order to qualify themselves to receive the blessings of the Holy Spirit. And from the food which the poor made of that milk, called white-meat, this day is supposed by some to have taken the name of Whit-Sunday."

6. In “N. & Q.," 2nd S. i. 521, MR. MACKENZIE WALCOTT derives Whitsun from the German Pfingsten (Low Ger. Pingsten). This has met with support in other quarters.

7. MR. COCKAYNE ("N. & Q.," 4th S. xi. 437) rejects altogether the Christian derivation of the word, and refers it to a heathen custom of welcoming the summer and seeking for a bright sun. 8. Two other suggestions may be passed over very lightly: one that Whitsunday is huict Sunday, the eighth after Easter; the other that, as Whitsunday was introduced after the Conquest, some word was brought over by Norman ecclesiastics, which was rendered intelligible to Saxon ears by being corrupted into the forms White Sunday or Wit Sunday.

In glancing over these various theories, the principal thing that strikes one is the marvellously small basis, and in most the utter absence, of any facts to sustain the conclusions arrived at. Imagination and conjecture raise up a house of cards, which a breath suffices to destroy.

In the following remarks I propose to confine myself to facts which may be tested by any one who will take the trouble to investigate them, and simply to point out the direction towards which these facts will lead us. I have no theory to maintain, and am equally content whatever the result may be.

In the first place, it is a fact that, down to the period of the Conquest, Whitsuntide, Whitsunday, are not found in our language. The earliest known occurrence is an entry in the Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 1067: "Sona æfter tham com Mathild seo hlæfdie hier to lande, and Ealdred arcebischof hig gehalgode to cwene on Westmynstre on hwitan sunnan dag." In the rubrics to the A.-S. Gospels Pentecost is always used.

From A.D. 1200, Whitsun, in its archaic forms, was in common use. In the Ancren Riwle (1200) we find hwite-sunne dei; in Layamon's Brut (1205), white sunne tide; and so on subsequently, Pentecost falling into disuse. Wicliffe uses witsontide in 1 Cor. xvi. 8, where Cranmer's Bible of 1551 has wytsontyde. Our A. V. has in all cases Pentecost.

Amongst our congeners on the Continent the reverse change took place. From a very early period Pentecost, amongst the Teutonic nations, took the name of High Ger. Pfingsten, Flem. Pinckster, Danish Pintse, Swed. Pingest. The derivation of this has been a subject of dispute, some maintaining that these words are merely corruptions of the Greek TEVTηKOσTý; others that, as Easter is named after a heathen divinity, Pfingsten may be so called from Pin, the Teutonic

tecostes."

Ihre gives the Old Norse name for Pentecost, Hwita dagar; Ten Kate (Nederduitsche Sprake, 1723) gives Witte Zondag, Dominica Pentecostes.

These changes must have had their origin in some altered circumstances or customs, which it may be well to inquire into. We turn now to & different quarter.

The publication, in 1874, of the Icelandic-English Dictionary of Cleasby and Vigfusson opened a new era in the study of Teutonic philology, especially in its Norse and Anglo-Saxon relations. It is not a mere dictionary, but a laborious and valuable collection of illustrations of a rich and copious language closely allied to our own, which has undergone little change during the last eight hundred years, and which possesses an unequalled extent of early medieval literature.

Iceland was colonized at the latter end of the ninth century, and Christianized about A.D. 1000, principally by missionaries from Saxony, who would, of course, bring with them their own ecclesiastical terms. Now neither Pfingsten nor Pentecost has ever been current in Iceland. The first bishop of Iceland was consecrated on Whitsunday, A.D. 1056, and the day is recorded as HvitDrottin's Dagr, White Lord's Day, which afterwards settled down as Hvitasunnu-dagr, Whitsunday, and Hvitasunnudags-vika, Whitsundayweek. A reference to the article will well repay perusal for the variety of information it conveys on the early history of Whitsuntide. I extract a few notices:

"The great festivals, Yule, Easter, and Pentecost, but especially the two latter, were the great seasons for christening, whence the first Sunday after Easter was called 'Dominica in Albis,'* but in the Northern churches, perhaps owing to the cold weather at Easter, Pentecost seems to have been specially appointed for christening.+

"At the introduction of Christianity, neophytes, in the week after their baptism, used to wear white garments called hvíta vaðir, 'white weeds,' as a symbol of

* See Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church, Christianity, part i. ch. vii. p. vol. i. p. 541, vol. ii. 318-322; also Cave's Primitive 192. his sermons alludes to the same custom. St. Augustine in + Thomas Saga,-Hungr-vaka (Lives of the Bishops).

