serjeants which I delivered in 1877 in Serjeants' Inn Hall before the London and Middlesex Archæological Society, I ask leave to continue the discussion of it. Fortescue, the learned author of the treatise De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, became a serjeant in 1429, and confides to us the fact that his bill for gold rings came to 50l. Wynne, the learned author of some tracts on legal | antiquities, became a serjeant in 1736, in company with thirteen others, and states that they shared among them the cost of 1,409 rings, amounting to 7731., besides what every serjeant had made on his private account. In 1809, when Mr. Peckwill and Mr. Frere became serjeants, they gave sixty rings, which cost 531. 198. 6d. The rings appear to have been of plain gold, differing from each other in weight, and consequently in value, which was carefully graduated according to the dignity of the recipient. The value of the ring which he gave to the king is not mentioned by Fortescue, but he tells us that "to every prince of the blood, duke, and archbishop present, to the Lord Chancellor and to the Lord Treagurer, each serjeant gave a ring worth 1. 68. 8d. To every earl and bishop, to the Keeper of the Privy Seal, each Chief Justice and the Chief Baron, a ring worth 1. To every other Lord of Parliament, abbot, prelate, and knight, to the Master of the Rolls, and every justice, a ring worth one mark. To every Baron of the Exchequer, chamberlain, and courtier in waiting on the king, a ring proportionate in value to the rank of the recipient. Every clerk, especially in the Court of Common Pleas, will have a ring convenient to his degree. The serjeants also present rings to their friends and acquaintances." At a call in 1555, the rings for the king and queen (Philip and Mary) were worth 31. 68. 8d. each; those for the Lord Chancellor and other high officers, 1.; for the judges, 16s.; the Barons of the Exchequer, 14s.; and so on down to the sixteen filacers, who received rings worth 2s. 6d. each. | The speciality of these rings is in the mottoes engraved upon them. The earliest recorded is that of Sir J. Fineux in 1485, "Suæ quisque fortunæ faber"; the next that of Serjeant (afterwards Chief Justice) Montagu in 1531, " Equitas justitia norma"; that of 1547, "Plebs sine lege ruit"; and that of 1577, "Lex regis præsidium." Lists of the mottoes are given in the fifth volume of the first series of "N. & Q.," and more completely in the late Mr. Foss's admirable work, The Lives of the Judges. From this it appears that, in addition to those just named, 168 mottoes have been recorded, as follows: James I., 1; Charles I., 13; Charles II., 8; James II., 4; William III., 5; Anne, 3; George I., 3; George II., 9; George III., 54; George IV., 11; William IV., 8; Victoria, 49. There should, of course, be a specimen of each of these in the royal collections. The great variations of number in different reigns arise not so much from a difference in the number of serjeants created as from alterations in the custom, which at one time prevailed, of all the The serjeants at the same creation using the same motto. That on the occasion of the splendid creation of fourteen serjeants in 1660 was an ingenious chronogram alluding to the restoration of Charles II., “aDest Caro LVs MagnVs." rings at the creation of Serjeant Wynne and others in 1736 bore the motto, 66 Nunquam libertas gratim"; and the eight rings then provided for the queen and princes and princesses were finely polished and the motto enamelled. In 1787 the practice of giving rings was retrenched, and those for the judges, bar, and attorneys were discontinued. This explains the great reduction in number and cost I have already mentioned at the call of 1809. By the time my learned friend Mr. Serjeant Tindal Atkinson took upon him the state and degree, all presentation of rings in open court had ceased, and the rings were forwarded privately by the jeweller to the masters of the Court of Common Pleas and the personal friends of the new serjeant, the Lord Chancellor receiving the queen's ring and his own from the hands of the serjeant in his lordship's private room. The serjeants who, like Mr. Serjeant Pulling, regret the virtual and practical, though not