Replies. BRITANNIA. (7th S. i. 361, 422.) 66 Whenever CANON TAYLOR writes on names and places" his views are certain to deserve attention, but I cannot think that in this case they are destined to command acceptance. The Cassiterides, of which Herodotus tells us he knows nothing, are almost certainly neither the British nor the Scilly islands, but, as Mr. Elton has shown (Origins of English History,' p. 18), "the islands situated in the neighbourhood of Vigo Bay," off the Spanish coast. St. Michael's Mount, again, cannot have been the point from which British tin was exported to the Continent, for two reasons: one, that even at the close of the bronze period in our island "the Mount" seems to have been situated some considerable distance inland (see Pearson's ' Historical Maps,' p. xiii, particularly note 10); and the other, that no merchant would risk a voyage from the Cornish coast when safer and easier routes were open. If, however, CANON TAYLOR prefers a Cornish locality as the likeliest to have given its name to the whole island, it is strange that he should have overlooked the claims of Carnbrea (or Cairn-Bre, or whatever may be the correct spelling), where the find of a hoard of British coins-a phenomenon unique in that part of the countrymight seem to lend some small countenance to his theory. Rhine, was inhabited by the same people (the Belgians); but it is in direct contradiction to that of Cæsar, who makes the Seine the western boundary of the Belgians, and says that their language was different from that of the Celts; while Strabo says these languages were nearly the same. Now if Strabo, as seems likely, mistook the north-western Gauls for Belgians, contrary to the fact, it is no wonder that he should fancy the Belgian language differed but slightly from the Celtic, erroneously taking the north-western language to be Belgian when it was not. We must therefore conclude it was Gaelic, for Cæsar is more trustworthy than Strabo, and it is likely that the language of all Gallia Lugdunensis, including what was afterwards called Bretagne, was originally Gaelic, which as to its vocabulary is utterly different from Welsh, though a comparatively few words have found their way from one to the other. If Gaelic were the language of all Gallia Lugdunensis, its remains would probably be found in the modern French. With very imperfect knowledge of that language or of Irish, and very little examination, I have found the following coinci dences. Garçon, a boy Abh (pronounced ou), water. Allod, ancient. Molt, a wether. As to the name Albion being "doubtless derived from the white cliffs of Dover," Prof. Rhys, in the work CANON TAYLOR refers to, expressly says, "Its meaning is utterly unknown, in spite of guesses both new and old possibly the word is I believe this question has never been investigated. not Celtic." I am not quite sure that I understand CANON TAYLOR'S proposition: "When the island had once been discovered, the ports of Cornwall were more frequented than those of Kent." On the other hand, when he represents me as contending that the name of the whole island would be derived from the name of that part which lies nearest to the Continent," he has evidently failed to understand my proposition, which is that bret- = straits, and British situated on the straits. Britannia, therefore, assuming that the tan territory, means, according to my notions, "the territory on the straits"-a territory of which Caithness and Cornwall are as much parts as Kent or Sussex. BROTHER FABIAN. = ... A. Z. It will be useful to call attention to the facts which have been published by myself. In a paper which was read by me in 1871 before the Society of Antiquaries, entitled 'The Name Britannia and its Relationship to Prehistoric Populations,' it was shown that the name Britannia was formed on the same principles as other ancient geographical names. One conclusion was, however, erroneous, that this class of name was identical with river names instead of being founded on the same principles. In 1883 the same subject was discussed by me before the Royal Historical Society in a paper called 'The Iberian and Belgian Influence and Epochs in Britain.' Much will there be found on Britannia and Hibernia in relation and comBROTHER FABIAN seems to agree with Nie-parison with ancient geographical names. Those buhr that the original language of Brittany may have been the same as the British or Welsh, and he also agrees with Pliny that there were Britanni in North-East Gaul, or Belgium. This would agree with the statement of Strabo that the whole of Northern Gaul, from the Loire to the who wish it will find there the collection of facts. Both forms enter largely into island names, although they are not confined to them. B is not a part of the root of Britannia, nor is nia. The root form is rd (=rt, tr, lt), and for Hibernia br (=pr, pl, phl). The various island names of the two forms are found in pairs (p. 7). Convenient termination, would be reconverted into Low Lat. as examples are : SUZERAIN (7th S. i. 101, 146, 170, 232, 270, 349, 389, 452)-I plead "not guilty" to the charge of misrepresenting PROF. SKEAT. Here are his words: "Suzerain, a feudal lord (F.,-L.). Not in Johnson, hardly an