baptism cleansing from sin and of a new birth. A neophyte was called hvit-vaðungr, a white weedling.'* "The Sagas contain many touching episodes of neophytes, especially such as were baptized in old age, and died whilst in their white weeds. 'Olafr á Haukagili var skírðr ok andaðisk í hvíti váðum': 'Olaf was baptized in Hawksgill, and breathed his last in his white weeds.'"+

It has been maintained that sun in Whitsuntide has no relation to Sunday, and that the form should be Whitsun-day, Whitsun-week. The history of the word does not support this view. The original Icelandic form was Hvita-daga, Hvitadaga-vika, and it was only at a subsequent period that sunna was incorporated in the term.

The adoption and retention of Whitsunday and Whitsuntide are thus satisfactorily accounted for, at least in Iceland. The abandonment of Weisse Sonntag in Germany, &c., and the adoption of Pfingsten, may be explained by the introduction of infant baptism rendering the white robes of the adult neophytes obsolete, and leading them to fall back on the simple numerical expression for the day; whilst in Iceland, isolated during many centuries from much intercourse with Europe, there has always existed a passionate adherence to old

customs.

There still remains the anomaly of the adoption in England after the Conquest of the term Whitsunday, about the same period that the Germans abandoned its equivalent. The only explanation which appears at all satisfactory is the influence of the Danes and Northmen, who were dominant in England at or a little before that period, and whose speech and habits were identical with those of the Icelanders.

I think from the foregoing statements it may be reasonably considered as established

1. That, as generally happens, the simplest and most obvious explanation is the true one. It is proved from a variety of sources that the Pentecostal Sunday was the "Dominica in Albis"; specially so in the Northern churches, where the term Whitsunday originated. In one country, at least, the illustrations of the custom and the application of the name are abundant and clear. Ceteris paribus the same results might be expected in other countries, even if subsequently altered by

other circumstances.

2. If this be so, the other speculations of necessity fall to the ground. As there is not one of them which has the least basis of historical fact to rely on, it seems almost a waste of time to allude to them. The derivation of Whitsun from Pfingsten reminds one of the joke of cucumber" being derived from "Jeremiah King." It would violate every known law of phonetic change. The original form of Whit was hwit, with the strong guttural

* Niðrstigningr Saga. + Forn Sögur.

aspirate. If one could suppose any connexion, the derivation would be the other way.

the derivation from wyt or wysdome, which was This original form of the word equally negatives a mere fancy thrown out at a time when etymology was little understood.

The others, which are mere conjectures without the slightest attempt at proof or illustration, may be passed over.

I throw out the above for the candid consideration of those who take an interest in such subjects. J. A. PICTON. Sandyknowe, Wavertree.

SHAKSPEARIANA.

THE OBELI OF THE GLOBE EDITION IN THE MERCHANT OF VENICE."-The editors of the Globe edition inform us in their preface that "whenever the original text has been corrupted in such a way as to affect the sense, no admissible emendation having been proposed, or whenever a lacuna occurs too great to be filled up with any approach to certainty by conjecture," they "have marked the passage with an obelus (†).”

I find seven passages thus marked in the Merchant of Venice. I think I shall be able to show that in no case was an obelus needed. I take them in their order, placing the mark exactly where it is placed in the Globe.

1. "Well, if any man in Italy have a fairer table which doth offer to swear upon a book, I shall have good fortune."-Globe, p. 187, col. 1.

A change in punctuation removes the difficulty:

"Well! if any man in Italy have a fairer table which doth offer to swear upon a book. I shall have good for

tune."

Having examined the lines of life in the palm of his hand, Lancelot exclaims triumphantly, "Well! if any man in Italy, who offers to swear upon a book, can hold up a more promising palin than mine." Here he stops abruptly, just as we may yet hear a youth given to slang say, "Well! did I ever?" Lancelot meant, "If any man have a more promising palm, I don't know him. I shall have good fortune." As the passage is pointed in the Globe, following the First Folio, Lancelot is made to say that his chance of good fortune depended on some other person being able to show a fairer table"-a more promising palm-than

his.

2. "And for the Jew's bond which he hath of me, Let it not enter in your mind of love." Globe, p. 190, col. 2. The difficulty seems to have arisen from understanding by "mind" the intellectual faculty. If by "mind" we understand thoughts, there is no difficulty. Antonio would not have Bassanio's thoughts of love disturbed by the intrusion of the "bond."