nominal, abolition of their order (for it would be quite competent for Her Majesty now, if so advised, to issue a writ commanding any number of barristers to take upon themselves the state and degree of a serjeant-at-law), must feel, when they look back upon the gradual neglect and disuse by the serjeants themselves of their ancient customs and their ancient garments, that it has had something to do with the calamities that have fallen upon them. I have been a little disappointed to find in my learned friend's interesting book on the Order of the Coif, just published, so slight a reference to this question of rings, and, indeed, to many other matters in respect of which the learned serjeant must have access to vast stores of useful information. I only hope he has not said his last word upon these subjects. The question which MR. OCTAVIUS MORGAN has raised still awaits its answer. Besides the hundreds of rings in the royal collections, there must be thousands in private possession; yet they are very rarely met with. All can hardly have been melted down, though many may have been. I must add a word of contradiction to your esteemed correspondent MR. SAWYER, who says, "We know the coif of the serjeants-at-law was designed to hide the tonsure" (6th S. x. 6). I have long been convinced that this conjecture of Spelman's (who was a civilian and hated the serjeants), founded on an obscure passage in Matthew Paris, was without foundation; and your correspondent will find this completely and most ably demonstrated in Mr. Serjeant Pulling's book. The distinguishing mark of the serjeant was always matter RASTAQUOÈRE (6th S. x. 9).—Rastaquonere is a mere printer's error for rastaquoère. The word spread from the Palais Royal farce of Le Brésillen about fourteen or fifteen years ago, and was first used for rich South Americans, but now for all nonEuropean foreigners, for whom it is the only modern French designation. D. BEAR-SKIN JOBBER (6th S. ix. 9, 53, 73). Perhaps the following extract from Luther's Colloquies may be acceptable to the readers of "N. & Q.," not only because it proves that the fable about the bear-skin was current nearly 400 years ago, but also because it shows Luther's fondness for such things: "The Fables of Esop (said Luther) ought to be translated into high Dutch, and brought finely into order; for one man made not that book, but many great people at all times in the world made a part thereof......So far as I am able to understand, next unto the Bible, we have no better books than the Works of Cato, and the Fables of Esop; for their writings are better than all the tattered sentences of the Philosophers and Lawyers. At that time Luther related the fable concerning the Wolf and the Sheep: he related also this pleasant fable, whose moral is that all things are not everywhere to be spoken. A Lion called unto him into his den (wherein was a very evil savor and stink) many beasts: Now he asked the Wolf how he liked his Royal Palace? The Wolf answered and said, O! it stinketh evil herein; then the Lion flew upon the Wolf, and tore him in pieces. Afterwards he asked also the Ass how he liked it? The poor Ass being much affrighted at the Wolf's death and murder. intending therefore to flatter, he said, O my Lord and King! it smelleth here exceeding well. But the Lion laid hold on the Ass, and tore him also in pieces. After this he asked the Fox how it liked him? The Fox said, I have gotten such a cold, that I can smell nothing at all: as would he say, It is not good to make true report of everything. Thus he became wise by other men's hurts, in keeping his tongue. He related Boston, Lincolnshire. HAG (6th S. ix. 487).