E. word. F. suzerain, sovereign, yet subaltern, superior, but not supreme,' Cot. A coined word; made from F. sus, Lat. susum or sursum, above, in the same way as sovereign is made from Lat. super; it corresponds with a Low Lat. type suseranus*, for surseranus*" My point is that the word has nothing to do with the F. sus or the Lat. susum, and I fail to see any misrepresentation in the use of the word "derived "instead of "coined or "made" from. If PROF. SKEAT'S contention is that the word is "coined" or "made from," but not derived," from the F. sus, Lat. susum, he indirectly adopts my proposition that suzerain cannot be extracted from susum by any known philological rules. I am not aware, however, of any recognized technical limitation of the word "derived" which precludes my using it in the sense I did. The real difference between us is simple. PROF. SKEAT affirms that the word is coined or made from susum, in the same way as sovereign is made from the Lat. super. This is demonstrably incorrect. Super, by the addition of an adjectival termination, becomes superanus, exactly=F. souverain. But the same process in the other case only gives an impossible Lat. susumanus, with a corresponding barely possible F. susain, the latter represented by the sozain or souzoein to which MR. TEW again calls attention, the reference having been already once given by DR. CHANCE. Obviously, therefore, whether suzerain is made from susum or not, it is not made "in the same way" as sovereign from super. There is no evolving the er except on DR. CHANCE's hypothesis that the case is what a naturalist would call a case of "simulation." As to premerain, both PROF. SKEAT and DR. CHANCE have confused the adj. premierain with the adjectival subst. primayrain, which has quite a different origin. There are sundry medieval officials, apparently both clerical and lay, whose title in Low Latin appears as prior-major. This compound, like the simple Lat. major, would have two corresponding F. representatives, one derived from the accusative prior(em)-major(em), or prieurmajeur, and the other from the nominative pri(or)major, or pri-mayre. The last, with an adjectival primayranus, the very word in Ducange; and this derivation not only gives the word its exact meaning, but accounts for its extraordinary form, in both which respects the derivation from premierain signally fails. I may be as ignorant of phonetic laws as PROF. SKEAT supposes, but if either of us has fallen into a trap, I do not think it is BROTHER FABIAN. As to the main question, PROF. SKEAT cannot point to any occurrence of his suseranus any more than I can to my subsupranus, so that in this respect neither can claim any advantage. Should one or the other turn up, either the pros or the Meancons would be materially strengthened. while it is gratifying to learn, as I do on excellent authority, that Mr. Freeman has seen reason to abjure the word suzerain, and that it is destined to disappear from future editions of 'The Norman BROTHER FABIAN. Conquest.' HAM (7th S. i. 427).-MR. TURNER inquires for the derivation of the word ham, used in North Devon and West Somerset for "patches of pasture by the rivers." I believe that the fundamental meaning of the word is simply a patch or separate portion of something, as seen in the Old Dutch hamme, ham, a hunch or piece of something eatable; in Flanders, a pasture, meadow (Kilian); modern Dutch boterham, a piece of bread and butter. In East Friesland ham is the tract of fen belonging to a village; Old Dutch, hamme van wilghen, an osier bed. In Dorset, ham, an enclosed mead (Barnes). Whether this is a distinct word from the Norfolk ham, a home, Gothic haims, a village, is not so clear. We see an analogous train of thought in German fleck, a rag, piece of stuff, a patch, a tract of country, portion of land, spot; flecken, a village, open town. In Switzerland ham, heim, is the piece of enclosed ground in which the dwelling stands, the house and dwelling-place itself. H. WEDGWOOD. Your correspondent rightly points to the difference of the meaning of ham, by a river, and that of "a home" to which it is so very commonly referred. Often it is, as he says, used for patches of pasture by the rivers, but not because they are patches of pasture. It is because they are peninsular, either caused by the windings of a river or by being the piece of land which is peninsular at the confluence of two rivers. He supplies a fresh example of the latter. He says, "In West Somerset, at a spot where two small rivers join, a bridge is called Couple Ham Bridge." Without denying that ham may sometimes have more than one other meaning, I believe that in topographical names this (of a river peninsula) is by very much the most frequent. I have several times already urged it, with examples the tsuch peninsular spots now known by ham have been formerly holm. really long. A few instances are celtenhom ('C. Evesham is a case that is well known and undeni-D.,' 184), werahom ('C. D.,' 224), hunighamme...... able. Durham Dunelmum is another, and others andlang streámes (C. D.,' 664), and flodhammas may be cited. Holm seems to have meant either | (‘C. D.,' 224). an island or a peninsula, the latter distinguishing word not having