"The full sum of me

Is sum of nothing." When Portia, the brightest of Shakspeare's feminine creations, starts a thought, she likes to hunt it through all its turnings. In her modest estimate of herself she was "nothing"; and though she should have her wish to be "trebled twenty times" herself, "the full sum" of her would still be "sum of nothing," as no multiplication of nothing can increase its value. But placed "in" (not "on," as some editions read) Bassanio's "account," this long list of ciphers would "exceed account," deriving from him, as the leading figure, a worth not As parallel and illustrative I refer to the fine passage in the Winter's Tale, Act i. sc. 2, where Polixenes, intimating to Leontes his intended departure, says:—

their own.

"Like a cipher,

Yet standing in rich place, I multiply
With one We thank you' many thousands moe
That go before it."

5. " Happy in this, she is not yet so old
But she may learn; happier than this,
She is not bred so dull but she can learn."

In the passage under review I think there should be no doubt that the "then" of the First Folio meant "then," not "than." Portia rises step by step from positive to superlative, thus:—

6.

"Happy in this, she is not yet so old

But she may learn; happier, then, this,
She is not bred so dull but she can learn;
Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit
Commits itself to yours to be directed."
"It is very meet
The Lord Bassanio lead an upright life;
For, having such a blessing in his lady,
He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;
And if on earth he do not mean it, then
In reason he should never come to heaven."
Globe, p. 197, col. 1.

I can see no difficulty here. The "it" in the last line but one refers to the "upright life" in the second line: "If he do not mean to live on earth an upright life, then in reason he should never come to heaven."

7. Globe, p. 197, col. 2. Neither do I see any difficulty here. The pipe, indeed, is not "woollen," but the bag is.

"Why he, a woollen bag-pipe."

If any obelus has escaped my notice I shall feel obliged if some reader of "N. & Q." will kindly direct my attention to it.

Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B.

R. M. SPENCE, M.A.

CLOUDS."-Have you met with an emendation of the word "clouds" in the address to Sleep in Shakspeare's play of 2 Henry IV.?

The word "clouds" would be better replaced by "shrouds." Has an edition known to fame this alteration?" 'Slippery shrouds" is intelligible, but "slippery clouds "-save the mark!

GELDART RIADORE, M.A. Cantab.

PEDIGREES AND PEDIGREE MAKERS: THE ST.

JOHNS AND TOLLEMACHES.-Mr. Freeman has an article on this subject in the current number of the Contemporary Review. Though there is in it something of what one may style slaying the slain, and no allusion whatever to the labours of others, perhaps not altogether unknown, such as the late Mr. J. G. Nichols, the present Lyon Herald of Scotland, &c., yet there is, of course, as in all that Mr. Freeman writes, much interest. Why, however, does he treat "local" antiquaries with such lofty scorn, admitting all the while that it rests with them to furnish materials for some gods of Olympus, and reduces the chaos to order? great generalizing director, who sits amongst the Two of the families noticed in the article as requiring illustration by the "professed genealogist and local antiquary" are those of St. John and Tollemache. Mr. Freeman desires the exact relation between a Hugh Tollemache who flourished in the reign of Henry II. and the St. Johns. This may not be so easy. Yet in the MS. Cartulary of there are several writs regarding transactions beMont S. Michel (Public Library of Avranches) tween Thomas de St. John and the monks (fol. XXXV, verso), dated in 1121, in which "Hugo Tallmascha" figures as a witness, showing a close connexion with the St. Johns. These St. Johns, whose cradle is the parish of S. Jean le Thomas, within a few miles of Avranches, were, as Mr. Freeman says, "real people." They were the ancestors of the St. Johns of Stanton and Basing, of the famous Bolingbroke, and others of the name. They founded Boxgrove Priory, Sussex, and previously, in their original Normandy, the Premonstratensian house of Luzerne, about the middle of the twelfth