-I fear we shall not get much more information as to this word. I presume the reason why Mr. Wright took the word hægtesse as better suited to the Lat. tisiphona than to the Lat. parca was because we find elsewhere the entry "Erenis, hægtes "; and it is certainly correct to say that Tisiphone was one of the Erinyes or Furies. Hence it is at once proved that the supposition, even if unneeded here, is far from baseless. The best way is to quote all the entries in full. The word occurs in the glossaries not nine times, but eleven times, and it is best to arrange the statements in order of date. They are as follows. In the eighth century: Eumenides, haehtisse ; Furia, haehtis; Erenis, furia (with haegtis added in a later hand); Striga, haegtis. In the tenth century: Pythonissa, hellerune, Parca, uel hægtesse; Tisiphona, welcyrre; hægtesse (the pair of glosses supposed by Mr. Wright to be transposed). In the eleventh century: Erenis, hægtes; Eumenides, hægtesse; Furia, hægtesse; Furiarum, hægtessa; and yet again, Furiarum, hægtessa. It would seem from this that the correct nom. sing. is haehtis, later haegtis, hægtis; whilst hægtesse represents the plural and occasionally the Schade singular, perhaps in an oblique case. gives the O.H.G. form as hagazussa, which was afterwards contracted to hazissa, M.H.G. hecse, mod. G. Hexe. MR. MAYHEW has cleared the way as to some points. It may now be accepted as certain that the Du. haagdis, lizard, is the same as the G. Eidechse; it may be added that the A.S. is athexe, and that the provincial E. is ask or arsk, On the other all in the sense of lizard or newt. hand, hag is short for hægtesse or hægtis, and the cognate G. word is Hexe. But it does not follow that hæg-t-is, if derived from haga, would mean a female hedge," because the t- might easily make all the difference, and render the substantive personal. The real difficulty is to explain this t-, and, at the same time, the G. --. only three opinions worth considering are those These are (1) the notion of given by Schade. Grimm, that there is a connexion with the Icel. hagr, wise; (2) the notion of Weigand (adopted by myself), that it is connected with A.-S. haga, a hedge; and (3) the ingenious suggestion, due to Heyne, that the word means "spoiler of the haw or enclosure stored with corn, &c.," the The suffix being allied to A.-S. teosu, harm, damage. The suggestion of Grimm cannot well stand, for hagr has not at all the sense of "wise," it is merely handy, skilful, and the suffix is left without even an attempt at regarding it. Both the other suggestions agree in referring the word to A.-S. haga, our haw; hawe is used in Chaucer to mean a farmyard, a fact worth noting Perhaps we shall never get any further than this. Meanwhile, the sense suggested by Heyne is just possible. The difficulty clearly resides in the suffix. spelt tis in early A.- S., and -zussa in O.H G., and the suffix is chiefly difficult because it is found nowhere else. The suffix in G. Eidech se is quite a different thing, though that is almost equally obscure. The Gothic spelling of Eidechse would have been agi-thaiso; the suggested sense is "serpent-spindle," i. e. snake shaped like a spindle; see Schade, s. v. Egidehsá." means 66 66 It must not be omitted that there is a passage in the A.-S. Leechdoms, iii. 54, where the word hægtessan, gen. sing., from nom. hægtesse, clearly of a hag." of a witch" or Thus the problem of the etymology of hag is definitely narrowed to the question, What is the sense of the suffix -tesse or -tis? Possibly it is related to Skt. dúshaya, to harm. WALTER W. SKEAT. SPURIOUS EDITIONS OF WELL-KNOWN POEMS (6th S. ix. 465). I fully sympathize with MR. ALFRED WALLIS's wish to rescue from oblivion, so far as possible, the literary productions of H. Hills's press. This early Catnach was an industrious provider of cheap literature, if I may judge from the contents of a small volume in my library. The pieces it contains are as follows: Moderation Display'd: a Poem. "Neq: tempore in ullo esse queat duplici naturâ, & corpore bino Ex alienigenis membris compacta potestas."-Lucret., lib. 5. By the Author of Faction Display'd. London, Printed and Sold by H. Hills, in Black-fryars, near the Water-side, 1709. Pp. 16. The Duel of the Stags: a Poem. Written by the Honourable Sir Robert Howard. Together with an The Plague of Athens which hapened in the Second First described in Greek by Thucydides, then in Latin by Lucretius, since attempted in English by the Right Reverend Father in God Thomas Lord Bishop of Rochester. London, Printed by H. Hills, in Black-fryars, near the Water-side, 1709. Pp. 24. Page 15 is blank, with this notice, "Reader, through mistake of the Press, a page being Transpos'd, you are desir'd to turn over leaf." An Elegy on the Author of the True-born-English- Though "anonymous," this is evidently one of Lucretius: a Poem against the Fear of Death, with an Ode in Memory of the Accomplish'd Young Lady Mrs. Ann Killigrew, Excellent in the two Sister Arts of Poetry and Painting. London, Printed and Sold by H. Hills, in Black-fryars, near the Water-side, 1709. Price One Penny. Pp. 16. This is interesting, as it affords a measure of the pecuniary value in Anne's reign of a fairly printed pamphlet of sixteen piges. Absalom and Achitophel.