2»* S. VII. Jan. 1. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



19 



under which they resemble an earthworm. They 

 exhibit considerable vivacity out of the water, and 

 have all the appearance of horsehairs, with the 

 wriggling movement of eels. F. C. H. 



Sincere (1" S. viii. 195. 328. 399. 567. ; xii. 

 292.) — I beg to offer another derivation of this 

 word, which seems to me more probable than 

 those yet offered. Is it not connected with the 

 Latin sancire, to make sacred, or rather an older 

 form sancere, which is implied in the perfect 

 sanxi, and participle sanctum f 1 and a appear to 

 have interchanged in Latin, confer tango and con- 

 tingo, pango and impingo. The true meaning of 

 sincerus would then be one who holds his word 

 sacred ; and could any explanation of the word 

 be more appropriate ? And as to the termination 

 -erus, the Greek has two terminations very similar, 

 -TjpTjy and -epos : as reix^pris and (rrvyepSs, The 

 derivation from semel and Kepdvuvixi must be erro- 

 neous, for can any true Latin word, at least of 

 good Latinity, be brought forward conlpounded 

 of Latin and Greek together ? Tau. 



The Termination Ness (1" S. ix. 522. ; 2"'^ S. vi. 

 443.) — I am greatly obliged to Mr. Pishey 

 Thompson for bringing my attention to the er- 

 roneous statement contained in the Note to which 

 his observations apply. The table referred to by 

 your correspondent was, by mistake, interpolated 

 by the printer, instead of standing by itself, as a 

 separate article, and it has no reference at all to 

 the termination -ness, in the names of places, but 

 to the termination -%, as is evident from the in- 

 troductory remark, that it offers a more extended 

 view of the question than is given in Vol. IX. p. 

 136. I regret being obliged to occupy your pages 

 with an erratum, but the blunder was not mine. 

 I may add that I have now before me a list of 

 192 places in Lincolnshire which are characterised 

 by the suffix -by. Wm. Matthews. 



Cowgill. 



English Flag (2"'' S. vi. 373.)— As no corre- 

 spondent has yet given any reply to the Queries 

 on this subject, I give what information I possess 

 concerning one Query, that relating to the three 

 squadrons, red, white, and blue. I cannot say 

 when the three flags came into use, but they 

 existed in the time of Charles II., for in Eliot 

 Warburton's Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the 

 Cavaliers (Bentley, 1849, vol. iii. p. 483.), Prince 

 Rupert says in his narrative, " I must not for- 

 bear to tell you my judgement that the blue 

 squadron was in that action guilty of a great 

 miscarriage." This was in 1666. Again, at p. 

 502 : " The prince put forth the red flag at the 

 foretopmast head ; " for what purpose is not said, 

 but it may have been his flag as admiral. 



I have also a Query to ask : at page 501. of 

 the same volume occurs : — " Wo loosed our fore- 



topsail and weighed and hoisted the Union flag at 

 the mizen peak, which is the signal to sail on 

 towards the enemy." Does this signal still exist 

 with the same meaning ? - Tau. 



Can there be any reason to doubt that the 

 English and Scotch flags before the accession of 

 James I. (of England) bore the cross of St. 

 George and St. Andrew respectively ? The blazon 

 of the former would be of course argent, a cross 

 gules, and of the latter azure, a saltire argent. It 

 is sufficiently understood that the combination of 

 these two ensigns constitutes the " Union Jack" 

 of Great Britain, which received an augmentation 

 by the introduction of the saltire gules, when 

 Ireland became a member of the United King- 

 dom. R, S. Q. 



Sir Thomas Cambell, Knight (_2"^ S. vi. 442.)— 

 In an account of the Ironmongers' Company, 

 compiled from the company's records by John 

 Nicholl, F.S.A. in 1851, it is stated that the Lord 

 Mayor Sir James, was son of the Lord Mayor 

 Sir Thomas, and the latter son of " Robert 

 Cambell of Fulsam, Norfolk." Their armorial 

 bearings are in the Harl. MSS. 5810 and 5869. 



Reference to the Company's Freedom Book, or 

 at Guildhall, will probably prove the statement. 



I have an autograph of Sir James, and can for- 

 ward a tracing to C. S. if he wishes. J. Calveb. 



English Mode of pronou7icing Greek and Latin 

 (2"'» S. vi. 167. 249. 267. 313. 464.) — May I call 

 the attention of your correspondents to the valu- 

 able remarks upon this subject in the Edinburgh 

 Review of Kelsall's Translation of Cicero, 1812, 

 and of Angus' Demosthenes, 1820 ? These articles 

 were written by Lord Brougham, and are re- 

 printed in the first vol. of his Contributions to the 

 Edinbxirgh Review. See pp. 22. and 57. E. P. L. 



iSfitScellaneaus. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



Oh rare Bartlemy Fair ! It were not fittiug that this, 

 one of the long-established institutions of the country, 

 should cease and leave not a wrack behind. It has found 

 an honest chronicler in Mr. Morley, whose Memoirs of 

 Bartholomew Fair, with Facsimile Drawitigs, engraved upon 

 Wood, hy the Brothers Dalziel, is a handsome and inter- 

 esting record of this ancient combination of mart and 

 revel. What in the hands of a mere Dryasdust would 

 have been a book full of tedious details, is by the skill of 

 the biographer of Palissy and Paracelsus worked up into 

 a series of vivid pictures of our social life in days gone 

 by. The citizen of London may turn over Mr. Morley's 

 pages with delight, as he contemplates in it that writer's 

 characteristic sketches of this, one of the ancient glories of 

 the Metropolis ; while the general reader will peruse with 

 no less interest the author's graphic descriptions of the 

 justs and tournaments, the burnings of martyrs, the church 

 processions, the executions of criminals of high and low 

 degree, the miracle-plays and the puppet-shows, which 

 Smithfield has seen since Rayer first founded the Priorv, 