contributed to old names. THOMAS KERSLAKE. Bristol. The term ham, in the sense to which MR. TURNER refers, is not only in use in North Devon and West Somerset. There are pieces of meadow adjoining the Thames in the parish of Iffley, near Oxford, which are so called, as they have been for centuries. In a terrier of the estate of Lincoln College, in that parish, of Nov. 13, 1661, by Richard Ffeshir, the miller, there occurs : "One little ham, about halfe a yeard of ground, be it more or lesse, beeing in Tidnum; Two hams in Mr. James his greate kidney, being about half-an-acre, be it more or lesse; Another ham in the Towne meade over against those two hams, being about half an acre more or lesse; one ham," &c. ED. MARSHALL. Various fields near the Thames here are called hams. I have one between the river and a branch called the Little Ham. The terminations ham, wick and throp (sic) for smaller groups of old cot, and ton are used around here for parishes, but houses. A fence of any kind is called a mound. Buscot Rectory, Lechlade. OSWALD BIRCHALL. PARISH REGISTERS (7th S. i. 447).-Two cases of missing registers, 66 one burnt in a fire," the other "lost," induce me to say that every archdeacon has, or should have, copies of all parish registers. At every visitation it is the duty of the incumbent of a parish to present to the registrar a copy of all entries made in the parish registers during the year. It is equally the duty of churchwardens to see that this copy is presented. Speaking MR. TURNER'S acute topographical observation I can say that these copies (generally dating from for the Archdeaconries of Canterbury and Maidstone, affords a valuable confirmation of the conclusions about 1560) are well kept and easily accessible. I of philologists. Prof. Leo, in his 'Rectitudines,' have found them invaluable in the case of doubtful following Grimm's well-known etymological distinction, points out that in the A.-S. charters In the St. Dunstan's (Cant.) registers alone I have readings or the more serious case of lost leaves. good MSS. distinguish between hám, the equiva-supplied about a thousand entries from these lent of the German heim, home, which denotes the copies. I should add that for about twenty years dwelling-place of the united family, and ham, (1640-1660) no copies were presented, at all events without the accent, used to designate a spot, fre- in this diocese. These copies are often useful in quently a riverside meadow, which is "hemmed another way. They were usually signed by the in" by forest, fence, or stream. The former, which incumbent, and from them one can generally is usually preceded by the name of a family or an obtain the name of the parson in any given year. individual, as in the case of slingahám or Cry- H. D. E. should write to his archdeacon; then, meshám, is common to England and Germany; the when permission is obtained, copy the missing other, rarely linked with a personal name, is almost exclusively confined to England and Friesland. portions and present his copy to the parish. In addition to the authorities cited by Leo, I would refer MR. TURNER to Koolman's Ostfriesisches Wörterbuch,' vol. ii. p. 21, where there is a good article on the Frisian usage. Canterbury. J. M. COWPER. SLARE (7th S. i. 489).-The statement that this word cannot be found in a dictionary is a little Mr. Monkhouse, in his scarce little book 'Ety- odd. A good deal depends upon knowing where to mologies of Bedfordshire,' pp. 8-13, has success-look, and what to look for. I found it in the first fully applied the distinction between him and ham to the explanation of the names of places along the banks of the Ouse, such as Felmersham, Pavenham, and Bromham, which are girdled either by the sinuous S-shaped windings of the river or by tributary brooks. ISAAC TAYLOR. book I opened, and found some light upon it in each of the next six books which I consulted. Peacock's 'Dictionary of Manley Words' (E. D. S.) gives: "Slare, to make a noise by rubbing the boot-soles on an uncarpeted floor. Crockery-ware, when washed in dirty water, or dried badly so as P.S.-I observe that PROF. SKEAT (7th S. i. to leave marks thereupon, is said to be slared." It 444) denies the existence of this distinction. I is even in Halliwell's 'Dictionary,' the best-known would ask him how he explains names in -ham and most accessible of all dialect dictionaries. My applied to riverside meadows which have never larger Etymological Dictionary' gives such an been sites of habitation; how he would deal with account of slur as to throw much light on the Belgian names in -hem which appear in charters of word. (In the smaller one, I find, to my surprise, the eighth and ninth centuries; and how he ac- slur has been omitted, purely by accident.) The counts for the A.