-Already described in MR. WALLIS's paper. Bleinheim: a Poem Inscrib'd to the Right Honourable Robert Harley, Esq. London, Printed by H. Hills and Sold by all the Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1709. Pp. 16. Cooper's Hill: a Poem. Written by the Honourable Faction Display'd: a Poem. The Temple of Death: a Poem. Honourable the Marquis of Normanby. A Translation late Majesty Queen Mary. By a Person of Quality, "Poema est Pictura loquens." Imprint as before. Pp. 16. out of the French. With an Ode in memory of Her Baucis and Philemon: a Poem on the ever lamented Loss of the two Yew-Trees in the Parish of Chilthorne, near the County Town of Somerset; together with Mrs. Harris's Earnest Petition. By the Author of the Tale of a Tub. As also An Ode upon Solitude. By the Earl of Roscommon. Imprint as before. Pp. 16. Cyder: a Poem. &c. With the Splendid Shilling.See MR. ALFRED WALLIS's list. Date 1708. Pp. 48. The last sheet of this pamphlet contains a list of eleven pamphlets published by Hilis, none of which, with the exception of The Kit-Cats: a Poem, and Wine: a Poem, is contained in either MR. WALLIS's or the present list. A Panegyrick on Oliver Cromwell and his Victories. By Edm. Waller, Esq. With Three Poems on his Death, The Campaign: a Poem to His Grace the Duke of CALLING CHURCHES AFTER CHRISTIAN NAMES (6th S. ix. 486).-An instance of this occurs in Liverpool. St. Nicholas Church is supposed to have been founded by Nicolas, Bishop of Bangor, Carnarvonshire, from some documents that are, or were within a few years, in existence. GILLIFLOWER FARRINGDON. IT (6th S. ix. 306, 378, 439).-Since sending you my former note on this subject I have examined several other old Bibles, and am now able to confine the change from it to its within much narrower limits. One I examined, printed in 1683 by John Hayes, brings the use of it down fourteen years later; and another, of 1708, carries the modern spelling its back seventy-six years; so that it is clear the change must have been-Surely we need not travel to Sanscrit at all for made within the twenty-five years between the dates I have named above. W. S. B. H. FRANCE (6th S. ix. 330, 456).-May I correct a mistake in my last paper, which I am sorry to have made? Lothaire, King of Italy, died in 950, not 930, so that Adelaide might have been his daughter. At the same time, I think she was the daughter of her mother's second husband, Otho. I must also apologize for having in momentary forgetfulness, and misled by a stop in the wrong place, written as if Bertha, and not her daughter Adelaide, had been the widow of Lothaire. HERMENTRUde. LORD MONTACUTE (6th S. ix. 207, 235, 277).In reply to my inquiry at the first of the above references one correspondent says, that upon the death of John Nevill at Barnet, in 1471, the title Lord Montacute was lost, but subsequently restored through its being conferred on the grandson of his daughter Lucy as Lord "Montague." Another correspondent gives it as Viscount" Montacute." I should now be glad to know which is the correct spelling of the title, if Montague or Montacute; also whether its possessor, or any of his descendants, adopted his grandmother's maiden name of Nevill, and at any period resided at Montacute, in Somersetshire. Southampton. W. C. CLOTHIER. A YARD OF BEER (6th S. v. 368, 394, 456; vi. 77, 257, 278, 299; vii. 18, 476; viii. 130).-Some correspondents may be interested to know that a glass measuring a yard, from which beer may be imbibed, can be seen at the "Prince of Wales" inn, Weymouth Street, Portland Place, London, where I unearthed it some days ago. I may add that the landlord of the house informed me that he had previously kept an inn at Eaton, where the custom of using these glasses is said to obtain. ROBERT M. THURGOOD. "VESICA PISCIS" (6th S. ix. 327, 409, 475).