenth century it remains as strong as ever. Otto Jahn says, "I have often seen the fishwives of Ellerbeck, when they had got Handgeld from my mother, how they spat upon it. They say that it brings them besonderes Glück. They will not tell the reason; certainly it is done to keep off witchcraft." The same thing is done by modern Egyptians and by Italians. At Posilippo, in February last, I gave a penny to a deaf mute; he first spit on it, then put it to his forehead, and lastly devoutly crossed himself with it, precisely (except the crossing) as is done by modern Egyptians. Even in far-off Celebes-the natives spit in the same way as a protective rite. F. T. ELWORTHY. ease. Singest of summer in full-throated Beyond doubt the poet must be disclaiming envy on his own part. According to the mere position of the words, he would seem to say, "Not through envy, but because I am too happy in thy happiness." But this cannot be. The reaction from too great happiness might induce melancholy, but scarcely such utter prostration of spirit as he complains of. Must we not take it thus: "'Tis not through envy, but that thou, being too happy in thy happiness-too happy to be in accord with my already existing sadness-makest me yet more sad by thy song of full-throated ease”? For MR. INGLEBY's second point, "thine happiness," his law of euphony was not always in force. The Psalter of 1539, preserved in the Book of Common Prayer, has, "While he lived, he counted himself an happy man." If this be thought an insufficient rule for our day, would it be too awful heresy to suggest that the Londoner bred and born, and somewhat humbly born, may not always have been quite precise about the aspirate? Pauca tamen suberunt priscæ vestigia fraudis. So it may have been, perhaps, even with the exquisite ear of Keats. In my copy of Keats's Who art so lovely fair, and smell'st so sweet, My edition of Keats has "thy happiness." It is Boston, Lincolnshire. R. R. May I refer MR. INGLEBY to a note of my own, also to one by C. C. B., in 'N. & Q.,' 7th S. x. 11, in which we have explained, I hope satisfactorily, the construction of the first stanza of this "divine poem," as I called it then, and call it now? With regard to "thine happiness," I fancy MR. INGLEBY must have got this reading from a recent edition of the Golden Treasury,' 1892. In the 1867 edition, as well as in my three editions of Keats's 'Poems,' it is "thy happiness." "Thine," I suppose, is a misprint. JONATHAN BOUCHIER. [Very numerous replies have been elicited. It is impossible to insert all.] THE ROLL OF BATTLE ABBEY (8th S. viii. 508). -MR. HART should consult 'The Battle Abbey Roll,' by the Duchess of Cleveland, published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, in 1889. The original roll exists no longer, nor, if it did, would it be of value as an authority, inasmuch as in process of time names crept into it which had no business there, being inserted by the monks to oblige liberal patrons. Three copies of the roll remain, and these the duchess has given in her book, together with some account of the families the names of the ancestors of which appear in these copies. C. W. CASS. The information which MR. H. T. HART requires can be obtained from the Duchess of Cleveland's book 'The Battle Abbey Roll,' published in 3 vols. small 4to. JOHN MURRAY. |