century, conjointly with the family of Subligny, who by marriage were lords of the Breton fortress of Dol. These notices, made on the spot, though not by a local" antiquary, in the strictest sense of the term, are placed at Mr. Freeman's disposal, as a contribution to the early history of the Tollemache family. They go to prove that "Hugo Tallmascha" must have been a Norman. His name is as distinctive as that of Gervase Ridel, which has been claimed by one of its most eminent cadets as the earliest Norman surname— purely as such, and unconnected with land. What the origin of the surname Ridel was is no more apparent than that of Tallmascha; in all likelihood from some personal peculiarity. The latter surname possibly may be derived from tailler (to cut) and mâche (corn salad). In this MS. Cartulary (fol. xxiiii) there is a grant by "William, by the grace of God King of the English and Prince of the Normans," and Matilda, dated in 1081, of a mill in the vill called Veim, which Abbot Suppo (1033-1048) had illegally given away to Rannulf the moneyer. In this occurs the name "Rotbertus de Vezpunt," a family once renowned in the north of England and on the Scottish border. I have never observed this form of the surname before, or indeed such an early occurrence of it. In Hodgson's Northumberland (vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 26) he only begins the Vipont pedigree with William, living in the time of King John. But the above Robert of 1081, with whom are named Geoffry, Bishop of Coutances, and Niel the son of Niel, is evidently of the same district, possibly the same stock, as the Viponts of Cuverville in Calvados, who are considered by Hodgson as the forefathers of those of Tyndale and Alston. The Archives of Calvados, to which Hodgson refers for the early Viponts, I find is by the late M. Léchaude d'Anisy, of Caen. He gives a charter by Maud de Cuverville, widow of Robert de Vieux-Pont, without date, confirming a grant of the demesne of Castillon, holden by her son Ivo de Vieux-Pont. And, in 1272, Ivo de Vieuxpont, Lord of Cuverville (probably the son), confirms a grant. The mother's seal bears fourteen annulets, that of the son nine (Extrait des Chartes du Calvados, Caen, 1834, vol. ii. pp. 27-32, plates x. and xiii.). ANGLO-SCOTUS.

BRAHMA, THE FATHER.-I venture to offer the following remarks on Prof. M. Williams's recent interesting contribution to the Times (June 11), in which the fact is noticed that while the second and third persons of the Hindu Triad have numerous temples and worshippers, there are neither temples nor any direct worship of the first person, i.e. of Brahma, the Father. Is not this precisely what has happened in Christendom, by a curious coincidence, if the expression may be pardoned? For, although there are innumerable

Holy

churches dedicated to the "Son" and the Spirit," I am not aware of any to the "Father," whom only the Unitarians and Jews worship direct, the Mahometans, like the Christians, addressing themselves to a mediator.

Another coincidence not unworthy of notice is this, that the Vedic and Brahminical creeds (I make a distinction) closely resemble the Athanasian in their definitions of Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity. The "Preserver" of the Hindus-Vishnu-is, according to all his described attributes, the Sun, as well as mystically the Son, and the nature of his being could not be better described, according to Hindu belief, than in the actual words of St. Athanasius.

A third coincidence may, lastly, be noticed. The round masonry is a peculiarity of Sun temples and of Christian churches in the East. The church of the Templars in London is an example. Additions of angular form, corresponding with the cardinal points, led to cruciform structure, and the round was soon lost in the square. SP.

LIFE AT HARROGATE IN 1731: "SEVEN IN A HAND."-Now that Harrogate has regained so much of its ancient popularity as a watering-place, it may interest some readers to see a description of the manner in which the guests amused themselves there in 1731. Though short, it recalls some of the graphic details of the life at Bath about the same period, given by the worthy squire in Humphry Clinker :

"I was pleased with the manner of living there. In the daytime we drank the waters, walked or rode about, and lived in separate parties, lodging in one or other of the three inns that are on the edge of the common; but the inns having the benefit of the meeting in their turn, at night the company meet at one of the public houses, and sup together, between eight and nine o'clock, on the best substantial things, such as hot shoulders of mutton, rump steaks, hot pigeon pies, veal cutlets, and eightpence each, and, after sitting an hour and drinking the like. For this supper ladies and gentlemen pay what wine, punch, and ale every one chuses, all who please get up to country dances, which generally last till one in the morning; those that dance and those who do not drinking as they will. The ladies pay nothing for what liquor is brought in, either at supper or after, and it costs the gentlemen five or six shillings a man. At one the ladies withdraw, some to their houses in the neighbourhood, and some to their beds in the inns. men who are temperate do then likewise go to rest." But all were not "temperate" at that time (not even the writer himself, according to his own showing); and one of the guests then on a visit to the wells, a certain Mr. Gallaspy, an Irish gentleman, a simple child of nature, possessed a remarkable accomplishment, which, if it has not already been noticed in "N. & Q.," should, I think, be recorded along with other drinking customs of bygone days. The writer says

The

"He was the tallest and strongest man I have ever seen, well made, and very handsome....He was the most

profane swearer I have known, fought everything,— everything, and drank seven in a hand; that is, seven glasses so placed between the fingers of his right hand that in drinking the liquor fell into the next glasses, and thereby he drank out of the first glass seven glasses at once. This was a common thing, I find from a book in my possession, in the reign of Charles the Second.... But this gentleman was the only man I ever saw who could or would attempt to do it, and he made but one gulp of whatever he drank; he did not swallow a fluid like other people, but, if it was a quart, poured it in as from pitcher to pitcher," &c.