-The mistake MR. ALAN S. COLE and others fall into on this subject simply arises from their mistaking the subject of inquiry. As many take it the "Vesica piscis" is a fact of antiquarian research as think it is a matter of folk-etymology, hence popularly artistic. For instance, no doubt it is true an analogous case will be found to prevail among Hindoos, whether Mohammedan, Brahmin, or Buddhist, just as the Maori king and his chiefs, now in London, can doubtless give a similar reason for their peculiar form of head-dress. Nevertheless this does not show how their present notions are directly connected with the ancient sign of the Zodiac, in which undoubtedly the real presence idea was more than symbolized. GILLIFLOWER FARRINGDON. ETYMOLOGY OF SULPHUR (6th S. ix. 426, 471). the etymology of a mineral known to Europe as coming principally from Solfatara, near Naples, though there are deposits in Spain, Sicily, and Hecla. The name is very likely to be Greek, or such Greek as was used in Magna Grecia. It is Now let us see what we almost sure to be so. can make of it taking this for our basis. John Cleland, the celebrated Will. Honeycomb of the Spectator, in his Vocabulary derived it from the Celtic thus: Z, the prepositive article; ul, materia; phur, fire; zulphur materia ignea. vAn is matter, πῦρ, fire. Even to this day in Italian zolfo and zolforato may be read for solfo and solforato, and the Spanish is azufre. I do not see why we should go to Sanscrit while we have all this at hand. Haverstock Hill. C. A. WARD. With regard to the etymology of this word, may be allowed to observe that the derivation of the Latin sulphur (properly spelt sulpur) from a word appearing in Sanscrit dictionaries in the form culvári, is quite as much a guess, and quite as unsupported by evidence as the assumption that gulvári means "enemy to copper." One guess is as destitute of probability as the other. The probability is that gulvári is not a genuine Sanskrit word. Why should the Lat. sulpur be borrowed from an Indian source? Italians are not likely to have got their sulphur from India, plenty being obtainable in Italy and in Palestine. If the Lat. sulpur be a foreign word, it is much more likely to be of Phoenician or Arabic origin, like other foreign articles, naphtha, myrrha, nitrum, cinnamon, asinus, palma (the tree), and dactylus. Is it possible that sulpur can have been borrowed from a Semitic word, representing Arab. zaghferán, saffron, the mineral being so named from its colour? For = the guttural gh, cp. It. Baldaco-Baghdad. A. L. MAYHEW. Oxford. VISCOUNT MONTAGUE (6th S. ix. 209, 257, 337, 377, 398).-See, for a full reply, "N. & Q.," 3rd S. viii. 292, and note 344; refer to Arkcoll & Jones, Solicitors, 192, Tooley Street, and James Coleman, White Hart Lane; see also a new book noted in the Times, February, 1884, Cowdray, by Note that Browne of Cowdray is "junior" to Mrs. Roundell, 4to., price 10s. 6d., Bickers & Son. Browne of Betchworth, Surrey. J. B. CHITTY-FACE (6th S. ix. 149, 215, 299, 354, 414).-My query in regard to this word has been the means of raising a question between MR. SMYTHE PALMER and DR. CHANCE, but only on a side issue, viz., whether the original form be, chiche-face or chiche-vache. No one except MR. BIRKBECK TERRY has sent any reply to my query. He contributes (p. 299) a valuable, but puzzling example of chitti-face, earlier than any which I yet possessed: "Starue therefore Warman,...... and grandfather's honours; and it is also remarkable that the Careys have always quartered the Boleyne arms, which they could not have rightfully borne had Lord Rochford left legitimate issue. I should be glad to know the origin of the title Rochford. I cannot find that any heiress of a family of that name married a Boleyne or a Butler, yet in the wonderful coat of arms which King Henry granted to his wife, Anne Boleyne (and from which her own paternal arms are omitted), the fourth quartering is, Quarterly, 1 and 4, Butler; 2 and 3, Arg., a lion rampant sable, crowned gules, Rochford. EDMUND M. BOYLE. You halfe-fac't groat, you thick-cheekt chittiface Downfall, &c. (I quote from the original edition, 1601). Upon this I remark that Warman is in extremity: he has just been imploring a piece of meat or bread to save him from death; he is like a "halfe-fac't groat," which phrase I take to mean that his face has no more roundness than EARLY DATED EX-LIBRIS (6th S. ix. 486).