if he does not either make her repeat the word, or else-which is much more likely-correct her, and say, "The Princess's I suppose you mean." It is true that she has analogy in her favour, though we ought to bear in mind that princess has lost one syllable out of the middle (for in Italian it is principessa, with the accent on the e), which the other words quoted by her, with the exception of abbess,* have not; but analogy, I think, goes for very little in the pronunciation of English. Kenilworth, Bournemouth. F. CHANCE. When I first saw this question, the line from King John started up to answer it :— "The best I had, a príncess wrought it me." I have referred to Mrs. Cowden Clarke's Concordance, and after appealing to some of the lines to which she directs attention, and determining as far as I could the quantity of the syllable from the fragments of other lines quoted, I have no doubt that Shakespeare, in most, if not in all, examples, gives his authority in favour of the accent resting upon the first syllable. M. D. I have no doubt that the accent ought to fall on the first syllable. Tennyson (and there is no higher authority) so accents the word in his poem. I have heard the Prince of Wales in a public speech do otherwise, and pronounce the word as we speak of recess, distress, confess, &c. I named this to Canon Tarver, the Prince's former tutor, and he allowed that it was so; but he attributed this habit to his German association with the word prinzessin. One must be very thick-spoken not to distinguish betwixt princes and princess in reading. ALFRED GATTY, D.D. Whilst I lived in Leicestershire I heard no other pronunciation but that laying the stress on the second syllable. It consequently struck me when I heard it first pronounced in the other way at Oxford. I think, if we are guided by the analogy of countess, duchess, empress, &c., its accent, no doubt, should likewise fall on the first syllable. We may, however, not be wrong in attributing the very frequent and, I believe, prevailing accentuation of the final syllable to the combined influence both of the French princesse and the German prinzessin, which have their accent alike on the second syllable. H. KREBS. Oxford. The correct accentuation is surely princess, as in all the dictionaries. The s of princes is pronounced as z, whilst the ss of princess has the hissing sound of s, so that the suggested difficulty does not exist. The placing of the accent on the second syllable is an affectation of, I think, very recent date. A youth who so pronounces the word will * In Italian abbadéssa. I take it that while princess is the usual and correct pronunciation, princess is an unauthorized, but perhaps pardonable, endeavour after perspicuity by avoiding confusion with the plural of prince. Hence, in the Prayer for the Royal Family, there may occasionally be heard "Albert Edward Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and all the Royal Family." No such ambiguity, it may be remarked, attaches to the plural and feminine forms of duke, marquis, count, or baron. W. THOMPSON. Sedbergh. Is not this word a spondee? = C. S. "LOCK" RIVER GATE: THE VALLEY OF THE THAMES (5th S. xii. 429; 6th S. i. 81).—MR. ARNOLD might find, probably, some interesting information regarding locks on the Thames in the documents referred to by Wood. In the History of the City of Oxford, known as "Peshall's Wood," he will find in the account of Osney that the fifteenth abbot, J. Bakeland, who succeeded about There are earlier notices of locks than that one. 1373-4, "built the Lock near Ruley Abbey." At pp. 260-1 there is mention made of several in connexion with the Abbey of Abingdon and others. There was a custom of paying herrings for wharfage to the cellarers of the abbey by barges and vessels passing through the abbey lands. This custom was broken, and Abbot Favitius, temp. Hen. I., addressed the king, and the right was restored. In the course of these disputes counter complaints were made "that obstacles happened in the river elsewhere between this place and London." The first was in the third of Edw. I. (1275), when several locks were raised : "At the Request of the University to the King, a Brief was issued to the Sheriff of Oxon and Berks, combe freed of them so far as his Liberty or Bailiwick went." manding him to remove them, and cause the water to "In the 13th year of the said king (1285), in an Inquisition for Purprestures, it appeared that the Preceptor of Cowley did raise another Lock, dicunt quod-they alleged that the Preceptor of Couele raised Gurgitem, a Lock upon the Thames, by which the River overflowed the Meadows of their Lord the King at Oxon, where having occasion