-S. names in hom, and the re-Icelandic Dictionary' gives slóra, to trail, conduplication of the m, if the preceding vowel is traction of sloðra, from slóð, a trail, slot. Rietz's 'Provincial Swed. Dict.' gives slöra, to be negligent. Aasen's Norweg. Dict.' gives slöre, to sully, sloe, short for slöde, to trail, and so on. Still closer in form is the Icel. slæður, a gown that trails on the ground, which would give slæur by the loss of (crossed) d. I have already said that "the key to slur is that a th or d has been dropped; it stands for slother or sloder; cf. prov. E. slither, to slide; slodder, slush." Similarly slare is for sladder or slather. Halliwell gives, "Slather, to slip or slide (Cheshire); sladdery, wet and dirty." Also "Slair, to walk slovenly; slairg, mud; slare, to smear; slary, bedaubed." Also " 'Slidder, to slide," with its contracted form "Slir, to slide." WALTER W. SKEAT. The 'Manley and Corringham Glossary' (E.D.S.) has slare with various shades of meaning: "Slare, V., to make a noise by rubbing the boot-soles on an uncarpeted floor," exactly fits the case of the Epworth ghost. ST. SWITHIN. The verb to slare to smear occurs in Wright's 'Provincial Dictionary.' There is also the substantive. ED. MARSHALL. GRACE AFTER DINNER (7th S. i. 466).—With regard to the old customs of "asking a blessing' and "returning thanks" before and after meals, I cannot help thinking that the custom of an old Norfolk worthy ought to be immortalized in 'N. & Q.' He naturally felt that the break between dinner proper and dessert was a mistake; and so always waited until the decanters were put before him. Then, with a benign hand laid upon each of them, he said: "For these, and for all his mercies, the Lord's name be praised." CLK. What does MR. WYNNE E. BAXTER mean by "David's connexion with Beersheba"? Is it a mistake for Bathsheba; or does it allude to some pursuit of the Philistines to the place mentioned? C. S. JERRAM. [Other contributors call attention to the same substitution of name.] JOSHUA BARNES (7th S. i. 141, 226, 292, 371, 394, 476). That Joshua Barnes attributed the authorship of Homer to Solomon is not in dispute. The real question is whether his advocacy of the theory was honest or dishonest. MR. NORGATE thinks that he merely pretended to adopt it in order to obtain funds from his wife to publish his Homer. I think that he advocated it because he believed in its truth. Regarded as a question of ethics, it is remarkable that MR. NORGATE should accuse me of an endeavour to make Barnes appear 66 disgrace to his university" because I wish to vindicate his good faith, and equally remarkable that MR. NORGATE should claim a superior generosity for himself because he does his best to prove that Barnes was a mean swindler of his own wife. a To me Barnes seems neither fool nor knave, bu simply a scholar of large learning and no inconsiderable original talents, whose brain had been gently touched by the hand of a not unkindly lunacy. This view is borne out by all that I have ever seen of his works, and, without claiming any special acquaintance with them, I have looked at and read what I found readable in all that were to be found in "my time" in Emmanuel College library, while his Homer has been the edition to which I have constantly been in the habit of referring for near upon forty years. 66 As to the evidence bearing on the point at issue, MR. NORGATE is mistaken in asserting that in the passage I quoted in a former letter Barnes rigidly abstains from all expression of opinion about the personal history of Homer." He distinctly asserts, on the contrary, that all the personal history of Homer related by other authors is "inconsistent, irreconcilable, and self-contradictory." Nor is it more accurate to say that he reveals nothing as to his own views; for he asserts as distinctly that they were of such a character that he thought it best to suppress them, lest they should be made use of to damage his work. The difficulty of believing that a son of the sweet psalmist of Israel could possibly be the sweet psalmist of Hellas is perhaps insuperable by modern scholarship; but in estimating this difficulty it was to be remembered that Barnes, like Chapman and many another Homeric scholar, devoutly believed in the divine inspiration not only of the epics but of the minor poems attributed to Homer. The pious prayer with which Chapman concludes his translation of the 'Batrachomyomachia' and the hymns is in itself enough to show -in Coleridge's words-"his complete forgetfulness of the distinction between Christianity and idolatry under the general feeling of some religion," and Barnes's preface abundantly proves that he shared Chapman's feelings in this respect. If "plenty of remarks are to be found in Barnes's notes opposed to my theory, MR. NORGATE has pitched upon an unlucky instance to quote. In the 'Hymn to Apollo' is an apostrophe to the maidens of Delos, in which the pseudoHomer adjures them, if they are asked who is the mightiest master of song, to answer, The sightless man "Hence, Of stony Chios.