— the profile on a well-worn coin. By what contradiction can he be rightly described as "thick- The owner of this plate was Rachel, Countess cheekt"? Is not the emendation "thin-cheeked "Dowager of Bath, daughter of Francis Fane, Earl as safe as it is obvious? If so, the example is a of Westmoreland, and widow of Henry Bourchier, good one of the word in what I suppose to be its fifth and last Earl of Bath of that family. He died proper sense, the same as that of Burton already Aug. 15, 1654. The inscription, which MR. quoted by me, "a thin, lean, chitty face." Will O'CONNELL calls incoherent and incomprehenabler critics say what they think of my proposal?sible, is certainly very much so indeed if taken Meanwhile an example of the word in the spelling as a single sentence; and if MR. O'CONNELL tried chichiface or chicheface remains yet to be supplied. to construe it as such, I feel quite sorry for him. But there is no difficulty in it; the middle part, "ex dono," &c., is the usual Latin inscription on gifts; the rest is an assemblage of heraldic mottoes. Ne vile fano" is that of Fane, and the others might be easily identified. The arms are Bourchier and Fane impaled. 14, Norham Road, Oxford. C. B. MOUNT. It seems to me some of your correspondents are more interested in the spelling than the fun. Bicorn with his two horns, who feeds on henpecked husbands, is so fat he can hardly waddle across the stage; whereas Chiche Vache, ugly cow, whose diet is obedient wives, is so nearly starved she can hardly drag herself along. And in this the joke (which Chaucer was well up to) consisted. P. P. MORSE (6th S. ix. 507).—If E. S. W. will turn to p. 129 of vol. x. (Monastery) of the Centenary Edition of the Waverley Novels the standard edition of Scott's novels-he will find this word rendered nurse. Morse in the early editions was obviously a mere typographical error, and not a lapsus of the author, whose manuscripts will compare most favourably with the generality of copy." E. S. W.'s impression that Sir Walter's MSS. never went into the printing office is not borne out by fact. The original manuscript of The Monastery is, I believe, in the library of Middlehill House, Worcestershire. A. W. B. [MR. F. Cox states that nurse was adopted in place of morse in the edition of 1871. Other correspondents supply answers bearing out the information of A. W. B., which is authoritative, and dispenses with the need of further comment.] GEORGE BOLEYN (6th S. ix. 406, 457).-If George, Viscount Rochford had left a legitimate son, it is very remarkable that his first cousin, Queen Elizabeth, after her accession to the throne, did not restore him in blood and to his father's C. F. S. WARREN, M.A. Treneglos, Kenwyn, Truro. "BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EPITAPHS" (6th S. ix. 86, 493).-As the compiler of the Bibliography of Epitaphs indicated at the latter reference by your correspondent D'ARCY LEVER, I can only say that the bibliography was not put forth as complete, but merely as a list of the works and magazine articles relating to the subject which I had at that time been able to find; and, considering that I had only a short time to gather them together, the bibliography is fairly good. Some of the works enumerated in my bibliography I could not collate, as I had not been able to obtain copies of them, and I therefere merely gave the titles as I had gathered them from the various sources. I may also tell MR. LEVER that I wrote to one of the authors he mentions, to whom he is indebted for two books down in his list, but I never received an acknowledgment of my letter. Since compiling my bibliography I have been collecting materials for enlarging it, and have also had the kind help of my friends the Rev. W. C. Boulter and Mr. G. J. Gray, both of whom have sent me names of many works relating to the subject. In compiling the bibliography I intend to arrange it under the names of the various counties, and subdivide it under the towns by giving references to local |