hourly to pass the Thames near Oxford they were greatly hindered, to the great loss of the Country." there raised." "Temp. Ed. III. The Men of Oxford broke down the Locks of Sandford, near Oxford, which the brethren "In the 30th of the said King (1357) the River was so stopped up that a Petition was preferred in Parliament." "One nuisance especially occurred in K. H. VIII.'s Reign, when the University wrote to R. Fox, then Bishop of Winchester, complaining of the Inundations which hurt the Trades of the City, and increased the Sicknesses that then and before raged." "By these, say they, the Waters are hindered from their free Course, the Meadows immersed under stagnating Waters, whence nauseous Smells arise, very hurtful to men and cattle; the Air becomes very unwholesome, and from hence that Pestilential disorder, which so violently rages, manifestly arises." "The effect of this Petition does not appear. But it had not only respect to those Passages of Water several miles distant, but also those about Oxford, of which the chief was Puthulfe's Lock, on the South of Oxon, near Stockwell Mede and Godesfordesheyt, which was then, and long before temp. H. III., standing. But though all these circumstances were urged, as against nuisances, because neither set up with Leave, or not in convenient places, viz., in back streams, or deep places; yet some again were bound to be always kept up to give a Shoot to Vessels in their passage, as are testified by Divers Records. Sir J. Draiton, Knt., was indicted in Hilary term, 5 Hen. IV. (1405), because he did not keep up at Rotherfield Pypard, in the water of Thames there, Locks and Winches for the necessary conducting of Barges. In antient Times there were few, but now are above 14 Locks." It will be seen from this that the question of locks has been a vexata quæstio for over six hundred years, and that the task of the present Conservators of the Thames is to settle matters which have been in controversy from 1275, 3 Edw. I., and have not been satisfactorily dealt with by kings, parliaments, or law courts. GIBBES RIGaud. 18, Long Wall, Oxford. CURIOUS EPITAPHS (5th S. xi. 346; xii. 139, 156).-It appears to me very curious that no correspondent of "N. & Q." has pointed out the obvious blunder in all the versions of the epitaph, "Man's life is like a winter's day," &c.-that "winter's day" is a misprint for vintner's day, since there is surely nothing peculiarly apposite in the comparison of "breakfasting," ""dining," and so on, to a winter's any more than to a summer's day. In my MS. book of literary oddities (compiled, eheu, fugaces! twenty years syne) I find the epitaph in question transcribed as follows : On an Innkeeper, at Barnwell, near Cambridge. "Man's life is like a vintner's day; Some only breakfast, and away; Others to dinner stay, and are full fed; The oldest man but sups and goes to bed. Long is his life who lingers out the day; Who goes the soonest has the least to pay. Death is a waiter; some few run on tick; And some, alas! must pay the bill to Nick. Though I owed much, I trust long trust is given, And truly mean to pay all debts in heaven." Among the droll epitaphs to be found in country churchyards, both in Scotland and in England (I cannot speak of the churchyard literature of Ireland), it is remarkable that many have pointed allusions to the professions of the deceased, of which the above is not the least curious instance. I find several others noted in my old scrap-book. This is on a famous juggler : " "Death came to see thy tricks, and cut in twain Thy thread-why didst not make it whole again? And this, in Walton churchyard, near Liverpool, on George Miles, blacksmith, who died in 1719 :"My sledge and hammer lye reclined, My bellows also lost their wind; My fire 's extinct, my forge decayed; My vice i' the dust my friends have laid; My coals are spent, my iron 's gone, My nails are drove,-my work is done." [This occurs with variations throughout the country.] And this is on Little Stephen, a famous Suffolk fiddler : "Stephen and Time are now both even: Stephen beat Time, now Time 's beat Stephen." In the churchyard of Linton, Roxb., is the following "uncouth rhyme," designed, of course, "to teach the rustic moralist to die" :"Remember, man, that passeth by, As thou is now, so once was I; And as I is, so must thou be: Prepare thyself to follow me." [Known also in Argyllshire.] Underneath some irreverent wag wrote:"To follow you 's not my intent, Unless I knew which way you went." Our churchyard literature comprises many specimens of the laconic epitaph, but hardly any so noteworthy as one in the New Church at Amsterdam, consisting simply of two Flemish