-Chapman, 1, 267. Barnes, annotating hereupon, observes:I conceive, the handle was first seized hold on for the belief that Homer was blind, but that he was of Chios is gathered [colligitur, not, as it would have been if Barnes had intended to indicate acquiescence, colligi potest] both from this passage and elsewhere." From this note MR. NORGATE thinks that we get a "distinct revelation" of Barnes's "opinion on the vexed question of Homer's birthplace." I fail to see how the words can be so twisted as to lend themselves to any such interpretation. The former clause of the sentence implies that Barnes did not himself believe in Homer's blindness, and the latter clause is wholly mismatched unless it conveys a like intimation of incredulity. Reading the note in connexion with Barnes's declaration that he intends shortly to publish to the world "the true name, age, country," &c., of Homer, it is clear that he meant to call attention to the absence of any real proof either of Homer's blindness or of his birth in Chios, although he admits that the evidence in the latter case is somewhat stronger than in the former. So far, then, from supporting MR. NORGATE'S contention, the passage supplies a further corroboration of Barnes's good faith. MR. NORGATE says that the story of Barnes shamming belief in Solomon's authorship of Homer which I thought might possibly have been the invention of Farmer-was in print when Farmer was a mere child. Will MR. NORGATE kindly give the reference, as I have not been fortunate enough to trace it so far back? BROTHER FABIAN. THE TRANSMISSION OF FOLK-TALES (7th S. i. 364). There is a version of the Rhampsinitus story current among the Sinhalese. See the Orientalist, vol. i. pp. 56, 120; vol. ii. pp. 48-9 (the Orientalist is the journal referred to by MR. W. A. CLOUSTON, 7th S. i. 125). I have perhaps been too hasty in assuming that the Sinhalese could not have got the story from Herodotus; but may they not have got it from "the adventurous merchants of Egypt and Arabia," to whom, according to Sir J. Emerson Tennent, Ptolemy was mainly indebted for his information respecting Ceylon (Tennent's 'Ceylon,' fourth edition, vol. i. p. 561) COL. PRIDEAUX says that the story undoubtedly originated in Egypt. In any case the existence of the story among the Sinhalese is interesting as bearing on the question mooted by him--whether the story has survived independently of Herodotus. Can COL. PRIDEAUX inform us whether it has been met with in India? J. P. LEWIS. Blackheath. ST. HELEN (7th S. i. 488).-I presume that it was the sanctity of this lady, her fame as the discoverer of the true Cross, and the tradition that she was a native of this island that caused so many churches to be dedicated in her name. She was the heroine of more than one mediæval romance, and fancy has altogether embroidered the history of her life. She is said to have been the daughter of old King Cole or Coel, of Colchester, a monarch whose merriment still infects our nurseries with hilarity; and the tale goes-at least one of them does-that, having been taken to wife by the Roman Emperor Constantius, she gave birth at York to Constantine, afterwards called the Great. There was a day when that city had three churches which were her namesakes; now it has only one, and that, alas! was scheduled last year by a certain committee whom the Archbishop called into counsel, as being of the number of superfluous sacred buildings which it might be well to disuse or to remove. It is something to be thankful for that St. Helen still occupies her coign of vantage." As for poor St. Crux-named perhaps in memory of the Empress's "Invention," as Dalling Church, Norfolk, is said to have been-its condition is deplorable. A sadder ruin I have never seen. I think I am right in saying that appeal has been made for money to build it up short of the clearstory in some form that may commend itself for parochial uses. But the clearstory was the glory of St. Crux, and one can hardly expect anybody outside the parish to be moved to liberality by a scheme which proposes to put such beauty as that away for ever. ST. SWITHIN. Keeping in mind the connexion between the Empress Helena and York, it is not surprising that St. Helen should be frequently met with in the north of England. May 3, when her finding of the true Cross is commemorated, has been commonly called St. Helen's Day, down to a time long after the Reformation. See 'Newminster Cartulary,' 153n, 258; Best's 'Farming Book,' 101, 118, 119 (both Surtees Soc.); Plompton Corresp.,' Camd. Soc., 71; Boothroyd's 'Pontefract,' 427; Yorksh. Arch. Journ., vii. 51, 53. The church of Stillingfleet, on the river Ouse, south of York, is dedicated to St. Helen; is it unlikely that the name represents St. Helen's-fleet ? W. C. B. I believe the authority referred to by MR. ROUND is 'Vestiges of the Supremacy of Mercia in the South of England,' a paper which in 1879 I contributed to the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archæological Society. The proper home of dedications of St. Helen is the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, with the northern half of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, perhaps a Southumbria. Throughout this district they are most plentiful, no doubt from a precedent cause. My inference was that this dedication was adopted by Offa, and that where it occurs south of this district it has been planted by him in most places where by his agressions he had realized a new frontier. In doing this I accidentally omitted the extreme western example on his southern line of these dedications, that on Lundy Island. This was unfortunate, because in the earlier pages I had made a similar induction with respect to Ethelbald and his vagrant dedications of his kinswoman St. Werburgh; a part of which induction |