With such companions as this Gallaspy, only one of a party of kindred spirits, and the chance of dancing with such partners as the beautiful Miss Spence, of Westmoreland-whom he met shortly after his arrival, and whom he describes as possessed of "the head of Aristotle, the heart of a primitive Christian, and the form of Venus de' Medici," and who afterwards became his fourth or fifth wife (but not his last by one or two)—is it any wonder that the writer, "Thomas Amory, Gent.," should thus express his mature opinion, "Of all the wells I know Harrogate is the most charming"? Vide Life of John Buncle, Esq., 1756, an autobiography of Amory, and a most entertaining work, which, treated as he would have treated one of his favourite waters, would yield an analysis something like the following Gossip, like the above Unitarian doctrine Anti-popish

Love-making

Biblical criticism

Bibliography, Medicine, Chemistry, &c.

28.

25.

2.

30.

3.

12.

a concise mode of reviewing which I would commend to the attention of critics.

A. FERGUSSON, Lieut.-Col. United Service Club, Edinburgh.

Queries.

[We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest, to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.]

LORD BEACONSFIELD'S CREST AND MOTTO.I always understood that, until his elevation to the peerage and attendant grant of arms from the College of Heralds, Mr. Disraeli had no arms, crest, or motto. Debrett, at least, and other authorities were silent on the subject. I was surprised, therefore, the other day, on looking through a life (or, rather, a hostile criticism of the life) of the premier, just published by Goubaud & Son, to find the following extracts given from the Shrewsbury papers of 1841 respecting Mr. Disraeli's candidature for that borough. "Besides the flags," says the Conservative paper, describing the incidents of the nomination day, "(on white silk, with blue ornaments), we noticed the crests of the two candidates: that of Tomline,

a dove and olive branch; Disraeli's, a castle. The motto of the latter gentleman, Forti Nihil Difficile' (To a brave man nothing is difficult'), was taken as indicative of the character of the honourable candidate" (Salopian Journal, June 30, 1841). The Shrewsbury News (July 3, 1841) comments on the same circumstance from an opposite point of view: "There were several flags on the Tory side, some of them rather tastefully ornamented, and one bearing a surprising proof of the industry and research of Norry (sic) King-at-Arms, viz., a thing that purported to be the crest of D'Israeli !!! and bearing beneath it the motto, 'Forti Nihil Difficile,' which, freely translated, means that the impudence of some men sticks at nothing." Now, it is a singular thing that the crest and motto thus used by Mr. Disraeli in 1841 are those which he now bears, as Earl of Beaconsfield, in 1877. Are we to suppose, then, that in 1841 Mr. Disraeli was bearing the traditional crest of his family (perhaps granted when they resided in Spain), and that his right to bear it was only confirmed by the English College of Heralds in 1876? Or had the premier, with his accustomed foresight (having long ago prophesied his elevation to the House of Lords and given prominence to his present title), fixed at so early a period as 1841 upon the crest and motto which he intended to obtain when the necessity arose for him to do so? Anyhow, the extracts above given-and which, so far as I know, appear to have escaped observation by the writers who have commented on Lord Beaconsfield's recent grant of arms-take away any originality or novelty from the grant, so far, at least, as the crest and motto are concerned. S. BARTON-ECKETT.

BENNET DYER.-The author of Grongar Hill, a second son, had three brothers, Robert of Aberglasney, Thomas of Marylebone, and Bennet. From the Aberglasney muniments Bennet Dyer appears to have been the youngest son, and the poet, in writing to Robert, sends his love to "Tom and Ben." Robert, Squire of Aberglasney in 1720, married Frances Croft in that year. He was not likely to have had a brother residing at Aberglasney, unless as a bachelor or as a tenant, sixteen years afterwards. In the magazines of 1736 the Sheriff of Cardiganshire is stated to be "Bennet Dyer, of Aberglasney, Esq." The late Mr. J. W. Philipps, of Aberglasney, in one of his courteous replies to my troublesome inquiries, called the sheriff Robert, and underlined the name. The Pipe rolls will put the discrepancy of name right, but the editors of the periodicals of 1736 were clearly aware of the existence of Bennet Dyer, whether sheriff or not. Nearly thirty years ago I marked this Bennet as dying without issue, from some information or other. But what was his history? Bennet for Robert (the squire) is no mere printer's