words, "Effen nyt," meaning exactly. The following is the "history" of this brief epitaph, as transcribed in my old scrap-book-I don't remember where I got it : "These words are inscribed on an ancient monument of whitish marble, on which there is also sculptured a pair of slippers. The story runs that a gentleman who was tolerably wealthy, and loved above all things good living, conceived the notion that he would only live a his wealth unenjoyed, he made a nice calculation of his certain number of years, and, desirous to leave none of fortune, which he so apportioned for every year he was to live (according to his own notion) as to last exactly the same time with his life. Curiously enough, it so happened that his calculations did not deceive him, for he died exactly at the time he had previously reckoned, and had then so far exhausted his estate that, after paying his debts, there was nothing left but a pair of slippers. His relatives buried him, and caused the slippers to be carved on his tomb, with the laconic epitaph, 'Exactly.'" Such is the legend related of this Flemish epitaph-possibly invented, to account for en odd inscription, long after the true story was forgotten. W. A. CLOUSTON. "TO SPEAK IN LUTESTRING" (5th S. xii. 287, 413).—I am much obliged to your correspondents who have replied to my query as to this expression, vol. i. p. 287, is printed a letter from Senleger to but I fancy that none of the meanings suggested is Henry VIII. in 1543 (quoted from Lingard, vol. vi. the right one. B. N. has not noticed that Philoch. iv.), in which occurs the expression that the Junius is quoting, from the Journals of the House, Kernes were "both hardy and clever." On turnresolutions come to on March 8, 1704, not 1771. ing, however, to the State Papers, vol. iii. p. 444 Since sending you the query I have come across (1834), I discovered that the word actually used was a passage in the Spectator, No. 21, by which it my old friend delyver, for which clever had been appears that the scarves worn by the clergy were instinctively substituted. composed of the kind of silk called lutestring. So A. SMYTHE PALMER. that "to speak in lutestring" may mean to speak as truthfully as a clergyman in his pulpit, or, as we say, to speak the gospel truth. The passage is as follows: "We may divide the Clergy into Generals, Field Officers, and Subalterns. Among the first we may reckon Bishops, Deans, and Arch-Deacons. Among the second are Doctors of Divinity, Prebendaries, and all that wear scarfs. | The rest are comprehended under the Subalterns. As for the first class, our constitution preserves it from any redundancy of incumbents, notwithstanding competitors are numberless. Upon a strict calculation it is found that there has been a great exceeding of late years in the second division, several brevets having been granted for the converting of subalterns into Scarf-Officers; insomuch that within my memory the price of lutestring is raised above twopence in a yard." HENRY M. Possibly Junius may have had in his mind an imperfect recollection of Orlando's answer to Jaques (Shaks., As You Like It, III. ii.): "Not so; but I answer you right painted cloth, from whence you have studied your questions." The phrase I have italicized may have clung to the writer's memory, while its true interpretation in this passage, which depends so entirely on the context, may have escaped his recollection. ARTHUR E. QUEKETT. Shakespeare in another place gives a different turn to this expression : Nay, but his jesting spirit; which is now crept into a lute-string and now governed by stops" (Much Ado, III. ii.). EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A. Seville Villa, Forest Hill, S. E. "CLEVER" (5th S. xii. 268, 375, 414).-If any one would care to see more about this word he will find a monograph on the subject in chap. x. of Leaves from a Word-Hunter's Notebook, published nearly four years ago. I there distinguished the word from Old Eng. cliver, and identified it with the very common old adjective deliver active, adroit. Prof. Craik, however, had been before me in this, in his English of Shakspere. The weak point of the argument, as I formerly noted, is that we should have expected_d'liver to yield a form gliver instead of clever. There is no example, so far as I know, of cl springing from dl. Having committed myself to the statement that there is no trace of clever having been in use before 1660, I was a good deal surprised to find lately an apparent instance more than a hundred years earlier. In Sir S. D. Scott's History of the British Army, Leacroft, Staines. To obviate this diffi FUNERAL FOLK-LORE (5th S. xii. 148, 239, 478). -I have heard the same nonsense in Essex, with the addition of a bill-hook or hatchet to clear the way of obstruction in the soul's path to heaven; also of a tinder-box, flint, and steel to light the candle, which MR. ROBERTS failed to put in; or will he tell us how the candle was to be lighted? If a sinner died far from bliss I should send a baker, as one loaf would be insufficient for a long journey, so would a solitary candle. No doubt it ". was all firmly credited," as MR. ROBERTS puts it. It is simply a Protestant tradition respecting Catholic neighbours. I have heard others equally absurd-old tales given as new by Protestant clergymen on the public platform. I think it is generally known that in none of the ancient churchyards would a priest be allowed to officiate at culty the funeral service prescribed by the the grave of a Catholic. Church at the burial of her children is read in the house before the body is removed. In this service earth is blessed and sprinkled with holy water and deposited in the coffin with the deceased. This by the illiterate is called "blessing the grave." It is certain the Church prescribes no more; but it is possible, and even probable, that the affection of survivors might include the crucifix worn by the deceased, or even a favourite medal or scapular-the last two, especially, if the deceased was a member of any religious order which enjoined it. Thus a chalice might be placed on the coffin of a priest, a mitre on that of a bishop. I believe the horse of the Prince Imperial was led at and coronets, &c., are placed on the coffins of his funeral. I have an idea, too, that swords those entitled to the honour. No one would "N. & Q." is cerimagine either was of any use. tainly not a medium for religious controversy, but when correspondents, like CUTHBERT BEDE and MR. ROBERTS, reiterate such absurd matter as this as funeral folk-lore, I think it demands some J. W. SAVILL, F.R.Hist. Soc. notice. Dunmow, Essex, CLERICAL TITLES (5th S. ix. 348, 376).-The terms "Honourable" and "Venerable" seem to have been applied as a matter of course to institutions chartered by the Crown or persons holding high commission. The "Honourable James Wolfe" was, and I hope is still, the sign of a public house 6, King's Bench Walk, Temple. THE PRONUNCIATION OF ANTHONY " (6th S. i. 19).-Considering that this name is of Latin origin, viz., from "Antonius," and in English, though less frequently, is written without h, Í think the h ought to be eliminated, as a mistake, both in writing and pronouncing it. It has probably crept in by an erroneous derivation from a Greek noun spelt with 0. at a small village near Barnard Castle. "The Westmacott, jun., representing Religion and Virtue, W. G. [See "N. & Q.," 1" S. iii. 437; vi. 246; 2nd S. ix. 483; 3rd S. vii. 121; xii. 26. At the first reference will be "Posy" (5th S. xii. 188, 289, 329, 350, 378, "We might well call this short mock play of ours "THE FLOGGING WELCHI BISHOP" (6th S. i. 36). Oxford. H. KREBS. "THE MONTHLY CHRONICLE" (5th S. xii. 449) was continued till March, 1732-No. 1 having been published January, 1728-when it was superseded by the London Magazine; the latter was then relinquished by the proprietors. conducted with great reputation till 1783, and EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. To “IXE" (6th S. i. 76).—Can this be to hitch? North Lincolnshire. The word is from ike, to POEM WANTED (6th S. i. 37).-I lately saw an Scarborough. LOCKE'S "THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION" (5th S. xii. 487).-The story relating to Augustus is from Suetonius, Vit. Oct. Cæs. Aug., ch. lxxvii. : "Verba ipsius ex epistolis sunt, Nos in essedo panem et palmulas gustavimus.' Et iterum, 'Dum lectica ex regia domum redeo, panis unciam cum paucis acinis uvæ duracinæ comedi.'" For "essedo" in the first of these two references some MSS. have vescendo." ED. MARSHALL. DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES (5th S. xii. 409).—All monasteries which had not lands above 2001. by the year were given to the Crown by Act 27 Hen. VIII. cap. 28. All manors, lands, &c., belonging to any of the Religious, dissolved, or hereafter by any means to be dissolved, were assured to the king's highness by Act 31 Hen. VIII. cap. 13, an Act for dissolution of the great monasteries. Colleges and hospitals were included, but "chauntries, free chapels, and colleges, and the possessions of the same, were given to the king' by Act 1 Edw. VI. cap. 14. The certificates of chantries and ministers' accompts will give a clue authority for "reverend" is Annual Register, 1810, to these possessions. MACKENZIE E. C. WALCOTT. THE OLD HUNDREDTH PSALM (5th S. xii. 289, 418, 475; 6th S. i. 41, 86).—Bound up with my copy of the Breeches Bible is— "The Booke of Psalmes, collected into English Meeter by Thomas Sternehold, John Hopkins, and others, conferred with the Hebrew, with apt notes to sing them withall. Set forth and allowed to be sung in all churches, of the people together, before and after morning and evening prayer: As also before and after sermon, and moreover in private houses for their godly solace and comfort, laying apart all ungodly songs and ballads, which tend onely to the nourishment of vice, and corrupting of youth." In the binding up the first page with the printer's name was omitted, but the Bible with which it is bound is of the date 1599. As in MR. MORGAN'S copy, many of the Psalms have the initials of the composer, many are set to music, with the stave and notes of that period. The first verse of Ps. c. is as follows: "All people that on earth doe dwell Sing to the Lord with chearfull voyce The tune is that we know as the "old tune." vol. lii. pp. 254, 255, where an amusing account of the marriage (which was a runaway one) is of Sir Gervase Elwes, the first baronet, as early given. Stoke College, Suffolk, was the property as 1660, and it descended to his grandson, Sir Hervey Elwes, the second baronet, who was himself a great miser, and taking a fancy to his sister Amy's son, John Meggott-he showing the same miserly inclinations as he himself was possessed of left him by will all his property, instead of (as he should have done) leaving the landed property to go with the baronetcy to his first cousin, Sir William Elwes, the third baronet; so how could "John Timms and Amy Meggot" be the founders of the existing line of Elwes at Stoke College? George Elwes, of Marcham (which property he inherited from his father, John Meggot, alias Elwes), whose only daughter married Mr. Duffield, was, I believe, an illegitimate son. As the miser Elwes was never married at all, of course he left no legitimate issue, and his sons could not succeed to the entailed estates, which passed to his great nephew, John Timms, who took the name and arms of Elwes in 1793, and was a general in the army. DEC. [We have inserted your communication, but we must remark that we still see a considerable difference between a Member of Parliament and a clerk in holy orders. As to Stoke College, John Timms and Amy Meggot were the "founders of the existing line" as greatgrandfather and great-grandmother of the late proprietor, who was father of the present.] "CAD" (5th S. xi. 383, 458; xii. 176, 398).-It may interest MR. JONAS and others to know that the words cad and cadger are sometimes used as synonymous terms. Not long ago, when in conversation with an old inhabitant of this parish, I "DON QUIXOTE" (5th S. xii. 489; 6th S. i. 22). inquired the occupation of her son, and was told-It is rather going off on a side-issue to criticize that he was a bricklayer's cad. I had previously the matter of this celebrated work when the quesheard the word used only in its contemptuous tion was merely asked as to the author of a modern sense, and therefore, thinking that I had made a translation, yet there has ever been a difference of mistake, asked again. "He's a bricklayer's opinion in regard to its object and effects. No cadger," she replied; "or, as some calls 'em, brick- book ever written, perhaps, travelled more rapidly layer's labourer." Now, a bricklayer's labourer is "from grave to gay, from lively to severe," or exa messenger or carrier, as he has to convey the cited more varied feelings in the human mind. bricks, mortar, &c., from the ground to that part Charles Kingsley considered it one of the saddest of the building where the bricklayer is at work. books ever written, and Lord Byron makes the He might thus gain the name of cadger, of which following remarkable allusion to it in Don Juan :— I believe cad to be only an abbreviation. "Cervantes smiled Spain's Chivalry away; the word should have an opprobrious meaning is scarcely surprising, since the labourers are dependent for their work on the bricklayers; whenever these latter cannot or will not work, the labourers are thrown out, and usually spend their idle time loitering about the public house. Horsham, Sussex. That M. C. BAYNES. ELWES THE MISER, M.P. (5th S. xii. 139, 237). -You assert in an editorial note at the latter reference that Burke's account in Landed Gentry, 1879, differs from mine. Beyond my stating that Mr. Duffield was a reverend, whereas Burke says an esquire, I don't see where we differ. My A single laugh demolished the right arm Has Spain had heroes. While Romance could charm, Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. |